All Chapters of Bound by the Cursed Moon: Chapter 351 - Chapter 360

Point of View: Kieran Ashveil"You want me to believe two children carrying power none of us understand is something to celebrate," said Torvald, an older Enforcer from the Ashveil half of the unified council, "and not something to fear."I stood at the head of the chamber, Elara at my left and an empty chair at my right where Alaric usually sat, though tonight he had chosen to remain with Briar rather than leave her surrounded by strangers on her first night home. The firelight caught the tension in every face turned toward me, dozens of wolves who had spent a year learning to trust a bond they still did not fully understand, and I understood, watching them, that this fight had been building far longer than the week I had been gone."I want you to believe what has already proven true three times over," I said. "Rhen and Dorian's power saved this territory at the quarry, at the second binding, and at the third. Briar's power saved a mountain full of strangers who had every reason to f

Point of View: Kieran Ashveil"You already knew about the vote before you asked me to sit down," Rhen said, watching my face across the small breakfast table we had barely used since returning, the morning light too bright and cheerful for the conversation I knew was coming, "which means whatever you are about to tell me is worse than what Elara already told me last night."I did not deny it, which frightened her, I could see, more than any answer would have. I slid a folded letter across the table instead, the wax seal already broken, the handwriting inside cramped and hurried in a way that did not match the council's usual formality, the kind of script a man writes when his hand is shaking with conviction rather than care. "This arrived an hour ago," I said. "Torvald's faction is not simply challenging the rank law anymore. They are proposing Briar be placed under Enforcer supervision until the council determines whether a child guardian poses a risk this pack cannot afford to ignor

Point of View: Kieran Ashveil"You are not going with them," I said to Rhen, the words costing me more than I expected as I watched Farris finish loading the last of the supplies onto the small pack heading north, "and I need you to know I am not saying it lightly, not after everything the last two days have already asked of both of us."We stood at the edge of the training yard, Dorian and Sable already mounted, Wren checking her journal's straps one final time, the whole small party ready to ride the moment I finished whatever I needed to say to send her off. The morning air was cold enough to see our breath, and I found myself memorizing the shape of her face in that light, the way I had not let myself do properly since we returned from the mountain. Rhen's jaw was set in the way I had learned meant she had already decided something and was only waiting to see whether I would fight her on it."I know you are not saying it lightly," she said. "I also know you cannot leave this counc

Point of View: Kieran Ashveil"Three days," I said to Elara, reading the runner's brief note for the second time, the words too sparse to answer any of the questions actually keeping me awake at night, "and all she tells me is that they reached the stones and Wren crossed safely. I do not know if safely means what I want it to mean, or if she is simply being kind with her wording so I do not worry more than I already do.""It means she is alive to have sent the word," Elara said, "which is more than either of us had an hour before that runner arrived."The council chamber filled early that evening, word of the runner's letter clearly already loose through the territory despite every effort to contain it within these walls. Torvald stood near the front, arms folded, his expression carrying the particular satisfaction of a man who believed his fears were being proven correct in real time, in front of everyone who mattered. "Your guardian crosses into ground that steals a person's memory

Point of View: Kieran Ashveil"You do not have to stand beside me for this one," I told Elara, as the council filed back into the chamber for the vote's final reading, Rhen's letter still folded in my pocket where I had carried it since the runner placed it in my hand that morning, "if you would rather watch it end from somewhere less exposed than the front of this room.""I have carried this fight for a month without you," Elara said. "I am not stepping back from it in the last hour simply because standing here frightens me a little more than usual tonight."The chamber settled, tense and crowded in a way I had not seen since the night I called off my wedding to her and fractured the treaty that had shaped both our lives long before either of us understood what it would cost us to break it. I found it strange, standing here now, how far we had traveled from that morning, and how much of the distance had turned, slowly and against every old expectation, into something closer to family