All Chapters of THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Release Elder Corwin to me this instant, Kaelan, or I will tell this hall what your mother begged me to hide from you, and I will not be gentle about it."My father's voice filled the great hall like smoke. Every head turned. Dawn leaked gray through the tall windows, and the long oak table stood between us like a battlefield nobody had planned. At its end sat Corwin, chained and silent, with his two rings laid on the wood in front of him like coins."Say it, then," I said.Damon Ashwood stood by the hearth with his hands clasped behind him. He still stood like an Alpha. He still looked at me the way a man looks at a clever dog that has learned the wrong trick. "Not here. Not in front of the council.""You started it in front of the council.""I am your father.""Then act like it, and answer me." My throat felt scraped raw. I had not slept in two days. My mother's blade hung at my hip, still faintly warm. "Elder Nadia. Please read the pieces."Nadia stepped forwar

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"My father is on that ridge, Kaelan, and I am the one who told him your patrol routes. I did not know what he would do with them. Strike me or listen, but do not look at me like that."Selene stood in the middle of the east tower room with her chin high and her hands bunched in her riding coat. Two guards waited outside the door. A pale noon sun cut across the floor, and the dust in it looked like falling ash. She had not slept either. Her eyes were swollen, and her hair had come loose from its pins."You wrote to him," I said."Every week. Since the day we were promised." Her laugh was thin. "I thought it was what a good daughter did. Tell him the weather, tell him the patrol times, tell him you are being treated well. He asked me to include the changes of the guard. He said it was so he could send men to help if you were ever attacked.""And you believed him.""I wanted to." She swallowed. "I am not asking for forgiveness. I am telling you because tonight, on the

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Do not touch that chest yet, Kaelan. The last man who forced it lost three fingers, and he was lucky it was not his throat."Nadia's voice was dry as old paper. She stood in the middle of Corwin's quarters with her cane planted like a flag, and the evening sun coming through the shutters turned her white hair gold. The room was neat and cold and smelled of lavender and old pipe smoke. Everything in it had its place. That frightened me more than disorder would have."Where is the lock?" I asked."There is none. That is the trick." She pointed her cane at the iron bound box at the foot of the bed. "It opens only when you press the hinges in a certain order. Do it wrong, and a needle springs from the lid.""Poisoned?""Corwin was a careful man."Marcus Reyes crouched beside the chest. He had not spoken since we climbed the stairs. His left wrist was bandaged, and his face looked carved out of stone. "I have walked past this door every night for nine years," he said f

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"You have until the noon bell to say the words, Kaelan, or this council will strip your title and chain the girl in the same cell as Corwin."My father said it quietly, so that only the front row of elders could hear. He sat at the head of the long table, in the Alpha's old chair, the one I had never taken from him in front of the pack. His hands lay folded on the oak. His face was calm and pale and utterly sure of itself."I am listening," I said."Good. Because I will not repeat it." Damon looked down the table. "I will remind the council of the facts. An Ashwood Alpha may not mate outside a recognized bloodline. The Thorne name was stripped of standing for treason. The Alpha has taken a Thorne as his mate. By our law, his title is forfeit unless the council grants an exception.""And will you?""I will ask you to renounce the bond and keep your place."I stood. My legs felt strange, as if I had been walking on ice for days and had only just noticed the cracks. N

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Say the words, son. Four lines, forty seconds. Then every elder in this hall keeps his seat, and Lyra Thorne lives to see her next birthday."The bell tower stood above the courtyard like a gray finger, and the first stroke of noon had not yet fallen. Every wolf in Ashwood had gathered below. They filled the yard from wall to wall, packed shoulder to shoulder in their coats and shawls, and the cold air smelled of wet wool and woodsmoke. My father stood on the stone steps with the council behind him. He looked like a king.I stood three steps below him. I could feel the crowd at my back. Hundreds of faces. Hundreds of breaths. The mark on my chest, the one the bond had left, burned like a coal."I have thought about it," I said."Good.""I want you to know that I did think about it.""I knew you would." Damon's voice was almost tender. "You were always the careful one. Your mother's boy. Come, Kaelan. Do the sensible thing."The first bell tolled. Low, heavy, long.