Todos os capítulos de THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA: Capítulo 181 - Capítulo 190

POV: Lyra Thorne"Bow again, Maren, and I will scream. You hid stale bread under the sink for me for nine years. You do not get to kneel to me now just because a Stone said my name."The kitchen went silent. A pan clanged on the floor. Maren, round and red faced, froze halfway into her curtsy with flour up to her elbows."Heir, I only meant...""I know what you meant." My voice shook. "You were kind to me when nobody was watching. Now everybody is watching, and you are on your knees. So which one was real?"Maren's eyes filled. "Both, child. Both were real. I was afraid. That is the part you do not understand. Everyone in this house was afraid of him."I opened my mouth and found nothing in it. The anger slid out of me like water from a cracked bucket."I am sorry," I whispered. "I should not have shouted.""You should have. I would have." She wiped her hands on her apron. "Now put down that brush, you silly girl. You are the Heir of the Thorne. You do not scrub my floor."I looked do

POV: Lyra Thorne"You have a lantern pin in your trunk? You sat at my table, drank my tea, and you knew? Selene, tell me I am wrong. Please. Tell me there is some reason I have not thought of, because right now I cannot find one."I stood in the doorway of the guest room, and my heart was beating so hard it hurt. The trunk lay open on the bed. On top of the folded silk gowns sat a tiny silver pin, shaped like a flame inside a lantern, and beside it, a letter.Selene did not flinch. She was sitting on the window seat in her nightdress, braiding her long dark hair, and she set the braid down very slowly."I was going to tell you," she said."When?""After the council. I wanted proof first.""Do you know how many nights I scrubbed those floors and wondered who was watching me?" My voice cracked. "I thought you were on my side.""I am on your side." She stood. "I am also the daughter of an Alpha who taught me never to show a card before I needed it. That is not a good reason. It is only t

POV: Lyra Thorne"Say something, Lyra. Please. Eleven families are standing in the snow, and I cannot say it for you. I would if I could. I swear I would."Briar's whisper shook against my ear. We stood at the edge of the funeral ridge at dusk, where the cold wind carried the smell of pine tar and burning cedar. Eleven pyres stood in a long line across the white ground, each one stacked with care. Beyond them, the whole pack waited, silent, in their dark cloaks.Joss Hale lay on the third pyre. He was nineteen. He had once stolen my last piece of bread and then secretly brought me two the next day.I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.The torch in Kaelan's hand was already lowered toward the first stack of wood. He looked at me, waiting. Everyone looked at me. And then the smoke caught, a thin gray curl rising into the red sky, and the smell hit me like a fist.Suddenly I was not on the ridge. I was in the field behind my father's hall. I was fourteen, and the sky was orange, and I co

POV: Lyra Thorne"You came alone. Good. I did not want an audience when I begged. Nine years I told myself I was only a hungry man doing what hungry men do. Then the Stone showed my face to everyone, and I could not lie anymore."Titus Crane knelt in the ash of my family's hall with blood running down both wrists. His coat was gone. His gray hair hung in stiff strands, and his face was streaked with soot and mud. He looked like a scarecrow somebody had left out in the winter. When he lifted his head, I did not see a monster. I saw a very tired man.I was not alone. Kaelan and Marcus were crouched on the ridge behind me, two hundred paces away, with six wolves. I had asked for that distance, and Kaelan had given it. It had cost him. I had seen it in the way his jaw worked. But he had remembered the promise at the mill, and he had stayed."You are in my house," I said."I know.""You stand in the ashes of my mother's kitchen.""I know that too." His voice cracked. "I have been here thre

POV: Lyra Thorne"If they vote yes, I stop being Lyra and become a title. Tell me honestly, Kaelan. When my face is on every wall and every wolf bows, will anyone still know my name?"We stood in the cold antechamber of the Moot Hall, an hour before the final session. Through the oak doors I could hear the shuffle and murmur of the pack. My palms were damp. I had not eaten. For three nights I had barely slept, and every time I closed my eyes I heard a rough woman's voice in the dark saying, Not before.Kaelan had taken both my hands. He looked tired too, but his eyes were very clear. "I will say it every day.""Every day?""In the kitchen. In the war room. In the dark." He kissed my knuckles, one at a time. "Lyra. Lyra Thorne. Lyra who hides books in the flour bin and shouts at cooks who kneel. I will wear that name out.""Even if I snore?""Especially if you snore."I laughed, and the knot in my chest loosened. "That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.""I will try to say