The Luna He Rejected Is The Millennium Wolf

na's

ht through wet silk until the ache reached bone. My legs had given ou

gh the powder still caked on my face, and I could feel every set of eyes in that

bodice looked less like an accident and more like a wound freshly opened. I smoothed my palms flat against the ruined silk anyw

Four hours remain

back of my hand, Juvien stirring somewhere underneath my skin like she'd been waiting for exactl

laughing somewhere behind me, chasing me barefoot through summer grass back when neither of us had any idea what we

?" Barely more than a

vy came into view at the edge of my sight, unhurried, swaying just enough that the wine in her glass kept threatening the rim without ever quite spilling. She took

ld under my jaw and dragge

ch pulled at the corner of

splash, soaking clean through thin fabric, tracing an icy line all the way down

ht fast after that, spreading through the hall until the whole room se

sharp. Underneath that disgust, someth

nst my face, "that Alpha Lucas would choose you, a fated mate?" A giggle slipped out of her,

ce sliding down my spine

der toward the dais instead. Lucas stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching all of it the way you'd watch s

every word came out sharp enough to cut. "Keep your mat

s thinned into slits, and her nostrils flared with the exact look she alway

en us faster than anything

loud enough to cut clean throu

cked mid-step, trays tilting at angles

e and wet exactly on cue, waiting out the silence until it

he scr

and devastatingly effective in the same breath. "She hates

e for one unguarded instant befo

e I knelt. In that exact moment, the bond gave way completely, ancient and total, the golden thread that had connected us since childhood pulli

at sent the lower-ranked wolves' heads bowing without them even decid

th more gentleness in that single motion than

same boy who'd once sworn he'd always be my shield, and now he stood squarely

her way, jaw clenched so tight my teeth ground

ess omega," someone hissed

he future Luna," another voice a

ragged over stone. "I get it, you hate me.

er made it any f

rhythm as she stepped out from the line of elders, the

nes left out in winter. "Were you planning to finish the

that felt almost physical. I locked my f

rough my vision t

ideways hard enough that blood hit the floor in two separate drops. I refuse

I had to curl them into fists just to

an's tone stayed light and almost bored, the way someo

room except the girl standing directly in front of him. "She will perform every duty assigned

the dais without another glance back, Ivy already latc

nna," he called back over his shoulder with

hing her whisper deliberately loud eno

locked on me even as she spoke to him. "She's my sister. I kn

crossed her face before

ared through my ribs, fire and ice tangled together into something with no name, and somewhere deep i

leave marks, nails biting through fabric like talons sinking into meat. I

deep into every line of her expression, but I held my head level regardl

ssed before Adrian's voice cracked

! To the

~

and raised gooseflesh across every inch of exposed skin, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop Lucas's hands from looping endlessly through my

rvant's voice carried nothing but flat boredom.

ond one mocked, giggling

shoving me toward a door swollen dark and soft with rot, m

e second, spinning around instead to laugh again, louder this time, the s

hing closer to anger. They left without another word between them,

there on the floor, refusing to let this room take anything else from m

han this space deserved to be, a room built for storage rather than for anyone to actually live in. I wiped them aw

. I crossed to it slowly, and my reflection greeted me split into a dozen fractured pieces, a stranger st

d silver. My hair lifted like invisible hands had caught it in an updraft from nowhere, and the moon mark on my h

is coming

nd unshakable, certainty woven

ling I didn't want to name yet, something close to hope. I met my ow

in the emptiness of the room. "Rejection kills t

the only ans

eways at once, blackness flooding in fast before I finall