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He subtly tried to wipe the tear out of her eye, running his finger along her cheek to try to get her attention. “Don’t you, Luna?”
But as Luna turned to face Adrian, fury consumed her face. Her eyes had suddenly grown cold and angry, and her lip curled in response.
“I think Miss Luna can speak for herself,” Victor contested. “She’s made it quite clear she wants to be your mate. Unless you would rebuff her advances?”
“Victor.”
Adrian looked up at the stands to see Percival addressing Victor.
“If they’re calling for a recess, I don’t think we need to make this declaration binding,” Percival said. “We can give them a little more time to think this over if they don’t want it made official yet.”
Victor chuckled in response. “But you can see the bond between them as clearly as I do. Why would you oppose this union?”
A million questions and possibilities swirled in his head. He could see how terrified Luna was and knew it was up to him to keep her from making a rushed decision.
Victor continued speaking all the while.
“Do you mean to stand in the way of fate, Percival? Because that’s a punishable offense.”
Adrian coughed loudly. Victor and Percival both looked down on him.
“I invoke Article 2, Section 1, of our sacred pack laws,” Adrian said. “By law, in the event of a questionable official declaration of title, the council will be given seventy-two hours of review.”
But before the council could reply, Luna shifted and bound out of the building in wolf form.
“Looks like Miss Luna has made the decision for you,” Victor said. “Very well.”
NINE
LUNA
How could I have been so stupid?
Luna dashed through the village, nearly knocking over several strollers before plunging into the dim forest, charging among the trees.
She remembered Victor’s chiseled face and cold, ageless stare in the pale light of the hall. There had been no mistaking it. He hadn’t simply been a hallucination. She smelled him in the air.
And had Adrian really come to trust this snakelike man, this malevolent entity? It seemed that Victor helped run the Crescent Moon Pack and would lead them to ruin with Adrian’s easygoing manner.
She had been fooling herself, thinking she might really have a future in this pack after all. She had run far from home, but in doing so, she was running from her family. Away from her duties to her old pack. How could she have simply abandoned them?
Now, the cycle would repeat. Victor destroyed everything he touched. And the sickest part of it was that he got the permission of everybody to do it.
Luna paused to catch her breath, panting in the darkness of the woods.
“You know I can smell you, right?”
She heard Adrian’s voice in her mind and turned. She could see him behind her in wolf form. She had never seen his wolf side before, but a simple smell of the air confirmed it.
“Go away, Adrian,”Luna said in his mind.“I don’t want to hurt you. I’m faster than you are.”
“Running away would be a mistake,”Adrian said.“Please don’t go.”
But Luna was already stretching, preparing herself by studying the forest ahead. The thickets were unforgiving, but in wolf form, she could force her way through.
She blazed forward, unaffected by the brambles that stood in her way.
“Wait!”
