His Moonsilver Mate (Abby and Kade) novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Abby

Ndidn’t leave my room the next day.

By the following afternoon, I had stopped pretending I might.

People came to me instead.

Chloe spent almost an hour sitting at the foot of my bed, her scraped knee bandaged beneath a pair of loose sweatpants. She talked about everything except the attack. Noah had apparently eaten enough leftover festival pastries to make himself sick. Someone had found one of my earrings under a

table.

I knew what she was doing, and I was grateful enough not to ask her to stop.

I just didn’t have much to give back.

Before she left, she bent over me and wrapped both arms around my shoulders.

“You saved me,” she whispered.

I held on to her for a second, then let her go.

As soon as the door closed, I pulled the blanket higher and turned toward the wall.

I wanted her words to help.

Instead, all I could think about was the moment before I reached her. Chloe on the ground. The rogue above her. Screaming all around us.

Then Diana under the moon.

Silver.

Impossible to mistake.

The rogue had looked at her as if everything else in the square had stopped mattering.

That look followed me every time I closed my eyes.

So did the overturned tables, the blood on the grass, the people Daphne had treated afterward. None of them had asked for any of this. They had gone to the equinox celebration expecting food and music and an evening with their families.

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Liam kept checking on me because of me.

Aunt Cassie brought food I didn’t eat and sat beside me even when I wouldn’t speak.

I seemed to have become one more problem everyone around me had to manage.

A knock came at the door..

I didn’t answer.

Aunt Cassie entered anyway, carrying a tray.

“You’re awake.”

kept my face turned toward the wall.

“I brought soup.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You weren’t hungry this morning either.”

The mattress dipped behind me. For a while, she didn’t say anything. Her hand moved slowly over my hair, smoothing it away from my face the way she had done when I was little and sick.

“You need to eat something.”

“I’ll try later.”

“Abby.”

I shut my eyes. “Please.” I hated how tired my own voice sounded. “I’m just not hungry.”

Her hand rested against my head for another moment before she withdrew it.

“All right.”

Guilt tightened in my chest.

She had been taking care of me for most of my life, and now I couldn’t even manage a bowl of soup without making her worry.

“I’m sorry.”

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Aunt Cassie leaned over the bedside table, but instead of getting up, she reached into the pocket of her cardigan.

“There’s something else.”

I finally turned.

She opened her palm.

My mother’s crescent necklace lay across it.

The chain had snapped near the clasp, and the crescent was scratched and slightly bent.

I pushed myself upright.

“Where did you find it?”

“Ryan found it near the tables this morning.”

I took it carefully.

For years, that necklace had survived everything. My mother had worn it before it became mine.

“We can have it repaired,” Aunt Cassie said softly.

I ran my thumb over the bent crescent.

“I shouldn’t have worn it.”

“Why?”

“It would have been safe here.”

“Abby, it’s a necklace.”

“It was Mom’s.” I curled my fingers around it. “I keep ruining things.”

Aunt Cassie’s expression changed. “You did not ruin this.”

I looked away.

She shifted closer. “And you didn’t ruin the equinox.”

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After the door closed, I set the necklace on the bedside table.

jana stirred quietly inside me.

You should eat.

I’m not hungry.

You need food. Diana was quiet for a moment. You did nothing wrong, Abby. Chloe is alive

I know.

You saved her.

Something bitter rose in my throat.

And look what happened afterward.

Diana went still.

I pushed the blanket away and got out of bed. My legs felt weak from spending most of two days lying down, but the restless pressure inside me was suddenly worse than the weakness.

They came to see you.

They came because of what they wanted. That isn’t the same thing.

Does it matter?

I crossed toward the window. The curtains had been closed all day, but evening was beginning to darken the edges. Soon the moon would rise. Diana would become more awake. Stronger. Her coat would turn bright enough to draw every eye in the room again.

If I hadn’t shifted, maybe they wouldn’t know.

Chloe would have been hurt.

I know! My voice cracked. I know, Diana.

She fell quiet.

I pressed my hands against my face.

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There was no answer to that.

The Rogue King had spent years looking for wolves like Diana. Now he knew exactly where she was.

I lowered my hands.

“I wish you were ordinary.” The words slipped out quietly.

Diana said nothing.

“If you were just some normal wolf, maybe nobody would care about us. Maybe Kade wouldn’t need guards outside my door. Liam wouldn’t have to worry every time I leave the house.”

The silence inside me deepened.

“I didn’t ask for any of this.”

I went back to bed and pulled the blanket over myself. Eventually I cried until my eyes hurt too much to keep going.

Sometime later, the door opened again.

Liam.

I knew his footsteps before he said anything.

He glanced at the tray Aunt Cassie had left beside the bed. “You still haven’t eaten.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“I can see that.”

He sat in the chair beside me. For once, he didn’t lecture me about food or fresh air or sleep. He simply stayed.

That should have comforted me. Instead, guilt settled heavier in my chest.

Kade needed him. The pack needed him. People were injured, security had doubled, and my brother was sitting beside my bed because I couldn’t make myself get up.

“You don’t have to stay.”

“I know.”

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I almost said yes.

“Ldon’t know.”

“Okay.”

He stayed a little longer.

When he finally stood, he picked up the untouched tray. “I’ll be downstairs.”

The door opened.

“Liam?”

He stopped.

I wanted to tell him I was sorry for becoming one more thing he had to take care of.

“Nothing.”

He waited for a second before leaving.

The room settled around me. I closed my eyes and listened to the house until I finally noticed what

was missing.

Diana hadn’t said anything since our argument.

I reached for her without thinking.

Diana?

Nothing answered.

My eyes opened.

Diana?

Still nothing.

I sat up.

Usually I could feel her even when she wasn’t talking. A warm pressure beneath my thoughts. An emotion that wasn’t quite mine. Sometimes irritation. Sometimes amusement. Sometimes the constant restless pull toward the moon.

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Sat, Oct

“Diana?”

No answer.

I got out of bed.

“Come on. I know you’re there.”

The room seemed suddenly too quiet.

I crossed to the window and turned back again, reaching inward harder.

Nothing.

“I didn’t mean it.” My breathing had already begun to quicken. “I was upset.

Still nothing.

Fear tightened around my ribs.

“Diana, please.”

I paced once more across the room before my legs gave out beside the bed. The carpet hit my knees.

“I’m sorry.” My voice broke.

I tried to breathe normally and couldn’t. Each breath came too quickly, catching high in my chest while tears blurred everything around me.

“I didn’t mean that I don’t want you.”

I bent forward until my forehead nearly touched the floor.

“I don’t. I swear I don’t. I was scared.” My shoulders shook harder. “I’m still scared.”

For the first time since Diana had awakened, I understood how much space she occupied inside me because I could suddenly feel the shape of her absence.

I had spent days thinking about her as the reason everything had changed. Her silver fur. Her strength. Her strange connection to the moon.

It was easier to blame those things than admit that none of them belonged to Diana alone.

We shared everything.

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