When The Luna Broke Her Chains novel Chapter 11

Chapter 11 A Fortress Of Soft Things

[XENA]

Kasumi arrives just in time as the wolf pup leaps from my arms and scurries across the room to hide beneath the bed, passing like a blotch of black shadow. She notices it and startles, not just by its movement but also by my presence.

For a moment, she stares at me as if trying to confirm that I’m really here. She blinks, stuttering, “H–how did you come back so soon, Luna?” Her fingers tighten around the basket at her hip until the wicker strains. “I didn’t see the Alpha’s carriage arrive…”

My mouth opens, but no words come out. I don’t know the answer myself. A lie. I should tell her a lie. But instead, I reach her, take the basket from her, and put it on the floor. Holding her shoulders, I say, “I think I might be cursed.”

She blinks again and then lowers her gaze, shaking her head naively. A gentle smile forms on her face. “No, Luna. You shouldn’t let what others say get to you. You’re not cursed.”

I sigh. “Kasumi, you don’t understand-” I begin, then cut myself off. Maybe I’m being ridiculous. The man wasn’t a changeling. I’m not truly cursed. And yet… how did I return here in the span of a blink? How did the forest bend behind me like a page turning, depositing me back into these walls before my mind could catch up?

The wolf…

Kasumi lifts her gaze, studying my face before she notices my exposed arms and stomach are no longer covered in bandages. “Your wounds,” she gasps. “They’ve disappeared…? Your skin’s flawlessly smooth.” She straightens, breath coming out in a shudder. “And your clothes, Luna. These aren’t yours. Y–you were wearing something else.”

“I–I drank a–a potion,” I blurt out. “Davina, my sister, brought it from the Guild. It heals you quickly. Unbelievably so. And these clothes are my… mother’s. Mine got soaked in blood from the bandages”

I swallow.

Kasumi frowns, reaching out absent–mindedly to touch the gilded fabric. “Magnificent. I haven’t seen anything like this before. I thought only the royal Lycan family could own such finery.”

A whimper reaches us, and her attention strays. Before I can stop her, she crosses the room and lifts the overhanging linen sheet that keeps the wolf pup hidden. She gasps suddenly, stepping back. “A black–furred pup. With golden eyes? Luna, they’re cursed! Did you bring it here with you? Where did you even find it? They haven’t been seem in this part of the continent for decades!”

I walk up to her, my fingers gripping her shoulders again. “Calm down. It’s just a pup. It’s helpless and powerless. I couldn’t leave it there on its own,” I try to explain.

But she shakes her head, stepping back as though the tiny creature might bite through fate itself. “But Luna, it’s a harbinger of ill luck,” she cries, and before I can stop her, she pinches the pup by the scruff and lifts it from the floor. The pup’s body droops, whimpering, trembling. “I’ll get rid of it at once.”

By nightfall, I still haven’t left my chambers.

Kasumi informed me that Alpha Cassian returned an hour ago, and he didn’t seem the slightest bit disheveled regarding me or about my unexplained, abrupt departure from Crescent Ash. Nor did anyone else ask about my absence. Thankfully, she doesn’t ask me again how I made it back to the keep without a carriage and in barely any time.

I create a secret corner for the pup, dragging chests and vases into a protective circle, layering tapestries over them until they form a crude fortress, softening the interior with cloaks and pelts. A secret corner, hidden from any prying eyes. A nest of warmth and safety for the small life curled within. It seems content now. She seems content. Kasumi pointed out that the wolf pup was a female. Immediately, it made me think of my lost wolf. And as soon as Kasumi left, I put her to sleep and called her Vera.

I’m trying to find sleep myself, huddled beneath a thick blanket in the cold, trying to keep all the worrying questions and thoughts at bay. But the stranger plagues me. His storm–gray eyes stare, the wolf head on his wrist glimmers, and his deep, cold voice sends shivers down my spine.

I wish I knew his name.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps approach the bed. I don’t turn, but reach for the dagger at my hip, only to remember it’s probably resting somewhere at the bottom of the lake. A hand touches my shoulders, and the blanket slips slowly from my body. I nearly scream before someone clamps my mouth shut.

As I turn carefully, I see Cassian looming above me.