Page 66 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

I search her eyes. "The less you know about this, the safer you will be. Callahan might not harm Landon, but I won't be able to handle it if anything happens to you, Tova. Do not come here again."

She glares at me stubbornly. "I'm only trying to help. You don't trust me--"

I laugh a little. "It isn't you I don't trust."

"I can contact Eric--"

"Don't do anything, Tova." Silence descends at the harshness in my voice. I soften it as I add, "If Callahan so much as suspects that you are on my side, he will kill you."

Her lips quiver and though she looks like she might cry again, she doesn't. She stands after a moment, kissing my right cheek. "I will do everything I can to get you out. I promise."

CHAPTER 22

SERAPHINA

The pain is worse than anything that's ever been done to me. The emptiness is surreal. I've woken up in yet another nightmare, and this time, he isn't here to get me through it or hold my hair up while I puke up my guts.

He isn't here.

I can't even sense him. Feel him: electric, strong, sure, and alive. My layers are coming off piece by piece and I can't keep it together, can't live like this.

You will not come after me.

Tears fall from my chin, wetting the papers and silence falls in the small hall. "You're all dismissed," I manage.

The elders look between themselves. Axel's lips twist with displeasure. "It is important we come to a decision. Everyone knows of the boy's abduction and the Alpha's disappearance. Your decision to keep us in the dark places us all in danger. You are incapable of making decisions in your state. Unfit. Someone else must occupy the Alpha's seat in his absence. You all but need to hand the seal over, High Luna."

He speaks my title like it means nothing. Like I am the joke of the century.

I look up, even as the tears wet my cheeks. I don't care that they can see it. Or my bloodshot eyes. I am tired, exhausted, in shambles. And I don't give two shits about maintaining decorum. "And I am to believe you all agree with Axel? The seat mustn't be left unoccupied for too long, is it?"

Half the table nods in agreement, the other half unsure. I nod, turning left. "I assume you have made a choice, then?"

Elder Danill speaks first, his gaze shoots to Axel. "After the Head Alpha's, the Blue Moon pack is the strongest. It is only right that Alpha Axel be granted the seal."

I lean back in my—Soren's seat and reach up, tugging the useless hair pins from my hair one after the other. I let them fall across the table. "Some might say the one strong enough to be the Head Alpha's Beta is the better choice, don't you think?"

Eric stiffens on my right, green eyes darting to me as he tries to hold my gaze for long enough to repeat Soren's words to me, reminding me of his compulsion.

You will remain here and take care of the pack in my absence.

He compelled me. And it should've worked. It did, but I woke up without the weight of his command pressing down on me. He tried to force me to stay put. I understand why, but he had no right to try to take my choice away. He simply had no right to do that with me and then punish me with his absence like this, with the worry that something might have happened to him.

Soren had to be mad if he thought I would do nothing but sit pretty.

Axel leans forward, his veins seconds away from popping from his neck. "Erickson is a Beta. He can't have that seat."

I blink, holding up my fingers. "Tell me something, Danill. Before my son was born, was Eric not Soren's heir?"

The male nods, clearly not liking where this is going.

"Was he not accepted, then?"

Another nod, this time from the right side of the table.

"So, I see no use in talking my ear off with your speculations and needs. We either stick to tradition and you duel the present heir," I incline my head towards Eric—capable, muscular Eric who is nearly as big as his brother and more than twice Axel's size or height. "Or I keep the seal."

When no one else utters a single word, I squeeze the bill and toss it into the hearth. "It hasn't even been seven days and you have brought the council forward so quickly. One would think you had this planned all along, Axel."

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