Luna Paige's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The branch snap became footsteps. Six of them walked into the clearing from the north side, quiet on the packed dirt. The pack speaker came first. He was a tall man in wolf's-hide, older than the others, with a scar across one cheek. He stopped at the ring of wildflowers and did not step over. Luna moved in front of Michael without thinking. The silver wolf came to her left side. The bouquet was still in her hand. The ring on her finger felt like nothing. "You are early," she said. "The claim slipped," the speaker said. His voice was flat. "We felt it slip. That means it did not hold. Step across the stones now and come home, or we take you." "I bought three weeks with a moonpetal. You accepted." "The petal bought delay. It did not buy a human husband." He looked at Michael's ring, then at hers. "Show cause or come." Michael stepped up beside her. His face was white. "She has cause. She's claimed. Her brother witnessed." The speaker looked at the silver wolf. The silver wolf did not move. "Half a claim," the speaker said. "Half is nothing." Michael's hand went to Luna's arm. Then it kept going. He walked past her, past the flat stone with the cloth on it, straight at the speaker. Luna caught his sleeve and he tore free. "You don't touch her," Michael said. He was shaking. "You don't touch her. I broke a curse in my own house two nights ago. I know what a name does. I know what I did." He was shouting now. "Try me. Try me and see what I do." The speaker did not move. Two of the others behind him shifted their weight. One put a hand on a short blade at his belt. "Michael." Luna caught his shoulder. He was hot under her hand, hotter than a person should be. The fever was back. The pack's pull was tearing him open where he stood. "Michael, stop." "I won't." He would not look at her. His eyes were on the speaker. "I won't stop." She understood then. He would keep walking. He would swing at a man who could kill him and the pack would cut him down in the flowers, and the silver wolf would have to choose, and none of it would save her. She let go of his shoulder. She pulled the ring off her finger. "Wait." Her voice cracked. The speaker looked at her. Michael turned. "Wait. I'll come." "Luna—" "I'll come," she said to the speaker. "On one condition. He stays here. Alive. The claim breaks clean when I cross. No pull. No fever." The speaker studied her. "Agreed." She pressed the ring into Michael's palm and closed his fingers over it. He was crying. She had not seen him cry before. "I made a promise to my brother," she said. "I'm keeping it." She stepped over the boundary of flowers. The silver wolf followed. Behind her, Michael went to his knees in the dirt, and the fever left him all at once.