Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Lily

“There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

Elijah propped himself up on his elbow. His hair was dishevelled from intermittent sleep, and his eyes were drowsy. Scrubbing a hand over his scarred face, he waited for Lily to rouse herself enough to answer.

Lily blinked blearily back at him. She was drooped over the kitchen table, her hand numb around a now-cold cup of coffee. The ink of her notes had smeared across her palm and up her wrist like spilled blood.

She managed to keep her gaze fixed on him for just long enough to ask, “What?”

They’d spent the last week in a haze of plans and notes and maps, sending out scouts to get information and runners to relay it back to them. Lily had hardly had time to think in the wake of Atticus’s letter, and the deadly consequences she was sure it held no matter what they did.

She would not see him ruin her new life here. She wouldn’t.

Lily had even started to rifle through the other papers and books in Sea Pine’s large library. Dust clouds rose from every tome she unearthed, but she poured through them, undeterred. With the joint threat of Blood Moon and Red Ripper, she’d started to consider… alternative routes to the traditional werewolf warfare.

Red Ripper were using magic to make themselves stronger. She’d heard whispers that they could shift at will, but Elijah had, after much discussion and theorising, dismissed the idea. Support of such a thing would be untenable, he’d declared, and that had been the end of the matter.

But something about it had caught Lily’s attention. The Blood Moon pack had killed her mother over a witch. They were powerful – unstoppable, even, in the right hands. So she had started to research the other magical creatures in Eldda, Some, she’d known about before she’d left Blood Moon: the bowtsrings and the giants and the faelen, though she’d known little beyond the basics she’d been taught at the pack school.

She’d become far too well acquainted with the eleves for her liking, so she skimmed over those pages. But the faelen… there was something about them that she couldn’t shake. Ever since Entra, she’d found their elemental powers fascinating. Their disdain for wolves had softened her, made her realise that she was not alone in her hatred for violence. Despite everything she’d been taught about the Battle of Barren Bridge and the Longest War, Lily had started to question the truth in the histories she’d been taught.

But between rigorous pack training regimes and improvements to their territory’s natural defences, Lily had hardly had time to sleep. Most nights, she and Elijah ended up sliding face-first down onto their work, only to be awoken an hour or two later by the rising of the sun.

“Lils?”

She blinked. “Sorry?”

Elijah smiled at her, his gaze soft despite the shadows beneath his eyes. “I said that this probably isn’t the best time – or place – to ask, but I’ve been meaning to for some time now. Every day that passes is another chance lost.”

Lily lifted her head higher.

“Between researching and training and planning, I’ve had scarcely a chance to think. But Ithia and Caslein and I discussed this over a week ago – before the arrival of that damned letter – and I fear that we may be running out of time. We’ve only a week until the full moon.”

“Yeah. I know that all too well.” She huffed, and then shook her head. “So what did you want to ask me?”

Elijah swallowed. His gaze darted from Lily’s face, to her lips, to the table, to the floor. Finally, it came back up to rest on his own discarded coffee mug.

“I’d like you to be my Luna.”

Lily blinked. “Oh.”

She’d been doing the job regardless of title since she’d arrived at Sea Pine as Elijah’s mate. Well, as far as she knew – she’d been of average birth in Blood Moon, and had been expected to become a Warrior Wolf as her parents had been. As such, she’d never been properly trained on what or what not a Luna did – but working closely alongside the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma with integral plans that impacted the pack at large seemed to fit the bill.

So why did the term scare her so much?

“In an official capacity,” Elijah added, reaching over and taking her hand. He smoothed his fingers over the long-since dulled knife scars, and squeezed gently. “I want you to stand beside me as my equal in every way, Lily. You are destined to be my Luna, and you have been ever since we met in Oakhame. You support me in all I do, and I am so, so grateful to have found you.” He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her folded fingers.

Lily shivered at his touch, her skin tingling, but she said nothing. Why was she so hesitant to say yes?

Atticus would have no claim to her if she were officially marked as Sea Pine’s Luna. But he had no claim anyway, not now he’d rejected her, and yet still she was certain he was marching on their pack regardless.

Elijah was right. This was her destiny.

She opened her mouth, the yes he deserved – that she deserved – ready on her lips. But instead she stood, pushing away the notes she’d spent the night making.

Her heart broke at the look on his face. Her hands shook at her sides. Still Lily stood and looked at him, his eyebrows drawing down in surprise and sadness.

“Let me think about it,” she said, feeling terribly cruel and just as confused by the words coming from her as Elijah was.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m not sure.”

“It isn’t safe.”

“I won’t go far.”

Elijah sighed, but Lily knew he would never stop her. After a pause, he nodded. “Be safe. Please.”

Lily pressed a kiss to his throbbing temple. He pursed his lips and looked away.

“I will. I promise.”

* * *

Perhaps she had broken her promise by striding out to the cliff’s edge, but Lily had known from the moment she’d stood that this was where she’d end up. It was the most secluded part of their territory, and as such she doubted she’d find any rogue werewolves or early scouts from Atticus’s pack at the look out point.

Staring blindly at the rolling waves, Lily sighed. She’d spent the last two – nearly three, now – months acting as Sea Pine’s Luna. All she had to do was be officially marked at her Luna celebration, and then her role would remain pretty much unchanged. It should have been an easy decision, a firm yes from the off. And yet here she was, clutching the wooden bar that kept her from stepping over the edge of the cliff.

This was the only part of their land that was free from pine trees, and Lily felt oddly exposed. The wind toyed with stray strands of her hair, the summer sun turning it more gold with each passing day. Her eyes sought an answer on the horizon, on the sea’s ripping, sparkling surface frothing with white foam.

Sighing again, Lily turned and rested her back against the wooden bar. The answer, she knew, was no more behind her than it was within the pack’s land. Their land, as she so often thought of it now. She was Elijah’s mate, and the Sea Pine pack was his. Most Warrior Wolves would be thrilled with the promotion.

Becoming the Luna officially meant more power. Lily would be able to stop things she disagreed with, rather than just abstaining from them herself. She could make change, real change, as she had been since her arrival. She could save lives, could keep families together.

A traitorous part of her wondered if she’d had made more of an impact as Blood Moon’s Luna. Elijah was just and kind. Atticus, however…

Atticus had rejected her. She’d been given the gift of a second chance mate, something nobody had ever heard of before. Atticus had been a mere turning point on her journey: necessary, but not the end destination.

Accepting her position, her destiny, meant accepting the part of her Lily liked to pretend did not exist. Twisting the garnet ring around her finger, Lily knew why she’d hesitated.

Even shifting with Sea Pine did not alleviate the feeling that there was something inherently evil in being a werewolf. It was a loss of control that Lily could not abide by, even as she gained greater control over her wolf form every month. She’d panicked at the last full moon, and had asked Elijah to tie her down before she could shift.

But she’d developed a taste for freedom, for feeling the wind on her back, her fur bristling against the bitter chill. She missed the grass beneath her paws and the sheer fun of running with others of her kind. When the time had come, Lily had shifted outside once more, her bindings forgotten.

Was that how it began? With Atticus and Blood Moon surely coming, and tales of Red Ripper making their way steadily down the coast, Lily knew soon she would have to fight. And a Luna could not tie herself down and allow others to fight, to die, in her place.

She took a deep breath. She felt the salt wind on her cheeks and the solid earth beneath her booted feet. Would becoming Sea Pine’s Luna grant her control, or would she lose what little she had?

Lily had her answer. Steeling herself, she cast one last glance out to the cerulean sea and then went home to Elijah.

* * *

Lily put the key down on the small table by the door and toed her boots off. Her chest felt lighter, her shoulders looser, now that she knew what to say. Following the pull of the bond, she jogged past the stairs and straight through into the kitchen.

The crackle of flames filled the air. Heat spilled freely into the hallway. Lily’s heart stopped.

The kitchen was on fire.