Chapter 17: The Luna They Never Saw Coming

The moment I stepped outside the council hall, the cold air hit my face.

For the first time in years, I could breathe without wondering what Julian wanted from me.

Wyatt walked beside me in silence.

He didn't ask if I was all right.

He already knew I wasn't.

After a few steps, he finally spoke.

You really don't want the Luna position?

I shook my head.

Not if it comes with the Hawthorne name.

Wyatt smiled faintly.

Good.

Because Red Mesa didn't come all this way to watch you trade one cage for another.

I looked at him.

What do you mean?

He stopped walking.

The council meeting wasn't the only reason I came.

He reached into his coat and handed me a sealed letter.

The red wax carried the Calloway crest.

I broke the seal.

Inside was a formal declaration from the Red Mesa elders.

They were withdrawing from the old alliance with Stonebridge.

But they weren't abandoning Grayhaven entirely.

Instead, they wanted to establish a new inter-pack council.

One where no Alpha bloodline could dictate the rules alone.

And they wanted me to represent Red Mesa.

I stared at the letter.

Me?

Wyatt nodded.

You spent five years learning everything Stonebridge refused to teach you.

You know their laws.

You know their elders.

And now you know exactly how their system can be changed.

Before I could answer, footsteps sounded behind us.

Julian.

He had followed us outside.

His expression was tense.

Wyatt immediately stepped between us.

Julian stopped.

I just want to talk to Clara.

You had five years.

Wyatt's voice was cold.

You don't get another five minutes because you finally became afraid of losing her.

Julian looked past him.

Clara, please.

I met his eyes.

What?

He swallowed.

Felicity is leaving Stonebridge.

I didn't react.

She admitted she knew about the Luna arrangement.

She knew I was using the Thanksgiving banquet to test you.

Julian's voice cracked slightly.

She also admitted she was the one who kept telling my mother you weren't suitable.

I felt nothing.

Maybe I should have been angry.

But all I could think was that Felicity had never been the real problem.

Julian had been.

He had chosen every humiliation.

He had watched every tear.

He had convinced himself it was love because admitting the truth would have meant admitting he was cruel.

I looked at him.

You keep talking about what she did.

But you were the one who let it happen.

Julian lowered his head.

I know.

For once, there was no excuse.

No arrogant smile.

No mention of pack tradition.

Just three quiet words.

I know.

Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the Hawthorne signet ring.

I found this in the council archives.

My eyes narrowed.

You kept it?

I couldn't let Felicity keep something that belonged to you.

He held it out.

I didn't take it.

That ring was supposed to symbolize a future I had spent five years chasing.

Now it looked like a reminder of everything I had survived.

Give it to the council.

Julian froze.

Why?

Let them decide what happens to it.

I turned away.

Julian's voice followed me.

If you leave, Stonebridge will lose more than an alliance.

I stopped.

Then maybe Stonebridge should finally learn what it feels like to lose something because it refused to value it.

I kept walking.

Behind me, I heard the ring fall into Wyatt's hand.

The sound was small.

But somehow, it felt like the end of an entire life.

That night, I received one final message from the Stonebridge council.

They wanted me at the next full-moon assembly.

Not as Julian's wife.

Not as a Luna candidate.

As the representative of Red Mesa.

I read the message twice.

Then I smiled.

For five years, Stonebridge had asked me to prove I belonged.

Now they were asking me to decide whether they still belonged in my future.