Unruled Luna

Mara's POV

The first thing my husband gave his new Luna was my necklace.

I saw the moonstone at Vivian's throat before I noticed the curve beneath her silver dress. My necklace rested exactly where it had rested on my skin for twelve years, glowing pale blue against the woman who had held my hand through six failed fertility treatments.

The Winter Oath Hall was full. Six hundred wolves had come to watch Gideon renew his vows as Alpha of Ironwood, and every one of them was staring at the wrong woman beside his throne. At thirty-six, I had spent a third of my life serving this pack as Luna. Apparently, one ceremony could still erase that.

"Take it off," I said.

Vivian's fingers rose to the stone. She did not look guilty. Gideon stepped between us. "Mara, don't make this uglier than it needs to be."

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. "You put my necklace on my best friend, seated her beside my throne, and filled the hall with witnesses. I think you have already handled the ugly part." A murmur moved through the room.

Gideon's jaw tightened. He looked just as he had during border disputes and council fights: controlled, handsome, certain that if he stayed calm long enough, everyone else would behave. For twelve years, I had admired that about him. Tonight I wanted to break something with it. Vivian rested one hand over her stomach.

The gesture was small. It still felt like a knife. I looked at Gideon. "Tell me I'm wrong." He said nothing.

"Gideon."

"Vivian is carrying my heir."

There were five words in the sentence. I had spent twelve years waiting for them, praying for them, bleeding for them. I had never imagined another woman's name would come first. Somebody gasped behind me; someone else whispered my name. I kept my eyes on my husband. "How long?"

"Mara--"

"How long have you been sleeping with her?"

Vivian answered before he could.

"Long enough."

My head turned. Her chin was high now. The soft healer who had sat beside my bed after every failed treatment was gone. In her place stood a woman wearing my necklace and my future.

"You told me those treatments could still work," I said.

"I told you what you needed to hear."

The hall went very quiet. I remembered Vivian pressing a warm cup into my hands. I remembered her telling me not to miss a dose. I remembered crying into her shoulder after the sixth specialist said my body still was not responding.

"You watched me blame myself," I whispered.

Uncertainty flickered across her face. Then Gideon said, "Enough." I looked at him. "No. Not nearly." His eyes flashed gold. The Alpha in him had always arrived before the husband when he felt challenged. I knew the warning signs better than anyone in the room.

"This pack needs an heir," he said. "It needs stability. The council will announce Vivian as acting Luna tonight, and the Concord will recognize the succession once the bond between us is formally severed."

My pulse stumbled. "You arranged a severing without asking me?"

"I arranged what was necessary."

"Twelve years, Gideon. I negotiated your treaties. I buried wolves beside you. I kept this pack fed during the Black Frost. I rebuilt the eastern villages after the fires. You could not find ten private minutes to tell me my marriage was over?"

He lowered his voice. "You would have fought me."

"You say that like it proves you were right."

A few faces in the crowd dropped toward the floor. They knew better than to let Gideon see agreement. Vivian stepped closer to the edge of the dais. "Mara, just accept it. You cannot give Ironwood what it needs. I can." I looked at her stomach again.

"And what exactly did you give me for six years?"

Her fingers tightened over the moonstone. Gideon moved fast enough that only I saw the warning in his face. "Do not start making accusations you cannot prove." That sentence changed something inside me. Because I had not accused anyone yet.

I looked from him to Vivian. "What was in the medicine?" Vivian's face went still, and that tiny change in her expression told me the answer was worse than I had guessed. I took one step toward her. Gideon caught my wrist.

"Let go of me."

"You're upset."

"You announced your pregnant mistress as Luna in front of six hundred people. I am aware of my emotional state. Let go."

His grip tightened hard enough to hurt.

"Mara."

"Gideon."

"Do not embarrass yourself."

That finally made me smile.

"You still think I'm the embarrassment in this room?"

His hand moved before I expected it. He did not slap me. Gideon was too careful for something so obvious. Instead, his fingers closed around the silver clasp at my throat—the one fastening the ceremonial Luna mantle—and tore it loose. Heavy velvet slid from my shoulders and hit the stone between us. The hall inhaled as one.

It was not the loss of fabric that burned. It was the message: he had stripped the office from me in front of six hundred witnesses. When I reached for the mantle, he caught my wrist, twisted it behind my back, and forced me down one step from the dais. Pain shot through my shoulder. The hall erupted in shocked whispers.

"Release her," the old oath priest said sharply.

Gideon ignored the priest's warning completely.

"Kneel," my husband ordered.

Alpha power slammed through the hall. Every wolf around me dropped. The sound of knees striking stone rolled through the room. Guards bowed. Council members folded. Even the priest collapsed beside the ceremonial basin, his breath leaving him in a grunt. My shoulder burned in Gideon's grip, but my knees stayed straight.

For several seconds, nobody understood what had happened. Neither did I. Gideon's breath touched my ear.

"Kneel, Mara." More power followed the words. The stained glass windows rattled in their frames, and Vivian clutched the throne to keep from falling. Pressure drove through my skull hard enough to blur my vision. Still, I remained standing.

Gideon released my arm as if I had burned him.

"What did you do?"

I turned slowly. "Apparently, I disappointed you again." His face had lost all color. The oath priest stared at me from the floor. "Alpha, don't command her again." Gideon's head snapped toward him. "Why?"

The old man's eyes moved to the black ceremonial chain around my wrist. One end connected to Gideon's matching cuff, the symbol of the bond we had renewed every winter since our mating. The chain had begun to shake. A sharp crack split the hall. One silver-black link fractured straight through the center.

Vivian backed away from me.

"That's impossible," the priest whispered.

Gideon seized the broken chain. "What are you?"

"Your barren wife, according to tonight's program."

His eyes hardened. Fear disappeared behind anger so quickly I nearly missed it.

"Guards."

Four men rose unsteadily. I stepped back. "Don't." They hesitated. Not because I had authority over them. I had no title now, no rank Gideon had not just stripped away. They hesitated because they had served under me for years. Gideon saw it too.

"Take her below."

Captain Orsik looked miserable. "Alpha--"

"Now."

Two guards caught my arms. I fought them, but twelve years of council meetings had not prepared me to overpower trained warriors in ceremonial armor.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded.

Gideon came down the steps.

"The severance chamber."

The priest pushed himself upright. "The ritual cannot be performed while she is distressed."

"Then she has until midnight to calm down."

I stared at my husband. "Are you going to force a bond severing?"

"I am going to protect my heir and my pack from whatever this is."

He pointed at the broken chain. Vivian descended one step and met my eyes. Up close, I could see that she was frightened, but not of Gideon. Of me. She leaned close enough that only I could hear.

"You should have kept drinking what I gave you."

The cold spread through my chest and stomach.

"What did you give me?"

Her gaze dropped toward my wrist.

"Something that kept this from happening."

The guards pulled me toward the side doors. I twisted hard enough to make one of them swear. "Vivian!" She touched the moonstone at her throat and smiled without warmth.

"If I were you, Mara, I'd pray the severing works before your wolf wakes up."

The doors slammed behind me. As the guards dragged me down the dark stairs, Gideon's voice followed from the hall above.

"At midnight, cut the bond out of her."