My Ex-Mate Wants Me Back

The silence in the ballroom stretched so thin that I could hear the crystal chandeliers trembling above the heads of three hundred wolves. Every Alpha in the northern territories had turned toward the staircase, and every one of them seemed to be waiting to learn whether the exile on the landing would be claimed or returned like a misplaced piece of property.

Ryan did not release me. His arm stayed locked around my waist, and the steady hammering of his heart against my shoulder blade was the only thing keeping my knees from folding beneath me.

"You have made a mistake, Blackwood," Ryan said, and his voice carried across the marble without any effort at all. "The woman you call your wife was cast out by your own decree, in front of your own Council, and I doubt you have forgotten the sound of that seal."

Logan climbed the first three steps with his jaw set and his grey eyes burning. "She was exiled for attempted murder, which means her sentence belongs to me and to the pack she betrayed. You are holding stolen property, and every Alpha in this room knows what the law says about that."

"Property," Ryan repeated softly, and the word sounded far more dangerous in his mouth than any growl. "Say that again, and say it slowly, so everyone here can remember how you speak about the woman who ran your household for five years."

A murmur rolled through the crowd. I saw old Alpha Thorne of the Frostfang Pack lower his glass, and I saw two younger Alphas exchange a glance that was equal parts disgust and fascination. Logan had never been good at reading a room, because he had spent his whole life being the one who made rooms go quiet.

"This is a private matter between mates," Logan said, forcing his voice into a calmer register. "Giuliana, come down here at once, and we will discuss your crimes like civilized wolves."

I opened my mouth, but Ryan answered before I could find any words. "The Equinox Assembly is held under the Compact of the Three Moons, and the first article of that compact guarantees sanctuary to any wolf who stands within these walls and asks for it. She has not asked yet, but she has the right to, and no Alpha in this hall may drag her out until she has spoken."

Alpha Thorne cleared his throat and stepped forward, leaning on a staff carved with frost-wolves. "The King of the North is correct, Logan Blackwood, and you know it as well as I do. The Compact is older than both your packs, and I will not see it broken under my watch because of a domestic quarrel."

"It is not a quarrel," Chloe said.

She had been standing so quietly at Logan's elbow that I had almost forgotten she was there. Now she stepped forward with her hand pressed to her throat, her blonde hair arranged perfectly over one shoulder, and her eyes shimmering with a sorrow so convincing that it took real effort not to admire it.

"Forgive me for speaking," she said, her voice trembling just enough to make strangers lean closer. "I only wish to say that I forgave Giuliana the moment I woke from the poison, and I would forgive her again tonight if she simply came home and apologized. She is unwell, and anyone can see that she is frightened and confused."

Several of the lady wolves in the crowd murmured sympathetically. I felt the old, familiar heat of humiliation crawl up my neck, because I had watched Chloe perform this exact trick a hundred times and had never once found the courage to expose it.

But something had changed inside me. My wolf was awake and pacing behind my ribs, and for the first time in five years she was not whimpering. She was listening, and every muscle in my body felt as though it had been waiting years to be told that it was allowed to stand upright.

"Giuliana," Ryan said quietly, bending his head so that only I could hear him. "The law says you must speak for yourself, and I will not put words in your mouth. Whatever you decide, I will stand behind it, even if it breaks something in me."

That last sentence undid me more than any threat could have. I realized that he was offering me the one thing nobody had ever offered me, which was a choice that would not be punished afterward.

I stepped out of the circle of his arm. The marble was cold under my bare feet, and the emerald dress felt like armor and like a costume all at once as I walked to the edge of the landing and looked down at the man who had been my husband.

"Alpha Thorne," I said, and my voice cracked on the first word before it steadied. "I am Giuliana, formerly Luna of the Blackwood Pack, and I ask for sanctuary under the Compact of the Three Moons."

"Giuliana, do not do this," Logan warned, his aura beginning to press down on the room.

"I am not finished." I lifted my chin and forced myself to meet his eyes. "I also declare before every Alpha present that the wolf standing behind me is my true mate, chosen by the Moon Goddess herself, and that the bond between us was sealed tonight in front of all of you."

The gasp that went through the ballroom was louder than any horn. Logan's face went white, then red, and I watched the muscle in his cheek twitch as though something inside him was being torn loose from its moorings.

"You lie," he whispered. "A true mate bond cannot form while another bond still lingers."

"Your seal ended ours," I replied, "and you cannot pretend now that it did not."

The sound that ripped out of Logan's chest was not entirely human. His Alpha aura detonated across the hall in a wave of raw fury, and the chandeliers above us began to swing violently on their chains. Glasses burst on the tables below, a string of crystal pendants snapped and rained across the floor, and the younger wolves in the crowd dropped to their knees under the force of it.

Ryan was beside me before the first shard landed. He did not shout or posture, but simply raised his own aura like a wall, and I felt the two powers collide above my head with a pressure that made my ears ring.

"Enough," Alpha Thorne roared, slamming his staff against the floor, and a pulse of old, ancient authority rolled out from it. "The Compact has been invoked, and the Assembly recognizes the sanctuary claim. Logan Blackwood, you will stand down at once, or you will be removed from these grounds by every Alpha present."

For a long moment I thought Logan would fight them all. His hands curled into claws, his eyes flickered from grey to black, and I saw the frightened pup that lived beneath the Alpha, the boy who had never learned to lose.

Then Chloe touched his arm and whispered something I could not hear, and the fire in him dimmed to a smoldering rage.

"This is not over," Logan said to me, and each word was cold and precise. "You will regret choosing him, and you will beg me to take you back before the winter ends."

He turned and descended the stairs, his guards falling in around him, and the crowd parted like water to let him pass. My legs began to shake only after he was gone, and Ryan's hand found the small of my back and held me steady without a word.

I should have felt triumphant. Instead I kept watching Chloe, who lingered a moment longer at the foot of the staircase after Logan had walked away. She was no longer playing the wounded innocent, and her face had settled into something calm and thoughtful that made my skin crawl.

She lifted her gaze to the shadowed gallery above the ballroom, where a tall figure in a hooded cloak leaned against a pillar. I could not see his face, but I saw him raise his glass to her in a slow, private toast, and I saw the silver ring on his hand catch the candlelight.

It was engraved with a brand I had never seen before, a circle split by a jagged line.

Chloe smiled up at him, and then she mouthed four silent words that I somehow understood perfectly.

The Luna is mine now.

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