On the day of my Luna Ascension Ceremony, I wore the late Luna's ceremonial pelt by mistake.
The Alpha who had stood beside me for ten years regarded me with flat indifference. "A poor imitation. Unfit for the title."
The ceremony ground to a halt. The pup I had raised for a decade turned on me with open disgust:
"I knew it! You've been trying to take my mother's place all along! I will never let a scheming wolf like you get what she wants!"
She hurled the blessing charm I had spent half a year embroidering into the ceremonial fire, then beat her small fists against my body.
A child's blows carried little force. But they shattered my heart completely.
I looked at her and spoke, word by word:
"What I wanted was never to replace anyone, and certainly never to become Luna."
…
The sun blazed overhead, but no amount of light could melt the prejudice frozen in their hearts.
The ceremonial pelt, discarded to one side, seemed to mock my carelessness and my stupidity. The scent of white lilies and first frost still clung to its fur, Isabelle Ravencrest's memory woven into every fiber, untouchable even now.
I paid no attention to the prying stares and whispered ridicule around me. All I wanted was to leave this place as quickly as I could.
But Eloise Valdoran seized my arm. "You say you never wanted to be Luna. Then why didn't you refuse when I brought you Mother's pelt?"
"You say you never wanted to replace her. Then why were you so happy when Father agreed to grant you the Ascension?"
"You promised I'd be your only pup. So why did you give birth to Rosalind!"
Eloise's eyes were rimmed red, brimming with what looked like a thousand grievances. Her scent, frost-touched violets and new silver, had gone sharp and electric, a storm deciding to break.
But I did not step forward and gather her into my arms the way I always had. I simply looked at her, expression blank, and said nothing.
My wolf was silent. She had been silent for a long time now.
My unblinking gaze made Eloise flinch. Her eyes darted sideways.
She tried to hold her ground, lips trembling around the words: "Why are you staring at me? Why won't you explain yourself? The ceremony didn't go through. You must be furious!"
My voice came out flat. "Eloise, since this is what you wanted to see, then consider it done."
Three days ago, the ceremonial pelt delivered by the Pack Council had been stained with paint by Eloise during one of her drawing sessions. The pigment would not wash out.
I had been about to request a replacement, but Eloise dropped the hostility she usually wore around me and came to me with a bright smile, offering an apology.
She even produced an exquisite pelt of her own.
It looked slightly worn, but anyone could see it had been meticulously preserved. The fur still held a faint luminescence, the way only pelts blessed under a full moon could.
Something felt wrong. I sent my den attendant to look into it.
The pelt turned out to be the one the late Luna Isabelle Ravencrest had worn at her own Ascension.
Knowing it was a line I could not cross, I tried to make Eloise take it back.
But she burst into tears, sobbing that she had cared for me as her true mother after ten years together, and that was the only reason she wanted me to wear Luna Isabelle's pelt.
Then she demanded to know whether I looked down on it simply because it was made for an Omega Luna's rank, not a Supreme Luna's.
Those words happened to reach Cassius Valdoran as he walked through the door. His Alpha aura pressed into the room before he did, cold iron and ancient stone filling my lungs. His gaze darkened, and he told me in a low voice to honor the pup's wishes. He even remarked that I had worked hard, caring for Eloise day after day for ten years.
That evening, Cassius and Eloise dined together with me at Everspring Hall. He even agreed to bring Rosalind back from the outer territory where she had been raised.
I was overwhelmed. I believed that years of devotion had finally earned me a place in their hearts.
But the cold contempt Cassius and Eloise had just shown me tore that delusion to shreds.
I should have known long ago. Warm your hands against ice and all you get is water. You can't hold it, and you can't make it stay.
I gently pried Eloise's fingers from my arm.
"You were afraid I'd rise to the rank of Luna. Now my Ascension has been halted for the offense of wearing the late Luna's ceremonial pelt. Nothing like this has ever happened in our pack's history. From this day forward, I will be ridiculed and suspected by every wolf in this territory. You've already gotten what you wanted. What more could you possibly be unsatisfied with?"
Eloise bristled like a cornered wolf pup, teeth clenched, voice rising to a snarl. "I'm not satisfied! Not even close! Unless you go to the Alpha yourself and ask to be sent to the Hollow Den, you're just saying all this to trick me into feeling sorry for you!"
My gaze settled on her face. That small, childish face, barely bigger than my palm, was written over with nothing but fury aimed at me.
