Chapter 25 The Luna Problem
Rhea POV
I’d been stabbed, burned, bitten, and resurrected, but nothing, and I mean nothing, prepared me for five wolf maids fussing over me like I was some porcelain doll about to crack.
“Milady, please hold still..”
“I’m not your milady.”
“Yes, Luna, but...”
“Not your Luna either.”
They froze mid-motion, wide-eyed and clearly horrified that I’d just blasphemed against their sacred title. One of them, a nervous brunette with a braid wound tight enough to strangle a lesser woman, wrung her hands. “Alpha’s orders. You are to be addressed as Luna of the Wildlands.”
“Yeah, well, Alpha’s not the one scrubbing my hair right now, is he?”
The tub water sloshed as another girl poured a pitcher over my head. Lavender steam rose, mixing with my own scent, smoke and something wilder and untamed. It clung to the air like a warning.
I wasn’t sure if I liked it.
The scent, or the fact that it made the wolves in the hall go quiet when they caught a whiff.
My whole body ached in ways I didn’t have names for. Not pain, just too much sensation. The world had color again, sound again, and everything seemed to hum. I could hear footsteps in the corridors, feel heartbeats pulsing behind walls. I’d spent years learning how to stay invisible, and now I was the loudest damn thing in the building.
The blonde maid, a little bolder than the rest, risked a soft smile. “Alpha said you should rest, my lady. You’ve been through so much.”
“I’m not tired,” I lied, shivering as cool air hit wet skin.
She draped a thick towel over my shoulders and murmured, “Your pulse says otherwise.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Even my heart’s a snitch now.”
The maids traded uneasy glances. I didn’t blame them. I’d probably have that same look if I was ordered to bathe a half-dead stranger who’d exploded into fire and claimed the Alpha overnight.
Gods, I still couldn’t wrap my head around that.
One night, I was dying in a wolf den. The next, I was apparently Luna. Queen wolf. Mate to the Alpha. Lady of the fucking Wildlands.
I stared at my reflection in the polished bronze mirror the maids had propped up. My eyes caught the light wrong, too bright and flecked with gold and ember. My hair looked darker now, like the black had burned into a deep red sheen. My skin glowed faintly where Rhett’s mark lay over my neck, pulsing gently in time with my heartbeat.
Four heartbeats, I reminded myself.
I still didn’t know what that meant, but I could feel them, somewhere deep down, restless and circling each other like predators in the dark.
“Luna?” one maid asked nervously. “Would you like us to prepare your hair oils or...”
I snapped out of it. “No. I’d like you to stop hovering.”
“Yes, Luna.”
“And stop calling me that.”
They froze again. The youngest one, barely more than sixteen, blurted out before she could stop herself, “But if we don’t, he’ll skin us.”
That earned a snort out of me. “Yeah, well, he’ll have to stand in line.”
A few of them laughed, nervous and real. The tension eased for half a second. I sank into the chair near the fire, wrapped in a robe that smelled like cedar and wolf musk. The warmth felt good. Too good. It made me remember the night before, the heat of his skin against mine, the growl in his throat when he...
No. Not thinking about that.
“You can all go,” I said quickly. “I’m not used to being waited on. I can dress myself.”
The brunette maid bowed so fast she almost tripped. “As you wish, Luna.”
“Stop...never mind.”
They filed out like a flock of frightened birds, whispering once they hit the hall. When the door shut behind them, I slumped forward, burying my face in my hands.
Phoenix and Luna. That was me now.
I didn’t know if I hated it or if I was terrified of liking it.
The bond pulsed under my skin, Rhett’s heartbeat steady and sure, brushing against mine like a tether. Every time I tried to ignore it, it only grew louder. It wasn’t just connection, it was possession, written into bone and blood.
And I’d let it happen.
“Brilliant, Rhea,” I muttered. “Survive dragons, vampires, and the gods, only to get tangled up with a moody wolf king.”
As if on cue, I felt him. Not physically, but through the bond, his irritation, his hunger, and the faint edge of amusement that I swear he knew would piss me off.
“Stop listening,” I said aloud.
A flicker of heat ran down my spine, like laughter in my head.
“Fine,” I hissed. “Don’t stop. Just know I’m thinking very unpleasant thoughts about you right now.”
The answering pulse in my chest was smug.
I grabbed one of the trays they’d left behind, fresh bread, roasted meat, and berries. I didn’t think I was hungry until I smelled it. Then I devoured it like a starved animal.
By the time I finished, I felt… almost normal. Exhausted but stable. Until a knock at the door nearly made me jump out of my skin.
“Come in,” I said, expecting one of the maids.
Instead, an older woman stepped in, her silver hair braided down her back, and her eyes like flint. She wore healer’s robes and carried a small wooden box.
“Name’s Mira,” she said flatly. “Head healer. Alpha said to check your vitals.”
“I’m fine.”
“You died.”
“Temporarily.”
She arched a brow. “Temporarily dead’s still dead, Luna.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Not my problem,” she said, setting the box down. “Deep breath.”
I did as she asked, mostly because she didn’t seem scared of me. Her hands were cool and sure as she pressed them to my temples, then over my chest.
Her eyes widened. “You’re carrying more than one rhythm.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
She drew back, studying me. “What are you?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Mira stared a beat longer, then simply said, “Eat, rest, and don’t burst into flames indoors.”
“Noted.”
She packed up her things and left without another word. The door clicked shut again, leaving me alone with the sound of my four traitorous heartbeats.
The bond thrummed, a steady hum under my skin. I leaned back in the chair and stared at the fire crackling in the hearth.
Being Luna wasn’t the problem. It was what it meant, roots, rules, and hierarchy. A life that didn’t belong to me.
I’d spent years as a Ghost, silent, deadly, and free. Now I was the opposite.
Visible. Claimed. Bound.
And gods help me… part of me liked it.
That part scared me the most.