All Chapters of The Rejected Fool Luna: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

27 Chapters

Chapter 1: The Stupid Luna

The morning run had almost killed her.Briar had been training with the gammas for four weeks straight, every day at six a.m., rain or shine. Killian's birthday was tomorrow and she had a plan. A real one. She would run beside him at the territory check, keep up without falling behind, and he would see that she was trying. That she was worth keeping.The gammas had not gone easy on her. But she had shown up every morning anyway, her thighs burning, her lungs screaming, until she could finally complete the full eastern circuit without stopping.This morning she had done it in under forty minutes.She was still sweaty and flushed and deeply out of breath when the first water balloon hit her.It caught her between the shoulder blades. The cold water exploded through her gray hoodie and she lurched forward, nearly losing her footing on the sidewalk. She turned around.Four children stood near the curb. None of them older than ten. All of them grinning like they had done something very cle

Chapter 2: Please Don't Reject Me

Briar left without her shoes.She realized this somewhere on the third block, when the pavement turned from smooth concrete to broken asphalt and something sharp cut into her left heel. She stopped and looked down at her bare feet. She did not remember taking her shoes off. She did not remember leaving the building either. All she could see, every time she blinked, was Vivienne on her knees and Killian's belt hanging open.It was coming down hard now. Briar stood on the sidewalk and tried to remember where she had parked her car.She could not remember anything.She stood there for a while, turning slowly, looking at the street in both directions like the car might announce itself. It didn't. She picked a direction and started walking."Briar."She turned. Mabel Finch was jogging toward her from across the street, her bright orange hair plastered flat by the rain."Briar, what happened to your shoes? Come on, my car is right there, let me take you home."Briar looked at her.Three mon

chapter 3 She Wags Her Tail Like a Dog

Vivienne had taken two hours to dress up.She knew the code to Killian's house. She had gotten it two weeks ago, standing in his doorway with a smile and a perfectly reasonable excuse. She had spilled something on her dress at the pack dinner, she had said, and needed to change before the evening was over. Could she possibly use his room? He had given her the code without thinking twice.She used it now, stepping through the side entrance and up the stairs. The hallway on the second floor was quiet. She paused outside the master bedroom door.She did not need to open it to know.The smell hit her immediately, musk and heat and something unmistakably animal, the particular scent of two wolves who had been very close together very recently. Her jaw tightened.Kallie snarled.*That worthless sow.* Kallie's voice scraped through her mind. *She touched him again. She touched what is ours. I want to rip her throat out. I want to pull that greasy hair out by the roots. She is nothing. She is

Chapter 4: The Failed Wolf-Run and the "Dog Howl"

The fever reducer kicked in around noon. Briar sat on the bed until the room stopped tilting, then picked up her phone and worked through the gamma contact list one by one. She had written the key points on the back of an envelope. The formation. The ridge slowdown. The howl sequence. Every gamma she reached said the same thing in the same flat voice. *We've got it. Don't worry.* One of them had background noise that sounded like laughing. It stopped when he answered.She wrote *they said they remember* on the envelope and put it in her pocket.---The full moon celebration started at dusk.The pack gathered at the eastern field. Briar stood near the back of the crowd with Killian's clothes folded against her chest and watched him prepare for the shift.She could not help it. She never could.He had already pulled his shirt off. The torchlight caught the line of his shoulders, the flat of his stomach, the particular stillness he had before a shift, like something very large and very c

chapter 5 You've Disgraced the Title of Luna

Briar's ears were still ringing.She stood with her hand pressed to her cheek and looked at Killian because he was the only thing she could think to look at. He always knew what everything meant and she never did, but if she could just hold onto his arm for a second and explain, he would understand.She reached out and grabbed his arm with both hands."Killian." Her voice came out thick. "The gift. It was a birthday gift. I planned it for a whole month. I wrote it all down." She still had the envelope in her pocket. She could show him. "The gammas said they remembered. I called them this morning and they all said they had it. I don't know why they ran ahead. I don't know what happened to the formation. Maybe they forgot? Or maybe they were going too fast and didn't realize? Because in the practices they always"He looked down at her hands on his arm."Let go," he said.She didn't let go. "Please just listen. I practiced the howl too. Vivienne said it was important to howl, that it sho

Chapter 6: The Curse: Only the First Luna Can Bear His Heir

"Oh, for the love of" Linda said. "Stop that noise. Stop it right now. You are not a child."Briar could not stop.The crowd had not left. People were standing in loose groups at the edge of the field, watching."She is unbelievable," a woman said, not bothering to lower her voice. "Crying after what she just did to us.""No wolf, no shame either, apparently.""Vivienne would never. Not once in her life."Linda stepped forward and grabbed a fistful of Briar's hair, yanking her head back hard enough to make her gasp mid-sob."I said stop that noise," Linda said. "You have done enough tonight. You will shut your mouth and you will go home and you will stay there. Do you understand me, you stupid, embarrassing little""Linda." Vivienne's hand came down lightly on Linda's wrist. "Let her go. She's not worth hurting your hands over."A beat. Linda released Briar's hair and stepped back, smoothing her own sleeve like the contact had dirtied her.Briar's scalp burned. She pressed her hand to

Chapter 7: I’m here to fuck my Luna

Liam had brought enough food for three people.Briar did not question this. She sat cross-legged on the bed after he left and worked through all of it with focused, uncomplicated dedication.The party sounds downstairs had faded to nothing. The house was quiet. She was on her third slice of pizza when the door hit the wall.She moved fast, grabbing the box and the foil and the container and shoving all of it under the covers in one messy armful. Then she dropped onto her back and pulled the duvet up to her chin and closed her eyes and lay very still.The footsteps crossed the room without slowing.A hand closed around the back of her collar and lifted.She came out of the duvet with her eyes wide and her hair in her face. The pizza box was visible."Why are you here," she said. "I stayed home. I didn't go to the banquet. I did what you said.""What are you doing, Killian?" Briar choked out. Her hands flew to his wrist. "You’re hurting me. Why are you here?""Why am I here?" he repeate

Chapter 8: Not Unless You Slap Yourself

Briar's ankle was still bad.She knew this the moment she put weight on it getting out of bed. She moved slowly getting dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed to pull on her shoes because bending down too fast made her eyes water.She had set an alarm. She had her bag. She had her ID badge.She was waiting by the front entrance at seven forty-three.Seven forty-five came and went.At seven fifty-two she found one of the house staff and asked if Killian had already left."Mr. Vane left at seven-fifteen," the woman said, not looking up.Briar stood in the hallway and absorbed this. Seven-fifteen. She had been awake at seven-fifteen. She had heard movement in the house.She called a taxi. It took twenty-two minutes to arrive. The driver took the long route.She arrived at Vane Sterling Tower at nine-fourteen, which was fourteen minutes past the start of her shift.---Vane Sterling's corporate canteen occupied the entire third floor. Briar's job was at the end of the serving line, handi

Chapter 9: Throw coffee on me!

The clapping was still going when Mabel moved.She raised her hand and hit herself across the face, hard, and the sound cut through the room and the clapping stopped dead.Everyone stared.Mabel pulled her staff badge off her lanyard and threw it on the nearest table."I quit," she said.She walked out without looking back at anyone.The room held its silence for three full seconds.Then Vivienne said, softly, "I never wanted anyone to get hurt." She looked at the badge on the floor. Her voice was very gentle. "I really didn't. I hope everyone knows that."Several people nodded. Someone picked up the badge.Killian's face had gone very still. The particular stillness that meant he was furious and had decided not to show it.Briar stood at the cutlery station with sauce drying on her neck and watched the canteen doors settle shut behind Mabel and felt something crack open in her chest."I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."Nobody was listening.She went after

Chapter 10: Rough Sex

The end of the shift came at five.Briar was still at the cutlery station when she saw them leave.Killian came through the lobby at four fifty-three, jacket on, keys in hand. Vivienne was beside him , her platinum hair loose over her shoulders. Killian held the lobby door open for her.Vivienne said something and Killian looked at her and almost smiled.Briar stood at the end of the serving line with a rolled napkin in both hands and could not look away. She watched them walk out together and the door closed and they were gone and her chest felt like something had been wrung out of it._The walk home took forever because of her ankle. It really hurt. She took the side street, quieter, and she was three blocks from the house when a car slowed beside her.Liam rolled down the window. "Get in.""I'm fine.""You're limping badly.""I said I'm fine!" But her voice cracked on the last word and she hated it."Briar. Get in the car."She got in.He did not say anything about the canteen. Sh

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