The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 7

Ella POV

The sudden touch of Alexander’s hands on my back, exposed from the courageous dip of my dressline, made my skin feel

like it was on fire.

“Why would I do that, darling?” he laughed. “She keeps making these jokes lately, all because I forgot to rub her feet last night.”

Rub my feet?

I couldn’t decide if the laugh or the embrace or the imaginary foot-rubbing was more unsettling. All three of those things. were so out of character for him that it briefly made me wonder if he had been replaced with a lookalike in the past thirty seconds.

“You never rub my feet,” I hissed, pushing my palms into his chest. “You’re a liar.”

Alexander held fast and chuckled. “Women,” he joked, eliciting some laughs from the people around us. The only people who weren’t laughing were Sophia and Gabriel. My father, for appearances, managed a faint chuckle.

“Alexander, what are you talking about?” I whispered, suddenly turning angry. “And let me go-”

But then I saw the faint glimmer in his green eyes and movement over his shoulder, and I understood.

The Alpha Council Supervisory Board had arrived-six Alphas in expensive suits were moving through the crowd, which was parting around them like the sea. And they were headed straight for us.

Now I understood why Alexander was suddenly acting as if we were just a playful couple having a good-natured spat. Why he was lying about our intimate life like that.

He was playing up our “relationship” because the Board had just walked in.

The whole reason why Alexander had thrown this banquet tonight was to curry their favor for the upcoming election. And he couldn’t accomplish that if his perfect little wife was misbehaving, could he?

to say something, not really caring what the Board thought

respect. Meanwhile, Sophia and Gabriel had

I felt my face heat slightly under their scrutinizing gazes. These Alphas were some of the best of the best-elected for the Board based on their hard work and merits. Doctors, philanthropists,

particular, who stood at the front, caught my

eyes kept flitting down to where my palms were pressed into Alexander’s chest, then to where

his face.

something almost familiar about him, but I couldn’t quite place

with his dirty blond hair neatly combed back. He wore a midnight blue suit with a matching tie and a pocket square with a

keeping one arm firmly wrapped around my waist. I touched his hand, testing it to see if I could pry his fingers away, but he just dug them deeper into my skin as if to silently

Chapter

so glad you were able

handsome man at the front extended his hand, and Alexander shook it.

must be Luna Ella.”

hand and kissed it. I felt Alexander’s arm tighten even further around

around us. “This is a lovely

Beta Gabriel planned it

also said it because I knew the Board might look down upon a pack in which the Luna didn’t plan

Alexander look bad, force his hand into

I didn’t get the reaction I’d expected from

see a pack with more progressive views. More Lunas these days are taking on administrative roles rather than party planning, which we believe to be a

Luna should be an equal to her Alpha,” one Alpha chimed in. “Truly, it’s the women in our society who

praise. Alexander, who had stiffened, relaxed somewhat as well, although I doubted it had so much to do with the progressive comments about women as it was relief that he wasn’t immediately

drinks and hors d’oeuvres in their hands, Alexander

slip away. Every time I opened my mouth to say something that might harm

the while, that strangely familiar young Alpha