The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert

30. Missed Chances

!

Elene had an aghast look on her face, and Savannah knew she was really in trouble now. So, the only

thing she was considering now was how to proceed with all this. Should she just break that neck and

be done with it? Kai would understand if she explained it to him later. Or so she thought… Would he

really understand? After all, although the attraction was undeniable, they still didn’t know each other too

well. They planned to learn everything, but they weren’t there now. Would it truly be okay to dispose of

her mate? And here of all the places…

“Savvy!” Zack gurgled, and she wanted to slam him into the wall.

“Say…” She at least wanted to get the rejection accepted, while Zack’s face was already crimson red.

He owed her that much.

“Put him down!” Elene growled, and for the first time since she came here, she felt a wave of power

coming from the Northern Princess, which surprised her more than it should have. After all, Elene was

a royal Lycan as well, and that came with some perks.

However, she was still undecided about what to do. Knowing Zack, he could run away fast, and she

would spend months again trying to hunt him. Without their stupid bond, she would be free. She could

be free now, and then maybe Kai and she could …

“If you kill him, you will hurt kai and the Northern Lycan Kingdom,” Elene crossed her hands on her

chest and watched the scene unfolding before her. This was something new, and Savannah felt like it

was some kind of a test.

“Or I will do them a service,” Savvy slowly moved her eyes from Zack to the Northern Princess

“He is here on a diplomatic mission. If he ends up dead, all Kai’s efforts will go in vain.”

Her mate desperately tried to release himself from her grasp, and, rolling her eyes, Savvy released her

grip on his neck. Morgan collapsed to the floor and gulped for air a few times in some sort of panic until

he was able to steady his breathing.

Savannah looked down on him. Every physical attraction for him was blurred out now. She just wanted

him gone from her life. Out for good. She contemplated whether to tell the King’s sister who that

pathetic man was to her. Zack would definitely mention it somewhere. In all honesty, he could do that

now to try and ruin things for her. So, it was best to get it off her chest. She would prefer to tell Kai first.

Herself. But the situation called for action.

“He is my….” She started speaking, but Elene waved her off.

“I know very well that he is the traitor of the West,” the Princess snapped. “It’s not an excuse. You want

to be the Queen here. You should know better. We have to deal with people we don’t like all the time.”

“And you are setting just a great example there,” Savannah scoffed, and Elene wanted to reply

something, but at the last moment, the door that led to the main hall opened, and Astrid’s head poked

in

“Oh, I am sorry to disturb you,” she giggled innocently. “Princess Elene, everything is ready, and

everyone is looking for you.”

“Very well,” the youngest Fionnlagh responded lightly as if nothing happened here. “Let’s go, ladies.

Alpha Morgan, you can join us or retreat to the room we provided for you.”

“I wouldn’t miss an event like this for the world!” Zack chuckled, adjusting his suit jacket. And Savvy

thought that she should have killed him after all. The smug smile on his face told her everything went

just the way he wanted…

***

All the twelve Luna Trial contenders were standing in two rows on the stairs in their beautiful sparkling

gowns. Each looked like a queen already.

And also there was Petra.

Elene was checking her notes with Chloe and Claude, who were nodding in unison each time she

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spoke. Savannah tried to listen to them, but the buzz of the rest of the guests was making it impossible

to decipher words.

“And I thought everything was ready!” she shorted and shot a quick look at Astrid, who stood behind

her. A little smirk formed on the Southerner’s face.

“I just thought you needed a little help there,” she whispered, and Savvy nodded. This was nice of her,

considering she was very close to getting rid of a contender.

“Can you believe she is wearing this?” Inga snickered, glancing quickly at Petra in ruffles and with

Kyle’s tie as a belt. For some reason, the other Northerners didn’t like the pink-haired she-wolf much,

and Savannah noticed how Petra lowered her head as if she was already defeated

“Don’t!” she took her hand at once and gave it a light, reassuring squeeze. “Someone like you would

look amazing wearing anything. You came here to fight for the position of a Luna. A true Luna always

holds her head high and owns her choices. Just consider it another test.”

“Penelope said it would be a great outfit for the interviews,” Petra said quietly, and Savvy gave her

palm an extra squeeze.

“And now you know who not to listen to,” Naya snorted as she stood on the other side of Petra.

“Just turn it to your advantage now,” Brigit said without looking at them. “It is a gorgeous outfit,

whatever everyone else thinks. Things like this will make you stand out among other women. It’s a trick

we always used at….”

She stopped talking, realising she had already shared too much, but Savvy knew she meant the harem

where Brigit spent years fighting for the attention of the Fox King Castiel Armstrong. Now that she was

thinking about it, Brigit was his favourite for a long time, and only his obsession with Savvy’s sister-in-

law put an end to this. However, the white bear knew very well how to stand out among many beautiful

girls. She did that during the Riddle challenge when she went ahead of her turn. But later, she was

quiet, which wasn’t how Riannon spoke of her at all. According to her, Brigit was a leader in nature.

“Where?” Petra wanted more of Brigit’s story, but the woman in question only pressed her Tips tighter

together.

“In her old pack,” Savannah smiled and let do of Petra’s hand as Elene was already walking in their

direction.

The music died down, and so did the chatter of the guests. All the attention was now on the Northern

Princess. She had a tablet in her hands and a gracious smile was curling her lips. Someone’s eyes

gleamed in the crowd, and Savvy knew without looking it was Zack. He was watching her even now

when his best course of action should be to run as fast as he could.

“We use several aspects to judge the interviews,” Elene announced with a smile. “The content of

answers matters the most, but we also look at the body language and tone, confidence and attitude,

consistency of a contender and last, but not least, appearance. After all, we are choosing the Luna of

the North, and our land deserves the best.”

She took a significant pause, looking around the hall and pretending to ignore the

cameras.

“Without any doubt, our main winner tonight is none other than the daughter of the North Penelope

Summerstern! She received thirty points for her interview and her final score at the moment is forty

points.” A round of applause emerged as Penelope stepped forward, bowed and then moved to the

higher level of the stairs. The contenders moving forward had to stand above the ones who didn’t.

“The next contender had a slightly less impressive score, but her overall score is now the same as

Penelope’s,” Elene said calmly. “Savannah Stormhold receives twenty points and has forty points

overall.”

Savvy gasped uncontrollably. She was astonished by the fact that she scored this high. She was sure

that Elene and the twins would give her the lowest possible points.

“Go!” Astrid whispered to her, and Naya nudged her gently. Savannah placed her hand to her heart

with a smile on her lips as if she wanted to thank everyone present and then joined Penelope at the

top.

“Congratulations, Savvy!” The girl greeted her as if they had been best friends for many years. Which

they weren’t.

“Thanks, Pen!” she reciprocated with a grin. “Congratulations to you too.”

“I have to say this was easy,” the brunette giggled, and Savvy thought that maybe Elene had given her

friend the list of questions beforehand. However, something was strange. Why didn’t they sabotage her

again? She loved their tactics. It was easy to deal with, and who knew what they changed it to now.

“The next contender also received twenty points for the interview and is currently ranking third with

thirty-five points. Astrid Erling!”

Astrid was probably even more surprised than Savannah, and they exchanged warm smiles when she

reached the top. Soon Inga and Celia followed, receiving twenty points each but scoring slightly below

Astrid. Then Naya and Mikaela earned fifteen points each, bringing them to thirty points. The two cats

were happy with the results but not happy about having to stand not far from each other. If cats didn’t

like someone, this was for life.

“Ugly dress,” Mikaela traced Naya’s curves with her eyes and smirked. 1. “Don’t be so hard on yourself,

dear,” the silver-haired contender replied, “Yes, your outfit today could have been better, but ugly is not

the word. Mediocre is.” They both hissed at each other and turned away.

Five girls were left standing at the bottom.

“Sadly, the next contender received zero points as she decided to leave on her own terms and did not

give an interview.” Elene was smiling, but her tone was ice cold. “Salome Gray, you are the first to

leave the Luna Trials. It was an honour to have you here.”

“Thank you. Princess Elene,” the witch curtsied slightly mockingly and stepped down to join the quests.

Waves of whispers rippled through the room, but it looked like Salome wasn’t bothered about all that.

“The next contender received the lowest points during the interview and overall performance. Autumn

Bern, please step down. It was an honour to have you here …” Elene clearly wanted to say something

else, but the little fox with red hair rushed away quickly, covering her eyes as if she was about to cry.

“Why so low?” Savvy whispered to Astrid, and she tilted her head slightly. “She said she didn’t believe

in Fenrir,” the girl replied. “For the North it’s…”

“Preposterous,” Celia said firmly. “You can say whatever you like, but Fenrir and the royal family are

untouchable.”

“Stop sharing!” Inga jabbed her friend with her elbow. Now only three girls were standing at the bottom,

and Savvy felt perplexed about this.

“Brigit Borg, Petra Biernat, Mavis Redfeather,” Elene turned to them. “Your scores are low, and one of

you will leave as well. Unless the King or the people of the North save you. We will see if that happens

tomorrow.”

She then motioned for Chloe and Claude to take it from there. The blonde siblings turned to the

cameras and started explaining how people could cast a vote. And apparently, they could do that once

from a registered mobile phone number in the system. Which, in Savannah’s opinion, was ridiculous.

Then again, it was probably her fault since she cornered them into following that tradition in the first

place.

***

The main event was over soon, and Savvy wasn’t surprised to see Zack gone. She gritted her teeth,

hoping he didn’t run too far. She was going to force that acceptance of rejection out of him. Her life

literally depended on that.

Kyle was already gone too, and Savvy just hoped he wasn’t looking for her mate. That wasn’t his battle

to fight. Although, technically, if he caught him and held him for her, she wouldn’t mind

Lost in thought, Savannah didn’t notice how she ended up walking down the corridor leading to their

tower with Zara, Brigit, Astrid and her friend Emma, who seemed displeased with something again,

judging by the looks she was giving her.

“Good luck tomorrow,” Astrid tried to start some kind of conversation and glanced at Brigit timidly.

“I don’t need luck,” the werebear cut her off.”‘ll still get where I want to be.”

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“Without a doubt,” Savannah smiled and at the same time felt piercing pain going through her body.

She knew far too well what was happening and couldn’t believe the audacity of her mate.

For some reason, this time, everything felt so much stronger that she could barely stand on her feet.

Not at all the pain level she was used to by now.

Zara was the first to notice she turned pale and quickly draped her hand around Savannah’s to give her

something to lean on.

“Is something wrong?” They heard Emma’s voice. She sure had a tough attitude for a newcomer who

had no role to play here.

“I am just tired,” Savvy tried to brush her off, not willing to explain the drama of her life to anyone.

“Are you sure?” Astrid looked genuinely concerned. “You look pale.” “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” the Princess

assured them. “See you tomorrow, and congratulations.”

“Congrats to you too, Savannah,” the Southerner beamed while Emma was already opening her door

without even looking at them.

“Thanks,” Savvy muttered, wishing for nothing more than to hide in her chambers.

Brigit watched her in silence, and when the two other women were gone, she leaned into Savannah’s

ear and whispered, “If you don’t kill him, then I will.”

With that, she turned on her heels and rushed to her own room.

Zara helped her to get inside and unzipped her dress. Unfortunately, they had done this many times

before, so she knew the drill perfectly. Biting her lip to distract herself with a different kind of pain,

Savvy grabbed the first thing she saw in the wardrobe – which was a simple, delicate blue dress with

traditional northern embroidery on the front. Pulling it on, falling to the bed. Zara covered her with a

throw the way she always did.

Savvy closed her eyes, withering in pain, counting the minutes for it to stop. But today, Zack was

punishing her for real. For the past few months, all his encounters were short, but today, he decided to

indulge himself in lust, pleasure and revenge right next to her. The worst thing was that she couldn’t kill

him until she got approval from Kai.

Her heart was ripping apart, piece by piece. She didn’t love Zack. She simply couldn’t. Not after

everything ….She didn’t even want him on a physical level. But the realisation that this was the one

man who was supposed to protect and cherish her made all this even more painful.

She thought of Kai and his promises. Was he really going to keep his word and choose her? She

wanted to be chosen. That mate thing wasn’t what she expected, but could they be happy together as

chosen mates? She knew one story with a sad ending…. If she tried it with Kai, but he rejected her

when he found his true mate … this would break her irrevocably. She didn’t realise it before, but little by

little, he filled that void left by Zack. She was afraid to admit it out loud, but she needed him more than

he could imagine. She didn’t even notice how the darkness took away her pain, and she finally

managed to fall asleep.

Firm fingers brushed over her cheek and neck. She breathed out, feeling much better all of a sudden.

Then soft lips planted a little kiss on her bare shoulder, and Savannah opened her eyes to see Kai.

“Kai?” she sat up higher at once and then immediately wrapped her arms around him. The King only

pressed her tighter and kissed the top of her head, lacing his fingers into her hair and inhaling deeply

as if he needed that desperately. He smelled of forest and pine as always, but today there were other

notes there as well. Smoke and blood were more robust than other scents,

and Savvy distanced herself from him, checking his face. Luckily, he looked unharmed. Just less

polished and neat. Just like her gardener ….

“Are you fine?” Savannah cupped his cheek, and he leaned into it just for a moment. “Is the battle

over?”

“I want to show you something, Savvy,” he told her with a little excited glint in his eyes. “Come with me

now.”