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Chapter 19: Tempted
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2022-11-29 14:35:24Related chapters
The Returned Luna Chapter 20: The Orphanage
She tried to push the thought away, but it persisted and morphed, drawing up the potential ways they had found where she ran to. Had they been lying in wait for her in the forest? Had they bribed someone to follow her and kill her? What did they get out of her? Was it possible that they were in league with Basil?The more she thought about it, the darker her mood became. None of the questions were answered easily and she despaired at the thought of any of it being true. Sarah seemed to notice it and stood with a cheerful smile. “My luna is in a better place now, and she wouldn’t want us to spend such a lovely day inside discussing such morbid things.” Laurel looked at her, a little hopeless but charmed by her change in mood. Sarah had always been able to brighten her mood. “Let’s go for a walk! I can show you around the castle.”Laurel smiled and agreed. She was right. Had she remained dead, she would have wanted Sarah to find all the happiness she could. As it stood, Laurel wanted
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 21: The School
“Miss Laurel left with her maid, Sarah to tour the city,” Chasel told him and Adolph frowned. He had seen Sam and Lynn still on the castle grounds. Chasel huffed, “While I’m sure they’ll be fine in the Imperial City, I wish she would have taken her escort.”Adolph chuckled and left Chasel. He lifted the hood attached to his vest over his head and left the palace with a few nods to the guards. The road into the Imperial City had been cleaned, but the flowers still littered the lower streets and colored the air with a soft floral scent. It was pleasant enough and made him remember that he should go take a look at the orchard the late luna had established. With any luck, it hadn’t fallen too far into disrepair and could be used to continue producing food for the army and whoever else needed it. He sighed. It was such a tragedy that he had never met his daughter-in-law. Based on her efforts, she had been such a bright young woman. He hoped his lecture had settled in Basil’s mind, and t
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 22: Second Chance Mate
She wouldn’t know who else to trust with the school. She’d planned the orphanage system, the school, and the hospitals, after all, but as far as Adolph knew, she was just a young woman from the country. Why would he give her the job? Why would he think a young woman could handle so much responsibility? Maybe he just wanted to push it off on someone else, or maybe he didn’t care about having it all done well so much as getting it done. Anger burned in her chest and she huffed.“You must be joking, Your Majesty. Are you trying to ruin this school by asking a country girl to handle all this?”Adolph winked, “I didn't mean that, Laurel. You're my mate--”Laurel glared at him, “So you’re giving me all this work just to show me how much you value me as your mate? I don't want that! How can you casually give the lives of so many people as a gift to a girl?”Adolph stared at her, his expression was near placid as she glared at him and it only angered him more. There wasn’t a flicker of guilt
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 23: The Invitation
After leaving the minister’s office, Laurel threw herself into her work. If she kept busy, she wouldn’t have time to worry about Adolph, mates, or anything else.Basil and Delia's wedding was coming up, so the entire castle was alive with movement. Sarah had been called from Laurel’s side to help due to the staffing shortage. Tina’s voice, shouting orders, echoed down the luxurious hallways of the castle as servants scrambled to put up decorations everywhere. The air was thick with the scent of lilies and roses.The sight of it made her sick. Every newly shined candelabra and polished piece of silverware made her want to run back to her room and avoid the festivities altogether. Basil's attention to this wedding made her and Basil’s wedding looked like a joke. Roses were everywhere on the palace grounds for Delia, yet the only roses in Laura’s wedding had been the four in her bouquet.She supposed that was the difference between a marked mate and a true mate.She stopped at the grand
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 24: The Dress
She had closed the box, put them on her table, and gone to bed without much preamble. In the morning, she called Sam and Lynn to her chambers.“Good Morning, Miss Laurel,” Sam greeted. “How can we help?”“Good Morning. If you could return all of this to His Majesty that would be wonderful.”She gestured to the stack of boxes and the invitation’s envelope on top. Sam and Lynn glanced at each other and winced.“Well…” Lynn started.“I’d be happy to do anything for you, Miss Laurel,” Sam said, giving her a tense smile. “But we would rather be dropped into a den of vampires without a sword than return what the king gave you.”“But—”“No one can refuse the king's kindness.” Lynn shuddered, “Doing so would only make him angry.”Laurel wasn’t sure what to make of it. Why were they all so afraid of him? The common people’s fear was a bit more understandable, but Sam and Lynn had been on the battlefield with him. Surely, they knew him well enough not to fear him like this.With a sigh, she nod
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 25: Kindness
It was the first time anyone in the palace had cared enough to ask why she was crying. This wasn’t the first time she had faced a moment like this, but Basil had never cared about her. His ministers had cared even less and usually went out of their way to embarrass her. Noblewomen often disrespected her without being scolded for it by Basil or anyone who should have been on her side.She had always had to defend herself; thus, Laura never cried because it was useless to cry. Crying was unbecoming of a luna, and no one cared about her feeling anyway. She had to handle every obstacle, every setback, and every difficulty on her own and with all the grace of her station. She knew that and that in the back of her mind, Laura was trying to pull it together, but it had been so long since she’d been Laura.She was Laurel now. Hadn’t she committed to it? Hadn’t she committed to being just a young girl born on the border?Seeing Adolph shouldn’t have made her burst into tears, but it seemed tha
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 26: Reasonable
"Are you rejecting me?"Adolph asked so bluntly, Laurel didn't know how to answer. Then, she nodded her head her face burning with embarrassment. A moment of silence passed and Laurel’s stomach churned with anxiety. Why wasn’t he saying anything? She glanced at his face and found his expression unreadable.“I-I’m…” She tried to calm down and speak clearly. “I’m just an ordinary girl. A girl from the border. I don’t have any business… I don’t deserve to be your partner for such a formal occasion, and--”“If you were an ordinary woman your age, you would have accepted the invitation with joy.”She winced. She couldn’t argue with that. An ordinary girl her age would have tried on the dress and admired herself in the mirror for at least an hour, not packed it up, and tried to return it. If she were just Laurel, she’d have thrown herself at him when they first met and lived happily thereafter without a care in the world, but Laura hadn’t been put to rest; thus, all of her doubts were still
Last Updated : 2022-11-29The Returned Luna Chapter 27: Matching Set
She woke up the day of the wedding and took a deep breath. She didn’t want to go, but she had promised to go with Adolph. She couldn’t back out. Based on the soft light coming through the window, she had woken up very early.She got out of bed and started to prepare everything she needed.Sarah entered the room quietly and stopped in the doorway, shocked. She curtsied politely.“Good morning, Miss Laurel. I’m surprised you woke up so early.”She smiled tensely, “I… figured it would take a while to get up to standard.”Sarah shook her head. “Not at all with your beauty! But there’s nothing wrong with a little extra preparation!”She chattered about the merits of thorough preparation and her happiness was infections.“…beside, Miss Delia deserves to be shown up on her wedding day!”Laurel gasped and looked at her. Sarah flushed with embarrassment.“What… do you mean? You don’t like her?”Sarah’s gaze turned cold with fury. Laurel had never seen her so upset.“That… woman is the reason
Last Updated : 2022-11-29
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The Returned Luna Chapter 174: Jack
His stomach churned but he nodded, walking into the room. Fear filled him, but as he entered the room he started to relax. “You’re so beautiful… you take after your father.”Laurel lay among the sheets, dressed in a loose gown and cradling the baby to her chest.At the distance, he could only see a tuft of honey blonde hair in the swaddling blanket. The wetnurses bowed and stepped aside as he approached. Laurel smiled up at him, “Want to meet him?”“Him?”Laurel beamed at him, “Him… Nimue told me before, but I wanted it to still be a surprise for you.”Another boy. Adolph sunk onto the bed beside her, kissing her cheek before looking down into her arms. He had Laurel’s nose and hair pattern though the coloring was all his. Maybe when he grew up he’d take after his grandfathers, but he wouldn’t be able to tell that for a while.“Can I hold him?”Laurel nodded, offering the child to him. He smelled like fresh water and clean skin as Adolph took him, and held him close. He was so smal
The Returned Luna Chapter 173: Defense and Not
Nimue took a deep calming breath as Basil let out a mournful sob. The air began to warm slowly around them as the path between their world and the afterlife closed. She should have known when her first evocation yielded nothing that Olivia was going to be another troublesome spirit.She hoped Basil would be able to recover and accept the truth in time.“No… mother…” Nimue’s heart twisted with grief as she calmed her powers and Basil’s hand tightened on her ankle. “Why? She… She lifted it.”“She was prepared to sacrifice you,” she said solemnly.“She lifted the curse, Nimue! You didn’t have to!”Nimue looked down at him, “She only did so to save her existence, Basil. That was the test. It wasn’t about remorse towards what she’d done to your father… it was about what she did to you.”His eyes welled with tears as she set her staff aside, allowing it to hover in the air. “She was never your mother.”She kneeled beside Basil, placing a glowing hand near the dagger in his chest as he fell
The Returned Luna Chapter 172: Oblivion
Adolph’s voice was sure and even, but Basil couldn’t believe what he was saying. Didn’t he understand that they had no way of knowing how long that would be? A few months? A few days? His father was the strongest man he knew, but he wasn’t indestructible!“But father—”“You’d let Basil be king?” Olivia scoffed and laughed, “You know he’s not ready. He won’t ever be ready!”The twinge of pain that went through him took his breath away. He pushed it aside. This wasn’t the mother he’d imagined his whole life. He expected his father to say those things, not the woman who died giving birth to him. He winced at the thought. She hadn’t died giving birth to him. She’d died giving birth to a curse. There was no other choice to make.“Nimue, end the séance.”Nimue said nothing. Whether that meant she couldn’t or wasn’t going to, he didn’t know.Adolph shook his head, “Your father tried to make that true, but it’s not. Basil isn’t an idiot. He’s young and inexperienced, but that’s fixable. He h
The Returned Luna Chapter 171: Love and Obsession
Adolph narrowed his eyes down at Olivia. She was just as pretty as she had been before, but he saw the wicked light in her eyes. “Shouldn’t you be greeting our son whom you’ve never met?” Adolph asked. She smiled at him, poisonous and vicious, “I would never put anyone before you dear husband.”“You are dead,” Adolph said, “Speak to Basil.”“… very well.”Olivia turned her head and looked at Basil. Adolph was about to retract his statement at the hopeful look on Basil’s face, but it was too late. “You asked them to kill the man who raised you,” Olivia said, “You asked for the death penalty.”“Mother, they—”“Don’t call me that!” Olivia hissed at him. “All of them. Murdered and for what? What of your loyalty to me?”Basil’s eyes widened, “To you…?”“After what your father did to me?” Olivia said, “What is a bit of money?”“You… You knew?” Basil asked. “But—”“I love your father,” she said, her eyes glimmering with tears. “But… that wasn’t good enough. My love was never good enough f
The Returned Luna Chapter 170: Olivia
Laurel didn’t expect Basil to come quickly, so when the door closed, she was grateful that Nimue made herself a cup of tea and smiled at her. “You were once someone else,” Nimue said. “I am glad that the moon saw fit to bring the white wolf back to us.”Laurel blinked and sat across from her, “You’re… not much like Eden.”Nimue chuckled, “Eden and I have different gifts… He is what we would call an elemental Wiccan. Lightning strikes, fire, flashy shows of power that most associate with real magic. I’m a spiritual mage.”Laurel blinked and made herself a cup of tea, “What… does that mean?”“It means I have a connection to the living and the dead. Hence, I know the body you’re in right now is one you were reborn into. I can only guess how you died, but I assume that Basil knew you in your past life.”Laurel winced, “This… isn’t how I expected this conversation to go.”Nimue shrugged, “You make plans and the spirits laugh, but I’m not concerned about your aura. It’s more than healthy a
The Returned Luna Chapter 169: Mates and Fated Pairs
Adolph watched Basil leave. Nimue winced.“I… would like a moment to speak with my wife,” Adolph said slowly. Nimue nodded, “I’ll… go after him.”She left wincing. That had been a fucking disaster if she’d ever seen one. As she exited the room, she followed the trembling confusion, fear, and anger down the hall and around the corner. The thing about magical compatibility between fated matches was that it worked like a homing beacon. She found him in a parlor sitting on the couch with his head in his hand. He lifted his head and shot to his feet as she entered. “You—You can’t just say things like that!” Basil said, “You can’t just accuse her if you—You’re a healer! How would you know something like that anyway?”Nimue watched him, his shoulders heaving as he held himself still. “I am a healer,” she said. “But I am not just a healer. Sit down and calm yourself.”“Look me in the eye and tell me the truth,” Basil said, glaring at her. “Tell me you know for sure my mother did it. Tell
The Returned Luna Chapter 168: Lady Nimue
Basil had tried to keep his mind focused on the path ahead the next morning, no matter how Nimue’s scent had seemed to take over his senses and make him dizzy with need and desire. She smelled like fresh blooming flowers, fresh earth, and a hint of fresh sweet bread. It was a distracting, comforting, and maddening scent. His wolf growled in contentment and want whenever she grew near, so he took to riding further ahead to try and keep his mind clear. *I hate you*, his wolf huffed and growled. *You and your stupid pride and fear and…**Not now*, Basil thought, stubbornly. *Focus on getting back to the capital, okay?*He huffed, *And your need for distraction instead of facing the truth…*Basil sighed, tuning out his wolf’s whining. This wasn’t the time for thinking about such things. Adolph and Laurel were supposed to be staying at the temple until the baby was born. There was no reason they should have called him back unless the baby was early or something had happened to his father
The Returned Luna Chapter 167: Forgiveness
Taliesin sent the message off with a heavy heart. While his judgment was sound and he knew he wasn’t wrong, the likelihood that it would all go to plan was slim. Curses laid by the dying or the dead were harder to get rid of than living curses and he was not an expert in such dark magics. He had no affinity for creating or breaking them. His late brother and twin, Merlin, had no such limitations, but he had gone into Eternal Repose after his wife, Viviane, had been killed in the war against Morrigan. Merlin could not help them.Taliesin couldn’t blame him. The war had taken so much from all of them and raising the barrier had taxed them both greatly. There was little hope that he would ever wake up, and Taliesin had accepted that centuries ago, focusing on raising Merlin’s daughter as if she were his.“Nimue?” Taliesin called as he returned to the meeting hall. She was seated on the old stone bench, looking up through the canopy of the ancient oak trees that were always in bloom. Hi
The Returned Luna Chapter 166: Cursed Last Moments
Laurel woke up, frozen in terror in bed. The last time she’d had a vision of the moon goddess, she’d been pushed off a cliff. She wasn’t sure if hearing that her husband’s late wife put a curse on him was better or worse. How bad was the curse now? How much longer did they have? Could she break it? If she couldn’t, what would happen to him?Her stomach turned as she turned over to see Adolph sleeping peacefully beside her. The days of his insomnia seemed to have caught up with him all at once. The strain of the days seemed to be gone now as he slept.His scent was just as bloody and lovely as ever, but that blood that she had once found just a bit sexy seemed tainted with danger now. It wasn’t just the scent of someone who had seen a great deal of war, but it was affecting his mind. An alpha werewolf like Adolph could be dangerous if they lost control of their strength. She knew that Adolph was much stronger than the average wolf. Was it anything like going rogue? Would it kill him?
