Page 110 of Moon Kissed

“I gave her eight million dollars to fuck off to France and she took the money so fast, she broke my finger snatching the debit card from me.”

More silence.

“What? You don’t believe me? I’m sure your informants were recording the whole thing. They can send you the video.”

Sunella cut through the bullshit. “You released the video. Why? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? It’s already been watched six million times!”

“I was forced to release the video. You must’ve seen that too. Lucia knew I would never under any circumstances give up my protection, so when they forced me to call her and demand the video be deleted, that was pretty much all the info she needed to know I was in trouble,” I said. “I toldhimthat. I warned him! He knew trying to mess with or trick Lucia would result in the video going wide, but he did it anyway. I never wanted it to come to this.”

“Him?” she pounced. “Who ishim?”

“I—I can’t say.” I got choked up. “He’d be so angry if I—I can only say he’s one of my fates and— His power over me is just too strong. I can’t go against him!”

“I fucking hate your ass.”

I bit down hard on a laugh.

“I see. And what about these changes that the academy has undergone?” she asked. “Is thishisdoing too?”

“The truth?”

“What do you think!” she barked.

I laughed. “Fair enough. Here’s the truth: A few months ago, Luame sent me a vision.”

“What? A vision? That’s not possible.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You know it is.”

“But no high priestess is known to have had visions for hundreds of years,” she cried. “Why you? Why now?”

“No other high priestess is known to have more than one fate for hundreds of years either. Haven’t we established that I’m special?”

I could practically feel the woman despising me from the other end. “All right, let’s say I believe you—”

“Excuse me?” I sliced in, chill entering my voice. “Do you truly think I would dare to claim a false vision in Luame’s name? Do you think Luame so weak that she’d let me? How dare you.”

“No! No, of course not.” Sunella lost her haughtiness fast. “Of course you would never claim false witness in Luame’s name, High Priestess. Forgive me.”

“Try it again.”

I heard her inhaled a deep, gusty breath. “What was the vision our moon goddess sent you, High Priestess?”

“She sent me a vision of an equal society. Shifter wolves living free and thriving on the happiness of choosing their own path in life,” I said. “It’s why I came back even though I had no reason to. It’s why I enrolled in the academy. In my heart, I know this is where Luame wants her great work to begin.”

“I see.” There was shuffling on the phone, and then she hissed at someone, “Get the other councilmembers on the phone. Now!

“And what does this great work entail?” she asked, returning to our conversation.

“Nothing drastic or that would concern the council. I’ve simply done away with the tracks and mixed the students—”

“Excuse me!”

“—and that whole ‘approved job list’ thing is done with. Students can now take whatever courses they want, and apply for whichever jobs they want.”

“But, High Priestess!” Sunella was trying not to scream, and was failing. “You cannot make these changes.”

“I must make these changes. Luame demands it.”

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