Chapter 47 – The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert

Filed To Story: The Perfect Luna by Marissa Gilbert

“Ladies,” Ria flashed her pearly whites at them, not knowing what to expect. It could go either way. Some of them were friends. Some were frenemies. And some simply enemies. For one reason or another..

“You‘ve been busy!” Mariyah chuckled.

“And you look gorgeous too,” Ada, one of her frenemies added. Surprisingly, this time she

“Thanks,” Riannon smiled modestly.

“We heard about your project,” said Luna Helena. She was one of the oldest women here and was once her mother’s friend. “It’s very impressive. And we want you to know that we all stand with you on this one.”

“It was about time for such changes,” someone chimed in at the back.

“The times have changed and so must our laws,” Ada took a sip from her glass,

“I told my husband that if he doesn’t support this project with his vote, he won’t get any of this anymore.”

She pointed at her perfect body in a tight yet elegant red dress.

This was probably the friendliest conversation they ever had. Lunas started talking, telling her the stories of how they learned about her project and how much it meant for them. Most of them were mated to their husbands and did not have problems with them. However, they had daughters, sisters and nieces to worry about.

Riannon felt a bit guilty. They praised her too much. And she did all this for the most selfish reasons.

In her past life, she had been thinking about it too. But also, after she got to experience first-hand what it was like to be dumped by a powerful man who owned everything they shared prior.

However, she decided not to think about that. This wasn’t important now. She was adding many clauses to this law with the thought of anything that could happen to a woman in a man’s world. So, she was helping them all. And she chose to concentrate on that part.

They spent the next half an hour talking but soon she heard a loud announcement, recognising Reid’s voice.

“The Alpha Summit is about to start. Please, come and take your place if you are taking part,” he was repeating the words over and over.

So, Ria said goodbye to her friends and left, surprised that they were starting early.

“Wait,” one girl caught up with her and Riannon looked at her questioningly. They didn’t know each other that well, as the girl just recently got her title. However, she heard some stories about her and her mate, who wasn’t the best of Alphas. It did not escape Ria’s eyes that she was wearing a turtleneck dress and too much make-up too, probably covering her many bruisers. and whispered.

“Thank you. If it works, I will be free,” she said, and then stepped away. And without adding anything else, returned to the Lunas’table.

Riannon met Brayden back in the foyer and he was happy to see that she was where she promised him to be. Roxy was not around, meaning that Ash was probably the one taking care of her now.

They walked into the Summit conference room together and, for the first time ever, Ria saw what everything really looked like. A long glassy table that was now filled with dozens of Alphas. Gideon was sitting at the head of the table and

Bray grunted when he noticed this.

Just for a second, Riannon allowed herself to look at her mate. She needed to see the support in his eyes, she needed to feel it. He nodded at her just like he did with everybody else, but his eyes were telling a different story and she knew it.

Everyone was taking their seats and only Brayden and she stood in the same place.

“What is wrong?” she asked him. “The king took my seat,” her husband replied and she shot her brows up.

“That’s actually my seat,” Gideon said in a very relaxed tone, leaning over his chair that was bigger than everybody else’s. “Thanks for warming it up for me.”

“Here are a few empty seats,” one of Brayden’s friends said, gesturing for them to join their group. He looked nervous and Riannon did not like his facial expression. Something was off.

“Why are there so many empty seats?” she tried to distract her husband.

“Sorry, Bray, I need to tell you something urgent,” his Alpha friend interrupted, bending to whisper something in Brayden’s ear. Now, this was a problem. A real one. He then started showing him something in the folder with her law project.

“That’s because foxes and werebears did not come again. The empty seats belong to them,” a woman with sleek black hair next to her purred and Ria looked at her with interest. She was the only other woman in the room today and that made her the Alpha of one of the werecat packs.

“I am Ramina Knight, by the way, the…” the woman started introducing herself.

They had never met before because werecats were the recent addition to their union.

“I know very well who you are,” Ria smiled and wanted to tell the woman how she and squeezed it almost painfully.

“Bray, not now!” Riannon said playfully and loudly to draw the attention of everyone in the room to them, “The Summit is about to start.”

He took his hands off her and immediately she felt how he tried to mind link her.

But she did not let him.

“That’s right,” Gideon growled, hardly being able to hold himself back from tearing the werewolf to pieces for the scene, “Let’s start. We have a few important matters to decide today.”

“But, my king,” someone said, “It’s supposed to be at least one hour before we start. Why are we in such a rush?”

“have places to be,” Gideon cut him off, “Or can you work only at designated hours of the day? No? Then I don’t see the problem since everyone is present.

Let’s start.”

He gestured at Reid, who was sitting next to him, and the Beta stood up.

“As you are all probably already aware, our main problem at the moment is the uprising of foxes and werebears in the East.” He switched on the big screen behind Gideon’s back with a map where the locations of every pack of their union were shown.

“You mean your main problem,” one of the Alphas said with a smirk, “They are attacking your borders, not ours.”

“And what do you think will happen after they are done with us?” Reid asked him.

“Isn’t the whole point of being mighty lycans that no one can destroy you?”

someone chuckled and a few others joined in.

“The point is that they would not be able to destroy us,” Gideon sighed as if he was already tired of all this, “And when they give up on that idea, they would start looking at your packs and your lands. At least six of you have borders with them if I remember correctly. The question is if we will come to your rescue if you don’t fulfil your obligations to the lycans now.”

To that, no one had what to say. Shifter wars were always brutal. Strong men and women were dying and the population was decreasing. Behind their Union were other lands. More werewolves, another lycan kingdom and many other creatures.

None of them were friendly. If they got weaker, everyone would suffer. So, to some extent, they were all trapped in working together.

“Besides that,” Ramina started speaking, “I think the foxes and the werebears mostly

“How would you know that?” Zack Morgan asked.

“Because they approached me to join them,” the woman sneered, “But werecats have no interest in ruining our comfort life with lycans as our allies just to stroke our ego. We do not care about that. It was peaceful since the lycans took us under their wing. We are not ready to lose that.”

They were all processing her words.

“We would of course fulfil all our obligations according to our treaty, king Gideon,”

one of the Alphas said. He was one of Riannon’s father’s old friends.

The room started buzzing as they were discussing to what extent werewolves would be involved. It took them some time and Ria knew that this meeting today wasn’t the end of it. Her mate would have much more work with all of them.

“Anyway,” he cleared his throat when they were done with that topic, “The next matter that we need to look at today is the new Women’s Rights law project by

Luna Riannon Thorn. I guess you have all read it and have your opinion ready for the voting.”

“I have a few adjustments to make,” Brayden raised his hand, throwing a folder in

Gideon’s direction.

He knew everything and Riannon tapped her shoe nervously under the table.

“There are procedures for that,” Gideon pushed the folder back to him, “You can propose adjustments at the next Summit. This time we are voting for this version of the new law since everybody is familiar with that.”

The tension in the room was palpable.

“Shouldn’t we at least discuss it first?” Brayden gritted through his teeth.

“Why?” Alpha Zack Morgan interrupted him, “We were talking about it just yesterday. And you were fully behind it. You assured me and others that everything was fine in that folder since you were the one who did most of the work. I personally believed in your project since you were involved. And I did not find anything wrong inside. So, what is the problem there now? Are you going back on your word?”

It was a masterful trap and Riannon knew that she would be thanking the Alpha for this later. Now Brayden had no choice.

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