Chapter 28

Kaiya

I stop dead just before Bowden enters the common gardens. Everywhere I look there are Lycans sitting at the round picnic tables with their mates, four or six of them to a table.

Here and there I notice unmated Lycans, but they band together, sitting away from the couples without separating themselves from the rest of the group. Bowden frowns and turns back to me. “What’s wrong?”

“There are so many people,” I whisper.

If the Lycans can hear me, they’re pretending that they can’t. “This is our pack,” Bowden says and takes my hands. “You are their queen…uhm…their Luna. This is where you belong. It’ll be fine.”

I grip Bowden’s hand and straighten my back, remembering how my mother used to walk through the tables when we had pack gatherings. She was always so proud and confident. I don’t know why, but I thought Lycans were different – solitary animals, unlike werewolves that need the companionship and protection of a pack.

As soon as we enter the gardens, the Lycans and their ma