He Booked Me a Bunk With the Rogues

On a full moon, every wolf has to be inside a registered shelter before moonrise. That's pack law.

So when my husband's leave finally lined up with a moon, I spent six months and eighty thousand dollars booking his whole family into a top-tier sanctuary on Silverspine Ridge. Then his first love decided she wanted to come.

Instead of telling her no, he gave her my registered bed — and sent me a queue number for the state shelter, a thirty-six-hour line for a bunk in an open ward full of rogues. I looked at his parents, his sister, waiting for one of them to object. Every single one of them took his side.

So fine. I drove the other way, and spent the next three full moons enjoying myself — alone. That's when the whole family started to panic...

Most months, our family just used a mid-range shelter downtown. But this month, my husband Lucian finally got a week off from enforcement duty, and it landed right on a full moon. So I decided to do it properly.

I spent six months on it. Routes, permits, meals, all of it. Nobody else lifted a finger.

The big piece was the shelter. Silverspine Ridge has three top-tier sanctuaries, and beds sell out months ahead. I paid eighty thousand dollars for a family suite — heated rooms, reinforced walls, staff trained for moon nights.

Then Junie, my fifteen-year-old sister-in-law, mentioned she'd never ridden a private escort convoy. So I pulled another twenty grand out of my own savings and upgraded the whole family.

Fine. Money isn't my problem. I just wanted everyone happy.

Two days before we left, Lucian came over offhandedly.

"Celeste heard about Silverspine. She's coming with us. The convoy and the sanctuary are both full, so I gave her your seat and your bed. I already got you a place in line at the state shelter. Check your phone."

A screenshot landed on my screen. A queue number.

"You gave away my bed? On a full moon?"

"She wanted to come. Of course I'm bringing her."

"Every bed on that mountain sold out months ago, Lucian. This close to the moon, the city's full too. You know that."

"That's why I got your queue number early. You're welcome."

I stared at him. "When my sister asked to come along, what did you say? Family only. No outside wolves. Nola asks once and gets a no. Celeste asks once and you cancel my registration?"

"Nola's not the same. Cece grew up running these woods with me. She is family."

Five years we'd been married, and he'd never marked me. Waiting for the perfect moon, he always said. But my shelter registration, he'd rewritten in one afternoon.

I looked at the screenshot again. The state shelter at the bottom of the ridge. Open ward. First come, first served. Estimated wait: thirty-six hours.

"So Celeste gets my heated room, and I stand in line for a day and a half to shift in a ward full of rogues."

"You've got the strongest blood in this family. One night in the ward won't kill you. And didn't you always say you wanted to see how ordinary wolves get through a moon? Here's your chance."

I looked at his parents. His father turned his face to the window.

His mother came over, voice all soft. "Calla, honey, Cece and Lucian grew up together. They'll be talking the whole ride up, you know how they are. Put up with it this once. We'll all meet at the top."

Junie didn't even look up from her phone. "Cece's blood is delicate. She wouldn't last an hour in an open ward. You? You'd scare the rogues off just standing there."

I actually laughed. "Listen to yourselves. You'd think Celeste was the one who married into this family!"

Lucian's face went hard. "It's one night in the ward. Stop making it a thing. My parents watched Cece grow up. We're not sending her in there alone. Be the bigger person for once."

Then the doorbell rang, and Junie shot off the couch.

"Cece!"

In five years, she has never once called me anything but Calla.

Celeste walked in behind two huge suitcases, and Junie hauled them through the door like a bellhop.

"I missed you so much! You should never have gone abroad. You could've married my brother and we'd be real family!"

His mother took Celeste's hands in both of hers.

"I always thought you'd be the one marrying my son. In my heart, nobody ever measured up to you."

She said it right in front of me. Didn't even lower her voice.

That was the moment my heart went cold to every last one of them.