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“Of course.” I sit and lift her onto my lap. She settles against my chest, watching everyone around us while I wrap one arm around her.

Luna Selena waits until everyone settles before looking around the gathering. “What do you need from me?”

Several shewolves glance at each other, apparently waiting for someone else to answer first. Luna Selena smiles. “That's a serious question. I'm still learning how to be your Luna, so tell me. What do you need from me?”

“Protection,” an older woman answers.

“To listen,” someone else calls from farther back.

“Someone we can trust,” another shewolf says.

Luna Selena nods slowly. “Okay. What else?”

A young woman raises her hand. “Does it have to be something the whole pack needs? What if it's personal?”

“No. If it's personal and you need me, come to me.” Luna Selena's expression grows more serious as she looks around at all of us. “Actually, I want everyone to understand that. From our youngest pups to our oldest Elders, you can come to me. I don't care if you're a child, teenager, or adult. I don't care if you're an Omega, warrior, Elder, or somewhere in between. Mated or unmated. If you need your Luna, come to me.”

“What if we did something wrong?” a teenage girl asks, and her friend immediately turns toward her.

“What did you do?”

“I didn't say I did anything.”

Laughter moves through the gathering, and Luna Selena grins. “Whatever you definitely didn't or did do, you can still come talk to me.”

The teenager laughs before another woman asks, “What if you're angry with us?”

“Then that's probably a very good time for us to talk.” Luna Selena waits for the laughter to settle. “You don't have to earn the right to ask me for help. If you're frightened, confused, angry, embarrassed, hurt, or you've made a mistake and don't know how to fix it, come to me. If you've done something right and just want somebody to celebrate with you, come tell me that too. I want you to be comfortable coming to me even when the conversation isn't going to be comfortable.”

A woman near the front folds her arms. “Even us?” Something in her voice changes the mood almost immediately. “Some of us weren't exactly kind to you when everyone believed you were human.”

“Kind?” another woman murmurs. “Some of us were horrible to her. Downright diabolical.”

Several shewolves lower their eyes, but Luna Selena doesn't look away from them. “I remember what happened. I lived it. Forgiving you doesn't mean I've forgotten it or that I'm going to pretend it didn't hurt. But I have forgiven you. All of you. You are my pack and I will protect you. All of you.” She pauses before continuing. “I don't want revenge, and I don't want any of you wondering whether every decision I make as Luna is secretly punishment for something you did to me before. I refuse to spend my future trying to hurt people because they hurt me in my past.”

An older woman studies her. “How do you do that? How do you forgive people who made your life miserable?”

Luna Selena is quiet for a moment. “I decided I didn't want what they did to me deciding who I became.”

My arm tightens around Darlene as something shifts inside my chest.

I like her, my wolf murmurs.

“So do I.”

A younger shewolf exhales. “That's easier said than done.”

“Oh, absolutely.” Luna Selena laughs. “Forgiving somebody doesn't mean you wake up the next morning and suddenly nothing hurts anymore. And it doesn't mean you have to trust someone who hasn't earned your trust.”

A teenager near the side raises her hand. “What if you just don't like somebody?”

“Then don't like her.”

The girl's eyebrows shoot up, and several shewolves laugh.

Luna Selena shrugs. “I'm your Luna. I'm not going to order you to become best friends with every woman in Silver Moon. You don't have to like everyone. You don't have to agree with everyone either. But there's a difference between not liking another woman and deciding you need to hurt her.”

“Women hurt each other all the time,” a warrior says. “Especially over men.”