The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 544

Chapter 544

Ellie’s POV

The guards were still standing in their ring around the guests, exactly where I’d left them, looking like they’d just spent the night wrangling a herd of sugar-crazed toddlers. Their heads all turned at once when Dominic and I made our way across the lawn.

“Alpha-Luna!” one shouted. “You’re both covered in-”

“Check the perimeter,” Dominic cut him off. “Nobody comes onto this property and nobody leaves it. Then find me every bottle, every glass, every tray, and don’t let anyone touch them.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

We started with his Beta, because he was closest, and because he was still standing at rigid attention in front of the dessert table like a soldier guarding a vault.

“No one,” he informed us gravely, “touches the cake.”

“Open your mouth,” I said.

He did, rather obediently, too. I put half a leaf on his tongue and told him to chew, and he chewed with his eyes closed and an expression of tremendous concentration, and then he swallowed.

Eleven seconds passed. Eventually, his face went from stoic certainty to confusion, then to horror.

“Alpha,” he croaked. “Alpha, I-the cake-”

“Later.” Dominic clapped him on the shoulder. “Gate. Now. Go.”

Dominic and I split up after that. Some of the guests had to be wrangled and force-fed the leaves by guards. Others took them without hesitation, like a small part of them knew that something was wrong.

The gates opened around ten. Hanna and her healers arrived, eyes going wide when they saw the wreckage.

“Ellie. What in the Goddess’s name-”

“Some kind of hallucinogen,” I replied. “Someone spiked the champagne.”

“No shit.” Hanna looked around slowly, then gestured to her healers, who took off running in various directions with their medical kits in tow. “How did you get it under control?” she asked, looking at me.

I held out the remaining Dawn Root leaves and smiled. Hanna’s eyes went even wider. “Is that…”

“Don’t ask,” I said, pressing some into her hand. She nodded and got to work.

I found Lucas exactly where I’d left him. He was slumped sideways in his chair with his elbow on the table and his chin in his palm, half a plate of food in front of him and most of the other half down his shirt. He’d come around on his own a little; his eyes tracked me when I sat down beside him.

“Hey,” I said.

“Don’t.” He shut his eyes. “Ellie, don’t-Goddess, that stuff I said-”

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Chapter 544

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“It’s fine,” I assured him. I took the napkin out of his lap, wet it in somebody’s abandoned water glass, and started cleaning off his cheek. He let me.

“But it’s not fine. Ellie, I don’t want to disrespect what you have with Dominic. I’ve tried so hard to put that behind me,”

“Lucas.” I gave my friend a look. “Save it for daylight, maybe?”

He nodded, throat bobbing, and fell quiet after that-perhaps too tired to argue further.

Bastian found me by the dessert table an hour later, sober, furious, and holding a champagne flute by the stem with a napkin wrapped around his fingers.

“Nobody’s washed anything,” he said, setting the glass down. “Where’s Dominic?”

“Getting his ribs wrapped, I think.”

“What? Why?”

“Long story,” Dominic grunted. He came limping toward us, clutching his side with one hand.

We made our way over to the drinks station, the scene of the crime. It was set up behind the dessert table under a canopy. Bastian went through the crates underneath the tables containing the spare bottles while I scanned the grass and Dominic inspected each and every cup, dish, and punch bowl with a fine-tooth comb.

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