Tara’s POV
My life suddenly seemed so perfect, on the surface. I had a wardrobe filled with more beautiful clothes than I would likely ever have occasion to wear. I had an energetic lover at night. A glorious palace to live in, filled with luxuries and ease. And soon I’d have the title of Queen Luna, and I’d have my pups returned to me (for most of the year).
And yet I felt like I was nothing more than a performing monkey, forced to dance to the music of the organ grinder. Everything I did must be done in just the right way, or the underlying threat was there that I could have everything taken from me just as quickly as I had gotten everything. So it was all an illusion. Nothing was truly mine.
The only thing that sustained me throughout the day of the Queen Luna ceremony, whic
