Page 55 of Return to the Pack

“Are you going to stand there and tell me you don’t know who this is?” she yells.

“I don’t know who that is.”

She whacks my chest with her palms, punctuating each word she speaks. “He. Killed. My father. And he was a pack member—this pack.”

“What?” My gaze ping-pongs between the dead wolf and Luna.

“You had to know,” she says, adding more whacks to my chest. “You weren’t the Alpha eighteen years ago, but you were a member of the pack. You must have been a teenager then.”

“I didn’t know it was him,” I growl. “I only knew there was a fight between two wolves. Your father died and the other was banished, and your mother fled the pack and became a lone wolf.”

Her eyes narrow into slits. “But you knew it was someone from your pack!”

Now she starts pounding on me with her fists. I seize her wrists to stop the assault.

She writhes and squirms, kicking at me in an attempt to get free. She arcs back her head and tries to clock me in the forehead, but my paws stop her.

“I didn’t know they were still alive or that they’d ever return for you. Hell, we didn’t know you existed. Your mother severed the pack bonds and ran away without telling anyone she was pregnant.”

Fat tears slide down her cheeks, breaking my fucking heart.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He was banished,” I say. “It’s not something a pack likes to think about, that we had a cannibal among us. The pack was so ashamed that our alpha at the time ordered us to never speak of it, think of it… By his command, the events were cast from our memories and nearly ceased to exist.”

I lick her face, trying to comfort her.

“But he didn’t cease to exist,” she says with a sniffle. “He came back.”

She shakes her head, knocking lose more tears. “You knew, Axel. You knew.”

“I didn’t know him at the time. He was an older member of the pack, and I was a kid, horrified when I learned of it. I didn’t want you to fear joining the pack for no reason. He’s not in it and hasn’t been since before you were born. But you were so fearful…”

“You didn’t think it was relevant?” she says in a voice laced with pain.

The shards of her words lance my chest. “I was only trying to protect you. The pack can do that. If they hadn’t been here today, you’d be dead.”

“I was never given a chance to choose for myself,” she whispers, her head still shaking back and forth.

“I didn’t know he’d come back,” I assure her. “He was banished, and we never heard from him again. We were ordered to never speak of him or his despicable acts. I’ve only wanted to protect you and keep you safe, have you as my wife and part of my pack.”

“By not telling me the truth,” she says in a dead-sounding voice. Her hands grow limp in my grip, and she meets my gaze with her teary eyes. “I knew nothing of this, of what happened to my father. Mama never told me a thing. All I knew growing up was that belonging to a pack meant belonging to something evil. I’m starting to think she was right. If being part of a pack means being fed lies to keep you safe…”

Panic hammers against my heart. “It doesn’t,” I assure her. “We just got married—all of us. We’re happy now. You can’t leave, Luna. Not now. Not when you could have a baby in your belly like your mama. Please don’t make the mistake she did. I promise I’ll never withhold the truth from you again. You have my word.”

She gives one last shake of her head, shoves me off, jumps to her feet, and races away.

Pain floods me inside, covering my thoughts with a landslide of grief.

As Luna disappears into the brush several yards ahead, I bolt after her. I find her wading into the swamp, her arms hanging limply from her side. I rush forward, pouncing on her, and we flounder into the murky water.

“I trusted you, Axel,” she cries. “And you lied to me! Again!”

We fall back into the shallow water, and she wraps her arms and legs around me to keep herself from the water.

“I know, sweetheart. I know. And I let you down.”

“I gave you my everything. I committed to sharing my life with you,” she says, kicking at my sides with her heels. “I let you in.”