Chapter 7\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucas\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guarding Maurine was always supposed to be my mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The moment I found out-accidentally, years ago-that she was the key, the center of a prophecy so ancient even the Moon Priests dared not speak its name aloud-I made my choice. The wrong one. Or maybe the only one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pretending to be Rebecca\u2019s knight had been a calculated move. A shield of deception. If anyone suspected I was getting close to Maurine for reasons beyond love or pack loyalty, they\u2019d target her. And she couldn\u2019t afford to be touched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I used Rebecca.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I told myself it was for the greater good. That my loyalty to Aethon, to the truth, was bigger than her. But there were nights when I caught her watching the moon in silence, scars fresh on her skin, and I felt like a traitor wearing my own skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now? Maurine had what she always wanted-me at her side, no longer just a shadow behind her sister. I had been reassigned. Officially. My oath was hers now. Public. Permanent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I should have felt proud.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, I sat in the war room of the Aethon Pack estate, fingers curled tightly around the edge of the stone table, trying to quiet the riot in my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t look happy,\u201d Maurine said sweetly as she leaned against the table, draping her arms over my shoulders like silk chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am,\u201d I uttered. My voice didn\u2019t tremble, but my heart did. \u201cYou also wanted to be my knight, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She grinned. \u201cI know you want to be beside me, Lucas. No more wasting your time on Rebecca.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She smelled like roses dipped in venom. Sweet, enticing and dangerous. The mark she gave me still burned faintly on my neck. A sign of her claim. And I hadn\u2019t resisted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because I couldn\u2019t afford to. Maurine was the key. She had to be protected. That was the mission. My mission. And also because she was the she-wolf fated to be with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet\u2026something inside me twisted every time she touched me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Later that day, she ordered me to hunt. Not for food. Not for defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, she wanted a hybrid rabbit slave-a poor, half-blood creature she\u2019d seen on the black market register and decided she \u201cmust have.\u201d Her words, not mine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It went against everything I believed in. The wolves of Silvana didn\u2019t traffic in blood games like the Aethon Pack did. But Maurine wasn\u2019t interested in principles. Only in possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need him,\u201d she said, curling her fingers around my wrist. \u201cHe\u2019s cute. Obedient. You\u2019ll do it for me, won\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hesitated a second too long. Her smile faltered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 7\u00a0<\/p>\n
213 11.1%\u00a0<\/p>\n
11:35 Wed, Jan 28 MR\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll get him,\u201d I said, jaw tightening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGood boy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those words shouldn\u2019t have stirred shame in me. But they did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
82\u00a0<\/p>\n
I returned before nightfall, blood drying on my knuckles, with the hybrid safely bound and unconscious. I didn\u2019t speak. I couldn\u2019t look her in the eye when I handed him over to the handlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t sleep. That night, the wind howled across the Aethon cliffs, shaking my windows. I stood shirtless at the balcony, letting the cold tear through me, when I caught the faint shift of\u00a0<\/p>\n
movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then I heard him before I saw him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beta Reid-my most loyal second-stepped out of the shadows like a ghost. His hood was up, moonlight brushing the scar over his left brow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlpha,\u201d he murmured, \u201cI went to Rebecca\u2019s residence first. Thought you\u2019d be there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I stiffened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s moved out,\u201d I said curtly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMoved?\u201d Reid narrowed his eyes. \u201cWhy?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the truth. And I hated that I didn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was no trace of her scent near the estate anymore. No signs of her at the training grounds. No whispers in the pack house halls. It was as if she\u2019d vanished into thin air.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t noticed at first. I just thought she wanted to move to a different house. Too wrapped up in Maurine\u2019s plans. Too focused on serving her, being the perfect knight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now that Reid brought it up-now that the name \u201cRebecca\u201d cut through the walls I\u2019d built- I realized the silence wasn\u2019t just absence. It was\u2026wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned away from Reid and faced the horizon, clenching the railing until the metal groaned. \u201cMaybe she left for good,\u201d I said, but my voice felt hollow. \u201cGood riddance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reid stayed silent. When he left, I shut the door behind him and sat in the darkness. Minutes passed. Then hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tried calling her. The line didn\u2019t even ring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disconnected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No message. No warning. No goodbye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The wolf inside me growled low.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just that she was gone. It was that she didn\u2019t tell me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After everything-after the punishments, the missions, the blood I\u2019d spilled in silence-why did I care?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sank into the chair, cradling my head in my hands. Maurine was the key. I reminded myself\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
11 1%\u00a0<\/p>\n
11:35 Wed, Jan 28 MR\u00a0<\/p>\n
over and over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
81\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was the prophecy. The reason I\u2019d taken this path. Everything I\u2019ve done, every lie I\u2019ve told- it was all for her protection. And yet, as the night dragged on, all I could think about was Rebecca.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her eyes when I told her I needed space. The broken look she tried to hide. The blood on her hands when she walked away from the banquet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the silence she left behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t sleep that night either. By morning, the ache in my chest wasn\u2019t just from guilt. It was from something worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A question I couldn\u2019t afford to ask.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Where did you go, Rebecca?\u00a0<\/p>\n
And why does it feel like I lost something I never deserved to begin with?\u00a0<\/p>\n
11:35 Wed, Jan 28 MR\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lucas\u2019s POV<\/p>\n
When My Alpha Ex-Husband Came Looking for Me by Mark Twain 7 Chapter 7\u00a0 Lucas\u2019s POV\u00a0 Guarding Maurine was always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unclaimed-luna-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}