The Luna You Betrayed Is No Longer Yours

_Alaric’s POV_

The tracker Kasper planted on one of Kyle’s old accounts finally pinged just before dawn. It was a withdrawal, a small one but real, from an ATM two miles from the same fairground. He was circling back. Either he was too arrogant to leave the area, or too desperate.

"He’s returning to the fun house," Kasper said, showing me the map. "Might be retrieving something he left behind. Money, weapons, records."

"Get a team together," I said. "Small and fast ones. I don’t want him bolting before we get there."

Pierre was already pulling on his jacket. "I’m coming."

"Pierre—"

"I’m coming, Alpha." His voice left no room for argument. I understood. If it were me, if Rowena had been the one lying half-dead in a hospital bed because of someone, I wouldn’t have stayed behind either.

We moved out with six of our best fighters, cutting through the forest the same way Rowena had run through it hours earlier. The fun house came into view through the trees, the broken door was still hanging open from where she’d forced her way out.

Kyle was inside, crouched near a floorboard, pulling out a bag stuffed with cash and papers. I think he heard us coming before he saw us and bolted for the back exit.

"He’s running!” Kasper shouted.

Pierre was faster than any of us. He caught Kyle before he’d made it twenty feet, tackling him hard into the dirt outside the structure. The bag flew from Kyle’s hands, papers scattering into the grass.

"Get off me," Kyle snarled, thrashing under him.

Pierre didn’t get off him. He flipped Kyle onto his back and slammed his fist into his face, once, twice, a third time, each hit landing with a sound that made my own jaw ache just hearing it.

"You poisoned her," Pierre growled, his alpha aura flaring as he shook with rage. "You put your hands on a pregnant woman. And Ezekiel...." His voice broke at that part. "Ezekiel is lying in a hospital bed because of what you did. He might not wake up. Do you understand that? He might not wake up, and it’s because of you."

Kyle spat blood onto the ground and laughed, which only made Pierre hit him again.

"Pierre," I called out. "That’s enough."

"He deserves worse."

"I know he does. But we need him alive and able to talk." I put a hand on Pierre’s shoulder. "Ezekiel needs you whole when he wakes up. Don’t let this man take anything else from either of you."

Pierre’s fists were still clenched, his whole body shaking, but he finally stood, stepping back from Kyle’s bloodied, sobbing form.

"You’re going to live long enough to face judgment," Pierre said, looking down at him. "Every single thing you did. You’re going to answer for all of it, in front of everyone."

We dragged Kyle back to the pack house in chains that burned against his wrists, silver laced and strong enough to keep even an angry wolf subdued. By the time we reached the interrogation room, the sun was fully up, and I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t leaving this room until I had answers.

Kyle sat across the table from me, his face swollen, one eye nearly shut. He looked at me with something that might have been hatred, or might have just been exhaustion.

"Start talking," I said.

But he said nothing and ignored me.

"You worked for someone," I pointed out, going straight to the point. "The money moving through your accounts wasn’t yours to begin with. Someone financed all of this. The properties, the fake identities, the patience it took to plan something this long. Who was that?”

Still nothing.

"I can make this easy or difficult," I said. "Your choice entirely."

Kyle finally smiled, blood staining his teeth. "You think I’m afraid of you?”

"I think you should be."

He leaned back as far as the chains allowed. "Fine. You want a name? Drake."

I remained quiet, we already knew he worked for Drake. It wasn’t new information.

"Drake," I repeated.

"I worked for him," Kyle said. "Have for over a year. His father wanted to take over Ashthorne property. Now it’s Drake who wants it. I was supposed to weaken Rowena and you from the inside, break her, break your pack’s trust in her, until she were vulnerable enough to fall."

"Where is he?”

Kyle laughed again, but this time it sounded less certain. "You think he tells his tools where he sleeps?"

"You have contact methods," I said. "Dead drops, coded messages, something. Give it to us."

For the first time, Kyle hesitated. Whatever loyalty he had left for Drake clearly wasn’t enough to survive what he’d already been through tonight. He gave up a location, a courier route, a name Kasper immediately wrote down and passed to Gideon standing behind him.

"Start tracing it," I said. "Now."

Gideon left the room fast, already speaking into his phone.

I turned back to Kyle. "Now tell me about Brielle. She clearly wasn’t pregnant, so why did you lie? Does she work with you?”

Something shifted in his expression, and the smile that came back was worse than anything before it, cruel and satisfied.

"That one was mine," he said. "Not Drake’s idea. But mine."

"Explain."

"She was never pregnant, as you know...." he said. "I fabricated the whole thing, forged the results, made sure the elders and everyone else believed everything of it. Of course except Rowena, she’s the smartest.” Kyle chuckled. “Even Brielle was shocked herself.”

My hands curled into fists on the table. "Why?”

"Because I needed you married to her," Kyle said, and the laugh that followed made my anger boil. "Once you belonged to Brielle, Rowena would have been free and available. There will be no mate bond standing in my way anymore." His eyes gleamed. "I wanted her, Alaric. I wanted to make her mine, and make her pay for everything. I wanted her broken and desperate with nowhere left to turn, and a fake wedding was the easiest way to get there."

The room went red instantly. I was around the table before I fully decided to move, my hand fisted in his shirt, dragging him up out of the chair despite the chains holding him down.

"You planned to torture her?” I asked, my voice barely recognizable to my own ears. "You poisoned her. You would have killed our child without even knowing he existed, all so you could get your hands on her."

"I knew the child existed, I was the one who told her. Also, I changed plans of wanting to torture her after I found out about the pregnancy. I just wanted to finish her off.” Kyle said, blood dripping from his grin. "Almost worked too."

I wanted to end this man right here, every instinct in me screamed for it, my claws already lengthening against my will, my control slipping in a way it never had before.

Kasper’s hand landed on my arm. "Alpha. He’s more useful alive. For now."

I forced myself to let go, shoving Kyle back into the chair hard enough that it scraped against the floor. I stood there, breathing hard, staring at the man who had planned to destroy everything I loved out of nothing but obsession and cruelty.

"You’ll get your judgment," I said, my voice sounded less human now. "In front of the whole pack. And when it’s over, you’re going to wish Pierre had finished you in that forest."