Luna. Chapter 17

(Kael's POV)

I stared at the phone on my desk, Dr. Williams' words echoing in my head. Four and a half months pregnant. Definitely pregnant.

I was going to be a father.

And I'd thrown away the mother of my child because I'd been too blind to see past Seraphina's manipulation.

A knock on my door interrupted my blamed. "Come in."

Adrian entered, followed by Felix, our head of security. Both looked grim.

"We have a problem," Adrian said without preamble.

"What now?"

"Felix found something you need to see." Adrian nodded at the security chief.

Felix stepped forward, holding a tablet. "I've been reviewing the medical center's digital logs since you asked about the records deletion."

"And?"

"Someone accessed Dr. Williams' system three days ago. Someone with administrative privileges who knew exactly what they were looking for." Felix showed me the screen. "They deleted all traces of Luna Lyra's appointments and medical records."

My blood ran cold. "Who?"

"The access came from within the packhouse. Someone who had the medical center's master passwords." Felix's expression was carefully neutral. "There are only five people with that level of access."

"Who?"

"You, me, Adrian, Dr. Williams herself, and..." Felix hesitated.

"And?"

"And anyone you might have given your access codes to."

The implication hit me like a sledgehammer. "Seraphina."

"We can't prove that," Adrian said quickly. "But the access logs show someone used your credentials at a time when you were in meetings all day."

"Which means either someone hacked my account, or someone I trusted used my passwords." I stood up, pacing to the window. "Seraphina stayed in my office several times while I was out. She could have seen me enter the codes."

"That's still not proof," Felix warned. "But it's suggestive."

"There's more," Adrian said grimly. "I've been checking into Seraphina's story about being held captive by Shadow Den pack."

"What about it?"

"Shadow Den pack was disbanded two years ago. The Alpha died in a car accident, most of the members scattered to other packs or went rogue." Adrian handed me a file. "There's no way she could have been held captive by them for three years."

I stared at the documents, my hands shaking slightly. "Then where has she been?"

"That's what we need to find out." Adrian moved closer. "Kael, I think someone has been playing a very long game here. Someone who wanted Lyra out of the picture permanently."

"But why? What would Seraphina gain from destroying my marriage?"

"You," Felix said simply. "She gets you back, gets Luna status, gets everything she walked away from three years ago."

"She didn't walk away. She disappeared. I thought she was dead."

"Did she disappear?" Adrian asked quietly. "Or did she leave? And when she decided she wanted to come back, did she need a way to get rid of the woman who'd taken her place?"

The pieces were falling into place, creating a picture so ugly I wanted to deny it. But the evidence was mounting.

"We need to investigate this properly," I said finally. "Quietly. If Seraphina is manipulating everything, I need to know the full extent before we confront her."

"And Lyra?" Adrian asked.

"What about her?"

"Are you going to tell her what we've discovered? Are you going to try to fix this?"

I thought about Lyra, probably settling into her new life at Mountain Cross. Probably hating me. Probably never wanting to see me again.

"I don't know if it can be fixed," I admitted. "I rejected her publicly. Accused her of lying about being pregnant with my child. Called her manipulative and dishonest in front of the entire pack."

"But you were being manipulated yourself," Felix pointed out. "If Seraphina engineered all of this—"

"That doesn't excuse what I did." I slumped back into my chair. "I should have trusted Lyra. I should have believed my wife over someone who'd been gone for three years. I should have scented the pregnancy myself instead of relying on deleted medical records."

"You made mistakes," Adrian agreed. "But they were mistakes based on false information and emotional manipulation. That doesn't make you unforgivable."

"Doesn't it?" I laughed bitterly. "Tell me, Adrian, if someone publicly humiliated and rejected you based on lies, would you be quick to forgive them?"

"Maybe not. But I'd want to hear the truth. I'd want to know that the person I loved had been deceived, not that they'd genuinely believed the worst about me."

"She's under Magnus's protection now. For all we know, she's already accepted him as her mate."

"There's only one way to find out," Felix said. "You could go ask her."

The thought of seeing Lyra again, of looking into her eyes and trying to explain how thoroughly I'd failed her, made my chest tight with anxiety. But the thought of not trying, of letting her disappear from my life without even attempting to make amends, was worse.

"First, I want the full truth about Seraphina," I decided. "If we're going to expose her manipulation, I want irrefutable proof. I want to know exactly what she did and how she did it."

"And then?"

"Then I'm going to Mountain Cross to grovel at the feet of the woman I should never have doubted." I stood up, feeling more determined than I had since this whole nightmare began. "And I'm going to pray that she's willing to listen."

As Adrian and Felix left to begin their investigation, I remained at the window, staring toward Mountain Cross territory. Somewhere out there, Lyra was carrying my child and probably hating me with every fiber of her being.

But maybe, if I could prove that I'd been manipulated, if I could show her that my actions came from deception rather than genuine doubt...

Maybe there was still hope.