Luna. Chapter 20

(Kael's POV)

I didn't sleep. How could I? Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Lyra's face during the rejection ceremony. The way she'd stood there, dignified even in her pain, while I destroyed everything we'd built together.

By dawn, I was back at the medical center with Felix and Adrian, going through every piece of evidence we could find. If I was going to try to fix this, I needed irrefutable proof of what had really happened.

"Here's something," Felix said, pointing at his laptop screen. "Financial records show Petra received a cash payment of five thousand dollars the day before she stopped coming to work."

"From who?"

"Unknown account. But the timing is suspicious."

"Any idea where she might have gone?"

"I'm working on it. But Alpha..." Felix looked up at me. "Even if we find her, we prove everything, Lyra has been formally exiled. The pack bonds have been severed. Bringing her back would need…"

"I know what it would need" I'd been thinking about it all night. A formal reversal of the exile, approved by the pack council. An admission of wrongdoing. A complete loss of face for me as Alpha.

I didn't care.

My phone buzzed with a text from Seraphina: "Having second thoughts yet? I'm still willing to forgive you."

I deleted the message without responding.

"Alpha," Adrian said carefully, "there's something else you need to consider. If we expose what Seraphina did, it's going to raise questions about your judgment. Some pack members might start wondering how you could be so completely deceived."

"Let them wonder. I was deceived. Completely and thoroughly controlled by someone I trusted." I stood up, decision made. "Call an emergency pack meeting for tonight. Full assembly."

"What are you going to tell them?"

"The truth. All of it."

By evening, word had spread through the pack that something big was happening. The great hall was packed, conversations buzzing with speculation and concern.

I stood at the front of the room, looking out at faces I'd known for years. These people trusted me to lead them, to protect them, to make decisions that kept the pack safe and strong.

And I'd failed them spectacularly.

"Three days ago," I began, my voice carrying clearly through the hall, "I made the worst decision of my life. I rejected and exiled my wife based on lies and manipulation that I was too blind to see through."

The murmur that went through the crowd was immediate and shocked. Beside me, Adrian placed the evidence we'd gathered on a table - printouts of deleted records, financial documents, everything we'd uncovered.

"Lyra was telling the truth about being pregnant. She was telling the truth about everything. And I was too distracted and too easily manipulated to see it."

I explained everything. Seraphina's threats against Dr. Williams. The deleted medical records. The payments to pack members who'd supported false accusations. The systematic corruption of the very systems meant to protect pack members.

When I finished, the hall was silent except for the sound of my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

Finally, Elder Marcus stood up. "Alpha, are you saying that you formally reject your previous decision regarding Lyra Blackwood?"

"I'm saying I was wrong. Completely, utterly wrong." I looked directly at him. "And I'm asking the pack council to reverse the exile and allow me to try to make amends."

"The woman is under the protection of another Alpha now. She's accepted Luna status in Mountain Cross Pack."

"I know. And I don't know if she'll ever want to come back here after what I put her through. But I need to try."

Another council member spoke up: "Alpha, this situation raises serious questions about your judgment and leadership capabilities."

"You're right. It does." I'd expected this. "If the pack wants to call for a leadership review, I'll submit to it. But first, I need to try to fix what I broke."

The debate that followed was heated. Some pack members were supportive, understanding that I'd been manipulated. Others were angry, questioning how their Alpha could be so easily deceived. A few suggested that maybe Lyra was better off without me.

That last group wasn't wrong.

In the end, the council voted to reverse the exile by a narrow margin. Lyra was officially welcome to return to Iron Claw territory if she chose to. But they also voted to initiate a formal review of my leadership, to be conducted over the next three months.

Fair enough.

After the meeting, I found myself standing outside the great hall with Adrian and Felix.

"So what now?" Adrian asked.

"Now I drive to Mountain Cross and try to convince the woman I love to give me another chance."

"And if she says no?"

I thought about Lyra's pain in her eyes. The dignity with which she'd accepted banishment from the only home she'd known since our marriage.

"Then I'll respect her decision and spend the rest of my life regretting what I lost."