The Banished Shy Luna Chapter 123

The mansion was only a few hundred feet away when the front doors burst open.

Tyson tore through the rain like a storm made flesh, his boots pounding against the stone path. His gray eyes locked on me first — wild and terrified — before I could even call his name.

“Kira!”

He didn’t stop until his arms were around me, crushing me to his chest so hard it almost hurt. I didn’t care. The warmth of his body after that endless cold felt like sunlight I hadn’t earned.

“You’re soaked,” he muttered against my hair, his voice shaking. “And bleeding. Damn it, Moon, you can’t keep doing this—”

He stopped when he saw Toren — and the unconscious Talon on his back.

“Shit,” Tyson breathed, pulling away and rushing to them. “Is he alive?”

“Barely,” Toren said grimly. “But he will be.”

Tyson’s hands hovered over his brother’s face for a second, trembling before he stepped back, jaw tight. The bond pulsed between us — his worry, his rage, his exhaustion — all tangled together like wire.

And then his eyes landed on Douglas.

The look that came over Tyson’s face could’ve started another war.

Before anyone could speak, he stormed across the yard and decked Douglas square in the face.

The crack of the hit echoed through the rain.

Douglas stumbled back, blood streaking from his nose — but he didn’t fall. He straightened slowly, spit blood into the mud, and met Tyson’s glare head-on.

“You don’t touch her,” Tyson snarled, voice rough with fury. “You don’t look at her. You sure as hell don’t kneel in front of her and start calling yourself her damn Gamma—”

“I’m not trying to be her mate,” Douglas snapped back, wiping the blood from his mouth. “I’m trying to protect her.”

Tyson’s chest heaved, his wolf clawing just beneath the surface. “From what? You think she needs a babysitter?”

Douglas growled low, his composure slipping for the first time. “No. I think she’s the future.”

That stopped everyone.

Even the rain seemed to hesitate.

Toren’s golden eyes narrowed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Douglas looked at me then — and for once, there was no Alpha arrogance in his expression. Only a kind of grim respect.

“It means,” he said slowly, “that the Council’s watching her too. And not because they see potential… but because they see a threat.”

Toren’s grip on Talon’s shoulder tightened. “Explain.”

Douglas’s voice went quiet, measured. “One of the council members — an old one — reached out to me. It happened when I was trying to find her the first time. He told me they’ve been keeping tabs on her movements. That they’ve seen what she can do. Her bloodline. Her power. They think she’s dangerous… something that shouldn’t exist.”

I stared at him, heart pounding. “And you believed him?”

“I didn’t want to,” Douglas admitted. “But he wasn’t lying. The Council wants to ‘monitor’ you, Kira. Their exact words were that you should be contained before you can’t be controlled.”

The bond pulsed painfully inside me, like the words themselves had weight.

Talon stirred weakly from Toren’s back, his voice hoarse but sharp. “And how the hell do you know any of this?”

Douglas’s gaze flicked toward him. “Because that council member told me personally. He said it was a warning — that if I was smart, I’d stay out of it. But when I heard what they were planning, I decided I wasn’t going to let them get to her first.”

He took a step forward, the rain catching in his dark hair. “So I came after her. To find her before they did. Not to kill her — to make sure she stayed alive.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Toren’s jaw worked. Tyson looked ready to hit him again.

Douglas continued anyway. “They don’t think you fit into shifter society, Kira. They think you’re too powerful, too unpredictable. That one day, you’ll turn against the system that made you. And they’re not entirely wrong, are they?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

The only sound was the wind through the trees and the low growl building in Tyson’s throat.

“So that’s your excuse?” Tyson demanded. “You want to play hero now? Protect the same woman you were trying to hunt down for Lucas?”

Douglas met his glare, unflinching. “Lucas only ever came to me when he wanted someone taken care of. I’ve killed more people than I can count — for him, for others — and I’m done. I’m tired of it.”

His voice cracked slightly at the end. It was quiet, almost too human for someone like him.

He looked back at me. “You’re not what Lucas said you were, Kira. You’re not a weapon. You’re proof that the Council’s wrong about what power looks like.”

A low murmur rippled through the group of wolves behind him. A few stepped forward, faces tired and hollow.

“He’s right,” one of them said quietly. “We’re tired of following Alpha Lucas. Tired of killing for nothing.”

I turned my head sharply toward the speaker. “Then stop calling him Alpha,” I said coldly. “He lost that title. Elder Thora stripped him of it.”

Douglas froze. “What?”

I nodded once. “You didn’t know?”

He shook his head slowly, confusion flickering into disbelief. “Lucas told me he was still in charge. That you were trying to overthrow him. That you’d gone rogue.”

Toren actually laughed — a low, rough sound that almost sounded like relief. “No wonder you showed up swinging. You were working off a lie.”

Douglas’s jaw tightened. “Apparently.”

Tyson wiped the rain from his face, still seething. “So what now, Douglas? You expecting a thank-you?”

“No.” Douglas’s voice was quiet again. “I expect a chance to prove that I meant what I said.”

Toren adjusted Talon on his back, glancing toward me. His tone softened — but only slightly. “We’re not doing this in the rain. Let’s get inside before someone passes out or kills someone else.”

I sighed, rubbing my temples. “Yeah. A civil conversation sounds nice for once.”

Tyson snorted. “Not sure we’re built for those.”

“Then fake it,” I said tiredly, turning toward the door.

As we moved toward the estate, Douglas fell into step behind me. His pack followed close, silent and watchful. The rain eased to a soft drizzle.

But even as we crossed the threshold, I could feel it — the shift in the air, the storm still coiling inside the house before it even began.

Because whatever Douglas had just revealed, whatever the Council thought they knew about me…

It was only the beginning.