The Banished Shy Luna Chapter 6

“I—” The word cracked in my throat. My fingers dug into the edge of my skirt until the fabric bit my palms. “It was nothing. Just… an accident.”

Alpha Lucas didn’t move, but the weight of his stare pinned me to the floor. He leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on the desk, his broad frame filling the space between us. His eyes never left mine. “An accident doesn’t leave the kind of healing aura you carry.” His voice dropped, dark and low, coiling around me like smoke. “Who hurt you, girl?”

Panic flared hot in my chest. My father’s glare seared the side of my face, sharper than any blade. I didn’t have to look at him to know what his eyes promised. If I spoke, if I even hinted at the truth, I would pay the price later.

My heart thundered. My tongue turned heavy. Every instinct screamed to stay silent.

“I’m fine,” I whispered, forcing the lie past lips that trembled. “It doesn’t matter.”

Lucas’s jaw flexed. His nostrils flared as though scenting the lie, pulling it from the air. The atmosphere shifted, thickening until it felt like my lungs had been stuffed with smoke. My pulse stuttered, struggling to keep pace beneath the suffocating weight of his focus.

My father stepped forward, desperate, sharp. “She exaggerates, Alpha. Kira has always been dramatic. If she was hurt, it was minor—”

“Minor?” Lucas’s voice cracked like a whip. The desk groaned under his sudden grip. “Minor injuries do not require a wolf to force her body to mend bones and knit flesh. That kind of healing takes will. Desperation. Exactly what I sense on her now.”

The thunder of his words left no space to breathe.

From the doorframe, Darin chuckled low, his smirk deepening. He wasn’t surprised. He knew. He had always known.

I swallowed hard, nails digging into my palms until they left crescents in my skin. “I can handle it,” I whispered, though my voice shook. It was the only defense I had.

For a long moment, Lucas only studied me. His eyes were unreadable, dark as shadowed glass. Yet beneath the steel I saw something else flicker—something that made the back of my neck prickle. Hunger. Interest. Possession.

Then, slowly, he leaned back in his chair. The shift didn’t release me. If anything, it made the invisible tether between us draw tighter.

“Perhaps you can,” he murmured.

The words coiled around me, thick as smoke, heavy as chains. My chest ached with the strain of holding his gaze.

My father bowed quickly, seizing the chance to end the moment. “We will ensure it does not happen again, Alpha. I take full responsibility.”

But Lucas wasn’t listening to him. His focus hadn’t left me. His stare pressed into me, relentless, like a brand scorching its mark. A warning—or a promise.

“You should learn to choose your battles carefully,” he said, his voice quiet but edged with steel. His gaze dropped lower, as though stripping away every lie I tried to weave around myself. “And your secrets.”

My mouth went dry. I wanted to deny it, wanted to insist I had no secrets. But the hunger in his eyes made my throat close tight. He would see through the lie before it even formed.

“I…” My voice faltered, thin as thread. “I only did what I had to do.”

The corner of his mouth curved, but it wasn’t a smile. It was a predator’s acknowledgment, sharp and knowing. “Necessity,” he said softly, “can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Especially if others discover how much strength it takes to do what you did.”

Darin chuckled again, low and mocking. “She’s more than she looks, Alpha. I told you.”

My father’s head snapped toward him, his eyes narrowing, voice sharp with desperation. “Enough.”

The two men bristled, but Lucas’s focus remained on me, his voice smooth and unyielding. “Tell me, Kira. Who broke you badly enough that you were forced to heal yourself?”

Images crashed into me—Lyra’s smirk, Callie’s fists, Rina’s nails tearing skin. The sting of humiliation. The ache of bones forced back into place by sheer will. But if I spoke, if I gave him their names, the punishment waiting at home would make their beatings look merciful.

“No one,” I whispered, choking on the lie.

The silence stretched. Lucas’s nostrils flared, his jaw tightening as if he could taste the falsehood in the air. The tension grew thick enough to choke. My father’s hand twitched at his side, ready to strike me down if I slipped.

But Lucas didn’t lash out. He leaned back, the chair groaning under his weight, a growl rumbling low in his chest. “So be it. If you wish to suffer in silence, then silence will be your shield.” His eyes narrowed, gleaming with something sharp and unreadable. “For now.”

The finality in his words struck like a blow. For now. A sentence. A reprieve. A threat.

My father bowed again, eager to seize on the Alpha’s decision. “You have my word, Alpha, it will not happen again. I will see to it personally.”

Lucas didn’t answer. His gaze still lingered on me, deliberate, slow, stripping me bare until my skin prickled with heat.

Finally, with a flick of his hand, he dismissed me. “Go.”

I bowed stiffly, my body trembling as though my bones had turned to glass. Turning on shaking legs, I moved toward the door, clutching the empty edge of my skirt as though it could keep me from shattering.

As I passed Darin, his breath brushed my ear. “I meant what I said about the pantry,” he whispered, his voice low, taunting, venom sweetened with threat.

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. My legs carried me out of the office, down the hall, my heart hammering with every step.

Because I wasn’t invisible anymore.

Not to Darin.

Not to my father.

And not to Alpha Lucas, whose eyes still burned into my back even long after the door closed.