Chapter Thirty- I Am Your Luna

Aria’s POV

“I said stand down!”

Kael’s command thundered across the training ground.

For a moment, neither Selena nor I moved.

My silver wolf stood wanted to attack, every muscle tense beneath her gleaming coat. Selena’s dark gray wolf faced me with her teeth bared, her eyes burning with a challenge she had been foolish enough to issue in front of the entire pack.

I had never been one to back down from a fight and I certainly wasn’t going to start now.

But before either of us could make another move, Selena’s ears flattened against her head. She lowered her gaze, then stepped back.

Her wolf disappeared beneath a shimmer of shifting flesh and bone. A second later, Selena stood naked on the training ground, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to steady her breathing.

Someone hurried forward with a cloak, which she snatched and wrapped around herself.

“Alpha,” she said, bowing her head. “I apologize.”

Kael stood between us, his expression so cold that even the warriors nearest him seemed reluctant to breathe.

“Look at me, Selena.”

She hesitated before lifting her eyes.

“You challenged the Luna of Ironcrest on her own training ground,” he said. “You disrespected her authority in front of the warriors you claim to lead by example. And you did it after she had already shown you more patience than you deserved.”

Selena swallowed. “I didn’t mean to disrespect the Luna. I only wanted….”

“I don’t care what you wanted.” His voice cut through her explanation.

“You may be one of the finest fighters in this pack, but your skills do not place you above its laws. You are a warrior. She is your Luna.”

Selena’s jaw tightened, but she lowered her head again. “Yes, Alpha.”

Kael stepped closer.

“Never challenge the Luna again. Not in public, not in private, and not under the pretense of a friendly fight. If you have a problem with her, you bring it to me through the proper channels. You do not attempt to undermine her authority.”

The words should have satisfied me.

They should have reassured me that Kael understood exactly what Selena had done.

Instead, the sight of him standing there, speaking to a woman who had apparently once been considered his future wife, made something bitter twist inside my chest.

Because Selena hadn’t simply challenged me, she had looked me in the eye and told me that my return had ruined her future and I couldn’t stop wondering how much of that statement was true.

“I understand, Alpha,” Selena murmured.

“Good. Now go.” He urged her.

She bowed again. As she turned away, her gaze briefly met mine.

There was no apology in her eyes, only resentment.

She might have lowered her head to Kael, but she hadn’t accepted me as her Luna and that was a problem I intended to deal with.

Just not here, and not in front of the entire pack.

I turned away before my anger could push me into doing something I might regret.

The warriors immediately moved aside as I passed. Some lowered their heads respectfully. Others pretended to be occupied with their training, although I could feel their attention following me.

I hated it. I hated that a woman who had spent years training to become a warrior could look at me and see nothing more than a runaway who had returned to claim a title she hadn’t earned.

I hated that my past still had the power to follow me into places where I was supposed to feel at home.

Most of all, I hated that Selena’s words had found a place in my mind where I couldn’t easily dismiss them.

Kael had wanted me to stay and he had waited for me. But what had happened during the months I was gone?

Had he truly been alone, as I had assumed? Or had there been another woman standing beside him, someone the pack had already accepted as its future Luna?

Someone who had been waiting for him, just as he had supposedly waited for me?

My wolf growled because I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

I shifted before I reached the edge of the training ground. My clothes fell to the earth as my silver wolf emerged, her anger pulsing beneath my skin.

Then I ran and didn’t look back.

I could hear Kael calling my name behind me.

“Aria!”

I ran faster. The familiar scent of the packhouse reached me as I crossed the courtyard. I darted past the guards at the entrance, ignoring their startled expressions, and raced up the stairs toward our bedroom.

My wolf wanted to run until the wind swallowed every thought in my head but I wasn’t going to run away from this, not again.

I reached our bedroom, shifted back, and hurried inside. I barely had time to pull on the robe hanging beside the wardrobe before the door opened behind me.

“Aria.” Kael’s voice was close.

I tied the robe around my waist and turned to face him.

“Don’t.”

He stopped. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t stand there looking at me as though you have no idea why I’m angry.”

His gaze moved over my face, taking in the tension in my jaw and the way my hands curled into fists at my sides.

“I know why you’re angry.”

“Do you?” I gave a dry laugh. “Then tell me who Selena is.”

His expression changed slightly. It was subtle, but I caught it.

A brief tightening around his eyes. A pause that lasted just long enough to make my stomach twist.

I laughed without humor.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re going to pretend you don’t understand the question.”

“I’m not pretending anything.” He frowned.

“Then answer me.” I took a step toward him. “Who is she, Kael? And what exactly was supposed to happen between the two of you before I returned?”

He closed the bedroom door behind him.

“Selena is one of our strongest warriors. She’s been training with the pack since she was young, and she’s earned her position through hard work.”

“That explains who she is to the pack. It doesn’t explain who she is to you.” I snapped.

He exhaled slowly. “Aria….”

“No.” I shook my head. “You don’t get to use that tone with me. Not when your warrior has just stood in front of an entire training ground and announced that I ruined her chance to marry you.”

His jaw tightened. “She shouldn’t have said that.”

“But did she lie?” I raised a brow.

The question hung between us. For the first time since he had entered the room, Kael looked away.

It was only for a second but it was enough to make my heart sink.

I folded my arms across my chest.“Tell me the truth.”

He looked back at me. “I will.”

Kael walked toward the window, stopping beside it. For a moment, he stared out at the courtyard below, where the warriors were undoubtedly already discussing what had happened.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter.

“When you left Ironcrest, everything changed. The pack had lost its former Alpha, and I was expected to take his place while dealing with the consequences of your disappearance.”

The reminder of my father struck somewhere tender inside me, but I refused to let it distract me from the question.

Kael continued. “The elders were worried about the future. They needed an Alpha who could lead the pack, but they also wanted a Luna who could stand beside him. Someone strong enough to defend herself, understand the warriors, and help maintain stability within Ironcrest.”

“And Selena fit that description.” I frowned.

“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation.

I looked away, swallowing the unpleasant feeling rising in my throat.

“So she was your replacement for me.”

“No.” Kael turned toward me immediately. “She was a possible choice. There is a difference.”

“Is there?”

“Yes, Aria.” He stepped closer but stopped when he noticed me stiffen.

I appreciated that he didn’t try to touch me.

“I never loved Selena,” he said. “I never promised her my heart, and I never considered her a replacement for you.”

“Yet she seems convinced you were supposed to marry her.” I snapped.

“Because the elders discussed it.”

I stared at him. “They discussed your marriage to another woman?”

“They discussed what would happen if you never returned.” He explained.

The words landed harder than I expected.

Kael’s expression remained steady, but something in his eyes changed.

“I was Alpha. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life waiting for a woman who had chosen to leave me and the pack behind. I had responsibilities, and the elders reminded me of them every chance they got.”

He paused. “They believed Selena would be a suitable Luna. She was strong, disciplined, and respected by many of the warriors. She understood pack life and had no intention of abandoning her duties.”

“And you agreed?” I raised a brow.

“I agreed that she was a suitable candidate.” He nodded.

My fingers tightened around the belt of my robe. “That sounds very much like agreement to marry her.”

“It wasn’t a promise.” He shook his head.

“Did you tell her that?” I peered at him.

“Yes.” His answer was immediate.

“I told her that nothing had been decided and that I wouldn’t make a choice simply because the elders wanted me to. She knew there was no engagement, no mating agreement, and no promise from me.”

“Then why did she say I ruined things?” I gave him a knowing look.

“Because she wanted the position.”His bluntness surprised me.

Kael rubbed a hand over his jaw, looking more frustrated with himself than with me.

“Selena is ambitious. She’s worked hard to become one of the strongest fighters in Ironcrest, and she believes that should count for something. When the elders began discussing her as a possible Luna, she saw it as an opportunity. She may have convinced herself that the position was already hers.”

“And you let her believe that?” I sat down on the bed.

“No.” The firmness in his voice made me look at him. “I never encouraged her to believe we would marry. I never courted her. I never asked her to wait for me. Whatever expectations she developed, they were not promises I made.”

I studied his face. There was no obvious deception in his expression, but that didn’t mean my feelings had suddenly settled.

I had spent too long believing in someone who had given me only enough truth to keep me beside him.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

“Then why didn’t you marry her?” I asked. “If the elders wanted it, if she was everything the pack needed, and if you believed I might never return, why did you wait?”

Kael went silent. This time, I didn’t interrupt.

I wanted to hear his answer, even if it hurt.

He looked at me for a long moment before speaking. “Because your father asked me to trust you.”

My anger faltered. “What?”

“Before he died, Lucien spoke to me about you. He knew you were stubborn. He knew you wanted to make your own choices, even when those choices hurt the people who loved you.”

His gaze softened, though the pain beneath it remained. “He also knew you would return.”

I remembered the letter. My father’s handwriting. His words. His belief that Kael would protect me even when I made it difficult for him.

Kael continued. “I didn’t know whether you would keep that promise. There were days when I was angry enough to hope you never came back, because at least then I wouldn’t have to see you and remember what you’d done.”

His chest tightened. “But I couldn’t bring myself to close that door completely. Not when your father had trusted you to find your way home. Not when I knew how much Ironcrest meant to you, even if you had convinced yourself otherwise.”

He looked down briefly.

“And not when I still…” He stopped, his jaw working as though the words had caught in his throat.

My heart beat harder. “Still what?”

He met my eyes. “Still wanted you to come back.”

The room seemed to grow quieter.

I had imagined many explanations for why Kael hadn’t married Selena. I had expected duty, political convenience, perhaps even an admission that he hadn’t been certain he wanted her.

I hadn’t expected him to say he had waited because he still wanted me.

It was a dangerous thing to hear from a man I was only beginning to trust.

Especially when a part of me wanted desperately to believe him.

“You could have spent your life waiting,” I whispered. “What if I had never returned?”

“Then eventually, I would have had to make another choice.”

“And Selena might have become your Luna.”

“Possibly.” He nodded and didn’t try to deny it.

That honesty unsettled me more than a comforting lie would have.

“But I didn’t choose her,” he added. “I chose to wait until I could make that decision without resentment, pressure, or the feeling that I was burying something I hadn’t finished grieving.”

He paused. “And when you returned, Aria, I still wasn’t sure what to do with all the anger I carried. I wanted you home, but I didn’t know how to welcome you without remembering that you’d left.”

His voice grew rougher. “That doesn’t excuse how I treated you. It doesn’t excuse the way I took your choice away when I marked you. I have no right to demand that you trust me simply because I waited for you.”

My throat tightened.

He had brought up the mark himself.

He hadn’t used his patience or his feelings as an excuse for what he had done. He hadn’t suggested that waiting made him entitled to anything from me.

That mattered. It didn’t erase the hurt, but it mattered.

“I can’t promise that I will never make mistakes,” he said. “But I won’t lie to you about Selena. I never loved her. I never promised to make her my wife, and I never wanted her in the way I wanted you.”

I looked down at my hands. My anger had begun to lose its sharpest edge, but something stubborn remained beneath it.

I could understand the circumstances. I could understand why the elders had searched for another suitable Luna and why Kael had considered the possibility.

What I couldn’t accept was Selena’s assumption that my return had made me an intruder in my own home.

I had already lost years to a man who made me feel as though I had to earn the right to stand beside him.

“Does she know that?” I asked.

Kael frowned slightly. “Know what?”

“That you never loved her. That there was never a promise. That you waited for me because you wanted me to return.”

“I’ve told her there was no promise.” He looked confused.

“That isn’t what I asked.” I frowned slightly.

He considered my words. “I don’t know what she believes, Aria. I can only tell you what I have said and done.”

I nodded slowly. At least he wasn’t pretending to know what was inside Selena’s mind.

“Then you need to make one thing clear to her.” I straightened “That I am your Luna.”

His expression hardened, not at me but at the suggestion that I might need to prove it.

“You are my Luna.”

“I know that. But she doesn’t seem to.” I leaned forward

“She will learn.” Kael sighed.

“No, Kael.” I lifted my chin. “She will understand. There is a difference.”

He studied me in silence.

I took a breath, forcing myself to speak calmly.

“I can accept that the elders considered her a suitable choice. I can accept that you had responsibilities while I was gone. I can even understand why she might be disappointed if she convinced herself that she would one day become your wife.”

I paused. “But I will not accept being humiliated by her because I returned to the home I was born into. I will not stand on a training ground while one of your warriors tells me I have stolen a future that was never promised to her.”

Kael nodded once. “You have my word.”

I held his gaze. “And the next time Selena challenges me, you will not intervene.”

His eyebrows drew together. “Aria….”

“No. Let me finish.” I stepped closer, meeting his eyes without flinching.

“If she challenges me again, I will deal with her myself. I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, and I don’t need you to rescue me from a woman who thinks she deserves my place.”

“That’s not what I was trying to do.”he smiled.

Kael had intervened because Selena was out of line. He had stopped a public confrontation that could have damaged the pack’s unity and undermined my authority. As Alpha, he had every reason to do so.

But I needed him to understand something. I wasn’t the frightened girl rhat returned to Ironcrest wondering whether she still belonged here.

I wasn’t going to let anyone use my mistakes to make me feel small.

“I appreciate that you defended my position as Luna,” I said. “But I need to defend it myself, too. If Selena has a problem with me, she can bring it to me. If she believes she’s stronger than I am, she can prove it on the training ground under the proper rules.”

Kael’s gaze sharpened. “You intend to fight her?”

“If she challenges me properly, yes.” I nodded.

“She is an experienced fighter.” He warned.

“And I am not helpless.” I glared at him. “And don’t look at me as though I’m about to do something foolish.”

His mouth closed. For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then he exhaled, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly.

“I’m not asking you to be helpless, Aria. I’m asking you to be careful. Selena is strong, and she knows how to exploit an opponent’s anger. I don’t want you walking into a fight simply because she knows which words will provoke you.”

The warning was reasonable. I hated that he could still make sense when I wanted to remain angry with him.

“I won’t let her provoke me into making a mistake,” I said. “But I won’t avoid her either.”

“Then train before you accept any challenge.” He faced the window.

I gave him a flat look. “Are you giving me orders now?”

“No.” The corner of his mouth twitched, though the humor never quite reached his eyes. “I’m asking you not to give Selena the satisfaction of seeing you lose your temper.”

I considered that.

Then I nodded once. “Fine.”

His expression softened. “Fine?”

“I’ll train.” I tilted my head sideways.

“And you won’t challenge her just to prove a point?” He held my gaze.

“I said I’ll train. Don’t push your luck.” I looked away

A faint, almost reluctant smile appeared on his face.

For one brief moment, I remembered the boy who had spent hours correcting my stance when we were younger, the one who had always known when I was pretending not to be tired.

Then the memory faded, leaving the man standing before me.

My husband and My Alpha. A man who had waited for me, but who still had a great deal to prove.

I turned toward the wardrobe, needing a moment to collect myself.

Behind me, Kael remained silent.

I had almost convinced myself the conversation was over when he spoke again.

“Aria?”

I glanced over my shoulder. “What?”

“I meant what I said out there. Selena will not be allowed to disrespect you again.”

I held his gaze. “See that she doesn’t.”

He nodded then he moved toward the door.

For reasons I couldn’t explain, a small part of me wanted to call him back. To ask him more about the years I had missed, about the loneliness he had endured, about what it had cost him to remain in Ironcrest while I had chased a future that had never truly belonged to me.

But I didn’t.

There would be time for those questions. For now, I needed to remember that trust wasn’t built by one conversation, no matter how honest it seemed.

It was built by what happened afterward.

Kael opened the door.

“I’m going to speak with Selena,” he said. “I’ll make sure she understands the boundaries I’ve set.”

I nodded. “Good.”

He hesitated, as though he wanted to say something else then he left.

The door clicked shut behind him.

I stood in the middle of our bedroom, listening to his footsteps fade down the corridor.

I had accepted his explanation.

I believed him when he said he had never loved Selena, and I believed that he had waited for me because some part of him still hoped I would return.

But belief wasn’t the same as peace.

Selena had made it clear that she saw me as the woman who had stolen her future and I had a feeling she wouldn’t surrender that belief simply because Kael ordered her to.

I crossed to the window and looked down at the training ground.

The warriors had resumed their drills. The packhouse had returned to its usual rhythm, as though nothing had happened.

Then I spotted Selena. She stood near the weapons rack, speaking with two female warriors. Her face was composed, but the moment she looked up and saw me at the window, her expression changed.

She didn’t bow and she didn’t look away. Instead, she smiled.

It was a small, cold smile that sent a warning through me.

I had accepted Kael’s explanation and I had agreed to let the matter rest for now.

But Selena hadn’t finished with me and judging by the look in her eyes, she was already planning her next move.