we go home

*CHAPTER 8: WE GO HOME*

Kade didn't ask me to go back to Blood Moon. He waited.

He stayed for three more days in the clinic, helping me with patients, washing dishes that Leo said I hated, sleeping on the floor beside our bed even though the curse was gone. He could have gone home. His pack needed an Alpha. But he stayed.

On the fourth morning, Leo asked the question.

"Mama, can we see where you used to live? Where the other wolves are?"

I froze while making breakfast. I had never told Leo about Blood Moon. I told him we lived in the clinic because I liked being a healer.

Kade looked at me from where he was fixing our broken chair. He didn't say anything. He let me decide.

"Why do you want to see it, love?" I asked.

Leo held up his wooden wolf. "Because the scratchy beard mister is sad when he thinks about home. I can feel it. His wolf misses the pack."

Kade's hands stopped working. He stared at Leo, his golden eyes wide.

Leo was only five, but white pups feel emotions stronger than normal pups. He felt Kade's loneliness.

That afternoon, I packed a small bag. My mother's journal, my staff, Leo's little cloak.

"Just for a visit," I told Kade firmly. "One day. To show Leo. Then we come back here. This clinic is our home."

Kade nodded, but his eyes were shining like I had just given him the whole world.

We walked to Blood Moon territory. It took two hours. The closer we got, the more nervous I became. I remembered the last time I walked this road — in the rain, bleeding, rejected, carrying a child I didn't know about yet.

Now I was walking back as a white wolf, an Alpha healer, holding my son's hand, with the Alpha beside me.

The border guards saw us first. One of them was old Jonah, who opened the gate for me five years ago.

He saw Kade and bowed. Then he saw me — white hair, grey-blue eyes, silver staff glowing — and his mouth fell open.

"Ghost... Ghost Healer?" he whispered. Then he saw Leo. White hair. Golden eyes. "Goddess..."

Kade put a hand on my back, not possessive, just steadying.

"Open the gate, Jonah," Kade said quietly. "And ring the pack bell. Tell everyone their Luna is home."

Luna.

I sucked in a breath. "Kade, we didn't—"

"You are my fated mate," he said softly, so only I could hear. "You will always be my Luna. If you don't want it, I will reject the title myself. But let me tell them. Let me fix what I broke."

The bell rang.

By the time we reached the pack square, the whole pack was there. Hundreds of wolves. Elders, warriors, pups, mothers. Everyone I grew up with.

And in the front, standing where Luna should stand, was a girl in a red dress.

Tara.

Tara was my classmate. She was the girl who used to pull my hair and call me Wolfless Omega. She was the girl who told everyone she would be Luna after I left because Kade needed a real wolf.

When she saw me, her beautiful face twisted.

"Kade? What is this? You brought a rogue healer and her bastard into our pack? You—"

"Enough, Tara," Luna Rhea's voice cut through, sharp as a blade. She walked out from the crowd, Elder Marga beside her. "That rogue healer is Ani Grey. Elara's daughter. And that child is your Alpha's son."

Gasps. Whispers exploded like fire.

"Ani? Wolfless Ani?" someone shouted. "But she has a wolf scent now—"

"She is white!" a pup shouted. "Look, white hair like in the old stories!"

Tara laughed, loud and mean. "White? She is a freak! She was wolfless, now she dyes her hair and brings a white-haired bastard and says it's Kade's? Kade, she is tricking you! I am the only one here with a strong wolf for you! I waited five years!"

Leo hid behind my legs, scared by the shouting.

Kade's face went dark. His Alpha aura rolled out, heavy and cold, making everyone bow their heads — except me and Leo.

"Tara, you waited because I told you to wait to be rejected properly," Kade said, his voice calm but deadly. "I never wanted you. My wolf never wanted you. I told you five years ago I would never take another Luna. Do you know why?"

He looked at me, his golden eyes softening.

"Because I already had one. I was just too blind to see her. And I called her nothing. And she left. And she survived. And she became stronger than any of us."

He knelt down and picked up Leo, holding him high so the whole pack could see. Leo's white hair shone in the sun.

"This is my son," Kade announced, his voice booming across the square. "Leo Grey Black. My heir. My pup. Born to my fated mate, Ani Grey, the white wolf healer. Anyone who calls him bastard will answer to me and to his mother."

Silence.

Then Elder Marga stepped forward, her old voice shaking but loud.

"I have seen it! I have seen her wolf! She is not wolfless! She is the white wolf from the prophecy! The healer who will save our pack! The Moon Goddess did not abandon us — she hid our Luna to protect her!"

One by one, the old wolves started kneeling. Not to Kade. To me. To Leo.

Tara stood alone in her red dress, shaking with anger.

"You think you can just come back after five years and be Luna?" she screamed at me. "You think they will accept a rogue and her—"

She didn't finish because Leo did something no one expected.

He was still in Kade's arms, scared, but he felt Tara's hate directed at his Mama. His little body started to glow white. His white hair stood up.

And he growled.

A tiny, high, but unmistakably Alpha white wolf growl that made even the warriors step back.

My five-year-old son was about to shift for the first time to protect me.