Lahat ng Kabanata ng TO DENY A LUNA: Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

VELARA'S POVMy voice trembled as I tried to hold myself together, every muscle in my body tight with the effort not to collapse. The weight of the moment pressed down on my chest like a stone, making each breath feel jagged, like I was breathing through broken glass. But I wouldn’t cower. Not now. Not in front of him.“I never lied to you,” I said, though the words scraped painfully out of my throat, thick with emotion. “You just refused to see what was right in front of you. You don’t even remember who I am.” I gestured toward the door, my arm rigid with fury. “Get out of my restaurant.”His expression darkened instantly, his eyes narrowing into something sharp and venomous. I saw the muscle in his jaw twitch from how tightly he clenched it. “I was drunk,” he growled, like that excused everything. “How the hell was I supposed to remember someone from the damn packhouse? That whole night’s a blur.”His words sliced through me, not because I didn’

DAMON'S POVThe car eased forward, tires crunching softly against the loose gravel as we slipped out of the hotel driveway. The morning sun blazed through the windshield, casting harsh glares across the glass, forcing my eyes into a squint. I blinked against the brightness, but it did little to clear the haze clouding my thoughts. The events of the morning clung to me like smoke—thick, suffocating, impossible to ignore. A heavy silence sat between us, dense with the weight of what had happened, until Dante shattered it with a firm smack against my chest.“Just keep driving,” he muttered, voice low and sharp with sarcasm. “We’ll be plastered across every damn front page tomorrow anyway. Might as well make a graceful exit.”He gave a dry chuckle, shaking his head, then tacked on with mock irritation, “And don’t tell me you bent my rim back there.”I shot him a glance, one brow raised, the edge of my mouth twitching despite myself. “Chill. I’ll buy y

KAEL'S POVThe bell rang, and the buzz of recess wrapped around the playground like static. Selene plopped down beside me on the bench, the scent of tuna and something salty drifting from her sandwich. Without a word, she slid a bunch of rumpled phone book pages across the worn wooden seat. The paper was creased and greasy in places, some of the ink smudged from her fingers or maybe leftover juice from her lunchbox.I snatched the pages quickly, pressing them against my knees in a feeble attempt to flatten the wrinkles. My eyes scanned every printed line, darting over the cluttered maze of roads and intersections. The street name scrawled on my scrap of paper—a name I had read over and over in my head like a prayer—wasn’t there. Not even close.“Are you sure you grabbed the right pages?” I asked, trying not to let the frustration leak too obviously into my voice. I tilted my head, hoping another angle might reveal something I missed.Selene shrugg

DAMON'S POVDante strolled toward the kitchen with his usual ease, tossing out a light-hearted offer to handle the food. I gave a faint nod, though my stomach tightened at the thought. Dante’s cooking had never been something I particularly enjoyed, but this wasn’t the time for opinions or preferences. Right now, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not when Kael was nestled in my arms, warm and real and breathing. Letting go of him felt impossible. As though if I loosened my grip even slightly, he might dissolve like smoke between my fingers, leaving behind only the echo of a dream I hadn’t known I was having until it came true.I drew him closer, my arms tightening protectively, as if sheer will could keep this moment from slipping away. The idea of parenthood had always felt like a distant star to me—beautiful, unreachable, quietly admired from afar. I never imagined it would land in my lap, unexpectedly, heartbreakingly perfect. But now, with his small body pressed

VELARA'S POVMy hands tremble as the car rolls to a slow stop in front of the towering hotel. The luxury exterior glints under the late afternoon sun, its polished glass reflecting the pale blue sky like a facade too pristine for the storm churning in my chest. Officer Elijahs sits beside me in silence, his focus on the road unwavering, but I can barely register his presence. He’s driving me straight to the top—to Alpha Damon’s private penthouse—and with each passing second, dread coils tighter around my ribcage.The entire ride, my thoughts refused to settle. My mind was a relentless current of questions, each one crashing harder than the last. How did Damon find Kael? Did he see him at school and somehow recognize the boy’s face as his own? Or had Kael, in some impossible, innocent act of longing, gone searching for him? Or maybe—worse—someone else had noticed the resemblance, someone with loose lips and a dangerous sense of curiosity.I don’t know which