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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Sacred Pack Of The True Luna: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

97 Kabanata

Chapter 21 – Missing Pages

RaeProfessor Mansfield closed the blue book before I could read beyond the final line. The sound echoed through the restricted archive.When the hidden moon awakens, four will answer.My hand settled over the necklace beneath my sweater.“What does that mean?”Professor Mansfield kept one palm pressed against the book’s cracked cover. “I don’t know.”“You knew enough to hide the page.”“I closed a fragile text that you were reading over my shoulder.”“After your face changed.”Chrissy moved beside me. “It did change.”Professor Mansfield gave her a brief look before returning her attention to me.“The phrase appears only once in this volume. There is no explanation of who the hidden moon was or what the four were expected to answer.”“Then why did you show it to us?”“I showed you the symbol because you demanded proof that I recognized your necklace.”She was right, though that did little to quiet the questions multiplying inside me.“The illustration is the same as the carving from c

Chapter 22 – The Name in the Ledger

Rae“Rae?”Jesse’s voice came from behind me.I turned to find him standing near the end of the circulation desk. He wore a dark sweater beneath his academy jacket, his hair still damp as though he had showered recently.His gaze moved from my face to the damaged book in Chrissy’s hands.“I went by your dorm,” he said. “One of the girls downstairs said you were here.”Chrissy looked between us. “I’m going to stand over there and pretend I’m not listening.”“You never pretend convincingly,” I told her.“Then this should be easy.”She moved three feet away and began examining a display of new arrivals.Jesse lowered his voice. “Did something happen after I left you last night?”“I remembered something about my mother.”His expression sharpened. “Remembered?”“I had a dream, except it felt more like a memory. There was a man named Frank. This morning, I found out he was my father.”Jesse’s face changed. “The man in the memory was your father?”I nodded.“Sonya and Harold knew who he was,”

Chapter 23 – The Claim on My Name

RaeFrank Rivers.The name remained on the screen, black letters against faded paper.For thirteen years, he had existed only as a shadow buried beneath memories I could not reach. Now he had a place in an official ledger, marked beside a symbol Jesse recognized.My father had not disappeared from history.Someone had recorded exactly where he belonged.“What does Pureblood mean?” I asked.Jesse’s fingers remained still above the tablet.“It was a movement made up of families from several packs. They believed bloodlines weakened whenever wolves bonded with humans or mixed-blood descendants.”Chrissy returned the damaged book to the table. “How old is the movement?”“The beliefs are ancient. This particular coalition became organized around twenty-five years ago.”“That would have been before I was born,” I said.“Yes.”Jesse enlarged the column beside Frank’s name. Most of the handwriting was difficult to read, but one phrase had been entered in block letters.Registered faction repre

Chapter 24 - The Boy Who Stayed

RaeMy own name stared back at me from a claim filed before I had ever learned to write it.Aurelya Rivers.For several seconds, I forgot how to breathe.The letters blurred before sharpening again, as though the document needed to make certain I understood that it was real.Frank had known my name.He had known I survived.While I grew up believing my father was an empty space in my history, he had been searching for me through official channels. He had called me a subject, a dependent, and something that belonged to his bloodline.The library faded around me. I could no longer hear pages turning in the distant rows or the muted footsteps crossing the stone floor. All I could see was my mother running through the forest with blood on her hands, trying to stay ahead of a man who had already decided I belonged to him.Warm fingers covered mine.I looked down.Jesse had placed his hand over the one I had braced against the table. His palm was steady against my skin, and his thumb moved o

Chapter 25 – Since My First Shift

RaeThe kiss was soft, almost careful, as though he expected me to change my mind even after I had let him come this close.I didn’t.My fingers caught lightly in the front of his sweater, and I kissed him back.Warmth spread through me, quiet and unfamiliar. There was no overwhelming rush or dramatic certainty. Jesse simply felt good. He had found me when I was drowning in questions, held my hand without demanding anything in return, and walked beside me when I could barely organize my own thoughts.His thumb brushed my cheek before he slowly pulled away.We remained close enough that his breath touched my lips.“I’ve wanted to do that since the lake,” he said.A nervous laugh escaped me. “You hid it well.”“I thought staring at your mouth every few minutes made it obvious.”“I had other things on my mind.”His hand lingered against the side of my face before dropping.The corridor remained empty, though I could hear voices drifting from the stairwell. Anyone could have rounded the c

Chapter 26 – Grant’s Mate, Jesse’s Date

RaeI kept my hand pressed against the door long after it closed.Grant did not leave immediately. I could hear him breathing on the other side, each breath slow and measured as he forced whatever anger or regret he carried back under control.Then his weight shifted, and his footsteps moved down the corridor.I heard the faint scrape of his shoes against the worn floorboards, the pause near the stairwell, and the sharp crack of wood when his palm struck the railing.None of those sounds should have reached me through a closed door.The realization hovered at the edge of my thoughts, waiting to become the next impossible thing demanding my attention. I had no room left for it.My knees weakened, and I slid down the door until I sat with my back pressed against it.Grant claimed I was his mate, and he had known since he was twelve.Six years of silence rearranged themselves around that truth. I remembered the empty seat beside me at lunch and the conversations that stopped whenever I a

Chapter 27 – He Called Me Babe

RaeAt seven exactly, someone knocked on our door.Chrissy looked up from where she sat cross-legged on her bed, surrounded by the notes she had brought back from the library.“That will be your date.”The word sent an uneasy flutter through my stomach.I smoothed my hands over the skirt I had changed into. It was dark enough to feel safe, but shorter than anything I usually wore around Ravenwood. Chrissy had paired it with a soft gray sweater and boots, then spent ten minutes convincing me that brushing my hair counted as preparation rather than surrendering to social expectations.“You look good,” she said.“I feel like I’m wearing someone else’s confidence.”“Borrow it until yours catches up.”Another knock sounded.Chrissy’s eyes narrowed with amusement. “He’s patient.”“He has been waiting twelve seconds.”“Grant nearly broke the door down after three.”I shot her a look.“Too soon?” she asked.“Yes.”“Fair.”I opened the door.Jesse stood in the corridor wearing black jeans and

Chapter 28 – My Name Was Waiting in the Maze

Rae“They could’ve come to check on you,” Jesse said lightly. “I did.”He offered me the popcorn as though the observation meant nothing, then guided me toward the brightly lit maze at the far end of the festival.I followed, but his words remained behind.Julien, Brax, and Linc had known me almost my entire life. We had never been close, especially after Grant stopped speaking to me, but they had been everywhere during my first week at Ravenwood Academy.Julien had offered me his hand when no one else moved.Brax had climbed through a laundry window with pizza because I looked like I’d had a terrible day.Linc noticed when I skipped meals, when crowds made me uncomfortable, and when something felt wrong before I said a word.After everything that happened with Ashley, all three had apparently been worried when they did not hear from me.Yet none of them had come looking.Jesse had gone to my dorm, found out I was at the library, and followed me there. He had stayed while I searched f

Chapter 29 – He Found Me Anyway

RaeYour mother could not hide you forever.The words seemed to darken beneath the lantern light.For a moment, I could only stare at them. My mother had spent thirteen years running from Frank before she died, yet someone had walked into the middle of Ravenwood’s festival and left proof that her hiding place had finally failed.Jesse took the note from my hand before I could fold it again.“Did you see anyone?”“No.”“You heard someone.”“Yes.”His gaze lifted to the pine wall beside us. “Which direction did they go?”I pointed toward the empty path. “That way, but they were already moving when I reached the corner.”Jesse examined the note without touching the Pureblood symbol. The ease had disappeared from his face, leaving the calculating Alpha heir I had first suspected was hiding beneath his smile.“We need to leave the maze.”“What if they’re still here?”“That is exactly why we’re leaving.”He reached for my hand, but I remained where I was.“This person knew my mother.”“Or t

Chapter 30 – Someone Had Been in My Room

RaeJesse guided me away while Julien, Brax, and Linc followed. I could feel Grant watching us until the crowd closed behind us.The walk back to Dorm B felt different from the one Jesse and I had taken earlier. He still held my hand, but Linc remained close to my other side. Julien scanned every path before we crossed it, and Brax kept looking behind us while pretending he was only interested in the food stalls.“They weren’t bothering you, were they?”Jesse’s earlier question returned.Neither were they now.They were guarding me.Yet I could not forget that Jesse had been the one who came looking before danger announced itself.“I think the festival has lost its appeal,” Brax said.“That happens when someone introduces death threats,” Julien replied.“It was technically a statement about failed concealment.”Julien

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