All Chapters of A Packless Luna: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The name on the restricted file made my heart stop. I stared at it, hardly able to breathe. My father's name. The same man I had spent years remembering only through broken pieces of memory. I reached for the file, but my hand stopped above it. "Why was your name here?" I whispered. The archive was silent. I looked around before pulling the file closer. The words on the page were old, but they were clear enough. AUTHORIZED BLOODLINE REVIEW. Below it were several family names. Some had been crossed out. Others had been marked with a single word. PURGED. My stomach twisted. "Purged?" I turned another page. There were dates. Names. Pack territories. And beside several of them was the same name. Elder Magnus. I swallowed hard. "How many families did you destroy?" A voice came from behind me. "You shouldn't be reading that." I froze. I didn't need to turn around to know who it was. Kael. I slowly closed the file. "Then maybe you shouldn't have hidden it." He s

My father's name had been erased. I stared at the empty space in the old succession record, unable to look away. Someone had scratched his name out so deeply that the paper was almost torn. "He was here," I whispered. Kael stood behind me. "Nyra." I turned toward him. "Don't." He stopped. "My father was an Alpha heir." "Yes." The answer came too quickly. I stared at him. "You knew?" Kael's expression tightened. "I knew of him." "You knew he existed." "Yes." My heart sank. "How long?" He didn't answer. "Kael, how long have you known about my father?" "I knew his name before you came to Moonfall." I took a slow breath. "And you never told me." "I wasn't certain you were his daughter." "But you suspected." "Yes." The word hurt more than I expected. I looked back at the record. "My father's name was removed from the succession." "Yes." "Why?" Kael remained silent. "Tell me." He rubbed his jaw. "Your father's bloodline

Kael did not answer me. That silence hurt more than any confession could have. I stared at him, waiting for him to deny it. Waiting for him to look me in the eyes and tell me I was wrong. He did neither. "Kael?" His jaw tightened. "Say something." He looked away. My chest tightened. "So you did know." "Nyra..." "You knew who I might be before you made me your Luna." "I suspected." The words came quietly, but they struck me like a blow. I took a step back. "You suspected?" "I didn't know for certain." "But you knew there was something." Kael finally looked at me. "Yes." I laughed bitterly. "Of course." "Nyra, listen to me." "No. You listen to me." My voice shook, but I refused to let the tears in my eyes fall. "All this time, I thought you were the only person who was honest with me." "I never wanted to hurt you." "You didn't have to want it." I pointed at the old record lying between us. "You knew there was a possibility that I belonged to that bloodline."

The word stayed in my mind long after the assassin stopped breathing. Heir. I had heard it before. In my father's voice. In the fragments of memories that had returned to me. In the old records that someone had tried so hard to erase. But hearing it from a Council assassin made it feel different. It was no longer a forgotten word from my past. It was a threat. "Nyra." I looked up. Kael stood a few feet away, his expression tense. "Are you all right?" I glanced at the blood on my arm. "I'm fine." "You were almost killed." "But I'm not dead." His jaw tightened. "That isn't the point." I looked toward the captured assassin who was still being dragged toward the cells. "What does he mean by heir?" Kael's eyes darkened. "I don't know." I stared at him. "You know more than you're saying." "Nyra." "Don't." I stepped closer. "Not this time." Kael lowered his voice. "You need to stay away from this." I almost laughed. "After an assassin entered our territory and

The stone wall moved beneath my fingers, revealing a dark passage I had never seen before. I stared at it, my heart pounding. “Kael.” He stepped closer. “What did you find?” “I don't know.” I pushed the hidden stone again. The wall shifted farther, revealing a narrow staircase disappearing into darkness. Kael's expression changed. “Stay behind me.” I looked at him. “You always say that.” “And you never listen.” “I am not staying behind you this time.” “Nyra.” “I found it. I'm going with you.” He studied my face for a moment before letting out a quiet breath. “Fine. But stay close.” We descended together. The air became colder with every step. The deeper we went, the quieter Moonfall became until I could hear nothing except our footsteps. At the bottom, the passage opened into a large stone chamber. I stopped. Bookshelves covered the walls. Old scrolls were stacked inside wooden cases. Strange symbols were carved into the stone pillars. And everywhere I looked, I saw