All Chapters of THE ALPHA’S UNWANTED PLUS-SIZE LUNA: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

MERRYΝI couldn’t sleep, every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same two words.ELARA VALE.NOCTURNE.By morning, I had stopped trying to convince myself it meant something else. My mother had been here. Twenty-four years ago. And somehow, Rhydian knew enough about my family to recognize the significance of the name.I found him in the archive room. He looked up from the tablet in his hand when I walked in.“You’re early.”“I didn’t sleep.”His expression shifted.“Because of the note?”I placed the strip of paper on the table between us.“Because of my mother.”He glanced down at it.“What do you want to know?”“Everything.”“I don’t have everything.”“Then give me access to what you do have.”He studied me for a moment.“What records?”“Immigration records.”His eyebrows lifted slightly.“Why?”“Because if my mother was in Nocturne, there should be a record of how she entered.”“That was twenty-four years ago.”“So?”“Some records from that period were sealed.”“Then unseal them.”“

MERRYΝRhydian had been avoiding me obviously. He still asked whether I had eaten. He still made sure the doctors didn’t bother me. He still gave me access to whatever records I requested.But something had changed. He looked at me less and whenever I caught him watching me, he looked away too quickly.I found him in the corridor outside the archive.“What’s wrong?”He stopped.“Nothing.”I stared at him.“That was a terrible lie.”His mouth tightened.“Merryn.”“What happened?”“Nothing happened.”“You’re doing it again.”“Doing what?”“Deciding I don’t need to know.”He sighed.“I spoke to my father.”My expression changed.“About Elara?”“Yes.”“What did he say?”Rhydian glanced toward the empty corridor.“He confirmed that my father knew your mother.”I waited.“And?”“She came to Nocturne for protection.”“From the Council?”“Yes.”My fingers curled.“Why was she being hunted?”“He wouldn’t tell me.”“Did he know about me?”Rhydian hesitated.“Yes.”The answer struck me harder t

SELENEI knew better than to trust anyone who asked me to meet after midnight. Which was exactly why I went.I stood beneath the awning of a closed apothecary in the older part of Aurelia City, my coat pulled tightly around me as I watched the empty street.“You’re late.”The voice came from behind me. I turned slowly. The man stepped out of the shadows, his face partially covered by a dark hood.“I wasn’t sure you would come,” he said.“I wasn’t sure you would be alive.”His mouth twitched.“Still sharp.”“Still avoiding my questions.”He stopped a few feet away. “You asked about Emeric Vale.”My fingers tightened around the envelope inside my coat.“And?”“And you were right to be suspicious.”My pulse jumped.“Suspicious of what?”He glanced toward the street before lowering his voice.“Your family wasn’t destroyed because of treason.”I stared at him, “Then why?”“Because your father found something he wasn’t supposed to find.”I pulled the old letter from my coat.The paper was y

MERRYNThe first thing I saw was Rhydian, not the same Rhydian who stood in front of me every morning with that irritatingly calm expression.Not the King who could silence an entire room with one look. This Rhydian was younger. His hair was longer. His face was sharper, less controlled. He stood alone inside an archive, turning the pages of an ancient book beneath a pool of blue-white light.I stepped closer. He couldn’t see me. I knew that immediately. I looked over his shoulder. There was a name written across the page.ELARA VALE.My breath caught. Below it was another line.DAUGHTER: MERRYN.My heart slammed against my ribs. Rhydian’s fingers stopped on the page. A voice came from somewhere behind him.“If she survives, she may be the answer to Nocturne’s decline.”Rhydian didn’t move.“What happens if she doesn’t?” he asked.“Then Nocturne continues to die.”I stared at him. He had known. Before he ever saw my face. Before he knew how I laughed.Before he knew how badly my knees

MERRYN“You all knew what I was.”My voice barely rose above a whisper, but neither man moved. Rhydian stood a few feet away, his face tight with guilt. Lucian looked like he wanted to say something.I didn’t give him the chance.“I’m done.”Lucian frowned. “Merryn…”“No.”I turned toward Rhydian, “I want access to the oldest Nocturne archive.”His brows drew together.“Now?”“Yes. Now.”“Merryn, you’ve barely slept.”“And apparently everyone has been deciding what I should know while I sleep.”That silenced him.I folded my arms.“I don’t want another explanation that comes after someone else discovers something. I want the records. The original ones. Whatever exists from before your Council, before the Vale family, before my marriage.”Rhydian studied me.“You may not like what you find.”“I already don’t like what I’ve found.”Lucian shifted beside us.“I should come.”I looked at him.“No.”His jaw tightened.“You’re investigating my family.”“And you are part of the reason I need