Page 41 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

Glass shatters against the wall, sharp shards skidding across the floor, but I don't flinch. I barely even blink as I watch Callahan come apart at the seams.

He's shaking, chest heaving like he's been running for miles. His golden hair is a mess, wild from the way he's been dragging his fingers through it. His hands are clenched so tight his knuckles have gone bone-white, trembling from the sheer force of his rage. His eyes are blown wide, rimmed red with something frenzied, somethingderanged.

It's almost funny. Almost pitiful.

He points at me, a single accusing finger. "It was you," he breathes, voice raw. Then, louder, wild with hysteria, "YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"

The door rattles.

I tilt my head, dragging my gaze lazily over him, the perfect picture of boredom. "You're going to have to be a lot more specific."

In a flash, he's in my face. The heat of his fury rolls off him in waves. "Seraphina?—"

I nod. "Yes. Seraphina.My wife. You met her tonight, at the celebration."

A low, crazed growl rips out of his throat. His hands twitch at his sides, like he wants to grab me, shake me, tear me apart.

It almost earns a laugh from me, but I school my features, keeping them impassive. Because watching him unravel is far too entertaining.

"You knew who she was! You knew what she meant to me!"

I feign confusion. "You're not making any sense?—"

"She was my mate!" he roars. "I rejected her, but that doesn't make her any lessmine."

That, it throws me off balance. That, I hadn't known. And like that, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit. Seraphina's expression that night he made the announcement. Her feral dismissal of me that had bordered on an animalistic snarl. Her crying out for him at night, the yearning, the pain.

The realization settles in my gut, heavy and sick.

She wasn't just in love with him.

She wasboundto him.

And fuck—that's why she doesn't know what we are yet. Why she hasn't felt it.

Because she hasn't even gotten over his rejection. And to do that... she would have to remember it, remember everything.

My eyes shutter and my fists clench as I watch Ronan rant like a child who's lost his favorite fucking puppy. Like he didn't just reveal to me that the reason Seraphina ran into the night without thinking was because he'd gotten engaged to someone else and rejected her on the same night.

There are wounds peopledon'theal from. Wounds that fester, that rot, that turn a person into something else entirely. Some don't survive a rejection. Some lose their minds from the pain of severing something so intrinsic to their very existence. That Seraphina—an Omega—didn't... speaks to the depth of her will. Her strength.

And if I didn't already adore her before, I do now.

"The boy." Ronan's voice cracks. The rage has ebbed, leaving something more fragile. He looks at me, finally, with horror. "He is mine, isn't he?" He runs his fingers through dark blonde hair, shoulders shaking. "Of course, he's mine. That's why you took her, isn't it? To get back at me for what I did to Rayne and the rest of your family?—"

A storm detonates inside me.

"You speak one more word ofmyfamily,mywife,myson, and I'll forget that you are a guest in my home."

"He's fucking blonde, you piece of shit!" Ronan swears, and I see it then. I see the little boy whose cuts I treated, whose broken bones I set. The one who used to follow me like a shadow, wide-eyed and desperate to prove himself. The one who had ratted a detail I had so carelessly revealed to him in trust to the rogues who had attacked when we least expected it and set our havenon fire. "He's either mine or she was fucking someone else on the side. But Seraphina was never that type of woman."

When I don't respond, he exhales a pained breath. "Fuck. You knew. You've known all this time that she was pregnant with my child. It was you who intercepted the spies and the men I sent in search for her, wasn't it?"

I shrug, pulling my most nonchalant look. "You did the same with Eric. I thought I'd repay the favor." I stroke my jaw in false contemplation. "Perhaps, I should have kept her in the dungeons, starved and carved her up to pieces. That would certainly have been the better punishment."

The words taste like a lie and settle heavily in my chest, unwanted. But this is necessary, I tell myself. This is why I saved Seraphina. To use her as a bargaining chip. It was only a speculation that Ronan would care about her enough to lose his shit like this, but seeing it happen gives me a sick sort of satisfaction, knowing I have something of his to ruin, just like he's ruined everything of mine. I have to do this. I need to.

His brown eyes widen with horror. "You are a monster."

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