Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Sophia

The drive home was suffocating as I tried to keep my anger under check.

I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles went white, my jaw clenched as I gritted my teeth remembering every single

moment of my meeting with Lumina at the grocery store.

That smug little smile Lumina had given me, the way she’d dismissed my attempts to upset her and also the causal confidence she

had in her voice when she’d said those words that still made me upset.

“You’re welcome to whatever relationship you have with my husband.”

It sounded as if she was granting me permission to date her husband. As if she had any power in this situation at all.

Riley was talking happily in the backseat, completely oblivious to the anger brewing inside me.

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He was going on about meeting Ollie’s mother, about how nice she seemed, about how excited he was to possibly be in the same class

as the Alpha’s son.

Each word felt like a knife being stabbed in my body and twisted to hurt me even more. Even Riley liked her.

“She seemed really cool, Mom,” Riley continued, sounding enthusiastic and innocent as well.

“And she said Ollie goes to Silver Creek too! Maybe we can be friends. Do you think-”

“Riley.” My voice was loud enough to cut through his incessant chatter. “Stop talking.”

The silence that followed was immediate and heavy as I could see in the rearview mirror, how his face fell, looking confused instead

of the joy that was on his face moments before.

Good. He needed to understand that this wasn’t a game or something that he could like. We were here to replace Lumina and her son and the sooner he got that into his head. The better for all of us involved.

We pulled into the driveway of the house that Xenois had gotten for us.

It wasn’t the high class like what I wanted, compared to Lumina home that I craved to be in, but it would do for now,

Everything about this place was temporary. Everything about our current situation was temporary and was to be used as a stepping stone before we got to where we belonged.

Inside the house, I poured myself a generous glass of wine, my hands shaking a bit as I tried to process what had just happened.

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Chapter 21

Lumina’s calm confidence, and her lack of jealousy wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t what I’d planned for.

“Mom?” Riley’s voice was small, uncertain as he stood at the doorway fidgeting with his sleeves.

“Are you okay? You seem upset.”

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I turned to face him, furious as I glared down at him. He was the reason why I was in this mess. He was the one who needed to fix

this quickly.

“What did you think you were doing back there?” I asked, keeping my voice level with him despite the fury that was moving through

my body.

“What do you mean?”

“With that woman. With Lumina. What did you think you were doing, chatting with her like she was your friend?”

Riley blinked, clearly confused as he looked at me and back at his hands.

“I was just being polite. You always tell me to be polite to adults. She seemed nice, and she’s the Luna of our pack, so I thought-

“She is not the Luna of anything.” The words came out harsher than I intended, filled with hatred I couldn’t quite contain.

“That title doesn’t belong to her. Do you understand me?”

“But… but she’s married to Alpha Xenois. That makes her-”

“That makes her nothing.” I slammed my wine glass down with more force than necessary, the sound loud enough as it echoed through the entire kitchen.

“Marriage certificates mean shit when there is no love in that marriage. And that woman has neither.”

Riley’s face fell a bit as he tried to make sense of what I said.

‘I don’t understand why you want me not to be polite to her. She was really nice to me. She asked about school and seemed genuinely interested-”

I cut him off with a slap as he fell to the ground, looking surprised and scared at the same time,

“Do you think she is actually nice to you? She is trying to fish for information and you opened your mouth and blarbed to her without thinking as usual,”

I pulled him by the arms squeezing his hand tight as I said.

“Don’t you see? She’s threatened by us. By what we represent.”

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Chapter 21

“What do we represent?” He asked, tears swelling in his eyes as he tried not to let it fall.

I pulled him closer as I said darkly

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“We represent Xenois’s real family, Riley. His true happiness. You are his blood, his legacy, everything that fake marriage he has with

Lumina couldn’t give him.”

Riley looked confused as he sniffled, his lips wobbling as he said. “But they have Ollie. He’s Alpha Xenois’s son too.”

“Your job,” I continued gripping his arm tightly as he winced in pain, mg claws digging in his arms “is to be everything Xenois never

knew he was missing. To be charming, and, worthy of his attention and affection. To show him what a real family looks like.”

“Okay,” Riley said quietly. “I can do that.”

“Can you? Because today, when you were talking to Lumina, you weren’t thinking of how to be better than her son, you were just

being yourself, a total disgrace.

Riley flinched from my words looking down at his feet.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know I was doing something wrong.”

I sighed, feeling exhausted. Forcing Riley to do his role was so stressful at times and I needed him to be the reason Xenois kept his

eyes on me until I snatched him from his wife.

“Listen to me Riley, this will be the last time you will make such a mistake or I swear I’ll lock you in the store room again. Do you

want that?” I asked gripping his cheek as he shook his head.

“No mama, not the store room please. I’ll be good.” He begged tears streaming down his face.

“What did I say about calling me, mum in private?” I yelled slapping him as he fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry, Ms Hales. It won’t happen again.” He said still on the ground. I was going to pull him when my phone buzzed interrupting

‘Go to your room and stay there. ” I said as he quickly ran out of my sight.

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