Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 268

Chapter 268

LUMINA

94

I pressed my back against the hospital corridor wall, my hands trembling as the weight of what Xenois had just told me settled into my bones like poison. Andy was captured. Sophia was dead. We’d won the war that had been tearing our family apart for months.

So why did it feel like we’d lost everything that mattered?

Riley knew. He knew we’d killed Sophia, the woman he still called Mama Sophia despite everything she’d done to him. All those weeks of careful bonding, of watching him slowly open up to us, of believing we were finally becoming a real family – it had all been an act. He’d been playing the part of the grateful rescued child while waiting for a reunion that would never come.

The irony was bitter enough to choke on. We’d fought so hard to save him from Andy’s influence, only to discover that we’d already lost him the moment we decided Sophia had to die.

I pushed myself away from the wall and made my way toward the private suite where they’d set up Lyn for recovery. If we were going to figure out how to salvage this situation, we needed information. Lyn was the only one who’d spent extended time with both Riley and Lake. He might be our only chance of understanding what we were really dealing with.

The suite was crowded when I entered. Lynn hovered over her twin brother’s bedside, her medical training warring with her sisterly concern as she checked and rechecked his vital signs. Lyn’s mate, David, sat in the chair closest to the bed, his hand never leaving Lyn’s arm as if he could anchor the healer through physical contact alone.

. Carol stood near the window with Marcus, both of them looking exhausted but alert. The magical energy they’d expended during the assault was evident in the way Carol’s hands still trembled slightly, and the deep lines of fatigue around Marcus’s eyes.

Samuel and Silvia had claimed the couch, with Ollie curled up between them. My son’s face was streaked with tears he’d been trying to hide, his small body tense with the kind of worry that no child should have to carry. When he’d heard that Riley had been found, nothing could have kept him away from the hospital. Now he was learning that finding Riley didn’t necessarily mean bringing him home.

Xenois entered behind me, his expression grim as he took in the assembled group. The Alpha authority he usually carried with such ease seemed to weigh heavily on his shoulders now. We were all feeling the burden of leadership when there were no good choices left to make.

“How is he?” I asked Lynn, nodding toward Lyn’s still form on the bed.

“Physically, he’ll recover,” Lynn replied, her voice carrying the professional detachment she used when emotions threatened to overwhelm her medical judgment. “The healing abilities kept him alive, but the trauma…” She paused, searching for the right words. “He’s been through hell, Lumina. What that boy did to him – the systematic torture, the psychological manipulation – it’s going to take time to process.

–

“Lake, Xenois said quietly. “His name is Lake.”

1/3

12:49 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Chapter 268

“The boy who tortured Lyn,” Lynn corrected with an edge to her voice that spoke to her protective Instincts as both a healer and a

sister. “I don’t care what his name is. I care about what he did.”

“And what he means to Riley,” I added, the admission tasting like ash in my mouth. “Because whether we like it or not, he’s the person

our son has chosen to protect.”

Lyn’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of our voices, consciousness returning slowly as his healing abilities worked to repair the last

of the damage Lake had inflicted. When his gaze focused on the room around him, I could see the immediate tension that entered his

body.

“They’re planning to run,” he said without preamble, his voice hoarse but urgent. “Riley and Lake. As soon as Lake’s powers stabilize enough for him to open a portal, they’re going to disappear.”.

The statement hit the room like a physical blow. Ollie’s face crumpled, and I saw Samuel’s hands clench into fists as he struggled with his own helplessness.

“How do you know?” Xenois asked, moving closer to the bed.

Lyn closed his eyes for a moment, and I could see him gathering the strength to relive what had happened in that medical facility. “Lake told me. After… after he was done with his work on me for the day. He said Riley had already been betrayed by too many adults, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again.”

“Work,” Lynn repeated, her voice deadly quiet. “Is that what he called torture?”

“He called it many things,” Lyn replied, his voice barely above a whisper. “Research. Experimentation. Practice. But what he was really doing was trying to understand how my healing abilities worked so he could push them to their absolute limits without killing me.”

Zade’s grip on Lyn’s arm tightened, and I could see the barely controlled rage in his eyes. The protective instincts of a mate were warring with the knowledge that violence wouldn’t undo what had been done.

“Why?” Carol asked from her position by the window. “Why torture you specifically?”

“Because Andy ordered him to,” Lyn replied. “She wanted to send a message, and she knew that hurting someone you cared about would be the most effective way to break you down. But also…” He paused, seeming to weigh his words carefully. “I think Lake needed to hurt someone. The rage and pain he’s carrying it has to go somewhere.”

“That doesn’t excuse what he did,” Lynn said firmly.

“No,” Lyn agreed. “It doesn’t. But it explains it. That boy has been shaped into a weapon just as thoroughly as Riley has. The difference is that Riley still has some connection to his humanity. Lake…” He shook his head. “Lake is lost. The only person he trusts, the only thing that keeps him tethered to anything resembling normal human emotion, is Riley.”

“Which means Riley is the only one who can control him,” I realized with growing dread.

‘Or be controlled by him,” Xenois added grimly. “Possessive doesn’t begin to cover what I saw in that boy’s eyes when he looked at

2/3

12:49 Thu, Jan 29 M.

Chapter 268

Riley. It’s obsession. The kind that turns deadly when threatened.”

A

94

Lyn nodded weakly. “He told me he’d kill anyone who tried to separate them. Not as a threat as a simple statement of fact. The way you might mention the weather.”

Ollie’s small voice cut through the adult conversation like a knife. “But Riley loves me. He saved me from the bad man. He wouldn’t just leave me forever.”

Comments

LIKE

Write Comments

<SHARE

3/3

12:49 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart