Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 314

Chapter 314

ZADE

93

I watched Lake move toward the door, his careful steps betraying the weakness he was still recovering from. Something about the way

he’d answered Lyn’s questions-with brutal honesty but also with glaring omissions-made me think we’d only scratched the surface of

what he knew.

“Lake,” I called out, my voice cutting through the quiet that had settled after his departure. “Wait.”

He stopped mid-step, and I saw his hand clench into a fist. The movement was subtle, but I’d been alpha long enough to recognize a

defensive posture when I saw one.

His body had gone rigid, every muscle tensing like he was preparing for an attack.

“Come back in,” I said, making it an order rather than a request.

Lake turned slowly, his eyes scanning e room as he re-entered. That calculating look was back-the one that made it clear he was assessing threats and exit strategies simultaneously. For a kid who claimed his loyalty was to whoever had Riley, he certainly didn’t trust

easily.

“What?” he asked, positioning himself near the door rather than returning to the chair. Smart. Kept his escape route clear.

I leaned back against the fireplace, crossing my arms. “We asked Andy about the locations of the other children. The ones who were being experimented on, the ones who might still be in danger.”

Something flickered across Lake’s face-not quite fear, but close. “And?”

“She told us Riley knows all the locations,” I continued, watching his reaction carefully. “But Riley refuses to say a word about it. Won’t even acknowledge the question when we ask.”

“So you want me to tell you,” Lake said flatly.

“Yes,” Xenois said from his position near the window, his voice tight with controlled emotion. “We need to know where these children are so we can help them. So we can rescue them from whatever Andy and Sophia set in motion.”

Lake’s laugh was short and bitter, completely devoid of humor. “Don’t bother.”

The room went very still. I felt Lyn tense beside me, saw Thorne straighten from his casual lean against the wall. Even Rivers, who’d maintained his neutral expression throughout the earlier conversation, looked taken aback.

“What do you mean, don’t bother?” Xenois demanded, his alpha authority bleeding into his tone.

1/3

12:54 Thu, Jan 29 M

Chapter 314

Lake met his gaze without flinching, and I was reminded again that this boy had spent years being trained by someone who

specialized in breaking people. Alpha commands probably didn’t work on him the way they should.

93

“I mean they’re not a problem,” Lake said, his voice taking on that clinical detachment he’d used when describing Lyn’s torture. “You

don’t need to worry about rescuing them.”

“They’re children,” Lumina said, her voice breaking slightly. “Of course we need to rescue them. They’re victims, just like you and Riley

were.”

“Were being the operative word,” Lake replied. “Past tense.”

The implication in those words made my blood run cold. “Lake,” I said carefully, “what happened to the other children?”

He was quiet for a moment, his gaze distant like he was seeing something the rest of us couldn’t. When he spoke again, his voice was

absolutely flat, devoid of any emotion.

“Riley and I buried ninety-four children. Dex and Snow helped with some of them. They didn’t pass the experiments.”

The silence that followed was deafening. I felt like someone had punched me in the chest, all the air leaving my lungs in a rush. Ninety-four. Ninety-four children who’d been experimented on, who’d failed whatever horrific tests Andy and Sophia had devised, who’d

died and been buried by other traumatized kids.

“You…” Lumina’s voice was barely a whisper. “You buried them?”

“Someone had to,” Lake said with a shrug that tried for casual and missed by a mile. “Andy didn’t like leaving loose ends. When the experiments didn’t work, when the subjects died or their bodies rejected the enhancements, we cleaned up. Dug the graves, disposed of

the evidence.”

“How old were you?” Lyn asked, his voice shaking. “When this started?”

“Probably younger, maybe four when I did the first one,” Lake replied.

“Riley was younger, I think. But he only helped with a few before Sophia decided he was too valuable to waste on manual labor.”

I tried to wrap my mind around what he was describing. Children-literal children-being forced to bury the bodies of other children who’d been tortured to death in the name of scientific enhancement. The casual way Lake discussed it, like he was talking about taking out the trash rather than disposing of corpses, made it somehow worse.

“Where?” Rivers asked, his military training kicking in even through the horror. “Where are the graves?”

“Various locations,” Lake said. “Andy moved us around a lot. Wherever we were staying, there was usually a designated disposal site nearby. Woods, mostly. Places where the bodies wouldn’t be found easily.”

“We need locations,” Xenois said, his voice hardening. “Specific coordinates. Those children deserve proper burials, and their families

2/3

12:54 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Chapter 314

deserve to know what happened to them.”

Lake’s expression went cold. “Their families are the ones who sold them to Andy in the first place. Most of them were runaways,

homeless kids, children no one would miss. That’s why Andy chose them. No one was going to come looking.”

The systematic nature of it-the way Andy had selected victims who were already vulnerable, already invisible to society-made me

want to put my fist through the nearest wall. But that wouldn’t help anyone, so I focused on staying calm.

“What about the survivors?” Lynn asked. “You said ninety-four died. That implies others lived. Where are they?”

Lake shifted his weight, and I saw him wince slightly. The extended conversation was clearly taxing him physically.

“Scattered. After Dex got sent on a mission, after Sophia took Riley and died, after Snow went AWOL… the program fell apart. The

handlers would have either eliminated the remaining subjects or gone into hiding.”

“You’re saying they’re dead,” Thorne said bluntly.

“I’m saying that without Andy or Sophia to direct operations, the handlers would have cut their losses,”

Lake corrected. “Some might have tried to sell the enhanced kids to other organizations. Some might have killed them to prevent loose ends. Some might have just abandoned them. But unless the survivors want to be found, you won’t find them.”

“How many?” I demanded. “How many potential survivors are we talking about?”

Comments

LIKE

Write Comments

<SHARE

93

12:54 Thu, Jan 29 M…

Reborn From Regret A Second Chance at Luna’s Heart