Rebirth of the Broken Luna A Second Chance at Luna's Heart novel Chapter 495

Chapter 495

XENOIS

1 put my arm around him, letting him lean against me.

“Taking life is hard,” I said. “Even when it’s justified, even when it’s necessary, it still affects you. The fact that you’re struggling with it means you’re not a psychopath. It means you have empathy and conscience. That’s good, Shawn. Hold onto that.”

Does it get easier?’ he asked. “Killing to protect people?”

“In some ways, I admitted. “You learn to compartmentalize, to separate the immediate necessity from the emotional processing. But

it never becomes easy. Not if you’re doing it right. The moment it becomes easy is the moment you’ve lost something important.”

That was probably more honest than I should have been with a seventeen-year-old. But Shawn had just been through combat that

most adults would never experience. He deserved honesty about what that meant.

“Your friends,” I said, gesturing to the Underground members. “They fought well. They’re all supernatural?”

All of them, Shawn confirmed. “Different types-halfbloods, witches, partial shifters, fae heritage, vampire bloodlines. They’ve been

hiding in plain sight for years because they thought the pack wouldn’t accept them.”

“Why?” I asked, genuinely confused. “I implemented reforms specifically to make acceptance possible. Why would they think they

needed to hide?”

“Because laws change faster than attitudes,” Shawn said, echoing something one of them had told him. “Just because you said they were welcome doesn’t mean everyone actually welcomes them. There’s still prejudice, still discrimination. Hiding felt safer than risking

rejection.”

That stung. Because it meant my reforms hadn’t been as effective as I’d thought. That despite policy changes and public statements,

there were still people in my territory who felt they couldn’t be themselves openly.

‘I need to talk to them,” I said. “Will they talk to me? Or will they run if the alpha approaches?”

“They’ll talk, Shawn said. “After today, after fighting openly-they can’t go back to hiding anyway. Might as well make it official

I stood and offered Shawn my hand to help him up. He took it, letting me pull him to his feet, and together we walked over to where

the Underground members were gathered.

Eight teenagers, ranging from maybe fourteen to seventeen years old. All of them looked exhausted, traumatized, and wary of

approach.

“I’m not here to cause problems,” I said immediately. I’m here to thank you for protecting my territory and to apologize that you felt

you needed to hide in the first place.”

1/2

9:33 Mon, Apr 6 …

Chapter 495

That seemed to surprise them.

:

71

“You’re not mad?” the one I thought was Chase asked carefully.

“Mad about what?” I asked. “That you’ve been living quietly in my territory without official registration? That you fought to protect students during an attack? That you have supernatural abilities you’ve been hiding? None of that makes me angry.”

“We should have registered,” a girl-Kamsi, maybe-said. “We should have trusted that your reforms were genuine. But-

“But you’d been hiding for years and trust doesn’t come easily,” I finished. “I understand. And I’m not going to punish you for survival

instincts developed under previous leadership.”

I looked at each of them in turn.

“What I am going to do is offer you official pack status,” I said. “Full registration, access to pack resources, protection under pack law.

No more hiding, no more pretending to be human. You’ve proven today that you’re assets to this community. I’d like to make that

official.”

They exchanged glances, having some kind of silent conversation.

‘What if we say no?” the quarter vampire-Luna-asked. “What if we’re not ready for that yet?”

“Then you say no,” I said simply. “I’m not going to force registration on anyone. But I am going to make sure you know the option

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify