Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 280

Screens Our People

Chapter 280 Baron Screens Our People

Natalie’s POV

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My hands were still resting against Flynn’s leather–armored forearms, feeling the erratic thrum of his pulse as he struggled to swallow the bitter taste of defeat.

The trail regarding my birth registry had turned to ash right before our eyes, and the realization that the Stone family’s ancestrai boundaries were leaking like a sieve had left us completely exposed.

I took a slow breath as I looked past my brother’s tense shoulder.

Across the expanse of the reception alcove stood Baron.

He was still wearing that bright red cooking apron over his structured dark trousers, his frame towering over our kids as he held them, Sean and Susie, safely against his broad chest.

Turning back to Flynn, my jaw tightened.

I knew my brother wasn’t fond of Baron.

To the traditional hierarchy of the Stone family rulers, Baron Gunn was an apex predator from a foreign ridge who had swept in and claimed their long–lost little princess before the true bloodline elders could even mark her place in the clan registry.

If Flynn didn’t care so deeply about my emotional stability, he would probably have barred Baron from crossing the territory line entirely.

But Flynn was a future pack ruler; he wasn’t stupid.

He understood the staggering depth of Baron’s devotion to me.,

So, even if Flynn inwardly resented the absolute authority Baron held over my heart, his wolf had no choice but to accept the reality of the mate bond.

As the words left my lips, I truly feared Flynn’s rejection.

My inner wolf, Nyx, held her breath, her ears flattening in the back of my mind as we waited for the proud Stone pince to snap.

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But Flynn didn’t snap.

He blinked once, then, completely bypassing any dramatic performance of pride, his gaze instinctively glanced across the room toward Baron.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Flynn muttered, his voice dropping into a low tone.

With that, Flynn strode directly toward Baron, his heavy boots clicking sharply against the polished floorboards.

I froze for a moment, my hand hovering in the empty air where his sleeve had just been.

My mind whirled, a sudden wave of disbelief stalling my thoughts.

Did he seriously accept that suggestion so quickly?

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With absolutely no reluctance at all?

What just happened?

Realizing the implications, I hurried after him, my heels clicking against the tile as I tried to close the distance before their respective Alphas could clash frequencies.

Flynn didn’t waste time with greetings or formal pack titles.

He stopped three paces from Baron’s shadow, his posture rigid but his head slightly inclined.

“Baron, something is fundamentally wrong inside the Stone family’s inner ring,” Flynn said straightaway, the words raw and unvarnished.

He didn’t look at the children resting in Baron’s arms; his eyes locked directly onto the dark gaze of my husband.

“Dad and I thought we had thoroughly cleaned things up after the initial registry verification. We executed the turncoats, we stripped the rogue elders of their tokens, and we verified the safehouse routes ourselves. But the sudden death of that couple right under our noses has hit me incredibly hard today… My sister says your private shadow network could help us identify the leak.”

He paused.

“Can you actually mobilize your trackers to screen everyone currently drawing rations inside the Stone family registries?”

Baron looked down from Flynn’s grim expression, his gaze shifting smoothly to where I stood just behind my brother’s shoulder, my face tight with anxiety.

“You want my foreign shadow cells to cross the provincial border line, come into the main Stone family den, and systematically screen your own bloodline elders?” Baron asked.

He was testing the boundaries, ensuring that this request wasn’t just a reaction from a desperate prince.

Flynn’s jaw clenched, his pride straining against the bit, but before he could formulate a defense, I stepped out from his shadow.

“If you can help us, Baron, then please just help,” I said, the words spilling.

I looked up into his dark, beautiful face, my inner wolf pushing through the surface as I forced myself to declare our alignment openly in front of my brother.

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“After all… it’s your father–in–law’s family we are talking about. We… we are family now, aren’t we?”

The moment the declaration left my mouth, a sudden flush of color spread across my cheeks, my face flushing a little under the intensity of my own forwardness.

The effect on Baron was instantaneous.

“Right… family,” Baron murmured, a slow smile touching his mouth as his dark eyes locked onto mine with a predatory tenderness.

He shifted the weight of the twins effortlessly, his voice dropping into a deep register.

“There is absolutely no need to talk about favors or political debts between our dens, Natalie. Don’t worry for another second, I will personally ensure that no traitor, no spy, and no Southern schemer survives to tear this family apart.”

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Flynn’s lips twitched slightly, a faint grimace crossing his features as he watched Baron’s sudden, ecstatic shift in demeanor. He let out a low, barely audible grunt from the back of his throat.

Sean and Susie, who had been resting their smali heads against Baron’s leather–clad shoulders, sensed the sudden drama.

The two children rubbed their small bellies in unison, their golden eyes birking up at us with a hunger that immediately broke the silence.

“Daddy, mommy, uncle,” Sean piped up, his small voice echoing. “Can we please go home to the lodge to eat now? We’re so incredibly hungry!”

“Our bellies are making the rumbling noises!” Susie chimed in, her tiny fingers plucking Baron’s red cooking apron.

At the immediate, visceral sound of the children’s hunger, the maternal instincts within my chest overrode the academic puzzle of my birthright.

I nodded at once, my features softening as I reached up to smooth a stray lock of hair from Susie’s brow.

“Yes, my loves. We are going home right now.”

Flynn didn’t wait for a secondary invitation.

Sensing the need to give Baron and me a moment of private alignment, he stepped forward and scooped both children cleanly out of Baron’s arms, bundling their small frames against his own chest with a practiced ease.

He turned toward the double glass doors of the facility’s main exit first.

“I’ll take the pups back to the rural clearing in the lead armored transport,” Flynn called out over his shoulder, his heavy boots already moving toward the driveway.

“You two come along in the secondary vehicle whenever your charts are aligned. Whatever happens with the investigation tonight, whatever shadows we have to hunt down across the ridges tomorrow, you’ve all got to eat first. A starving wolf cannot track a traitor.”

We exchanged a long glance across the widening space of the reception room.

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