Chapter 9
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Lina
My chest felt like it was caving in.
Mary. Fucking Mary Thorne had escaped. The woman who had physically attacked me, who had tried to trap Knox with a fake pregnancy, who had helped her father orchestrate rogue attacks against our own pack.
She’d been under house arrest, supposedly contained and not a threat anymore. What a fucking joke.
She’d been free for a month. An entire goddamn month while I sat in this house like a sitting duck, completely unaware of who was actually hunting me.
The rage that surged through me was so intense I could barely breathe around it.
Every threatening message, every dead animal, every note promising to hurt my children suddenly made perfect sense.
Mary blamed me for her downfall, she’d taken Cole’s baby and disappeared into the night.
And now, she was out there somewhere, planning god knows what, and Knox had kept it from me.
He’d looked me in the eyes for weeks and lied. Held me at night and lied. Promised we’d get through this together and lied.
But I kept my face calm. Kept my expression neutral and unbothered as I faced Isabella, who was watching me with that smug, satisfied look of someone who’d just dropped a bomb and was waiting to watch the explosion.
I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. I wouldn’t let her see me crumble. Whatever was happening between Knox and me, it wasn’t any of her fucking business.
“Ah, you’re talking about Mary,” I said, letting my voice drip with boredom. “I thought you were talking about someone more important. Yes, of course I know. I’m the Luna of this pack.”
Isabella’s smile faltered slightly. Good.
“But the fact that you know,” I continued, tilting my head and studying her with cold assessment, “a civilian, that requires punishment. Those guards were supposed to keep quiet about this. Classified information. Need to know basis only.” I paused, letting the implication sink in.
“Can you give me their names? I’ll need to have a conversation with them about confidentiality. ”
I was completely bluffing. I didn’t know shit about Mary until thirty seconds ago. But Isabella didn’t know that, and the fact that this information had been kept under wraps told me everything I needed to know about how Knox had been handling this situation.
Isabella’s expression shifted from triumphant to uncertain. She’d come here expecting to watch me fall apart. Expecting to see my marriage crumble in real time so she could swoop in and pick up the pieces. Instead she was facing a Luna who appeared completely in control.
“I don’t know their names,” Isabella said, her voice losing some of its earlier confidence. “I just overheard them talking.”
“How convenient.”
The silence stretched between us. Isabella looked at Knox, probably hoping he’d say something to break the tension, but he was frozen in place. I could feel his panic through the bond. His guilt. His desperate desire to explain.
He could explain to the fucking wall for all I cared.
“Well,” Isabella said finally, smoothing down her already perfect hair. “I should be going. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
She grabbed her purse and headed for the door, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor. She paused at the entrance, looking back at us one more time, but whatever she saw in my expression made her think better of saying anything else.
The door slammed behind her. Childish. But honestly, I didn’t care about Isabella right now. She was a minor annoyance compared to the nuclear bomb that had just detonated in my chest.
“Mama! Who was it?”
Rowan came running into the room, his little face curious and concerned. Behind him, Thea emerged from the kitchen with Hunt trailing behind, all of them drawn by the sound of the slamming door.
I had to put on a smile. Had to be a mother before I could be a furious, heartbroken wife. My children didn’t need to see me fall apart.
“Just a woman from the pack,” I said, crouching down to hug Rowan. The movement made my back ache but I ignored it. “Nothing important.”
Thea reached us and I pulled her into the hug too, pressing kisses to both their cheeks. They smelled clean and sweet, and for a moment I just held them, drawing strength from their presence.
“I have an idea,” I said, forcing brightness into my voice. “Why doesn’t Uncle Hunt order some ice cream and we can eat it while watching cartoons? What do you say?”
Both twins erupted in cheers, jumping up and down with the enthusiasm only children could muster for sugar and television.
I straightened up and looked at Hunt, who was watching me with careful concern.
His gaze flickered between Knox’s tense shoulders and what I’m sure was murderous energy radiating off me in waves.
I gave him a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. “Uncle Hunt. Grab your phone. The kids are going to order ice cream. While you’re all at it, I’m going to take a shower, okay?”
Hunt’s eyebrows rose slightly but he was smart enough not to argue. He pulled out his phone and handed it to the twins, who immediately started arguing about flavors.
I looked down at my children one more time. “I’ll be right back. Save some ice cream for me.”
“We will, Mama!”
I turned and walked toward the stairs, keeping my movements controlled and steady. Upstairs. I just needed to get upstairs. Away from my children. Away from witnesses. Then I could let the rage consume me.
Every step felt mechanical. My body moved on autopilot while my brain screamed with betrayal and fury. The pain in my back, the ache in my feet, the exhaustion that had been plaguing me for weeks, all of it disappeared under the flood of pure, undiluted anger.
I heard footsteps behind me. Heavy. Familiar. Knox was following me, probably preparing some bullshit explanation that would make this all okay.
Nothing was going to make this okay.
I kept my shit together as we climbed the stairs. Kept it together as we walked down the hallway. Kept it together as we entered our bedroom and Knox closed the door behind us.
Then I turned on him.
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, KNOX?”
My voice came out as a shriek, high and furious and completely unhinged. I didn’t care. I was beyond caring about volume control or keeping calm or any of the other things I usually tried to maintain.
Knox winced, his hands coming up in a placating gesture that only made me angrier. “Baby, it’s not-”
“It’s not what? It’s not what I think?” I laughed, the sound bitter and broken.
“Knox, you LIED to me. You KEPT things from me and not small things either. It’s her, isn’t it?
She’s behind the threats. Mary fucking Thorne has been terrorizing me for weeks and you knew. You knew and you didn’t tell me.”
I could barely catch my breath. The words were pouring out of me faster than I could control them, fueled by weeks of frustration and fear and the devastating realization that my own mate didn’t trust me with the truth.
“Fuck, Knox! Didn’t you think I could’ve been better prepared if I’d known? That I could’ve protected the twins better if I understood what we were actually dealing with?” I shoved his chest, satisfaction blooming when he stumbled back a step. “You’re a fucking asshole!”
His expression shifted from apologetic to defensive. “I was trying to protect you! You have a lot to deal with right now and I didn’t want to add more to your plate. The doctor said you needed to avoid stress. I was trying to keep you calm, keep you healthy, keep you and the baby safe.”
“And this is not stressing me?!” I threw my arms wide, gesturing at everything and nothing.
“The fact that a damn stranger to this pack knows classified information and comes to MY house and shoves it right onto MY face just to get a reaction? The fact that Isabella fucking Crane knows more about what’s happening in MY pack than I do? ”
I shook my head, pacing the length of the bedroom because if I stood still I was going to start throwing things.
“Do you even think of me as Luna? As your partner? As someone who deserves to know when a dangerous woman who attacked me is running around free with access to our home and our children?”
“Of course I do!”
“Then why the hell don’t you act like it?
” I stopped pacing and faced him, all the fury crystallizing into something cold and hard.
“You treat me like a child, Knox. Like I’m too fragile to handle the truth.
Like I need to be protected from information that directly affects my life and the lives of our kids. ”
“That’s not what I-”
“That’s exactly what you did. You made a decision about what I could and couldn’t handle without consulting me.
Without giving me the choice. You decided that keeping me in the dark was better than trusting me to deal with reality.
” My voice cracked on the last word but I pushed through it.
“You don’t treat me like your equal. You treat me like a problem to be managed. ”
Knox’s jaw clenched. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair?” I laughed again, the sound ugly and raw.
“You want to talk about fair? Is it fair that I’ve been trapped in this house for weeks, thinking we were dealing with some random stalker, when the whole time you knew exactly who was behind it?
Is it fair that I had to find out from Isabella, of all people, that Mary escaped?
Is it fair that you looked me in the eyes every single day and kept this from me? ”
“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you everything.”
“THAT’S THE SAME FUCKING THING!”
My throat was starting to hurt from yelling. Good. Let it hurt. Physical pain was easier to deal with than this crushing weight in my chest.
“I asked you, Knox. That night in the hospital, I asked you what you and Hunt were hiding. I saw you two exchanging looks. I knew you were keeping secrets. And you told me it was nothing. You told me to trust you. You told me you’d handle it.”
“I was handling it.”