Banished Luna Returns with Sextuplets

3

Markus

The night felt endless. My wolf would not settle. He kept pacing inside me, growling and whining at the same time. One minute he wanted to tear everything apart. The next minute he wanted to run back to our room and hold Felicia until the pain went away. But the pictures and the guard’s words would not leave my head.

Mason walked beside me in silence as we headed down to the dungeons beneath the palace. The air grew cold and damp the deeper we went. Torches flickered on the stone walls, casting long shadows. I could already smell blood and fear.

The guard was chained to the wall, his face swollen and bruised from the torture my warriors had given him all evening. When he saw me, his eyes widened with fresh terror.

I stopped right in front of him. My voice came out low and rough. “Let me ask you one more time. Did you sleep with my mate?”

The guard’s lips trembled. He looked down at the dirty floor, then back at me. Tears mixed with the blood on his face.

“I’m sorry, Alpha,” he whispered. “The Luna… she forced herself on me. I swear I tried to stop her, but she kept coming to me. She said she needed comfort because you were always busy with pack business.”

Every word felt like a knife twisting in my chest. The little hope I had been holding onto — the tiny voice that said maybe the pictures were fake or misunderstood — died right there.

The guard kept talking, his voice shaking. “She told me she was planning something bigger. She said once she got rid of you, she would take over the pack. That’s why she refused to get pregnant all these years. She didn’t want your heir. She wanted to rule alone.”

My knees almost gave out. I grabbed the iron bars to steady myself. Felicia? My sweet Felicia who smiled at me every morning and kissed me goodnight? The woman I had defended against the whole pack? She wanted me dead?

How could the mate I loved so much — the one I thought loved me back — do this to me?

I felt my heart breaking into pieces. The bond between us, the golden thread I had always felt in my chest, now felt like it was on fire. Every memory of her laughter, her gentle touch, her tears when the pack called her barren… it all turned sour in my mind.

Mason stood behind me, quiet. I could feel his worry through the pack link, but I blocked him out. This was between me and the traitor who had shared my bed.

The guard finished his confession, sobbing now. “Please, Alpha… have mercy. I didn’t want any of it.”

I looked at him for a long moment. My wolf surged forward, demanding blood. This man had touched what was mine. He had listened to my mate talk about killing me. There was no mercy left in me.

In one swift move, I shifted my hand into claws and slashed across his throat. He made a gurgling sound and slumped in the chains. Blood poured onto the stone floor. I felt nothing but cold satisfaction.

“He touched what belongs to his Alpha,” I said quietly to Mason. “No one touches my mate and lives.”

Mason nodded, but his eyes were troubled. “Alpha… are you sure about all this?”

I turned away. “The guard confessed. The pictures don’t lie. What more do I need?”

We walked out of the dungeon in silence. My mind was spinning. I could not sleep that night. I sat on the roof of the palace, staring at the moon. The Goddess was watching, but she offered no answers. I replayed every moment of the last five years. Had I missed the signs? Had Felicia been pretending all along?

By the time the sky turned gray with dawn, I had made my decision. It hurt more than any wound I had ever received in battle, but I had to protect my pack.

I mind-linked every pack member.

Gather at the pack grounds at dawn. There will be an important announcement. No one is to be absent.

I felt their curiosity and worry ripple back through the link, but I said nothing more.

When the sun rose, the entire Bluestone Pack had gathered in the large open field. Hundreds of wolves stood together — warriors, elders, mothers with pups, servants. The air buzzed with whispers. I stood on the raised platform at the front, dressed in my formal alpha clothes. My face felt like stone.

Felicia was there too. She stood at the very edge of the crowd, pale and shaky. Her eyes were red from crying. She kept looking at me with so much pain and confusion that it almost broke me again. But I remembered the guard’s words. I remembered the pictures. I hardened my heart.

I raised my hand, and the whole pack fell silent.

“Bluestone Pack,” I began, my voice loud and clear so everyone could hear. “Today I stand before you with a heavy heart. Our Luna, Felicia, has committed treason against me and against this pack.”

Gasps rose from the crowd. People turned to stare at Felicia. Some looked shocked. Others looked almost pleased, like they had been waiting for this day.

I continued, forcing the words out even though they burned my throat. “She betrayed our mating bond. She plotted with a guard to take my life so she could rule the pack alone. She never wanted to give me an heir. All this time, while I defended her, while I stood by her side against every cruel word, she was planning my death.”

Felicia’s face went completely white. She shook her head slowly, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Markus… no,” she whispered, but her voice was lost in the growing noise of the pack.

Murmurs turned into angry shouts. “Traitor!” someone yelled. “Barren Luna was never good enough!” another voice added. Bianca, my sister, stood near the front with a small, satisfied smile on her face.

I raised my hand again for silence.

“I, Markus, Alpha of the Bluestone Pack, hereby banish you from this pack and strip you of your title as Luna.”

The words left my mouth and hung in the morning air like a death sentence.

Felicia staggered back a step, one hand flying to her stomach again. Her eyes met mine across the distance, wide with disbelief and raw pain. The mating bond between us pulled tight, sending sharp agony through my chest. My wolf howled inside me, mourning what we were destroying.

But I did not take the words back.

The pack erupted into noise — some cheering, some shouting in shock. I stood tall on the platform, fists clenched at my sides, while inside I felt like I was dying.

This was the end of us.