The Alpha's Regret: My Rejected Luna's Revenge

Chapter 7: The Truth Revealed

The plate I had been holding slipped from my fingers and shattered on the tile floor.

Coffee splattered across my shoes, but I didn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything except the sudden, violent surge of the mate bond—damaged, rejected, yet still alive—roaring through my veins like wildfire at the sight of him standing in the doorway.

Mateo.

He looked different from the man I had fled five months ago. His black hair was longer, tousled as if he’d been running his hands through it for days. His jaw was shadowed with stubble, his golden eyes haunted by dark circles. The expensive leather jacket he wore was dusted with snow, and beneath it his broad shoulders seemed tense, coiled, as though ready to fight or flee at any moment.

But it was his gaze that stole my breath.

Those piercing golden eyes dropped from my shocked face to the unmistakable swell of my belly beneath the apron, and every ounce of color drained from his skin.

“Camila,” he said again, voice cracking on my name like broken glass.

The diner was empty—closing time, no customers left—but the silence felt deafening. Snow swirled in through the open door behind him before he stepped fully inside and closed it with a quiet click.

I backed up instinctively, one hand cradling my stomach protectively. “How did you find me?”

He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze stayed fixed on my belly as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Slowly, almost fearfully, he took a single step forward.

“Is it…” His throat worked. “Is it mine?”

The question hung in the air between us, raw and fragile.

I wanted to lie. I wanted to tell him no, that I had moved on, that someone else had given me the happiness he never would. But the words wouldn’t come. Not when the bond pulsed with truth, not when his wolf would scent the lie instantly.

“Yes,” I whispered finally. “It’s yours.”

A shudder ran through his powerful frame. His eyes closed for a long moment, jaw clenched so tight I thought it might break. When he opened them again, they were glassy with unshed tears.

“A son?” he asked, voice barely audible.

I nodded once. “A boy.”

Something between agony and wonder crossed his face. He took another step, then another, until only the counter separated us. His hand lifted as if to reach for me, but he stopped himself, fingers curling into a fist.

“Camila… why didn’t you tell me?”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “Tell you? So you could reject him the same way you rejected me? So the pack could decide his fate while I was pushed aside again?”

His head snapped back as if I’d slapped him. “I would never—”

“You already did,” I cut in, voice trembling with five months of pent-up pain. “You chose Isabella. You chose strength. You told me I was weak, that I wasn’t suitable. You sent me away the morning after…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. The memory of his tender touch turning cold still hurt too much.

Mateo flinched, guilt etching deep lines around his eyes. “I was wrong,” he said quietly. “I was so wrong.”

I shook my head, tears threatening. “It’s too late for sorry.”

“It’s not,” he insisted, voice rough. “I’ve spent every day since you left searching for you. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. The bond… it was killing me slowly. Rex wouldn’t shift back for weeks—he wanted his mate. I thought…” He swallowed hard. “I thought if I let you go, you’d be safer. Happier without the pack’s judgment. Without me dragging you into wars and politics you never asked for.”

I stared at him, chest tight. “And now?”

“Now I know I was a coward,” he said, the confession raw. “I thought rejecting you was noble. Protecting you from a life that would chew you up. But all I did was break us both.”

His gaze dropped to my belly again, softening in a way that made my heart ache. “And I left you alone… pregnant… running from rogues…”

He stepped around the counter slowly, giving me every chance to stop him. I didn’t move. Couldn’t.

When he was close enough, he sank to his knees in front of me—slowly, reverently—until his face was level with my stomach. The future Alpha of the Eclipse Pack, the most powerful wolf I’d ever known, knelt on the greasy diner floor without hesitation.

His large, trembling hand hovered near my belly. “May I?”

I hesitated, then nodded.

The moment his palm made contact—warm, gentle—something inside me shattered. A soft gasp escaped me as the baby kicked hard, as if recognizing his father’s touch.

Mateo’s eyes widened. A single tear slipped down his cheek.

“He knows me,” he whispered in awe.

Another kick, stronger this time. Mateo let out a broken laugh, pressing his forehead lightly against the swell.

“I’m sorry,” he said against my sweater, voice muffled. “I’m so sorry, little one. I didn’t know. I would have come sooner. I would have protected you both.”

He looked up at me then, golden eyes shining with tears and desperation.

“And I’m sorry to you, Camila. For every cruel word. For the rejection. For letting pride and fear make my choices. I thought I was doing the right thing for the pack, but the pack means nothing without you. You are my mate. The only Luna I’ve ever wanted.”

My throat burned. “You chose Isabella.”

“I never marked her,” he said fiercely. “I couldn’t. The bond wouldn’t let me. She knew it. The elders knew it. After you left, everything fell apart. Rogue attacks worsened. Alliances crumbled. I couldn’t lead. I couldn’t think. All I could do was search for you.”

He rose slowly to his feet, but stayed close, hands gentle on my arms.

“I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” he said quietly. “I don’t deserve another chance. But I’m begging for it anyway. For you. For our son. Let me make this right.”

I searched his face, looking for any sign of deceit. There was none—only raw, aching honesty.

“I can’t go back,” I said finally. “Not to the pack. Not to the way things were.”

“Then we’ll leave,” he said without hesitation. “We’ll go anywhere you want. Start over. Just the three of us.”

I shook my head, tears spilling over. “You’re the future Alpha. You can’t abandon your people.”

“I can if they won’t accept my true mate and my child,” he said firmly. “You are my people now. You and Luca.”

My breath caught. “You… you know the name I chose?”

He gave a small, sad smile. “I heard you whisper it once, in your sleep, the night we… I never forgot.”

Silence stretched between us, heavy with possibility.

I wanted to believe him. Goddess help me, I wanted it more than air.

But trust, once broken, didn’t mend easily.

“I need time,” I said at last.

He nodded immediately. “As much as you need. I’ll wait. I’ll prove myself every day if that’s what it takes.”

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small velvet box. My heart stuttered.

Inside was a delicate silver necklace—a crescent moon pendant with a tiny wolf charm.

“I had it made the week after you left,” he said softly. “I carried it everywhere, hoping one day I’d get to give it to you. A promise that I’d never take the moon—or you—for granted again.”

He didn’t try to put it on me. Just held it out.

I took it with shaking fingers, the metal cool against my skin.

Outside, snow began to fall harder, blanketing the world in quiet white.

Inside the diner, two broken pieces of a bond hovered on the edge of healing.

But some wounds needed more than promises to close.

And some choices, once made, changed everything forever.