Rejected And Reborn As The Alpha King's Luna

Chapter 54: Blood Lies

POV: Xavier

Something was wrong with my mind. I stood in my room at the Silver Moon pack, staring at my reflection in the mirror. The face looking back at me was familiar, but the person behind it felt like a stranger. There were gaps in my thoughts, moments where I reached for memories that should exist but found nothing.

It was like walking through a house and discovering entire rooms had been sealed off. I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to force the memories to surface. Nothing. Just a dull ache and a profound sense of loss I couldn't explain.

My eyes fell on the sketch I'd drawn, the woman with golden eyes. Thelma. According to Theo, she'd been my mate. We'd loved each other. But when I tried to remember her touch, her voice, her laugh, there was only emptiness.

Someone had taken those memories from me. The Oracle, Theo said. To save my life.

But why would memories be dangerous? I turned away from the mirror and grabbed the leather journal I'd started keeping. Inside were notes, observations, anything that might help me piece together what I'd lost. I'd been investigating myself like a mystery, trying to find clues in the fragments that remained.

And I'd found something disturbing.

There were gaps in older memories too, inconsistencies that had nothing to do with Thelma. Moments from my childhood that didn't quite add up. I remembered my mother, beautiful and sad, always seeming distant from Damien. I remembered Damien treating me with a coldness that went beyond typical Alpha strictness. I'd always assumed he was just disappointed I wasn't strong enough, fierce enough, Alpha enough.

But what if it was something else? I flipped through my journal to the page where I'd written down dates. My birthday, my parents' wedding anniversary. I'd checked the pack records this morning, cross referencing everything.

The numbers didn't match. According to official records, I was born seven months after my parents' wedding. Seven months, not nine. Either I was premature, or my mother had been pregnant before the wedding.

My hands trembled as I turned to the next page where I'd copied down another record. A healer's note from around the time of my conception, mentioning my mother had been treated for injuries after an "incident" with a visiting Alpha.

Elder Thorne had visited Silver Moon pack exactly nine months before I was born. The pieces fell into place with sickening clarity. I shoved the journal into my jacket and stormed out of my room. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

I found Damien in his office, reviewing documents for tomorrow's trial. He looked up as I entered, his expression already guarded like he knew what was coming.

"Xavier. You should be resting. Tomorrow will be difficult."

"Am I your son?" I asked bluntly.

The question hung in the air between us. Damien's face remained carefully neutral, but something flickered in his eyes. Something like pain, or maybe relief that the secret was finally out.

"Biologically?" Damien set down his papers slowly. "No."

The confirmation hit me like a physical blow even though I'd expected it. I gripped the edge of his desk to steady myself.

"How long have you known?"

"Since before you were born." Damien stood, moving to the window with his back to me. "Your mother came to me in tears, pregnant with another man's child. Elder Thorne had forced himself on her during his visit. She begged me to claim you as mine, to protect her from the shame and you from being known as a bastard."

Forced himself. Rage flooded through me, hot and consuming.

"He r***d her."

"Yes." Damien's voice was flat. "And I agreed to raise you as my heir. I married your mother, gave you my name, my pack. I tried to love you like my own son."

"Tried," I repeated bitterly. "But you couldn't, could you? That's why you've always looked at me like I was a disappointment. That's why you sent me to infiltrate the Tee pack, knowing it was a suicide mission."

Damien turned, his face haggard. "I never wished you dead, Xavier. But you're right, I couldn't love you the way a father should. Every time I looked at you, I saw what Thorne did to your mother. I saw her pain, her violation. You weren't my son, you were a constant reminder of my own powerlessness."

"So you resented me for existing." The betrayal cut deeper than I expected. "You raised me without love because of something that wasn't my fault."

"I did my duty," Damien said. "I gave you everything, a home, a name, a future. But love, that I couldn't force."

I wanted to scream, to rage, to tear the room apart. But underneath the anger was something worse. A profound loneliness that had apparently been with me my entire life.

"Does Thorne know I'm his son?"

"Yes. I told him years ago, hoping he'd take some responsibility. He refused to acknowledge you. Said you were the product of a moment's weakness and not his concern."

A moment's weakness. That's what my existence was to my biological father. And to the man who'd raised me, I was an unwanted burden.

"The trial," I said slowly, pieces clicking together. "Thorne is pushing hardest for Thelma's execution. He's the one demanding the death penalty."

"Yes."

"Why? What does he gain from her death?"

Damien hesitated, then sighed. "Thorne wants to consolidate power. He sees Alphas like your sister Thelma as threats to the established order. If he can eliminate her publicly, legally, it sends a message to other potential threats. It's politics, Xavier. Cold and brutal."

My sister. The woman I couldn't remember loving. The woman who sat in a cell right now, facing execution, while my biological father orchestrated her death.

"I'm going to stop him," I said.

"You can't. Thorne is Council. He has power you can't imagine."

"Watch me."

I left Damien's office, my mind reeling. Everything I'd believed about myself, my family, my place in the world, all of it was built on lies.

But there was one truth I could still hold onto. Whatever I'd lost, whatever memories had been taken, I knew right from wrong. I knew justice from politics. And I wouldn't let Thorne murder an innocent woman to serve his agenda.