Runaway Luna: His Heir, Her Freedom

Chapter4

The Alpha Who Learned to Ride

Kael's POV

The whiskey burned going down, but I barely felt it. Five years, and nothing dulled the ache. Not alcohol. Not power. Not the blood I'd spilled building this empire from nothing.

I stood at the window of the Night Howl clubhouse, watching my men work on their bikes in the lot below. Thirty wolves, all sworn to me. All wearing my colors. All parts of something the old packs said were impossible.

But I have done it anyway.

"Boss." Marcus appeared in the doorway, his beta instincts still sharp even after all these years. "The prospect's back from Redwood. He's got something."

"Send him in."

A young wolf named Tommy shuffled into my office, nervous energy rolling off him in waves. He was new, still learning how to walk the line between the human world and wolf nature. Still learning that in Night Howl, we did both.

"Well?" I asked, not bothering to hide my impatience.

"I showed the photo like you said," Tommy started. "Most people didn't recognize her. But there was this one bartender, an older guy. He looked at it real long, then said he'd never seen her."

"And you believed him?"

"No, sir." Tommy swallowed hard. "His heartbeat jumped when he said it. And he wouldn't look me in the eye. He was lying."

Smart kid. "What else?"

"I hung around after my shift ended. Followed him home. He made a phone call from his car. I couldn't hear everything, but I caught a name. Aeryn."

The sound of her name hit me harder than it should have. Five years, and it still made my wolf howl inside my chest.

"Good work," I said. "Marcus will handle your reward. Now get out."

Tommy practically ran from the room. Marcus closed the door behind him and turned to face me.

"She's in Redwood," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Or nearby." I poured another whiskey, my hand steady despite the storm raging inside me. "Close enough that people there know her name. Close enough to find."

"What do you want to do?"

I stared down at the amber liquid in my glass. What did I want to do? The question had haunted me for five years. Since the night Aeryn had stolen my bike and vanished into the human world like smoke. The night I'd lost everything.

"Tell me about the boy again," I said.

Marcus shifted his weight. We'd had this conversation a dozen times, but he never complained. "Three separate sightings over the last six months. All describing the same thing. A dark-haired kid, maybe five years old. Unusual strength. Fast reflexes. One witness said they saw him jump off a playground structure that should have broken his legs. He landed fine."

"And the woman with him?"

"Matches Aeryn's description. She Is older now, harder looking. Rides with a human MC called the Iron Rogues. Goes by Blackvale, but no one knows her first name. She's got a reputation. Quiet and dangerous. She does not take disrespect from anyone."

That sounded like my Aeryn. My fierce, stubborn, impossible mate who'd chosen running over trusting me.

My wolf snarled at the thought. She was ours. The boy was ours. They'd been ours all along, and she'd hidden them from us.

"The timeline fits," I said, more to myself than Marcus. "If she was already pregnant when she left..."

"Then the boy is yours," Marcus finished. "Your heir. Your bloodline."

The surrogate's child had been stillborn. I'd watched them bury that tiny body and felt nothing except the cold certainty that I'd destroyed everything for nothing. Aeryn had left because of my decision to secure an heir, and the heir had died anyway.

The pack elders had pushed for another surrogate. I'd killed the last man who suggested it.

But if Aeryn had been pregnant. If she'd known and never told me. If my son was out there, being raised in the human world without a pack, without training, without his father...

My glass shattered in my hand. Blood welled up between my fingers, mixing with whiskey and broken crystal.

"Kael." Marcus moved forward, but I waved him off.

"I'm fine." I let the cuts heal, watching my skin knit back together in seconds. "How long until we can move on Redwood?"

"We need to be smart about this," Marcus said carefully. "The Iron Rogues are established. Got ties to other human MCs. If we go in aggressively, we'll start a war we don't need."

"I don't care about a war with humans."

"But you care about Aeryn," Marcus held my gaze. "And if we come in loud, she'll run again. You know she will. And this time, she'll know we're coming. She'll disappear completely."

He was right, and I hated it. I'd spent five years building Night Howl from nothing. Five years convincing wolves from different packs to abandon the old ways and ride with me. Five years proving that we could exist in the modern world, take territory, build power without hiding in the shadows like our fathers had.

The other packs called us traitors. Said we'd brought shame to our kind. But they also feared us. Fearing what we represented. Change. Evolution. A new way of being a wolf.

And all of it, every brutal mile, every bloody fight, every rule I'd broken, it had been to build something my son could inherit. Except I hadn't known I had a son.

"I want her back," I said quietly. "Both of them. Alive and unharmed."

"She might not come willingly," Marcus warned.

"She's my mate. My true mate. The bond didn't break just because she ran." I could still feel it sometimes, late at night when my guard was down. A pull toward the west. Toward her. "And the boy is mine. My blood. My heir. They belong with Night Howl. With their pack. With me."

"So this is a retrieval, not an execution."

"This is a retrieval," I confirmed. "But Marcus, if anyone tries to stop us, if anyone tries to keep them from me, I don't care what colors they wear. Human or wolf. I'll burn their world down."

Marcus nodded slowly. "I'll spread the word. Silent approach. We scout first, learn her routines, and find the best moment to make contact."

"No." I walked to my desk and pulled out a map, spreading it across the surface. Redwood City was circled in red. "We do this right. We move the whole club. Set up in their territory. Let them see us coming. Let them feel the pressure."

"That's the opposite of subtle."

"I don't want to be subtle," I traced the highway leading to Redwood with one finger. "I want Aeryn to know I never stopped looking. I want her to know that no matter how far she ran, I would always find her. Always."

"And if she fights?"

"She will fight." A smile touched my lips, cold and certain. "She's a Blackvale. Fighting is in her blood. But she's also mine. And deep down, past the anger and fear and betrayal, her wolf knows it. Her wolf remembers."

I looked up at Marcus, letting him see the alpha in my eyes. The predator who'd clawed his way to the top and stayed there through sheer will and violence.

"Gather the club," I ordered. "Full chapel. Tonight."

"What are you going to tell them?"

"The truth." I rolled up the map. "That we rode to Redwood at dawn. That we're bringing our Luna home. And that anyone who stands between Night Howl and what's ours will learn exactly why the other packs fear us."

Marcus left to gather the men. I stood alone in my office, my wolf pacing restlessly inside my skin.

Five years ago, I'd made a choice. Duty over love. Bloodline over bond. It had been the right choice for an alpha, or so I'd thought. But I'd been wrong. And that mistake had cost me everything.

Now I had a chance to fix it. To bring Aeryn home. To meet the son I'd never known existed. To build the family I should have protected from the start.

She would fight me. She would hate me. She might never forgive what I'd done. But she would come home.

They both would because the hunt wasn't just sanctioned anymore. It was inevitable. And this time, I wouldn't let anything stand in my way.