Rise Of The Fallen Luna

Chapter 7

••• Leicia's POV •••

I blinked, and blinked again.

Those light green eyes, golden-brown hair, and those features—the straight nose, sharp jaw, the dimple on his right cheek when he smiled…

Could it be…

My lips parted, and my breath caught in my throat. Recognition struck like thunder.

"Reinald?"

He gave a small smile, tentative and laced with something older than longing. "You finally recognize me."

"You… shaved."

He laughed—soft and warm. "I thought it was time to stop looking like I crawled out of a ditch, or a beggar, as Thyrius told me."

I laughed—and for a moment, it felt foreign on my tongue. When was the last time I laughed? I couldn’t remember. Although foreign, it also felt good. Real. The brothers’ relationship seemed like it hadn’t changed. Somehow, that grounded me.

I tilted my head and studied him. "You were the one I bumped into earlier."

He nodded slowly. "I was as surprised as you. I wanted to greet you, but you looked so tired. And I thought... maybe you didn’t want memories of me either."

I frowned. “Why would I want to forget you? We’ve been friends since childhood, Reinald.”

Behind me, Annisa cleared her throat and quietly stepped back, giving us space.

Reinald shifted closer but didn’t sit. His gaze swept over me carefully—like I was something fragile. Like blinking too hard would make me disappear.

"You’ve changed," he said.

"We both have," I murmured—the weight behind those words pressed into my chest.

He crouched slightly, and I caught the faint scent of pine and smoke on him. Familiar. Yet not.

"I’m sorry," he said. "I should’ve protected your family on the battlefield. And when I heard about…" He shook his head. “I should’ve come back. I should’ve been there for you through the hardest time in your life.”

I didn't speak right away.

What was the point of apologizing for a war we didn’t start?

But something about the way he said it—like he was still carrying that guilt, like the corpses haunted him too—made my chest tighten.

He moved to sit beside me. “How are you, anyway?”

The question caught me off guard. Not because of the words themselves, but because of the way he asked them. Genuinely. Quietly. Like he really wanted to know.

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

No one had asked me that in a long time.

Not really.

Yes, the Alpha Queen asked me if I was alright after the rejection, but no one had ever asked me in the way Reinald just did.

I blinked away the sting in my eyes and turned slightly, hoping he didn’t see.

“You don’t have to apologize,” I said, my voice low. “My dad and brothers went to the war zone willingly and died as heroes. My mom, our people… they weren’t your responsibility.”

The words sounded steady, but inside, I was cracking.

He sighed. “And you don’t need to act strong, Leicia.”

That nearly did it. The dam trembled, threatening to break.

If I didn’t act strong, I’d break. And if I broke, who would pick up the pieces?

I swallowed hard, then muttered, “Acting strong is the only way I can stay sane.”

He didn’t push.

“That’s because you were mated with a weak bastard,” he mumbled, and I turned to see his jaw tight.

“Sorry,” he added quickly, scratching his nose, expression sheepish, before turning serious again. “But seriously, Leicia, he doesn’t deserve you.”

I gave him a faint smile. “He doesn’t. And yes, your brother updated you, didn’t he?”

He nodded, but his eyes were stormy.

He didn’t say what I knew he wanted to say. And I appreciated that.

“I heard you are going to move back to the Dawn Guardians Pack?” he asked.

I nodded. “I’m already listing everything that’s mine. I’ll take them all with me. That place… it will be my home again.”

Reinald chuckled. “Matthew won’t know what hit him when you take everything.”

I chuckled too, softer this time. Let him reel. I didn’t care.

But my mind wandered.

Lydia. Emma. Hilda. They didn’t know what I knew. What the real burden of that pack meant. And I doubted Lydia would survive Hilda’s cruelty or vice versa.

Since she was a warrior, would she want to obey Hilda? To take care of her? To wash her and wipe her butt when she soiled herself on the bed since she couldn’t move by herself?

Well, it seemed Lydia might get the biggest surprise out of them all, then.

She thought being with Matthew would make her life comfortable, and she wasn’t wrong. But it would only happen if everything went according to their plan—that I’d willingly accept her as Matthew’s mistress and keep being his Luna.

Fat chance…

Reinald didn’t interrupt my thoughts. He just… sat there. Present.

Comfort silence. I hadn’t known what that felt like in a long time.

I glanced at him. Five years of being on the battlefield had chiseled him. Hardened him. But the light in his eyes—that gentle steadiness—was still there.

He carried pain, too. I could see it now. The quiet kind. The kind that lives in your bones.

This… This was how a warrior, a hero, should look. Unlike Matthew and Lydia, who strutted around and bragged about their achievements, as if the deaths of our allies didn’t matter.

We weren’t so different. Both carved by war. Different kinds, yet both still standing.

“War made him handsome,” Belle whispered in my mind.

I snorted inwardly. “Really, Belle? You are thinking of that? He’s a warrior, a hero, a survivor. That’s what matters.”

“I didn’t say it didn’t.” Her voice huffed. ”But come on, that jawline? Even grief didn’t dull that. And don’t tell me you are not thinking about it too.”

Before I could roll my eyes again, Reinald spoke.

“You know, if you want to stare, you can. I don’t mind.”

I stiffened. Heat crawled up my neck.

I rarely blushed. Ever. But this man had the audacity to tease me so casually, like we hadn’t both been through hell.

“You haven’t changed much,” I said dryly.

He winked. “Some parts of me haven’t. I just thought it would make you smile. I love seeing you smile.”

I smiled, reluctantly. This man… His tactic actually worked!

“There you go.” He nudged me lightly with his elbow. “As you said, we’ve been friends since childhood. We don’t have to be so serious or formal around each other. War only changed my outer appearance. Wait, actually, the five years were the ones that changed my appearance. Now I look old.”

“True.” I just agreed with him, laughing softly because we both knew he was just trying to make the atmosphere lighter. We both knew war had left scars on him, too, but he chose to comfort me indirectly instead.

I knew he didn’t want me to think of my rejection and divorce. He knew even though I didn’t love Matthew, being betrayed and severing a matebond would still hurt me and Belle. He knew how the lost of my family and pack members broke me.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

He c****d his head. “For what?”

I kept my smile and shook my head. He knew what I was thanking him for. I didn’t need to explain it to him.

“So…” He stretched his long legs. “What’s your plan for the rest of the day? I’m sure you don’t want to go back to that place so soon.”

It was true, I didn’t want to go back to the Whitemaw Tails Pack. Annisa and I had nearly finished with the list, so we still had time to go over it again before we moved.

I looked up at the sky. The horizon was painted in soft hues of peach and pink. Soon dusk would settle. I knew where I wanted to go, but I still hesitated.

Home was calling. The ruined one. The one painted with blood.

Would I have the strength to set foot on the place where my mother was murdered and the entire pack members were massacred, though?

But if I were going to move there soon, I would have to be able to do it. That’s why I wanted to visit my old pack so as not to freeze or be unable to live there after moving all my belongings.

I took a deep breath and finally told him, “I want to go to the Dawn Guardians Pack.”