Avenging Luna
Chapter 157: Unfolding Her Past

Chapter 157: Unfolding Her Past

Chase POV

Getting Leila’s full story had been harder than I anticipated. Wolves were notoriously protective of their own, and their territories were like fortresses to outsiders. But I wouldn’t be the Crown Prince of vampires if I didn’t have my ways. It took longer than I liked, but the documents I requested finally came through today.

After handling the day’s necessary duties and ensuring the palace was running smoothly, I retreated to my office. I locked the door behind me, knowing I needed time alone for this.

Sitting down at my desk, I opened the first file. It was thick, too thick, filled with records, testimonies, and the kind of details that made my blood simmer with rage. I only made it through the first few paragraphs before I realized I was gripping the edge of my desk so hard, the wood splintered under my fingers.

Her step-father—the Alpha of the Moonshine Pack.

The name alone made my fangs ache, but what I read next broke me in ways I wasn’t prepared for. A part of me wanted to storm out and confront her stupid step- father immediately—hell, I wanted to rip him apart before I’d even seen all the details—but first, I needed to know everything. I owed her that much.

"She was forbidden from playing with the other pups and never once allowed to call her parents ’mother’ or ’father.’ Instead, they were Luna and Alpha—nothing more, nothing less. To the world, she was just a lone pup the Alpha had rescued after her real parents were killed in a rogue attack. That was the lie she was made to live."

What kind of father does that? What kind of Alpha could be so twisted, so cruel? If Leila hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have believed it possible. Alphas were meant to protect their own, to nurture their pack and ensure every member felt safe and valued. Instead, the bastard had taken his mate’s child , hidden her existence, and treated her like nothing.

I kept reading, my rage boiling with every word.

"The day her younger brother was born was the day her world shattered completely. He was celebrated as the true firstborn, the future Alpha. The love and attention that should have been hers were showered upon him. Leila watched as her mother cradled him with tenderness, a tenderness she had never known."

My jaw clenched, my teeth grinding together painfully as I read that line. That woman—the one who had carried her, birthed her, was supposed to love her—had turned her back on her own daughter.

A mother who despises her child?

It made me sick.

Her step-father was a monster, but her mother? Her mother was worse. A betrayer. The bitterness and contempt she must have felt toward Leila reeked through the documents, the quiet testimonies from pack members who had witnessed her treatment. And why? Because Leila wasn’t truly her mate’s?

I slammed the document shut for a moment, trying to stop myself from going straight to the Moonshine Pack right then and there.

I had pieced it together.

It wasn’t because Leila was a girl. That was just the excuse they gave the pack, the lie they spun to mask their shame. Her real crime was her bloodline—her existence. The Alpha must have known that she wasn’t his child. Maybe he suspected, maybe he knew for certain. Either way, it explained everything.

It explained his hatred. It explained the cruelty. And it explained why her so-called mother despised her with such venom.

That woman must have looked at Leila every day and seen her past mistake—seen the man she loved and lost, or maybe abandoned. The guilt and hatred toward herself had manifested as cruelty toward her own daughter.

"As she grew older, Leila learned the twisted truth: firstborn Alphas were always male, destined to inherit the title and rule the pack. A female as the firstborn was unheard of, shameful even. Her father had hidden her identity out of fear and scorn, leaving her to be treated like an outcast by the pack."

Her childhood was a nightmare. They worked her to the bone, forced her to live like a servant in her own home. I could see her—tiny, hopeful, pushing herself to the breaking point just to earn a sliver of approval. And yet, they stripped her of even that.

"She tried to gain her father’s approval by training in secret, pushing herself to become strong, but when he found out, he forbade her from fighting and ordered her back to the chores."

That was the breaking point for me.

I stood up, shoving my chair back so hard it clattered against the marble floor. My hands curled into fists, and I felt my power pulsing through my veins, dark and furious. They had stolen her childhood. They had broken her spirit, made her believe she was less.

They didn’t deserve to live. None of them.

The Alpha. The Luna. The Beta and his mate. Every single pack member who turned their back on her. Who stood by and watched her suffer, who whispered their lies and let it happen.

If they thought their treatment of her would go unanswered, they were wrong.

I was going to burn that pack to the ground.

To make it was I wasn’t even half way yet, that was just her childhood!!

...

I slammed the file shut, breathing heavily as if I’d just finished fighting a battle, though the only war raging was within me. My hands shook with the raw fury coursing through me, and my knuckles whitened as I gripped the desk. What the hell is wrong with these people? I thought bitterly, my fangs aching to extend, my vision tinged with red.

The Moonshine Pack. The Blood Moon Pack. Alpha Vanvil. Her so-called mate. Every single one of them was worse than a monster. And yet, they dared to call us vampires "soulless creatures"? Bloodsuckers without hearts? Please. I’d take my dead heart over their twisted, blackened, beating ones any day.

What I had read wasn’t just cruelty—it was barbarity of the most inhumane kind. It was evil, plain and simple. I could hardly fathom that Leila had survived all of that, let alone endured it on her own. She’d been betrayed by her own flesh and blood, her people, handed over like she was nothing more than a piece of currency to settle a debt.

"Desperate, she begged her step-father not to send her away, promising she could be useful, but he dismissed her like she was nothing. In that moment, any hope she had left in her heart shattered. That was the moment Leila’s heart hardened. As she was handed over to Alpha Vanvil"

My nails dug into the wood as I reread the line. Her father—her Alpha—had dismissed her pleas. He’d looked into her eyes, into her desperation, and still turned his back on her. I couldn’t decide what was worse: his actions or the absolute nothingness he must have felt as he cast her away.

And then, there was Alpha Vanvil.

The name itself felt like venom in my mouth.

"Under Alpha Vanvil’s rule, she suffered tenfold. She was nothing more than a slave, forced to clean the entire packhouse and cook for the pack members without ever tasting the food she made. Most days, she survived on scraps or nothing at all. She bathed once a week, wore the same tattered clothes, and lived in the filthy basement among rats."

My hands trembled violently, and I could feel the darkness within me clawing its way to the surface.

A slave. They’d turned her into a goddamn slave. Made her live like vermin. Forced her to go hungry, to sleep on cardboard in filth, surrounded by rats. And no one lifted a hand to help her. Not one single person had looked at Leila and seen her suffering—seen the girl beneath the broken shell they had created.

The children of the pack had mocked her. Children. The innocent little beings who were meant to be pure-hearted had turned into twisted sadists under Vanvil’s rule. And the teenagers? Spitting on her, humiliating her, feeding their alpha lies just for the pleasure of watching her suffer.

They were no better than their leader.

"And Vanvil... he was the worst of them all. He forced her into the dungeons, making her torture prisoners as he loomed over her, reminding her that it was either their lives or hers. The first time, she wept as she spilled blood. The second time, her tears dried. By the third, she had learned to shut off her humanity entirely, becoming a hollow shell of the girl she once was."

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

The image of her—Leila—standing in the cold, damp dungeon with bloodied hands and haunted eyes filled my mind. She had been given no choice but to hurt others, to survive under a tyrant’s twisted games. She had to become hollow, numb—stripped of her innocence, her light, her hope—just to live another day.

I knew what it meant to shut off your humanity. Vampires learned that skill out of necessity when the world turned against us. But for her—a wolf, a creature who thrived on bonds and love—it was unthinkable.

And still, she had survived.

The woman I loved had clawed her way out of hell with nothing but the hatred burning in her heart and a thirst for vengeance to keep her alive. It made me proud—so damn proud—that she had killed that barbaric Alpha, but it didn’t calm the storm inside me.

Because nothing could erase what she had endured.

And as if that wasn’t enough, as if fate hadn’t already spat on her, she had been given a mate—a wolf who was supposed to be her salvation. A bond stronger than life itself. A promise of acceptance and love.

And that fool—Drake—had shattered it all.

The jerk. The pathetic excuse of an alpha.

"The guy was a fool to think he was regarded as a mighty Alpha. He mighty continue to lie to himself of how powerful he might be, but the guy was a stupid fool to reject his mate."

How could he have turned his back on her? How could he have chosen someone else—a manipulative, two-faced bitch—over the gift that the Moon Goddess herself had handed him? His mate. His true other half.

Drake’s betrayal wasn’t just stupidity—it was an insult to every wolf who longed for a mate and never found one.

And yet, because of him, Leila struggled to trust me. She questioned whether I would believe her over evidence. She doubted the strength of our bond. And all because that bastard was too blind to see what had been right in front of him.

He had hurt her.

For that alone, when I find him one day I’ll beat his ass so hard he wouldn’t remember his own name. He had failed her in every way imaginable.

But me? I wouldn’t fail her.

I wouldn’t let her down the way everyone else in her life had. Not her parents. Not the Moonshine Pack. Not Drake.

When I looked at her now, I didn’t see the broken girl they had tried to create. I saw the strongest, most resilient woman I had ever known.

And I would make damn sure she knew that, too.

I sat back down, exhaling deeply, though the fire inside me still burned. My mind spun with plans—plans for the Moonshine Pack, for the Blood Moon Pack, for any bastard who had ever hurt her.

I would avenge her.

I would show her that she wasn’t alone anymore.

And I would destroy anyone who dared to harm her again.

Let them call us bloodsuckers. Let them whisper their pathetic lies. They could keep their twisted, blackened hearts. I would gladly be a vampire with a dead heart if it meant I could love Leila the way she deserved to be loved—fully, completely, and without question.

I swore to myself right then and there that nothing would stop me from giving her the life she was robbed of.

Nothing.

But what made my blood rage even more was that she had survived it all—alone. Without help, without anyone by her side. She had carried that weight, those scars, for years. And she had grown stronger.

Leila wasn’t just my mate. She was a survivor. A fighter.

And I would never let anyone hurt her again.

I forced myself to calm down, pacing back and forth in the office, my boots echoing in the quiet space. I couldn’t storm out of here yet. I needed to think. Leila didn’t know I had these documents. Hell, she didn’t know I was digging into her past at all. And while part of me wanted to tell her what I’d found, I knew I couldn’t. Not yet.

She had already been through enough.

I couldn’t dump this on her—not until I had a plan. Not until I was certain those bastards would pay for what they’d done.

And they would pay.

I would make sure of it.

For now, I needed to be her strength. I needed to remind her that she wasn’t alone anymore, that she had me—and I would fight for her.

I sat back down, taking a deep breath, though the anger still simmered beneath the surface. I pulled the files closer again, flipping to the next page.

If I was going to bring hell to the Moonshine Pack, I needed every detail. Every name. Every sin they had committed against her.

And once I had everything...

I would unleash a storm they wouldn’t survive.

Leila might not want vengeance—but I did.

And nothing would stop me from getting it.