Reclaiming My Broken Luna by Selene Souchon

| Chapter 280: Velaris Killian's POV "Alpha, what should we do?" Ryder's voice pulledback from the brink of my spiraling thoughts.

His eyes bore into mine, tense with the weight of what we had just discovered. "What Giselle did... it's worse than treason. We have proof of her betrayal. How should we deal with her?" My heart raced, but I forced myself to stay calm. "Don't alert her just yet," I said firmly, my voice cutting through the tension like a knife.

Ryder looked at me, his eyes flickering with protest. "But, Alpha-" I raised a hand to stop him, my voice low but unyielding. "We're barely scratching the surface, Ryder. If Giselle could pull something like this off for years, then we're dealing with something much bigger. There's more to this than we realize." His jaw clenched as he tried to rein in his frustration, but I could see he understood. "You think there's more she's hiding?" I let out a slow breath, the weight of my next words heavier than I wanted to admit. "Yes, Ryder. I do. I've been thinking about what happened years ago... that night I slept with someone I couldn't remember. I've been trying to piece it together, but it never made sense." I paused, meeting his gaze. "Until now." Ryder frowned, confused. "What are you saying, Alpha?" I ran a hand through my hair, the frustration bubbling up. "That night... I thought I was just drunk. I thought the headache, the blacking out - it was all from the alcohol. I drank too much, and I thought that was it." I hesitated, the words difficult to force out. "But after what happened last night, I'm starting to think it wasn't just the alcohol back then. I wasn't just drunk, Ryder. I think I was drugged.' It was the only way to make sense of it. Even if I was just drunk, I would have still known what I was doing. I would also still be able to remember things than to be left with completely nothing.

Ryder's expression shifted to one of alarm. "Drugged? What makes you think that?" I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a tense whisper. "Last night, on my date with Giselle... I didn't drink. I stayed sober on purpose, but I still felt the sway- dizzy, disoriented, and filled with heat. It was like my mind was slipping, like it was being clouded and my body is starting to have a mind of its own. The sway it felt that night years ago." Ryder's eyes widened as the realization hit him. "You think Giselle drugged you? Both then and now?" I nodded slowly, the weight of the truth sinking. "Yes. There's a plant called Velaris. It's rare, but it has the power to cloud someone's mind, to make them feel disoriented and feel a sexual desire at the stime. It would explain why I coappened remember anything that happened that night." Ryder's face darkened, his fists clenching at his sides. "Velaris... that's dangerous stuff. If Giselle's been using it on you—" "She's been using it," I cut in, my voice sharp. "I didn't want to believe it, but the pieces are starting to fit together. She wantedto think it was alcohol back then, and I was too blind to see the truth." Ryder's jaw tightened, his anger barely contained. "So she drugged you to manipulate you into thinking you slept with her. That's how she convinced you Ryker was hers." "Exactly," I said, my voice hard. "It all makes sense now. She neededto believe it was her I slept with. I woke up beside her that morning, and I assumed... I assumed the worst. But I couldn't remember a thing." My fists clenched, the memory of that night now tainted by the truth. "She's been playing this gfor years, Ryder. And I fell for it." Ryder stepped closer, his eyes filled with righteous fury. "What do you want to do, Alpha? We can't let her get away with this." "We won't," I replied, my voice low but cold. "But we have to be smart about it. If Giselle's been using Velaris on me, then there's no telling how far her manipulation goes. She's more dangerous than we thought." Ryder's gaze hardened. "Do you wantto gather more evidence? We can look into her connections, find out where she's getting the Velaris." "I've been thinking about it so much.

How could she execute all this

things? Where did she get that Velaris and who is the person helping her to do all this. I refused to believe that she only did this by herself." My brows furrowed as I wondered about it, my mind already racing with the possibilities.

"Think about it. If she successfully convincedand everyone everyone else that she was Ryker's mother, then what else could she be capable of?" I voiced out my thoughts. Ryder fell silent as he considered my words.

"There are still things that don't make any sense. How did she even got hold of Ryker and What happened to her real child, the one she was carrying? There's so many questions that we can't leave unanswered," I pointed out to him.

Ryder slowly nodded his head and his expression darkened as the implications of my words sank in. "So, what do we do?"

"We play this carefully," I said, my voice deadly calm. "We can't let her m know we're onto hex Not yet. If she realizes we're digging into this, she'll cover her tracks, and we'll never find the truth. We need to know what really happened before we make a move."