The Alpha's Regret: Return Of The Betrayed Luna

Chapter 325: Chapter 325 I Will Protect You

The old Zion she knew would never have cared about her feelings, much less tried to ease them. Yet now, hearing him struggle to reach her, she felt a small warmth flicker in her chest.

”Alright then... tell me what you meant about seeing Greg?” she quickly added, changing the subject before the heavy atmosphere could linger any longer.

Zion, without shifting their position, tightened his embrace and pulled her closer. ”When you asked me to scout the area for our temporary settlement, I sensed rogues sneaking near the border and decided to follow them.”

”That’s when I saw a familiar gray wolf, the same one who led hundreds of death warriors to trap us and drove us into the Forbidden Forest, where we found the black fairies and the light fairy.”

”He was there again, which made me suspect he was plotting something. But then... Greg appeared and met with him. They spoke about a master and some kind of plan. It was vague, guarded even, as if they were being careful not to reveal too much.” His voice dropped lower as his fingers absently threaded through Addison’s silky hair.

Addison nearly jolted out of Zion’s arms at his words, twisting around to face him. ”Greg?!” Her voice cracked, sharper and higher than she intended, while she was trembling in panic.

She had only just managed to calm herself earlier after hearing his name, yet now, to learn he had been there made her mind go flatline. Her thoughts scattered into nothing, leaving her stunned, breathless, and frozen.

Zion studied her face carefully, taking in the dazed look in her eyes, the faint tremor running through her body, and the way her lips quivered as if holding back words she couldn’t voice. His chest tightened, and he pulled her closer, wrapping her in his arms as if shielding her from the world.

”Don’t worry. This time, I’ll protect you from him... from anyone who dares to harm you. Don’t be afraid, Addie,” he murmured, his voice heavy with promise.

But even so, the shadow of Addison’s trauma was too deep, too consuming. Zion’s words, though sincere, couldn’t erase the memories etched into her soul. He had already failed her once, and for Addison, those scars remained raw, as vivid as if they had been carved only yesterday.

Forgiving might someday be possible, but forgetting? That was almost impossible.

”I will protect you with my life, I promise,” Zion whispered again, his voice barely above a breath. But inside his head, those words echoed endlessly, not to convince her, but to remind himself.

He had failed her once, because of his negligence, his blind bias, and he would never let it happen again.

This time, things would be different.

This time, no one would ever harm her like before.

The truth was, Addison wasn’t the only one scarred by what happened three years ago. Zion carried the same trauma, etched deep into his soul. Night after night, his dreams dragged him back into that dungeon, forcing him to watch as Greg and those pack members lashed Addison within an inch of her life.

In the nightmare, he was always there, helpless, trapped. His body felt like it was made of lead, too heavy to move. His mouth would open in a desperate scream, but no sound ever came. He would thrash, weep, and howl in silence, powerless as the woman he loved was broken before his eyes.

That torment never left him. Since the day he discovered what had happened and realized he couldn’t find her, those nightmares had haunted him relentlessly, a punishment for the mate he couldn’t protect.

At times, he had almost believed that Addison truly had died out there, that he simply couldn’t find her body. The darker part of his mind whispered worse possibilities: that her remains had long since been devoured by the beasts outside, or torn apart by rogues.

He refused to linger on such endings, but the nightmares and thoughts gnawed at him endlessly. It was because of them that Shura often slipped out of control, teetering on the edge of going feral.

And yet, deep inside, Zion never stopped believing that Addison was still alive somewhere. No, he knew she was alive.

That conviction was the only anchor that kept him from completely losing his sanity all these years. It was the reason he kept pushing himself to become the strongest Alpha, so that when the day came that he finally found her, he could protect her, make her happy, and atone for the sins of his past neglect.

He wanted to give her everything she deserved.

But as the years dragged on, and he couldn’t even find so much as a single strand of her hair, Shura’s episodes only grew longer, fiercer, more violent. At his worst, Shura nearly went on a full killing spree.

His own pack members lived in constant fear of him, weighed down by their guilt and regret for everything they had allowed to happen. As for those who had stood in the dungeon with Greg?

They never had the chance to regret anything. Shura had made sure of that, as it tore them apart slowly, painfully, torturing them in front of their families and loved ones. Their deaths were so excruciating that many begged Zion for a quick end, but mercy never came. Their families carried resentment in their hearts, but who was left for them to resent?

But even their resentment couldn’t compare to the pain Addison had endured during her torture. So, to those who dared resent him, Zion offered a choice: they could undergo the same hundred lashes Addison had suffered, but this time, their wolves needed to be restrained by silver cuffs and Wolfsbane, so it wouldn’t be able to help them heal throughout the whipping.

Afterward, he would allow them to take their revenge on him. Only then, he told them, would they begin to understand the unbearable pain Addison had been forced to endure without the protection of her wolf.

After hearing those conditions, none of them dared to resent Zion or Addison any longer. Deep down, they all knew the blame lay with them, and it was only natural for Zion to respond this way; after all, the one who had suffered was his Luna, his mate.

The truth was, they had assumed Addison would eventually fall out of favor, that she would be cast aside after Zion found his fated mate. None of them had stopped to consider the consequences of their neglect or the way they acted around Addison.

And when Zion spoke of enduring the hundred lashes under a silver whip with their wolves restrained, most understood what that meant: they would never survive to the end. Death would claim them long before the torture was over.

Just the thought alone silenced them, and one by one, they abandoned their resentment. After all, as members of the Midnight River Pack, it had been their duty to protect and honor their Luna. Instead, while Addison struggled tirelessly to restore their pack’s former glory, they had turned a blind eye, pretending not to see her sacrifices while also treating her badly.