Alpha King Chases Abandoned Luna

Chapter 373

(Third person's POV)

As Ethan Stone hesitated, just as Victoria Frost expected, he was moved by

Emma's tearful pleas and stopped to look down at her. Seeing his attention,

Emma's tears intensified, her swollen red eyes filled with longing and dependence

as she clung to Ethan's leg.

She reached out to him with her small hands, her voice breaking with desperation.

"Daddy, Emma really knows she was wrong, please don't abandon Emma."

"Without Daddy, my classmates bully me. Look, they beat me all over. Daddy, it

hurts so much." Her wolf pup whimpered pitifully beneath her skin, projecting

distress pheromones that would normally trigger any Alpha's protective instincts.

The scent of her fear and pain filled the air around them. Emma's small body

trembled as she pressed closer to Ethan's leg, seeking the comfort and protection

she had always received from him.

When Ethan did not immediately comfort her, Emma pulled open her jacket with

shaking hands. She revealed the tattered Crescent Moon Academy uniform

underneath and the bruises and welts marring her pale skin.

These visible wounds were her trump card. She remembered how, in the past,

whenever she was bullied, her father figure would defend her fiercely.

He would punish those who hurt her and their families through his Alpha authority.

She recalled the tenderness with which he had once soothed her after an incident

at the Silvercrest Pack Medical Den.

He had promised to acknowledge her as his true daughter despite the lack of

Ethan's

believe he would cast her

a childish act of

convinced herself her Alpha father was only acting out

and he would soften upon seeing her

Daddy," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Emma

as he took in the severity of her injuries. His

protective instincts, the

ancient Alpha responses.

in a low, controlled voice, "Why did your classmates beat

saw that Emma had no

so they bullied me for no reason."

of a child who had learned to manipulate

frigid, his Alpha aura growing cold. He realized that

unaware of her own culpability, presenting only the

his sympathy.

the fact that she herself was also a perpetrator. With

his leg away, his wolf rejecting

with a small cry

beneath

looked up

her wolf pup's

going unanswered. She

understand

concern

not help her

her had fundamentally

the truth about Lily's

everything shifted.

past indulgence had made

tormented her classmates with impunity

turned into someone

shelter. The accounts

haunted him now.

she had beaten classmates bloody, forced them to kneel and

she made them crawl under

head into a toilet.

he had enabled a little monster. The more he hated himself for

the more he

skilled at pretense, just like