As the night progressed and they made their way to the bonfire, Javrian found himself studying Luna with new eyes.
The moment Kael's dismissive words hit Luna, Javrian observed everything since earlier, from how he told Luna to escape to hug him and now having her in his arms. He felt her flinch.
"Don't intervene in our tribe's matters."
He watched Luna's face carefully – saw the exact moment she withdrew, that familiar emptiness creeping back into her expression.
The same hollow look she had worn in that bedroom when she had been ready to give up completely.
'They're shutting her out.'
These people who claimed loyalty to him were treating his chosen mate like a threat. Like her genuine curiosity was somehow dangerous instead of... what it actually was.
But Javrian was not going to console Luna, especially on this matter where she needed to take a stance he knew she normally did...
'She sees patterns others miss.'
Javrian had watched Luna operate since that first night. He had seen her collect evidence against Victor and had witnessed her read people with surgical precision. This woman's mind was a weapon sharper than the blades he carried into battle.
And now she was asking about Sally. About a mystery even to him as to why the betrayal came to them.
He was angry but naturally more curious for it coming from someone who had fought alongside him.
'What would you see that we couldn't?'
The decision formed without conscious thought.
If his pack wouldn't trust Luna with their pain, then he would.
If they couldn't recognize what he recognized – that brilliant, analytical mind that cut through deception like light through darkness – then he'd show them.
Not because he felt she was special, but simply because he felt she could.
Though she might this time need a push as he saw her slowly dozing off to sleep, knowing that, naturally, being not well known to her, she might not push more.
So, he initiated:
"The troops of the Empire attacked the remnants of our tribe."
He felt Luna go still against him as he began the story, but not with fear. With focus. That sharp attention meant she was absorbing every detail, cataloging every implication.
'Don't prove me wrong, Luna.'
As he revealed their betrayal, their loss, the systematic destruction of everything they had sworn to protect, he kept watching her face. Waiting to see if she'd react with the usual human responses – pity, horror, meaningless comfort.
Instead, he saw calculation.
When he finished with his test question – "Do you think that woman deserves forgiveness?" – Luna's response told him everything he needed to know.
"So exactly what happened that day? Tell me."
'Of course.'
Pride swelled in his chest. She wasn't accepting his version as complete truth. She wanted multiple perspectives, different angles on the same events.
'She's investigating. Looking for inconsistencies. Searching for truth we might have missed.'
When Lila tried to interrupt, trying to shut down Luna's inquiry, Javrian's response was immediate and absolute. One look silenced the silver-haired woman completely.
'Show me, Luna.' And as if wanting to hear her, wanting to feel her voice clearing the fog he couldn't see, he waited patiently, holding her in his embrace like a small firefly guiding the dark wolf through the forest.
As Vera told her version of events, Javrian found himself studying Luna's face with growing fascination. She was processing information, building a picture in that analytical mind, seeing connections they'd been too emotionally damaged to recognize.
And when she closed her eyes, appearing to sleep, he almost smiled.
'What did you find, Luna? What truth are you about to reveal?'
Then came the words that shattered everything:
"So Sally, you sacrificed tribe members to save Javrian and the other warriors' lives?"
The question hit him as his curiosity on that never-changing stoic face came as a frown. His mind reeled as implications crashed over him in waves.
'Sacrificed... to save...'
Around the fire, his pack looked stricken. But Javrian's attention was entirely on Luna as she began dismantling their past with surgical precision.
"Think about it logically. Sally was your interrogator..."
Each word hit like a hammer blow. The tactical analysis, the strategic implications, the terrible mathematics of survival that Sally had calculated while they'd been blinded by emotion.
Total extermination versus saving the core fighting force.
The realization crushed years of hatred beneath its weight.
All this time, all these years of rage and betrayal... Sally had made the hardest choice imaginable, then lived with their hatred rather than burden them with the truth.
'She let us hate her rather than hate ourselves for surviving.'
Javrian stared at Luna as she finished her analysis, then turned away to bury her face against his chest.
Unbeknownst to her or anyone, there was a small fleeting smile on the face of the man, who inhaled the sweet and soothing fragrance enhanced by his body heat, before breathing softly.
He was calm and confused as to why, just within a short time, he was expecting her to not disappoint him as if her mistake would feel personal.
He couldn't say with confidence if it was what he called love, but he knew she was his mate; she mirrored him and his deepest sides even he didn't see, and finally she was making his mind calm by being near him.
Looking at her cheeks, visible with her nose and lips grazing his biceps, he just wanted to shake her and kiss her and tell her he was proud of her.
Simply because Javrian watched the transformation ripple through his pack. Lila's legs gave out as understanding crashed over her. Vera's face crumpled with guilt and grief. Even Kael looked shaken to his core.
And Sally... Sally was crying.
Real tears, not the bitter defiance she'd shown before, but the deep, wrenching sobs of someone whose burden had finally been acknowledged.
Javrian felt something shift in his chest as he watched Vera slowly move toward Sally, her own eyes wet with unshed tears. Kael followed, then Darius.
Even Lila, after a long moment, crawled forward to place a hesitant hand on Sally's small wolf form.
His pack was healing. Because of Luna.
Everything was not right, but at least there was a moment of peace between them, like a drop of water for one in the desert—might seem less, but to the one who knows how desperate they were for even a single drop, it's enough.
'She's an extraordinary woman,' he thought, looking down at the woman dozing in his arms, her peace affecting him as he had never felt something like this for any woman—he felt these feelings for her maybe slowly sprouting, but progress was clearly... '... suspicious.'
But he had no idea how.
"You all sleep," he said quietly, his voice carrying the gentle authority they recognized. "I'll take first watch."
He rose carefully, making sure not to disturb Luna, and carried her toward a cluster of trees at the edge of their camp.
She stirred slightly, those crimson eyes opening to peer up at him with sleepy confusion.
"Sleep," he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "You're safe."