Chapter 268: It's Not Perfect But It's Ours

XENOIS   "Lake is under our protection," Lumina said firmly. "We made that clear when we agreed to bring him with us. Anyone who has a problem with that will have to go through both of us."   Her certainty steadied me somewhat. Lumina had always been the stronger one emotionally, the one who could face difficult situations with grace and determination while I floundered. It was one of the many reasons I'd fallen in love with her, even if it had taken magical intervention to make me remember that love.   "What if they challenge us?" I asked, voicing my deepest fear. "What if the elders decide we've been gone too long, that we've failed in our duties as alpha and luna?"   "Then we deal with it," Lumina said simply. "Together. The way we should have been dealing with everything from the beginning."   She was right, of course. The years under Sophia's spell, when I'd believed I was in love with her while neglecting my actual mate and son, had created fractures in our pack's foundation. Fra