Chapter One — The Substitute

Chapter One — The Substitute

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ARIA'S POV

There have always been two versions of Crescent Stone.

The one the world saw.. strong, unbreakable, carved into the mountains like it had grown from the stone itself.

And the one I knew … a place where footsteps carried stories, where silence whispered, and where people like me learned to disappear.

I clung to that quiet world. It was the only place I ever fit.

Which was why, when the warriors began moving through the halls like soldiers preparing for war, I knew my world was ending — I just didn’t know how.

I stayed late in the library again. Old books smelled of dust and peace, and I liked pretending that if I traced the faded ink long enough, I might belong to the stories. Omegas didn’t belong anywhere else. We were… background. Useful, invisible.

Safe.

But tonight, the air felt wrong. Electric. Tight.

Boots echoed down stone corridors. Commanding voices murmured low, clipped. Wolves didn’t sound like that unless something terrible had cracked the ground beneath us.

I tried to steady my breath, pressing a history volume to my chest like a shield. If I stayed still enough, small enough, maybe the storm would pass me by.

It didn’t.

“Aria.”

Beta Markus stood in the doorway.

He has never said my name like that. Not sharp. Not urgent. Not with that tone.

“The Alpha wants to see you.”

My fingers stiffened around the book. “Me?”

“Yes.” His jaw tightened. “Now.”

I dropped the book on the table and followed him out of the library.

The corridors felt longer than they had ever been, shadows stretching like they meant to swallow me. Torches flickered. The scent of worry… metallic and bitter ,hung in the air.

The doors to the Alpha's house were being opened, which was very rare because they are barely opened for people like me.

The doors to the war room were open..

Inside, Alpha Kieran stood at the head of the table.

Warrior. Leader. Storm wrapped in skin.

He looked carved out of restraint, jaw hard, shoulders rigid, eyes cold enough to burn. His presence filled the room, brushing against my nerves like static.

He didn’t lift his gaze right away.

Someone else might have mistaken that for calm.

I knew better.

He stood up, taking long steps towards me.

He was right in front of me,close… too close.

“You really do look a lot like her… how is this even possible” he whispered, staring deep into my eyes as though he was searching for something, anything to prove that I was fake .

“Alpha… you sent for me?” I asked, snapping him back to reality.

“Luna Selene is gone,” he said.

Just words.

But they split the room open.

Gone.

Luna. His mate. The woman the Moon itself had chosen. How is that even possible?

My lips parted. I didn’t speak. I didn’t breathe.

He continued, voice like steady iron.

“Until she is found, the pack must remain unaware of her dissappearance. Our enemies must not sense weakness.”

I swallowed. My instinct was obedience. Always had been.

“I—I understand.”

His gaze finally lifted to mine.

Cold silver. Sharp. Measuring.

“No,” he said quietly. “You don’t.”

Something inside me curled tight.

He studied my face for a long, unsettling moment. Not like a man looking at a woman, but like a commander selecting a weapon.

And then he stroked..

“You will take her place.”

My world tilted.

“What?” The word scraped out.

“You will act as Luna.. My luna.”

My lungs forgot how to work.

“That’s impossible,” I whispered. “I’m not— I’m just—”

“A substitute,” he finished. Calm. Final.

Heat bloomed behind my ribs — shame and fear tangled together.

Because it was true.

I was an omega. A nobody.

An orphan the pack had taken in when no one else would. A girl who shelved books and made herself small. I didn’t matter enough to ruin anything — which was, apparently, exactly what made me useful.

“I can’t,” I said, barely a sound.

“Yes,” he murmured stepping closer, not loud, not harsh, but absolute. “You can…. And you will.”

The space between us tightened.

His voice softened — which somehow made it worse.

“You will be under my protection” he promised. “But from this moment on…. you ..belong…to me.” he said, raising my chin up harshly.

Belong.

It didn’t sound romantic.

It sounded like the lock sliding into place.

“I don’t even understand why,” I whispered.

His jaw clenched.

“Because the luna vanished weeks after our union, the Elders will question my strength. Other packs will test our borders. Rogue factions will sense weakness. Crescent Stone bleeds when leaders falter. I will not allow that to happen.”

His words were steel and then he said the part that hurt.

“You look enough like her to quiet suspicion”

He hesitated.

“You owe this pack.”

He didn’t have to say it.

I already know

This place fed me. Sheltered me. Protected the girl no one else had wanted.

And now it wanted payment.

He stepped closer still…close enough that I could smell winter on his skin. Close enough that his intensity wrapped around me like cold water.

“You will stay here,” he continued, firm. “In my wing. You will not leave the palace grounds. Not for the next two days.”

My heart lurched. “Why?”

“There will be a celebration,” he said. “A gathering of leaders. Allies. Watchers. They expect to see their Luna — by my side.”

He held my gaze.

“If she is gone… questions will spread. Whispers. Doubt. And doubt is a weapon.”

“So I just…” My voice shook. “Pretend?”

“You live,” he said, “so the pack survives.”

Silence pressed in.

“I—”

He cut me off. “Aria.”

My name sounded different on his tongue. Heavy.

“I am not asking.”

There it was.

A command.

A cage.

And yet…

His tone shifted — softer, pleading beneath the iron.

“Six months,” he said quietly. “If she does not return by then, if the Moon makes its judgment final. You are free to walk away. No chains. No obligation.”

Six months.

A lifetime.

“I need you,” he finished and the honesty in it almost broke me.

I felt angry. Used. Small.

Like I was trading pieces of myself I could never reclaim.

But I also felt something worse; duty.

This pack had given me a home when I had nothing. It had taught me to read. To live. To belong — even if only at the edges.

So I nodded.

For them.

Not for him.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Something flickered in his eyes. Relief. Regret. Restraint.

It was gone as quickly as it appeared.

“Markus,” he said, turning away because the decision had already swallowed me whole. “Take her to my chambers. She will stay there until the ceremony.”

The Beta bowed his head.

I followed him through quiet corridors, each step echoing like the end of something fragile and private and mine.

The Alpha’s room was vast. Cold. Beautiful. Built for power, not comfort.

This wasn’t a bedroom.

This was a throne disguised in silk sheets.

I stood in the doorway for a long moment, feeling the walls close around my future.

“Aren't you coming in? You need to change so you can get enough rest.. tomorrow's going to be a long day” Markus said, his head tilted down.

I slowly steeped into the room, my eyes fixated on him. He was about to leave when I grabbed his arm.

“Marcus.”

My voice snapped in the silence.

He froze.

I stepped toward him, anger trembling beneath my skin. “Did you know about this?”

His jaw tightened.

“Did you agree to it?”

Silence.

The question burned out of me.

“Did you agree to your woman becoming another man’s Luna?”

For a heartbeat, the world stopped.

The door closed behind us with a soft click—now it was just us and the truth no one could ever know.

His shoulders dropped, like the weight he’d been carrying finally crushed him.

“Aria…” His voice was rough. “Please.”

“Answer me.” My hands shook. “Did you?”

He turned slowly. His eyes—warm brown, always gentle—were tired. Torn. A soldier who’d been ordered to aim at his own heart.

“I had no choice,” he said, pain threading through every word. “He is my Alpha. My brother in war. I owe him my life, and my loyalty is his to command.”

“That wasn’t the question,” I whispered.

His throat worked.

“Yes,” he said finally. “I agreed.”

It hurt more than I expected.

“Six months,” he continued quickly, desperate now. “He promised. Six months, and it will end. She’ll come back. Everything will go back to normal. You and I—”

“Normal?” A hollow laugh escaped me. “Marcus, I’m going to stand beside him. Live in his chambers. Sleep in his bed. Be his Luna.”

Tears threatened. I swallowed them back.

“What if he…” The words refused to form.

He stepped closer, gently gripping my arms. “He won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “I do. Kieran loves Selene. Completely. He would never betray her. Not in this life or the next.”

“But what about—”

“Our future?” he finished softly.

I closed my eyes.

“Yes.”

His forehead rested briefly against mine, and I felt his breath tremble.

“I love you,” he whispered. “More than anything. But Crescent Stone must survive. If the pack fractures—children die. Families fall. Blood spills. And if my Alpha falls…” His voice broke. “I fall with him.”

Duty. Honor. Loyalty.

Cages with different names.

“If there were any other way,” he said, voice raw, “I would burn the world before letting this happen to you.”

Silence stretched between us. Heavy. Sacred. Fragile.

“After six months,” he murmured, “if Selene has not returned, you walk away. We leave. Start over somewhere the Moon cannot find us.”

A fantasy.

But I held it anyway.

Because I needed something to hold.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand. “And no one can know.”

“No one,” he said. “Not the Elders. Not the guards. Not even your closest friends.”

He hesitated—

“Especially not the Alpha.”

A chill crawled down my spine.

Because I believed him.

If Kieran ever found out, this wouldn’t be a love story.

It would be a death sentence.

Marcus straightened, mask sliding back into place. Beta. Warrior. Loyal right hand.

From today onward…

My lover in shadows

would be my commander in daylight.

His voice softened again, just for me.

“From now on… you are not Aria.”

He swallowed.

“You are Selene.”

The name settled across my skin like a shroud.

I opened my mouth to say his name—just to taste something real before it disappeared—but he stepped back.

I leaned in—seeking one last kiss before the world devoured us whole—

But he turned away.

Duty first.

Always.

“Be careful,” he said without looking at me. “Please.”

And then he left,the door closing behind him. I was alone in the Alpha’s chambers… surrounded by lies . No longer Aria.Not yet Selene.

Just a ghost wearing a crown of borrowed fate.

For the next six months… I would be someone else, someone else's woman…. But one thing I haven't gotten to understand….At the expense of being Selene … do I kill Aria?