Chapter Two

The words didn’t make sense.

Caroline blinked, her smile faltering. “I’m sorry… what?” Her voice wavered. “Approve? He’s my fated mate. There’s nothing to approve of.”

Her eyes darted to her parents, searching begging for reassurance.

But her father’s face was rigid. Her mother looked away, sorrow etched into her features.

They weren’t going to defend her.

Panic began to rise, tightening her chest. She turned to Bonnie then to Klaus.

Neither of them met her gaze.

Klaus stood stiff, his expression unreadable. Bonnie stared down at her hands, her fingers trembling.

Something was terribly wrong.

“What is happening?” Caroline whispered, her voice shaking.

Magnus exhaled slowly, as if bracing himself. “Bonnie is carrying Klaus’s child. She has been trained for years to become the Luna of this pack. The two of them chose each other long before now.”

Each word struck like a blow.

“I know he fell for her because she was prettier than me but the moon goddess didn’t make a mistake making him mine, and soon Bonnie would find her own mate too”

“The thing is Bonnie rejected her mate because she had always wanted to be Luna, and trust me you are just in her shadow and can never live up to the Alpha’s standard” said Magnus.

“You know our laws,” Magnus continued. “If an Alpha-to-be does not find his fated mate in time, he may choose one. Klaus made that choice.”

Caroline’s breath hitched.

“But… he found me,” she said, her voice breaking. “I’m his mate!” He almost claimed me last night she said shedding.

Silence answered her.

Heavy. Suffocating.

“No one even knew Bonnie was being prepared as Luna,” Caroline pressed, desperation sharpening her tone. “No one knew Klaus had already chosen someone. You hid this from everyone. From me!”

Magnus’s expression didn’t change. “We kept it hidden in case fate intervened. But Bonnie is already pregnant. The heir of the Crescent Moon Pack cannot be born without legitimacy. This decision is final.”

Final.

The word echoed in her mind like a death sentence.

Her father stepped forward, his voice firm, devoid of comfort. “Caroline… this is for the good of the pack. Bonnie will be Luna.”

Something inside her shattered.

Every face in the room blurred as tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall. Not in front of them. Not when they had all already chosen.

Her family.

Her Alpha.

Her sister.

Her mate.

She was alone.

“Sister…” Bonnie’s voice trembled, barely audible. But the moment she saw the look on Caroline’s face rage, pain, betrayal she fell silent.

Caroline turned sharply to Klaus, her heart cracking open as she spoke. “And you?” Her voice trembled.

“What do you have to say… mate?”

Klaus finally met her eyes.

For a second, she saw it - regret.

Then it vanished.

“I know this hurts,” he said, his tone controlled, distant. “But I have responsibilities. I won’t let my child be born without a proper claim. I have to think of the pack.”

Her chest tightened painfully.

“You can still acknowledge your child,” she pleaded, her voice shaking. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to cast me aside.”

The words she feared most “reject me” burned at the back of her throat, but she couldn’t say them. Saying them would make this real.

Permanent.

“Klaus…” she whispered.

But his expression hardened.

“Bonnie has been preparing for this role for years,” he said. “She’s ready to be Luna.”

“I can be ready too!” Caroline snapped, her voice rising as her wolf stirred violently within her. “I can learn, I can fight for it I can be everything this pack needs!”

But it didn’t matter.

Nothing she said mattered.

“I’m sorry, Caroline,” Klaus said quietly. “I won’t abandon Bonnie. She will be my Luna. It’s the right decision.”

The right decision.

Caroline let out a hollow laugh, the sound breaking apart as it left her lips.

Just hours ago, she had dreamed of standing beside him of being his Luna, his equal, his partner. She had envisioned a future filled with love, strength, and a sense of belonging.

But now…

She realized that place had never been hers.

It had always belonged to someone else.

The room seemed to close in around her, voices fading into meaningless noise as the weight of betrayal crushed her chest.

Her mate.

Her sister.

Her family.

They hadn’t just chosen against her.

They had erased her.

And in that moment, Caroline understood one devastating truth

Her world hadn’t just cracked.

It had completely fallen apart.

The agony that tore through Caroline’s chest was unlike anything she had ever known fierce, consuming, as though invisible claws were ripping her apart from within.

It stole the air from her lungs, leaving her breathless, fragile, as if one more heartbeat might shatter her completely.

Her eyes, glassy with unshed tears, locked onto Klaus. There was a silent desperation in them a plea he didn’t need words to understand. Take it back. Tell me this isn’t real. Tell me I’m still yours… that I’m still the one chosen for you.

Her mate.

But the look in his eyes was merciless. Firm. Unyielding. Final.

And in that moment, she knew.

He had chosen Bonnie.

Her own sister.

She turned away from Klaus, seeking refuge in the only place she had ever known, her family.

“What about you?” she asked quietly, her gaze drifting from her father to her mother, searching for somethiing anything to hold onto. “Do you agree with this?”

“We must think beyond ourselves, Caroline,” he said. “This isn’t just about you or even your family. The entire pack depends on us. What we decide here affects everyone.”

Each word struck her like a blow.

Her mother stepped forward, eyes shimmering with unshed tears, but there was no softness in the truth she delivered.

“Bonnie is carrying his child, Caroline. There is a life involved now.”

For a second, everything inside Caroline went still.

Pregnant.

The word echoed endlessly, hollow and suffocating.

Her gaze snapped to Bonnie, clinging to a fragile, desperate hope that her sister would deny it, reject it, choose her over all of this madness.

But Bonnie didn’t.

Instead, her eyes filled with remorse, her lips trembling as she spoke.

“I’m so sorry, Caroline,” she whispered, her voice fragile. “I swear I didn’t know Klaus would be mated to someone like you. If things were different if there wasn’t a baby, I wouldn't still step aside. I wouldn’t.

It felt like being stabbed over and over again, each word twisting deeper than the last. “Someone like me”

Caroline’s chest tightened painfully, her heartbeat erratic as realization settled in like a cruel storm.

This wasn’t an accident.

This wasn’t something that could be undone.

This was a choice.

And they had all chosen.

Not her.