Chapter one

Bella's POV

Today was my fourth anniversary with my mate Ronan, the alpha prince of Moonstone pack, but instead of happiness, I had mixed feelings.

I held the test strip in my hands as I hid myself in the crowd, watching the bikers on track racing.

"You're infetile, luna Bella" the doctor's voice echoed in my head, making it hard for me to forget what she had told me earlier.

I wondered whether I was even deserving of the Luna title when I couldn't even birth the heirs needed by my mate before he would be coronated alpha.

A tear almost streaked down my left eye as I recalled how I had promised him this hospital test was going to be different.

It was our fourth anniversary today as mates, and since last year, I've been undergoing a very painful operation and herbal treatments just so I could be able to conceive for him.

I had wanted a pregnancy to be the gift I would present to him on the celebration of this year's anniversary.

Now, all my efforts have been proven to be useless as the test had shown that I am permanently infertile and incapable of bearing pups.

The bikes came into a screeching stop and the people began to cheer.

I was snapped out of my reverie and had to raise my face to find out that my mate, Alpha prince Ronan, had won the race.

I forced a smile up my lips. At least he had won the race he had coveted for a long time. And against other pack's alpha princes.

Even if I were to present the bad news of my infertility later on, this good news was going to help him savor it without being enraged.

"Congratulations to the alpha prince of Moonstone pack! He has just won the race and has emerged the champion!" The announcer’s voice blared over the microphone.

"He will come up to the stage now for his cup as well as offer his gratitude to those behind his success" the voice added.

I straightened my dress as I knew I would be called out to the stage soon.

Wiping the wetness from my eyes, as if that was going to be enough to wipe away my sadness of being infertile.

My hard work and patience in teaching Ronan and his team has paid off. So it was only necessary that he named me as the second person behind his success today on the tracks, after his father.

But to my shock, after he had called his father's name, I wasn't the next.

"Jennifer Lupin!" He shouted and the voices blared once more.

I was shocked and had stopped in my tracks.

"If not for Jennifer, I don't know whether I would have been this passionate about biking. But due to her resourcefulness, I am where I am today and as talented as I am." Ronan went on.

I was motionless when I watched Jennifer begin to walk up to the stage, and I was unable to do anything.

Jennifer had been Ronan's first love, but because of a dispute between both their fathers, she had left him and the pack four years ago, before I had even found out that Ronan and I were fated mates..

Six months ago after her father was given back his beta position, she had returned to the pack with him.

How come, and all of a sudden was he naming her as the woman behind his success when I have been the one behind him for the past four years?

They exchanged kisses in the presence of everyone when Jennifer Lupin reached where he was standing on the stage.

I forced myself to keep standing and not make a scene. After all, not many people from other packs were aware that I was Ronan's Luna.

He had kept it private because I was an omega. And our union had been because of the mate bond the moon goddess had granted the two of us.

Everyone knew him with Jennifer Lupin and it was probably the reason why he was kissing her in public.

I tried so hard to convince myself even though the truth was staring at me right in the face.

But still, I didn't want to believe it. I've tried so hard to make Ronan accept me. He knows how deep my affections run for him and he had promised that if I were able to tutor him and his team well in racing, that he might make the decision of marking me and proclaiming me as his Luna.

Something as trivial as this shouldn't be the reason I get worked up. I repeated.

When the roars of cheers continued, I decided that I couldn't stay back and watch anymore.

I turned to slip away, quietly as I came as I didn't want anyone from Moonstone pack to notice me.

"Jennifer Lupin and alpha Prince Ronan look so good together... I don't understand why he didn't reject his fated mate to go for her. That omega isn't worthy of standing next to him" I heard a voice whispering to another and from the scent on their bodies, could tell that they were servants from Moonstone pack who had come to watch the race.

"Jennifer is a beta's daughter and she has royal blood in her veins. But the orphan? Her omega parents were lowly and she still had the courage to get married to the alpha prince knowing all too well she's barren... four years of being together and she hasn't even given the alpha his heirs? What a joke for a Luna wannabe!" The second replied.

"Luna?" She scoffed. "Please, many members of the pack would rather denounce Moonstone than accept her as their Luna. Perhaps she can try being the Luna of her fellow omegas, the Luna of trash."

A laughter followed suit and I turned my back away, hoping to walk away as I wasn't ready to listen to their despicable words even outside.

At Moonstone pack, this was how I was always gossiped about by the wolves, and although I have expected Ronan to defend me at many times, he never did.

He simply always excused himself from things that involved me that needed him speaking to his pack.

And although I understood his reasons, I couldn't help but wonder whether it was because he didn't value my happiness or if it was simply because he didn't care.

" Jennifer Lupin is a good coach, she's so talented and pretty"

" She'll make a good Luna for the moonstone pack"

"She'll....." Several voices followed me as I continued to walk away from the tracks where my mate had just won the racing competition and called out another woman to join him on the stage.

I couldn't help but wonder whether the past four years I have been with him were truly worth it.

Back then, I had almost gotten rejected by him the second he found out that I was his mate.

"Cursed be the moon goddess' name if she has truly granted this wolfless mutt to me as a mate!" I remember his words on that day very vividly—each syllable carved into me like a scar that never quite healed.

I had swallowed down the humiliation,  because I believed it was because I was at fault for being an omega.

He had been stopped by his father and the alpha council decree from rejecting me.

Because of my late parents' contribution to the pack before their deaths, he had been mandated to accept the bond and me.

I had hoped that he would learn to love me.

I had believed, foolishly, that time would soften him towards me. That someday, he would look at me and not see a burden but a mate.

But four years have passed, and that day still didn't seem in sight.

Four long, exhausting years of waiting, hoping and enduring.

I held back my tears as Ronan—my mate—paraded Jennifer Lupin before his teammates, pride gleaming in his eyes in a way I had never once seen directed at me.

Ignoring me completely.

The woman who had helped him reach that level.

The woman who had sacrificed her own dreams to build his, clinging to the belief that it was all for our future.

As the crowd continued to cheer, i couldn't help but wonder.

Just how much longer was I going to keep going this way with Ronan… before I finally reached my limits—before something inside me broke beyond repair—and I became truly, completely fed up?