RISE OF THE SCORNED LUNA

CAMILE

I've never for once doubted my husband's love for me.

I was, afterall, an orphan, a stray dog, who got pregnant after a whirlwind romance. I expected to be discarded, just like I've been discarded all my life, but then he proposed and we got married.

I was an orphan, an omega… I was completely unfit to be a Luna, but he married me and made me Luna of the Whitebrock Pack. Even when his mother subtly bullied me and made it clear that she only accepted me because I was carrying the next Alpha, Zane showed everyone that he loves me and that he chose me.

I was treated like a Princess, doted upon, loved, catered for, and worshipped. It was the happiest I've ever felt in my entire life. Suddenly, everything I've gone through before Zane stopped mattering—all the suffering and bullying and hunger. I was Luna now. I was loved and respected.

Then I lost my pregnancy at four months. It was unheard of for a Luna to lose her pregnancy. My mother-in-law blamed me. She blamed my inferior genes. According to her, my omega line was going to mess up their generations, and that Zane should demote me from being the Luna and divorce me after 3 years, since, under werewolf law, couples have to stay married for at least 3 years before getting a divorce.

Zane paid no heed to her. Instead, he supported me through the mental toil of my miscarriage, always made sure to make and bring me the special Lunar Mint Tea every morning and evening. It was a tea he brewed specially for me, and I took a liking to it. Made me go on morning and evening walks. He supported me all through it and promised I'd get pregnant again very soon.

It didn't happen. My heartbeat remained one, and my stomach remained flat.

The murmurs and snickers started. The venom from my mother-in-law deepened. It was unheard of for a Luna to be childless a year after marriage. If my miscarriage slowed me down, then I should have another baby suckling at my chest in 15 months, but I had nothing to show. She insisted that I wasn't fit to be a Luna and that her son should discard me. She made healers and sorcerers probe at my stomach and mouth, but they couldn't tell what was wrong, other than the fact that I might be too weak to carry an alpha's child.

Her bullying ran deeper. She made it clear that she had no respect for me, and this extended to how the maids and servants treated me as well. It was hell, but Zane held my hands through it all.

Two years into the marriage, Zane returned from war with a baby pup who was barely a month old. He was an abandoned pup who had lost his parents during the war. Zane gave the pup to me.

“I found an abandoned wolf pup in the last battle we had with the eclipse pack. I adopted him and he will call my wife, mother. Stop saying that she's barren.”

That was Zane to the whole pack and in the presence of his mother. It was to shut her up. It was to show how much he cared about me. And did he care… I was an empty vessel that couldn't even procreate, but he still cared about me. He told me not to allow my barrenness to get to me, but it still bothers me. Zane has done so much for me. I wanted him to have his own child, his son, an alpha heir.

He was an alpha, no matter how small our pack was, and he needed an heir for the other alphas to respect him.

So I did everything I could. I ate all the herbs I could find, did all the rituals the healers recommended, and maintained a single position during sex to allow his cum to settle fully into me.

Nothing worked, and finally, the good man snapped.

It started slowly. It began with him missing dinner when we always ate together, then he suggested I had my own separate room, and sex between us slowed down till it became nonexistent. He'd wave it off whenever I tried to initiate sex, saying there was no need for sex because I wasn't getting pregnant.

And I knew, for a fact, that my husband no longer loved me when he stopped bringing me my morning and evening tea. That was a routine he has never missed in four years of our marriage.

I tried to hold on to him, to do everything to make him happy, but he no longer looked at me with eyes full of love. He no longer looked at me at all.

Sam, who was now 2 years old, was the only thing that made me happy. He was my son, the one who loved me, and always ran towards me whenever I walked into the room. He was the only source of joy in my life.

I feared that Zane would soon divorce me, and I'd be back to being a nobody and a no one. It scared me, but what scared me more was the fact that I had lost his love. I hated myself for being a failed woman. I hated myself for my barrenness. And no matter how much I tried to make things work between us, it simply didn't help or change anything.

Until three weeks before the annual pack gala, when my maid announced the presence of the royal tailors, they wanted to take my measurements for my gala gowns because Zane had sent them. It made me happy. Maybe there was hope afterall, and Zane was still in love with me, and he only needed time and space.

The gala day arrived with the full moon, the howls of wolves, and the sounds of their paws tearing through the forest. I sat stiffly beside my husband under the brightly lit canopy. He hasn't said a word to me… He hardly even looked at me all night, and I couldn't shake the sense of foreboding off.

It was a beautiful night, but it felt like everything was adding up to make it the worst night of my life.

Even my wolf, who was always dormant, was rearing her head today. I initially thought it was because it was a full moon, but it doesn't feel like that. It felt like she was agitated.

The festivities continued late into the night, and at a point, I had to signal to Emma, my baby's wet nurse, who the nurse Zane brought in a week after he brought Sam home, to feed him and bring him over so I could hold him.

She was standing with the rest of the maids when I mouthed the words to her, and for a brief second, she looked at me with a malicious glint in her eyes, and my heart dropped.

Then she smiled, bowed in an overly exaggerated way, before she disappeared from the canopy.

I couldn't get that little reaction out of my mind. She has always been meek and respectful, but that gesture felt like a mockery.

It felt like…

A loud howl came suddenly from beside me and distracted me from my thoughts. It was my husband. He rose to his feet as the gathering in front of us quietened down. The other wolves that were still running in the forest came back to the gathering, all naked and sweaty.

Zane was about to make a toast. That was how the gala always ended, with a toast from him.

“This is not a toast,” he started, “it's rather an announcement.”

Announcement? What could he possibly have to announce?

“Four years ago, I met a woman who became pregnant with my child and whom I married…”

It was about me, I realized. He was going to talk about me… He was going to praise me in front of all these people. I had been worried for nothing. He still loves me.

Tears prickled the corner of my eyes in happiness.

“Even though she was an omega, even though she wasn't worthy of being a Luna, I married her.”

My blood ran cold.

“Even after she lost my baby because she was an omega that couldn't carry the line of an alpha, I remained loyal to her. I treated her with reverence and love because that's how a lady should be treated, but years later, I've come to realise what a stain she is and how unfit she is to be a Luna. It'd be a great disservice to my pack, and I'm not one to treat the pack my fathers spent decades building like that.”

The crowd cheered. My heart stopped beating. I sat stiffly, unable to believe what I was hearing. This couldn't be possible. This was a prank. There was no way Zane would treat me like this. He wouldn't throw me away like this. He wouldn't ridicule me like this. On the other table, his mother sat tall and proud, eyes brimming with triumph.

“Zane,” I tried to call out, but the words remained stuck in my throat.

“So I've decided to end this sham of a marriage,” he went on without paying any mind to me, “We’re getting divorced, and tonight, I'm going to present my new wife to the whole. A strong shewolf from the White Wolves Pack, a reputable lady who'd lead the pack to greatness, and also the mother of my first child and the alpha heir.”

That was when I knew this was all a lie—an elaborate prank—because he doesn't have a wife, and he most definitely doesn't have a son. It was all a lie, a prank.

I started laughing. It started with a small one—a chuckle—then it grew into a hysterical one. It grew even more when a lady, dressed to the nines in an elaborate red ball gown, stepped onto the platform while the crowd held their breath to stare at her.

Zane pushed away and walked towards her to pull her to the middle of the canopy.

“Wolves and Shewolves, this is Emma from the White Wolves Pack. She's my new wife and the mother of my child.”

She was Emma, the wet nurse he brought in for the pup he gifted me.