Rude Awakening of the Substitute Luna

Amelia

Sleeping with my sister's fiancé was the worst mistake of my life. Now it's even worse—I'm pregnant.

"Congratulations, Luna Katherine," Dr. Morris says, her warm smile making me feel more anxious than I already am. "You're three months along. You and Alpha Logan must be thrilled!"

Luna Katherine. Not Amelia. Never Amelia.

My violet eyes, hidden behind the green contact lenses I've worn for a year now, burn with unshed tears. Here in the hospital examination room, my fingers tremble as I squeeze the test paper in my hands to stop myself from screaming.

The pregnancy test results blur before my eyes, the paper lines swimming into incomprehensible shapes before aligning again into that single, devastating word: Positive.

I'm pregnant.

“Luna Katherine? Are you alright?”

“Yes doctor,” I force my lips into a smile that feels like it might crack my face open. "Thank you, Doctor."

The lie tastes bitter on my tongue, but I have become skilled at swallowing everything that threatens to expose the truth. I have become a damn good liar, thanks to being the substitute Luna and living a life of pretence because I have no choice.

I am not Katherine Bennett, my elder sister and the apple of the eyes of my parents and husband. I am not the bold, beautiful daughter of Ronan Bennett, the Head Warrior of the Ravencrest Pack.

I am just Amelia Bennett. The overlooked younger sister who learned long ago that being invisible is safer than being seen.

“I'll be taking my leave now, thank you,” I force a smile at Dr. Morris again. She hands me prenatal vitamins and a pamphlet about pregnancy care, and I accept them with my hands that have somehow stopped shaking.

Twenty two years of being ignored have taught me how to become whatever people expect to see. Right now, they expect to see their confident, radiant Luna Katherine carrying the future heir of the Ravencrest Pack.

So, that is what I will give them.

The moment I leave the office and step outside the hospital, the autumn air hits my face like a slap, and my walls start to crack. My legs feel wobbly as I walk towards the car Logan's driver brought me in.

“Luna Kathrine,” he steps out of the car and opens the door with a respectful nod, and I slide into the back seat, grateful for the privacy of tinted windows.

Three months pregnant. I'm three months pregnant, and I don't know what the hell I'm going to do about it.

The car starts and hits the road. On the way home, I can't help but sink into painful memories that overwhelm me. It's been a little over a year since that night I made the worst mistake of my life.

The night Katherine asked me to accompany Logan to a meeting with the neighboring pack's representatives.

“It's important for pack matters," she had said at first, her green eyes sparkling with something I had been too naive to recognize as her deception. "I have somewhere else to be, Amelia. You look enough like me. All you need to do is just wear green contacts and shut up. Logan won't even notice I'm not there.”

I was too scared to impersonate her, but I had no other choice but to go ahead with her request because I knew she was going to bully me again and lie against me in front of our parents because they always believed her.

Also, when I accompanied Logan to the meeting, I realized she had been right about Logan not noticing the difference. He thought I was Katherine, and for once, I deceived myself into thinking that I could finally have this one night all to myself. Just me and him.

Yes, I'm in love with my sister's mate. I saw him first, but then again, Katherine stole him away from me before I could even have the chance to express how I felt to him.

That night after the meeting, Logan drank too much. I was drunk too, and we somehow ended up alone in his room and he kissed me, thinking I was Katherine. I kissed him back, and that was the first step I took into committing the worst mistake of my life.

I couldn't stop myself from craving more from the man I've always loved all my life, even though everyone had already paired him up with my sister. That night, I gave him all my firsts: my first kiss, my first sex, my first orgasm.

And he marked me that night. In that moment, I knew he felt our connection too, but I was afraid that he discovered I wasn't Katherine.

The next morning, my fear was confirmed. Logan had looked at me with anger and disgust in his dark gaze and said, "Katherine can never know this."

I was heartbroken, and contrary to his words, Katherine discovered the truth a few days later after I came back home with Logan's mate mark on my neck. Whether Logan liked it or not, he had marked me as his chosen mate. I tried to hide the mark with a scarf at first, but Katherine eventually caught up with my act and she did the maths, instantly knowing that Logan is the one who marked me.

She wept and raged and fled the pack, leaving behind a scandal that threatened to drown me and tear apart everything Logan had built. Rumors filled the pack. The elders demanded answers. And Logan, ever the upright and honorable Alpha, had done what he thought was right.

He married me. Not because he wanted to, but because his reputation and the pack's stability demanded it.

Everyone thought Katherine left because she was heartbroken, but I knew better. I saw the happiness in her eyes before she disappeared, and I couldn't stop myself from feeling that she planned all that. She never wanted to be tied to pack duties and never wanted to be Luna.

She wanted freedom, and she got it at my expense.

“Luna Kathrine, we are home,” the driver's voice pulls me out from drowning deeper into my memories. The car pulls up to the packhouse, and I force myself to climb down and walk.

Inside the house, I head to the kitchen directly. After putting on an apron, I pick up the knife and slice the vegetables to prepare Logan's dinner, even as my mind spins in desperate circles.

Should I tell him I'm pregnant?

I've spent a year trying to be what he wants me to be: a silent, efficient substitute for the sister he actually wanted. I cook his meals, manage his household, attend pack functions at his side wearing Katherine's face, and endure the coldness in his eyes that tells me I will never measure up.

But a child changes everything. 

For better.

Or for worse.

I can be discarded and my child will be ripped away from me—

The door slams open with a force that startles me. The knife slips from my nerveless fingers and clatters to the floor near my feet, missing my toes with barely an inch of distance. My heart lurches into my throat as Logan storms into the kitchen.

His face is twisted with a look I can't immediately read.

Anger? Fear? I think he looks restless—

"We need to go to the pack hospital now," he orders roughly, throwing the words at me. "Your mother collapsed. Heart failure. The hospital says she's critical."