1: The Real Luna Has Arrived

DAISY'S POV

The air buzzed with excitement as the pack celebrated this momentous occasion, one I believed was meant to honour Dexter and me.

I stood beside my fiancé, my heart swelling with pride at being in the company of such a powerful alpha.

I was dressed in a midnight-blue gown that matched the colour of his eyes perfectly. Furthermore, I felt every bit the Luna I had dreamed of becoming. For years, I had been by Dexter's side, supporting him through battles, council meetings, and late-night strategizing sessions. I had given him my heart, my devotion, and my everything.

Tonight was going to be the night he would finally acknowledge all that I had done for him. The moment he would tell everyone that I was the brains behind everything; the one who stayed up longer than anyone, the one who came up with the best and brightest ideas to defeat rogues and keep our pack safe. He would finally declare that I was the woman he would swear to love forever and always protect, the woman who he would choose to mark, mate and have his pups. The next Luna of the Pinewood pack.

I was lost in my thoughts when I felt Dexter's fingers loosely curled around mine as we stood at the front of the room. His grip seemed distant, but I told myself he was just being nervous.

The preparations for today's mating ceremony might have taken a toll on him. But then again, he had been distant for the past two weeks, ever since he won the battle against the Swallowtail Vampire clan and saved a handful of she-wolves they were keeping as blood whores.

My Dexter was such an amazing warrior. I couldn't have asked for a stronger, more capable man to be my mate. I turned to smile at him, but his face looked cold, lacking any ounce of emotion. He caught me staring at him, then, slowly, he let go of my palm. My stomach twisted at his reaction.

“Dexter?” I whispered, but he didn't look at me. “Did I do something wrong?” I asked him, my voice barely above a whisper.

He shrugged, his eyes glowed black as he stepped forward with his towering presence commanding the room. He fixed his collar before raising his hand for silence. The chatter faded, and all eyes turned to us.

“My fellow pack members,” Dexter began, his deep voice resonating through the hall. "Tonight, I stand before you with news that will shape the future of our pack."

I straightened my shoulders, waiting for the moment he would acknowledge me as his Luna. My heart was pounding with anticipation. We were already living as husband and wife. In the human world they would consider me his common-law wife, but being that we weren't true mates, I would never gain the proper respect from the pack members unless Dexter claimed me as his Luna by announcing me as so and then giving me his mark.

My wolf hovered at the surface. Her ears twitched with anxiousness as we waited for Dexter to say the words we longed to hear. But then, he did the opposite. He said words that shattered our world instead.

"I have found my true mate,” he declared. I felt my wolf's body sinking into the shadows of my mind.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips before I could stop it. The room blurred around me and for a moment, it seemed as though I was day-dreaming.

What? He found his true mate? But didn't we make a pact that if any one of us found our destined mate, then we would reject them so we could be together forever?

People began to whisper my name, confused and wondering if I was his mate all along, but he was quick to set them straight.

Dexter’s next words rang in my ears like a death knell.

"No! My mate is not Daisy," he said with disdain, like the thought of us being joined together as Alpha and Luna disgusted him.

The chattering that followed was deafening. I swayed on my feet as whispers spread like wildfire through the crowd. My knees buckled, my legs felt like they could no longer carry my weight.

This had to be a mistake.

Dexter continued, oblivious to the way my world was crumbling around me. "The Moon Goddess has blessed me with my fated mate, and she is the one I will claim as my Luna."

I barely registered the name he spoke next. A woman stepped forward, graceful, beautiful, radiant. I knew her. She was one of the blood whores Dexter rescued some weeks ago. She had been a distant presence in the pack, never close enough to be a threat. Until now.

My breath hitched as she approached him, her eyes glowing with the undeniable mark of the mate bond.

Pain lanced through my chest. This rugged, raw feeling was chewing at my heart like maggots eating rotting flesh. This couldn't be happening. Not to me.

Dexter turned to me at last, his face devoid of the warmth I had once known.

"I appreciate everything you've done for me, Daisy." His voice was calm, calculated, like this was nothing more than a political shift. "But I cannot deny the great Moon Goddess and the gift she has given to me. So, you will not be my Luna. I choose Kendra."

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

This was the man who had promised me forever. The man who had kissed me under the moonlight and whispered that I was his future. And now, in front of everyone, he was casting me aside like I was nothing.

My fingers curled into fists at my sides. I refused to break. Not here, not in front of them. So I swallowed the lump in my throat, lifted my chin, and forced my voice to remain steady. “I see.”

Dexter blinked, as if surprised by my lack of a breakdown. Maybe he had expected me to beg or maybe fight for him. But I would do neither. Because if he could throw me away so easily, then he was never mine to begin with, nor was I his.

Kendra's lips curved into a slow, satisfied smile as she stepped closer to Dexter, slipping her arm through his as if she had always belonged there. Her fingers trailed possessively over his forearm, the touch deliberately mocking me.

I clenched my hands at my sides, my nails digging into my palms as I willed myself not to flinch. I refused to let her see me break.

“Poor Daisy,” Kendra cooed, her voice dripping with false sympathy. “You really thought tonight was for you?"

Laughter rippled through a few members of the crowd, some hesitated and tried to cover it up with a cough or the clearing of their throats, but others were cruel, laughing at me openly like they were saying serve me right to be shacked up with a man for years who was not my mate. My body burned with humiliation, but I stood tall.

Dexter didn't even look at me as his new woman taunted me. He kept his gaze forward, as if this moment meant nothing, as if I meant nothing.

Kendra leaned in closer, pretending to whisper, but her voice was audible to those closest to us.

“You were just a placeholder. A bed mate for him until he found his true mate."

A sharp, searing pain twisted inside me, but I kept my expression blank. I would not give her the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

She sighed dramatically, stepping in front of me now with her eyes gleaming with a sickening fire I couldn't explain. “I have to say, you did an excellent job keeping his bed warm. But the real Luna has arrived now."

A fresh wave of murmurs swept through the crowd. Some looked away with pity in their eyes, while others watched with fascination as if witnessing the final act of a tragedy.

Kendra tilted her head, studying me like I was some pathetic creature she had already crushed beneath her heel. Then she did something I never expected.

She reached out and touched my hair. I recoiled instinctively, thinking she was going to smack me, but she only laughed, twirling a loose strand between her fingers before letting it drop.

"You almost look the part," she mused. "But no matter how hard you try, you'll never be me. You'll never be his true mate."

My eyes snapped with anger.

Lifting my chin, I met her gaze head-on. "You're right." My tone was soft but strong, carrying through the silence of the hall. "I'll never be you."

Kendra smirked, as if she had won. But then I took a step forward, closing the distance between us. I dropped my voice to a whisper so only she and Dexter could hear.

"And that's why I'll never have to force someone to love me. A mate bond doesn't make him love you."

Her smirk faltered, just for a fraction of a second.

Dexter raised his palm to hit me, but he bit down on his bottom lip with his hand suspended in the air. For the four years we've been together, he had never once put his hand on me, and now he was contemplating if he should do so because I insulted her, a young girl he met only two weeks ago. He finally dropped his hand.

"Count your blessings that I didn't remove your tongue for insulting my mate like that," he growled.

I let the words settle before stepping back, offering Dexter one last look. The man who had once held my heart so dear to him was the same man who has now destroyed it and flushed it down the drain.

"You have one more duty to accomplish," he uttered, as though discussing the weather.

"I know," I let out. "I will leave after I gather my things and never come here again," I promised.

I turned on my heel and walked away, refusing to let my legs tremble, refusing to give in to the wreckage inside me. I would not cry, not in the presence of the public, not for him.

Because Dexter may have chosen Kendra, but I will always choose myself.