A Luna Who Could Not Give an Heir

"Enough!"

Kane Blackwood's voice cracked through the pack square like a whip, and every wolf in the crowd went still.

"I, Kane Blackwood, Alpha of the Mooncrest Pack, hereby strip Aria Ashcroft of her title as Luna. From this day forward, you are banished." Three years. Three years standing beside Him, and it took him ten seconds to erase all of it.

"You are never to return again."

I searched his face for something. Regret. Hesitation. Anything. There was nothing. The crowd said nothing either, but their silence had a taste to it. Some looked away, ashamed to watch. Others could not hide their smiles. And then I heard the laugh I had spent three years running from.

My backstabbing bitch of a sister stood near the front, one hand covering her mouth like she was trying to be polite about enjoying this. "I told you this day would come," she said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "A barren Luna has no place beside The Alpha." The elders were worse. They always were. "She's cursed." "Look at that birthmark on her neck." "Always a sign of bad luck."

Something in me snapped and I spoke out. "You blame me for not giving him an heir. Was that my choice? Am I the Moon Goddess herself? I prayed to her every single night, and she never answered."

Not one person spoke in my defense. Not one.

I laughed, and it came out uglier than I meant it to. "Fine. Curse every one of you. I will return, and my return will be the end of this pack." I walked away with my head high. Nobody stopped me. Only the wind followed, and it followed me all the way to the border, cold enough to feel like the pack itself was pushing me out.

One Week Earlier..

Every she-wolf dreams of becoming a Luna. I was one of them, once. Three years ago the Moon Goddess bound me to Kane Blackwood, and for a while I believed I had finally found the place I was supposed to be. Growing up as the unwanted daughter of the Ashcroft family, that feeling was worth more to me than anyone realized. I did not know yet how wrong I was.

"Luna, the council members have started arriving." Lila kept her head down outside my door, the way she always did when she brought bad news dressed as good manners.

"I'll be there in a minute."

I studied myself in the mirror. White dress, the one Kane once said, reminded him of The moonlight. I tried to remember the last time he had said anything like that to me and came up empty. Walking through the manor, most servants still greeted me the way they used to. Not all of them. Near the kitchen, two maids were not quiet enough with their whispering.

"Three years already." "Still no heir."

" I heard the elders are bringing it up again today."

I kept my pace even and let the words slide off me. Or I pretended to. The smell of fresh bread drifted from the kitchen, warm and familiar, the same smell that used to make this place feel like home. Now it just reminded me how long I had been here without anything to show for it.

I passed the training yard next, where young warriors sparred under the morning sun, their laughter carrying across the courtyard. A few stopped to bow as I walked by. Most did not notice me at all. I used to know every name in this pack. Lately I felt like a stranger wearing someone else's title.

Outside, the warriors stood at attention as the elders filed toward the council hall. Everything about the morning looked calm. I had learned not to trust calm mornings.

"Aria." Kane's voice still did something to me, even now. He crossed the courtyard toward me, unbothered as always. "Avoiding breakfast again?"

I blinked. as I had not expected him to notice.

"I know everything that happens in my own manor," he said, and for half a second the old grin flickered across his face, the one that used to make my chest go tight.

"I'll eat after the meeting."

"You said that yesterday."

"I mean it this time."

He sighed, but it was a soft sigh. "I'll hold you to that." Beta Ronan appeared at his shoulder before either of us could say more. "My Alpha, the council awaits."

Kane nodded and glanced back at me once before he left. "Don't worry much, you know I've got you." I wanted so badly to believe him.

The council hall felt heavier than usual the moment I stepped inside. We opened with the usual business, patrols, trade routes, the company Growth. Routine. Safe.

Then Elder Leone stood, and the air in the room changed.

"There is one final matter." His eyes moved from Kane to me and stayed there. "It concerns the future of this pack."

My pulse spiked. I already knew.

"Our Alpha leads well. Our warriors are loyal. Our land is safe. But the Blackwood bloodline has no heir."

Silence. Every single eye in the room found me at once.

The pack doctor rose first. "I have examined Luna Aria myself. She is healthy. There is nothing wrong with her."

An elder scoffed. "Then why has she failed to give our Alpha a child?"

I stared at the floor, at the question I had been asking myself every night for three years with no answer.

"That's enough." Kane's voice cut through the room like a blade. "Aria is my Luna. No one insults her in my hall."

For a moment, just a moment, I let myself feel something close to safety. Elder Garrick was not finished. "No one questions your love for her, Alpha. But love does not secure a bloodline." Kane opened his mouth to answer.

The doors slammed open before he could.

A guard stumbled in, breathless, and bowed low. "My Alpha. Forgive the intrusion. A she-wolf outside demands to be heard."

Kane's jaw tightened. "Who."

"The youngest daughter of the Ashcroft family."

The room went cold. My sister. Here. Now.

"She says it cannot wait," the guard said. "She says once you hear what she has to say, nothing in this pack will ever be the same."

“Bring her in’

“Yes alpha"

She walked in slowly, tears already sitting in her eyes, one hand resting protectively over her stomach like she was shielding something no one else could see yet.

She did not look at the elders. She did not look at Kane.

She looked straight at me.

And for the first time in my entire life, my sister did not look at me with jealousy, or spite, or that familiar cruelty I had learned to expect from her.

She looked at me with pity.

The kind of pity you save for someone whose whole world is about to end.

I did not understand yet what I was looking at. But my body understood before my mind caught up, and every part of me went cold.

Whatever she was about to say, it was already too late to stop it.