Chapter 1: Rejected as Luna

Amanda's POV 

My mate was being coronated as the alpha of the pack today, and for reasons I couldn’t fully name, a cold unease gnawed at me. This should have been a day of pride and triumph. 

Duncan had worked for this, and I had stood by him, sacrificed and bled alongside him, to make him worthy of the throne. Every late night and whispered words of encouragement I had given him had been for this. And yet, standing here, watching him on the podium, my chest tightened, a weight pressing down that I couldn’t shake.

“All bow to the new Alpha as he gets ready to mark the new Luna of the pack,” the high priest’s voice boomed across the mating grounds, making every pack member kneel in unison. 

My heart leapt as I anticipated my name being called, my pulse thundering with the hope and fear that had kept me awake for nights on end.

Duncan and I had been together for three years. I was an omega, a lowly one at that, but he had accepted me despite my status. Three years ago, when I had discovered that we were fated mates, I was nineteen and a servant, full of insecurities and doubts. Duncan had rejected me then, stubborn and proud, unwilling to see what was meant to be. 

It had taken his father’s insistence and the power of the mate bond itself, to force him to stay. At the time, I had worked tirelessly to prove my worth, to show him that I deserved him, that I could be more than just a shadow beside him. And for three years, I believed I had done exactly that.

My fingers twitched nervously along the folds of my dress as I straightened it, trying to steady the nerves that roared through me like wildfire. I waited for my name, for the moment I had dreamed of for so long. But nothing could have prepared me for the sting that hit me next.

“Kattie……” Duncan’s voice called out, beaming with a proud smile. My heart stumbled and broke a little at the same moment. I looked up, stunned, as Kattie, his first love, glided toward the podium, her smile radiant, a perfect mask of joy.

I froze, my breath catching in my throat as I watched Duncan mark her. The moment was theirs. 

My mate of three years, the man whose name I had whispered in dreams and held close in my arms, was declaring her the new Luna of the pack. My pulse screamed, my chest tightened, and a bitter ache settled deep within me.

I expected outrage, resistance, or at least a single objection from the elders. Even Duncan’s father had to have known that this went against tradition. I, his mate, had never agreed to this. I hadn’t accepted his rejection three years ago. And yet, here he was, with her, smiling at her like I had never existed, celebrating her like she was the center of the world I had built with him.

“I want to thank my beloved Kattie for all her efforts toward ensuring that I became the Alpha of the pack today. I want to thank her sacrifices…,” Duncan continued, still radiant, his words flowing with a warmth and devotion I had never felt directed at me.

Three years and I had never seen him like this. Never had his eyes sparkled with that light when they met mine. Never had I been the reason behind a smile that wide. But the moment Kattie returned to the pack, that all changed. The indifferent man I had known suddenly existed only for her. 

“Kattie just lost her mate, Amanda,” he had told me countless times in the past months, a sickening attempt to justify what I could see with my own eyes. 

“Remember, if we weren’t fated mates three years ago, I would still be with her. I’m just being nice to her so she doesn’t fall into depression from missing her mate.”

I had forced myself to look away each time, convincing myself that his attention was only consolation, that the warmth I saw wasn’t for her and thus wasn’t meant to hurt me. 

But every fiber of me knew the truth. In three years, I had given him my loyalty, my patience and strength. And now, all of it meant nothing in the light of her return. Three years of proving myself, of standing by him, and yet the love I had earned, the bond I had fought for, was offered to someone else—someone he had once loved before fate had made me his.

Watching him mark her as his mate before the cheering pack, I didn’t know what to feel. My chest felt hollow, a strange emptiness twisting through me as the shouts of celebration washed over my ears.

“Kattie has done a lot for the pack! She deserves to be the Luna!” I overheard someone say from the crowd.

“She’s a beta’s daughter and has royal blood in her! It’s better than the Luna being a wolfless omega! That would have been a shame on the pack!” another whispered, their words sharp and cutting, like knives against my heart.

I almost lost my balance, standing in the corner, watching as people celebrated what Duncan had done. Their support for him, for her, made my chest tighten with disbelief. There was nothing Kattie had done for the pack, nothing at all, apart from returning months ago from her mate’s pack.

I, on the other hand, had managed the pack’s finances and businesses for years, ensuring everyone was fed, secure and cared for. I had made sure I did my duties as the Luna-to-be diligently, proving to Duncan my sincerity and loyalty. 

I thought that my devotion and tireless work would earn his recognition and admiration. But who would have thought that all of it would mean nothing to him? Not even the fact that my business prowess had saved his ailing pack mattered.

I brushed the tears from the corners of my eyes, turning to leave. There was no reason for me to stay. The people, none of them seemed to notice me nor care. To them, I was still the same wolfless omega the pack scorned. The same helpless orphan who was a servant.

“Amanda, where are you going? You should stay beside Kattie so you can teach her how to handle the pack finances, now that she is the new Luna,” a voice called behind me.

I paused, shocked, to see my father-in-law standing there. The same man who had forced Duncan to take me as his mate all those years ago. Without him, Duncan would have never bowed to the mate bond.

And yet now he looked at me with a calmness that made my blood boil.

“I am Duncan’s fated mate, I…” I started, but the words failed me. How could I even speak to him? This was the same man who had once manipulated fate to secure me a place by Duncan’s side. How could he now speak as if nothing had changed?

“Amanda,” he said softly, his tone meant to soothe me, “Kattie is a beta, and she is a better choice for Luna. You are still Duncan’s mate. He only marked her so that the pack won’t bully you for being an omega. You know no pack would want an omega as their Luna.”

I stared at him, incredulous. How could he lie so easily, trying to convince me that nothing had changed, that I still mattered? He should have understood what Duncan’s actions meant—that I would now be neglected and scorned, erased from the very world I had devoted myself to.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t even try. Without saying a word further, I turned and left, ignoring his calls, ignoring his attempts to reach me.

I didn’t know how to react, hadn’t prepared for this. 

Three years of my life, of sacrifices and proving myself, had been thrown into the shadows, discarded like I was nothing. And in the end, they chose someone vile and unworthy, someone wasteful. 

The thought alone made my stomach churn, my bones ache with betrayal. If only I had known, I thought bitterly, if only I had known how powerless I would be before them all.