Chapter 2: I Accept My Rejection

Amanda's POV 

I walked toward Duncan’s door, determined to meet him. There were so many things I needed to discuss, countless questions I had and I couldn’t simply stay back in my room and listen anymore. I was not going to allow him to get away with this without an actual explanation.

“I'm sorry, but the alpha is with an important guest. You’ll have to return later if you want to meet him,” one of the guards said as he stepped in my path, stopping me.

I said nothing, standing there, watching, my chest tight, tears threatening to spill from the corners of my eyes. Memories of the countless times I had been stopped from meeting Duncan flashed through me. All those moments I had been pushed aside with the excuse of an important guest.

Thinking about it now, I knew he was with Kattie each time. He hadn’t wanted to be disturbed.

“He…” the guard began again, but I silenced him with a flick of my fingers, the anger coiling through me like fire.

“Luna or not, I am still his fated mate. The Moon Goddess bound us together. Do you really think you can go against her order?” I asked, my voice trembling yet sharp. He immediately stepped back, fear and respect flashing in his eyes.

 In Moonstone Pack, tradition was everything, and no one dared defy the bonds of the Moon Goddess.

I stepped forward, approaching the door, my hand hovering over it as I wanted to confront Duncan directly, to demand answers. To ask why, despite all my sacrifices, he repaid me with this cruelty. But before I could push the door open, words from inside froze me in my tracks.

“Come on, Kattie. I already told you I can't send her away. The alpha’s council would question me for that. I’m going to keep her by my side. Besides, she’s still my fated mate. My wolf might grow feral if she leaves,” Duncan’s voice rumbled.

“But she’s still your mate, Duncan. You didn’t even send her away from the pack. The pack members will see her position as higher than mine,” Kattie whined, her voice soft but sharp with insecurity.

“I already marked you as Luna and my mate, Kattie. Your position is higher than hers. Besides, I gave her abortion pills to prevent her from ever getting pregnant with a pup. When you get pregnant with my heirs, all authority will naturally belong to you,” Duncan replied, almost casually, and a shiver ran down my spine.

I heard a soft kissing noise next, and I nearly lost my footing, my knees threatening to buckle. The guard behind me caught me, his grip firm, and from his eyes, I could tell he desperately wanted me gone.

Three years of loving him unconditionally, of trying to prove my worth, of sacrificing and believing that I could earn his devotion. I had thought that carrying his child would seal the bond, that it would finally earn me his approval. 

I had tried countless times, only to lose the pregnancies to miscarriages. Each time, the healer said I was too weak, that my womb was not a healthy place for a pup to grow. And all this time, it had been because Duncan had been feeding me pills to keep me from conceiving.

“I can’t imagine a reality where a worthless omega like her bears my pups. It’s impossible!” I heard him mutter from inside.

“She’s too weak. I don’t want weak heirs,” he added, and the finality in his tone made my chest ache.

“Send her away, Duncan. You have to send her away soon. Who knows whether she’ll” Kattie began, but he cut her off sharply.

“Stop letting your jealousy control your thoughts, Kattie. If I send Amanda away now, who would handle the pack like she does? You don’t understand the business well enough. Plus, why would I subject you to all that stress when she can do all the work for free?”

I froze, my hand tightening into a fist, my knuckles white. The weight of his words pressed down on me like a storm, leaving me dizzy and burning with a furious helplessness. 

Tears began to streak down my face, unstoppable this time, carving trails over skin that had long grown used to holding them back. For so many years, I had given myself entirely. All of it. And for what?

Without wasting another moment, I finally pushed the door open.

What I saw stole the air from my lungs. Both of them were naked on the bed, hands intertwined, lost in a world that didn’t belong to me. They didn’t even notice me at first, so completely absorbed in each other that my presence seemed irrelevant. 

It wasn’t until Duncan’s eyes flicked to me from the corner of the room that the atmosphere shifted.

“What are you doing in my chambers, Amanda? Have you no respect for the newly crowned Alpha of Moonstone Pack?” His voice was cold, cutting through me like ice.

He didn’t even stand, didn’t acknowledge me beyond that gaze. No flicker of guilt or recognition of the betrayal he had displayed earlier in front of the pack. Nothing. Just him and Kattie, the two of them as if I had never existed.

“I worked in the shadows for the benefit of your ailing pack, Duncan. You took the credit for everything I did, but I never complained, believing that one day, all my sacrifices would be enough to prove my worth to you,” I began, my voice trembling yet rising, fueled by years of anger and frustration. Flashes of my labor and unrecognized achievements streaked through my mind like lightning.

When I had been the strategist, orchestrating the plans that kept the rogues at bay from the pack. When I had solved the food shortages, finding ways to feed every family in Moonstone. When I had drawn up blueprints for livelihoods, enabling every member to earn their place and security. He had claimed every one of my triumphs as his own, basked in the praise that should have been mine. Even the few accomplishments I was allowed to take credit for had been forgotten in an instant, as if erased from memory. 

And for every failure of his that I had quietly taken responsibility for, no one remembered or acknowledged my sacrifice. He had kept me by his side all this time not out of love but because I was efficient. Because he couldn’t afford to lose control over someone like me—someone who worked for him without question, without reward or freedom.

“You were helping your own pack. Don’t blame me for that. Now, if you have nothing important to say, Amanda, I will have the guards escort you out or would you rather be dragged out and punished for your insolence?” he warned, his command meant to remind me of my place.

I heaved a long sigh, the weight of realization pressing down on me. This was what I should have seen a long time ago. I had been blinded by my feelings for him.

Blinded by my hope that one day he would look at me the way he did at her. But now, everything was clear. 

“There’s no need to have me punished, Alpha Duncan,” I said, forcing my voice to be as emotionless as I could. 

“I came here to accept your rejection… from three years ago,” I added through gritted teeth, each syllable biting with the fury I had held at bay for far too long. “We will no longer be fated.”