Unwanted Luna Reborn at Seventeen

Lyra

“I’m going to die soon, Kael,” I croaked. “I want to see you.”

Kael’s voice came back through the phone, and I could practically hear his sneer. “Why don’t you call me when you’re really dead?”

A metallic tang coated my tongue. A mouthful of blood bubbled up, and I squeezed my eyes shut, swallowing it down with effort.

“Kael, I really am—”

“That’s enough, Lyra. I’m tired of these childish games of yours. I have the Alpha inheritance ceremony to prepare for and I have no time for your bullshit.”

Before I could answer, the line went dead. Hot tears continued their steady path down my cheeks.

My fated mate was going to let me die, and there was nothing I could do about it.

With trembling fingers, I set aside my phone and drew in a ragged breath. Each inhale was like glass cutting the inside of my throat, and when I tried to sit up, a cry ripped through me from the sudden pain.

I fell back onto the pillows and squeezed my eyes shut.

Ten years.

Ten years I had loved Kael.

But he never felt the same way. It didn’t matter to him if we were fated mates. It didn’t matter now, at twenty-three, that we had been married for five years—long enough for most couples to know they truly loved each other, perhaps even have a family.

For five years, I had completely devoted myself to him as his wife. And what did I get in return?

Not his heart, but rather lungfuls of blood and excruciating pain on our wedding bed.

I was going to die Wolfless and alone and completely unwanted.

After everything Kael and I had been through together, he still only saw me as a burden.

At thirteen, my entire family—my entire pack, Silvercrest—was slaughtered right in front of my eyes. I was the sole survivor, found running through the forest, barefoot, my nightgown covered in blood and ash.

Kael had been the one to find me. Kael had been the one to take me home. Kael’s family had adopted me, and Kael had been the one to stay by my side throughout all of the nightmares.

He had pulled me out of the shadows, and I had fallen for him because of it.

I never thought that he would be the one to shove me back into that dark abyss.

But that was my own damn fault, wasn’t it? Kael had been kind at first, but he had shown increasing disdain for me over the years, treating me as more of a nuisance than the frightened girl he had rescued.

And yet, even as his hatred for me grew, I continued to bend over backwards to please him. Even when it cost me my own dignity, I thought that if I could just be perfect, then he would accept me as his mate.

But Kael didn’t want a wolfless mate. Especially not when he was supposed to become the next Alpha of the Northern Territories.

The King of the North, they would call him. Those were big shoes to fill.

And a Luna with no wolf? That was the biggest disgrace for a man like him.

After discovering that we were fated mates, Kael reluctantly married me, but only because of his parents’ pressure. He forbade me from revealing our relationship to anyone and treated me like a stranger even though we were wed.

For five years, that became my new reality: being distant from my husband, trying desperately to gain his approval, and never being enough.

And then two weeks ago came.

Kael would inherit the Northern Territories on his twenty-fifth birthday. It was a momentous occasion, one that couldn’t be ruined by anything.

Not even by me.

He put me under house arrest to keep anyone from finding out about me. Locked me away like a disgrace and forbade me from attending his crowning ceremony. That was when my health began to fade.

My body began to fail me. My organs stopped functioning properly, my bones and muscles started to deteriorate, and soon, I could hardly get out of bed.

No doctors came. No matter how many times I begged Kael for help, he refused to listen; he said that I was lying, that I wasn’t sick, that I just wanted attention.

I think he just wanted me to die so he could marry Bianca.

Bianca.

Just thinking her name made my stomach twist violently, another wave of pain washing over me.

Kael had always loved Bianca. She had saved his life, after all.

It didn’t matter to either of them that Bianca was once my best friend—or so I thought. But as it turned out, she had only been using me to get closer to Kael. And then, when he needed the help the most, she swooped in to save him and became his guardian angel.

Little did Kael know that I was the one who saved him. That my selflessness was going to kill me. That the pain grew worse by the day because of what had happened, and I couldn’t hold on any longer.

Suddenly, a knock on the door pulled me out of my spiral. Heart leaping, I forced myself up onto my elbows and managed a small, “Come in.”

My traitorous little heart hoped it might be Kael, but it was Bianca who stepped into the room, as if summoned by my thoughts. Her blonde hair was swept up into an elaborate updo, her deep burgundy velvet gown pooling around her feet.

She clicked her tongue and strode across the room, ripping open the curtains. The bright sunlight burned my eyes, making me hiss in pain and lift my arm to shield them.

“It’s past noon, and you’re still in bed,” she tsked, shaking her head. “Typical. Well, Kael is about to name me his Luna, so he won’t have to deal with your laziness for much longer.”

“Bianca.” Blood dribbled down my chin as I struggled to sit up, but I managed it anyway and turned directly toward her. “Bianca, you know I’m dying. You have to help me.”

For a moment, just a moment, I hoped that the girl who had once been my friend might at least show some pity.

But that was the thing about hope. I should have learned when I was thirteen, watching my parents’ heads fall from their bodies, that it was a slippery thing that would wriggle through your fingers and leave you bleeding out on the floor.

Bianca’s lips curved into a smirk. “Why should I help you? My family destroyed the Silvercrest Pack, and now I get to watch its last survivor die.”

My eyes widened as it clicked into place. “You—” My words cut off as I choked on another mouthful of blood. Crimson liquid splattered across my nightgown, just as it had ten years ago. Only this time, it was my own.

“Yes,” Bianca said coolly. “It is with great pleasure that I watch the final Silvercrest parasite choke to death.”

I didn’t answer; couldn’t because of all the blood. There was so much. Too much.

All I could do was stare at Bianca as the world began to fade at the edges. The room tilted as I swayed, then fell back onto the pillows, too exhausted to stay upright any longer.

“They shouldn’t have let you escape all those years ago,” Bianca sighed, stepping into my rapidly narrowing field of vision. “I could have been with Kael for so much longer if they hadn’t. But…” She glanced at her nails as if this were nothing. As if my death were merely an inconvenience. “It was so fun to watch you grovel for his affection.”

And just like that, she was gone.

As my final moments washed over me like the tide pulling away from the shore, one final tear slipped down my cheek.

What a fool I had been, believing that Kael would ever love me. That he would ever choose me over the girl whose family had stolen my own.

In those moments, nothing mattered except for my silly, dying heart. And in those moments, all I could think was that if I could live again, I would never let that naive thing dictate my life.

“Kael,” I whispered with my final breath, “I will never love you again…”

It was a promise. Not to him, but to myself; that if I could have another chance, I would protect my heart forever.

And then the world went dark.

A moment later, my eyes snapped open—only I was no longer in the plush, dark room that had become my prison, but somewhere else entirely. Somewhere warm and cozy and familiar.

My bedroom from when I was seventeen.

And there, standing over my bed, was a younger Kael.

“What were you dreaming about?” he asked, tilting his head, dark hair falling into onyx eyes. “Why were you calling my name?”