REJECTED LUNA: FROM OUTCAST TO MOON QUEEN

e into something stark and unforgiving. The night air carried a bite that slipped beneath the thin cer

eye was

e of the press of bodies beyond its boundary thr

or me to b

e. His posture was rigid, carved from discipline and authority, h

no warmth i

expect

ing darker that I'd spent

ppoin

d to me since childhood. Tall, composed, dressed in formal black

uture

wo powerful families bound together to secure allian

I had shaped my life

as meant t

carved stone, and for a fleeting

n't fi

whispers b

't she shi

have happene

ss... don'

lid down my temple

ached inside myself toward the place where e

should have been alive

as nothi

t si

quiet where my wo

ure

cut cleanly through

re wai

hough the words barely le

aw tig

try h

pain as something tangible something I could use to anchor myself. I reached

efined my entire existence befor

d silently. Plea

ng ans

ing s

ed years ago," someone

quietly. "On her sixteenth birth

I was supp

nou

cross the clearing, still

ng softly against the stone as he

didn't c

o stand beside me

ne, his gaze settling on me with a deta

ing at something da

oice fractured

t, I thought I saw hesi

eg

it van

oled into somethin

ormal, "heir to the Blackmere line and future Alpha of my p

med to tilt be

reath rippled throug

ntinued, each word measured, "nor t

ruck harder t

destiny to a wolf who canno

akn

ull, louder than the shocked

ts, in hushed conversations when they

my delayed

hat I was simpl

believe

ight came, everything woul

and prove I wasn't the disappo

ng glow of the full moo

sn't

as b

ian,

rd him, but he was

d," he declared to the asse

the Elders ech

like

ion of lessons and expectat

the crowd fo

that might re

ppo

the humiliation b

n't loo

rvin announced, his voice ringing acro

their attention had shifted from an

. Dis

oncealed

mother at the front of the gathering, her m

, Aurelia," Elder

sed my

e that should have pulsed with instinct, with life, wi

d ever endured c

pull of

change

he bea

ug d

ed lo

ched

ng ans

d by in suffoca

ve.

d, growing louder wit

rne heir can

ectiv

nce, and she's no

that. She

s snapp

lurred together some sympa

t radiated fr

th there either,"

empti

r Corvin finally declared, his tone devoid of sympathy. "As such,

sed around me

circle felt

fini

ter a spectacle for

Rejected