I Was Only His Backup Mate, His Second Choice Luna Chapter 01

I Was Only His Backup Mate, His Second Choice Luna Chapter 01

Aelia and I smell exactly the same.

That’s because I was engineered to be her living blood bank. Grown in a Blaze lab, gene-tailored to produce the rare blood type only she needs.

At the Choosing Ball in Stormridge, Alpha Magnus Thorn lost control to both our scents at once. Everyone in that hall assumed he’d claim two mates. Instead he walked past her, straight to me, and named me his only Luna.

Eight months pregnant, I stood in front of the Elder Council while Aelia pointed at me and called me the Alpha’s mistress.

Magnus came. He crossed the hall to Aelia and said, “This is my Luna.”

***

My name is Estella Blackwood. Hers is Aelia Blaze.

The difference in surnames says everything. I was never part of the Blaze family. I was a tool built for the daughter of it.

I have gray-blue eyes and I keep to myself. Her eyes are a yellowish green, and she has never once in her life kept anything to herself.

We look nothing alike. We share nothing at all, except the scent the surgeries gave us.

And that scent is enough. Enough that Aelia can trigger a false bond response in Magnus, a phantom pull that feels real for as long as she needs it to. Since the day I became Luna, she’s used it over and over to wear my name.

Today she did it again. Poured a cup of scalding coffee down the front of me, then announced to the room that I’d stolen the Luna’s signet ring.

So I called the Elder Council.

I couldn’t claim my title in public, which meant the Elders had only one way to settle it. They sent for Magnus.

Aelia glanced at me from her chair.

“Want to bet he says I’m his wife? To protect me?” She smiled. “I think he will.”

Magnus and Aelia grew up together. When the Thorn succession got ugly, the Blaze family sheltered him. They still hold some of the heaviest votes he has on the council.

He always told me he sees her as a sister. He always used that as the reason I should be the one to let it go.

I rested a hand on my belly and said nothing. I watched the entrance.

He didn’t take long. The doors opened and the cedar weight of an Alpha’s scent rolled through the hall, flattening everything else in it.

He never looked at me. He went straight to Aelia.

“Aelia. Are you all right?”

She shot me a look of pure triumph, then launched herself out of the chair and into his chest.

“Magnus, finally. They dragged me into the Council Hall. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

His hand settled at her waist like it belonged there. “I’m here now. It’s fine.”

One of the Elders inclined his head. “So it is Miss Blaze who is the true Luna.”

Only then did Magnus look at the corner where I stood. He looked at me the way you look at a stranger who has walked into the wrong room.

“Wait,” I said. My voice came out thin.

I opened my bag, took out the marriage certificate and the Luna registration papers, and held them out to the Elder.

“These are the official records for Magnus and me. The Moon Goddess witnessed my vows. Verify them. It takes five minutes.”

Aelia went white. “Magnus—”

Magnus frowned faintly. Before the Elder’s hand could close on the papers, he snatched them away, tore them into pieces, and dropped them on the floor.

“They’re forgeries.”

I stared at the scraps scattered across the stone. Then I looked up at him, and I could not make my mind accept what I was seeing.

Aelia recovered fast. She leaned into him and laughed out loud.

“You all don’t know, do you? She used to be a junior clerk at Thorn Group. Spent every day fantasizing about climbing into an Alpha’s bed.” Her laugh sharpened. “Now she’s forging documents. Unbelievable.”

The Elder’s frown turned on me. “You manufactured papers to impersonate the Luna? You think the Alpha is yours to harass?”

I kept my eyes on Magnus. “Magnus. Are they forgeries?”

He didn’t answer. He took Aelia’s hand and walked out.

I stood where I was and watched them go.

Every tear I’d swallowed while she humiliated me came up at once, and the dam gave out. Inside me the pup kicked, restless, picking up everything I felt.

Out of consideration for the fact that I was eight months along, the Council only held me for three days.

Magnus’s black SUV was parked at the curb when I came out. He took one look at my face and lifted a hand toward my cheek.

I turned my head away.

His expression hardened.

“I told you our marriage stays private. You shouldn’t have dragged this in front of the Council just to score a point against Aelia. You forced my hand in a room full of Elders.”

He said it patiently, the way you explain something to a child.

“She isn’t healthy, and she’s the only Blaze heir. I couldn’t let them detain her.”

My hand moved over the curve of my belly without my deciding to move it.

He couldn’t stand to see Aelia detained. He had no trouble at all letting his eight-months-pregnant wife sit in a cell for three days.

My wolf let out a tired, hollow whine somewhere under my ribs.

I pulled my mouth into something close to a smile.

“Magnus. Let’s break the mate bond.”