My Twin Sister Became His Second Luna Chapter 03

My Twin Sister Became His Second Luna Chapter 03

The next morning, I returned to Kaelen’s Alpha residence to pack my things.

The entryway was brightly lit. My parents and Nerys were already in the sitting room, while movers carried my things out under Kaelen’s direction.

“Clear out the entire old Luna suite.” Nerys lounged on the sofa, issuing orders. “I don’t like the furniture she picked. Sister, you can move to a guest room in the south wing for now.”

“No need. I’m staying at a hotel tonight.”

Kaelen glanced at me and gave a businesslike nod.

“You can charge the cost to the Pack account.”

I ignored him.

Nerys pointed to a file box by my feet.

“Get rid of this junk, too.”

It held the weapon schematics I’d drawn in college, with a ring sitting on top. Kaelen had made it for me by hand when he first learned smithing. It was crude, but he’d made it with love.

Before I could say a word, Nerys swept the schematics and the ring into the recycling bin.

Kaelen’s lips parted, but in the end, he only looked away.

The movers packed my books, clothes, and training gear piece by piece, moving with the brisk efficiency of people clearing out a temp whose contract had expired.

Nerys walked over to the display cabinet and picked up a music box.

The silver disk began to turn, filling the room with a soft piano melody.

“This is pretty special. Did you give it to her?”

Kaelen didn’t answer.

When we were kids, my grandmother had given me a similar music box. Nerys saw it, cried for it, and my parents made me sign a declaration giving it to her. She broke it a few days later.

On my first birthday after Kaelen and I fell in love, he placed this new music box in my hands and told me I could ask him for anything I wanted. I would never have to give it away again.

“Looks like there’s a story there.” Nerys’s eyes flicked between us, her voice edged with bitterness.

I took the music box from her.

“There isn’t.”

I let go. The music box dropped into the recycling bin with a dull thud.

Kaelen’s fingers twitched, but he didn’t stop me.

When they reached the room at the end of the hall, Nerys suddenly called the movers back.

“Don’t take this room apart.”

It was the nursery Kaelen and I had prepared.

Six months earlier, I’d been pregnant. Kaelen had been so happy he couldn’t control his Alpha scent for days. He’d assembled the crib himself and covered the ceiling with star charts that glowed in the moonlight.

Then a border ambush had taken our baby from me.

The room had remained empty ever since.

Nerys pushed open the door, looked around, then ran a satisfied hand over her stomach.

“Perfect. Kaelen and I won’t have to redecorate. It’ll be for our pup.”

I froze.

“You’re pregnant?”

“Three months.” She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Kaelen said we’d announce it after the mate ceremony. The first three months are risky.”

Three months ago, I’d still been revising the ceremony’s security plans over and over.

Everyone was there, yet not one of them looked surprised.

Father stepped into the room and glanced around. “It’s nicely done. If Nerys likes it, leave it.”

Mother said, “The crib is too close to the window. It’ll get drafty during the full moon. Move it later.”

“No,” I said.

Nerys turned toward me.

“This room has to go. Not one thing inside stays.”

“It’s just a nursery. You can set up another one later.” She frowned. “Why are you being so petty?”

Mother scolded me, too. “Nerys is pregnant. Don’t upset her.”

Kaelen walked over to me with the same patience he used when negotiating border treaties.

“Let her have this one. What’s done is done.”

I looked at him, searching his face for even a trace that he remembered our baby.

There was nothing.

Nerys snorted.

“I don’t even want it anymore. Who knows what kind of bad luck this room carries? Tear it down. I don’t want it.”

I stepped in front of the staff heading toward the room.

“I’ll do it myself.”

I shut the door, took apart the crib, and peeled the star charts from the ceiling one by one. One in the corner was crooked. Kaelen had put that one up himself. He’d laughed and said it was his first time being a father. He had no idea what he was doing.

The little clothes in the closet still had their tags on, and the wolf-pup stuffed animal was still sealed in its clear wrapping.

When I came out with my luggage, everyone else had already left. Only Mother remained in the sitting room.

She patted the seat beside her, speaking with the air of someone presenting a reasonable compensation package.

“As long as you give up the mate ceremony, your father and I have already found another match for you. We’ll arrange a meeting after the ceremony. His Pack isn’t as powerful as Crestwood, but they won’t mistreat you.”

She didn’t even realize how cruel that sounded.

They were arranging a political marriage for me.

After years as Stoneveil’s Crown Princess, I couldn’t even decide whom I’d marry or whether I could stay with my own Pack.

Maybe they’d planned it all along, waiting for me to come back and sign.

Mother left with the lightness of someone who had finished her assignment.

In the empty sitting room, only the five old file boxes filled with voluntary declarations remained.

Twenty years. Every piece of paper said “voluntary.”

I stared at them for a long time. Then I pulled out my phone and booked a flight to Frosthaven three days later.