Refuse to Be Your Luna’s Shadow Chapter 01

Refuse to Be Your Luna’s Shadow Chapter 01

Ever since I came back to Nightshade Pack, it had been seven years, but I had never really been part of this family.

In my birth parents’ eyes, and in my brother’s, I was still a stranger. A gold-digger who had stolen their precious adopted daughter’s place.

Their foster daughter Pearl lost the title of Alpha’s daughter overnight. She chose to leave the pack house on her own, chose to go back to her poor birth parents.

To earn money, she took a job at a strip club, then started hanging around greedy rogues. As a result, she was drugged and beaten her half to death. Outside the emergency room, my mother collapsed into my father’s arms, bursting into tears.

And somehow, all of it was my fault. They blamed me for everything.

“If I could do it over, I wish we had never found you,” she told me once, her voice raw. “Then Pearl would still be our only daughter.”

“If you had not come back,” my father added coldly, “Pearl would never have blamed herself enough to leave.”

That same night, a guy whose face was blurred in my sight dragged me into a filthy den, a lair belonging to the street’s most vile rogue pack.

“Every bit of pain Pearl has suffered is because of you,” a familiar voice snarled in the darkness. “You drugged her and ruined her life! Tonight, you belong to them.”

I fell to my knees and crawled, grabbing his leg like a drowning wolf clinging to driftwood, begging him to help me. He jerked away from my touch as if I were something diseased, then kicked me aside.

No one came for me that night. No one even noticed I was gone.

In that moment, I finally understood.

I didn’t belong to this family.

I didn’t belong to this pack either.

So I left.

But why, in the end, did they weep and beg me to come back?

…

The night finally bled into morning. When the first faint light cut through the polluted city air, the fierce rogues lost interest in me and scattered.

I dragged my broken body back through the streets, stinking of rogues’ scent and my own blood. Under the scrutinizing gazes of early risers, I returned to the imposing pack house.

In the spacious living room, the pack’s Luna, Lena, also my mom, sat on the couch, gently feeding Pearl spoonfuls of steaming broth.

The moment Pearl saw me, she flinched in a perfect imitation of fear and burrowed deeper into my mother’s arms. “Freya… I will move out soon… Please don’t be mad at me…”

My mother’s eyes were swollen from crying. She stared at me with fresh hurt and accusation.

“Freya,” she choked, “why do you always treat Pearl like an enemy?
Has she not suffered enough already?!”

Alpha Ben, my father, turned his head toward me. His expression
darkened, and his Alpha aura hit me like a wave. “Pearl almost died
last night, and you were nowhere to be found. You reek of filth and
rogue stench. Look at yourself!”

His lip curled in disgust. “You look like a street whore, not the
daughter of an Alpha! I should never have dragged you out of that
filthy district!”

I froze where I stood. Tears blurred my vision. Not one of them asked
where I had been. Not one of them saw the bruises or the deep purple
marks under my clothes.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my older brother Bryce cut me off.
He slammed a stack of photos onto the marble coffee table. They
scattered across the surface with a sharp crack.

“Curious where my dear little sister has been?” he asked with a cold,
vicious smile. “Take a look.”

The photos slid toward the edge, each one like a scene from hell. In
the pictures, I was lying naked on filthy pavement, surrounded by a
motley crew of grinning, lowest rogues. Each photograph was an
image of ultimate shame.

Mom gasped, covering her mouth, staring at me as if I were a
monster. Dad glared at me, his eyes burning with fury. He then
grabbed the heavy crystal vase from the side table and hurled it at me
with all his strength.

“You disgusting slut!” he roared. “You have disgraced our pack’s
centuries of honor! If the media ever gets hold of this, Nightshade’s name will be ruined. Burn in hell, you little bitch!”

The vase hit my forehead with a brutal crack. I felt glass shatter, felt warm blood blur my eyes and run down my face. Shards bit into my skin, but the pain was distant, swallowed by a deeper, older numbness.

I wiped the blood away with and said quietly, my voice sounded hollow to my own ears. “Fine, as you wish.”

Dad’s roaring came to an abrupt halt. “What did you say?”

“I said,” I repeated, staring at the blood smears, “I will go to hell as you wish, then your favorite daughter can come back.”

Mom stared at me, horrified. “Freya, how can you say something like that? Taking your own life is a sin!”

Dad’s chest heaved. “You dare to talk back to me?” he shouted.

“Don’t believe her,” Bryce sneered. “She just wants attention. As if she actually has the guts to do it. It is just another pathetic performance.”

At my words, a flicker of pure triumph flashed in Pearl’s seemingly wounded, innocent eyes. She pressed herself closer to my mother’s chest and watched me being condemned with relish.

My gaze drifted past her and landed on my fiancé Cassian, the heir to Frostmark Pack, a powerful Alpha in his own right. Our packs had decided on an alliance, and I had been handed to him as part of the deal. I was his future mate, his Luna-to-be. Our bonding ceremony was only days away.

In the past, when others insulted me, bullied me, he never joined in; sometimes, he even showed a hint of kindness.

But this time, he turned his face away, his voice cold as iron. “Alpha Ben, Luna Lena, you don’t need to trouble yourselves over this. Freya chose to consort with those bastards. She defiled herself and broke pack law. She has betrayed our bond. No one can save her now. For the sake of our future alliance, I am officially rejecting her as my mate and ending our engagement.”

He paused, then shifted his gaze to Pearl. His expression softened in an instant.

“If you agree,” he added, “I am willing to bond with Pearl, taking her as my future Luna instead.”

It felt as if someone poured ice water into my veins. My chest turned cold and hollow.

My father nodded slowly, his face solemn. “This is the best solution. You have the ability to protect Pearl. I will speak to your father and arrange the details.”

Hearing Cassian’s plea, Pearl couldn’t help but let slip a small, victorious smile.

In that moment, I finally understood. In this family, sharing the same blood meant nothing. They loved Pearl, the girl who had grown up in this house. I had been a fool to think I could ever take her place in their hearts.

Since the thing they wanted most was for Pearl to come home, I would give it to them.

I offered no more explanations, turning and walking toward the grand staircase. As I passed the fireplace, I glanced at the framed family photo above it. It had been retaken only last week.

In the picture, Mom and Dad smiled warmly in the center. Bryce had his arm around Pearl’s shoulders. Cassian stood at her other side, perfectly placed. I was at the far edge of the picture, half cut off by the frame, just like my position in this family.

Back upstairs, I closed my bedroom door behind me. Through the wood, I heard Bryce’s voice drifting faintly up from below, hateful and smug.

“Trash,” he muttered. “Slutty whore! She thinks she’s the heroine in a tragic movie?”