Refuse to Be Your Luna’s Shadow Chapter 05

Refuse to Be Your Luna’s Shadow Chapter 05

When I woke up, all I could see was a white ceiling. The air smelled like disinfectant, sharp and sterile. Pain followed a moment later, spreading through my body like fire.

So this was heaven? The thought drifted lazily across my mind, distant and absurd.

I tried to move and a stabbing pain made me suck in a sharp breath. My ribs protested every breath.

The crash of a cup shattering on the marble floor exploded beside me. My parents’ faces appeared in my field of vision, eyes swollen and wet. Yet, the scent they carried was an tangle of complex emotions: the relief of a heavy burden lifted, intertwined with an insistent, lingering panic. Wolves cannot lie with their scent.

“Freya, you are awake,” my mother sobbed, clutching my hand.

“Moon above, you scared us to death,” my father said excitedly, his voice rough.

I almost laughed. It sat bitter and silent in my chest. Why had the Moon Goddess decided to favor me now? I jumped from fifty stories up, and I was still alive.

A healer came in, carrying a compliant, professional calm. After the examination, he sighed in relief. “It is a miracle! Just some bruising and a mild concussion. You landed on the reinforced balcony on the 40th floor. Heard that fate favors those who have already touched death once. Maybe things will finally begin to turn in your favor.”

I forced a thin smile. How ironic. When I finally decided to die, even that did not work. My wishes were never fulfilled.

They told me they had watched me climb over the rail, had been sure they would see a bloody mess. Instead, security cameras showed me crumpled on a lower balcony, unconscious but breathing.

Seeing their “ecstasy” over my return, I felt confused. They were the ones who wanted me dead. I gave them what they wanted. So why did they smell so worried now?

Cassian arrived soon after, practically tearing the door off its hinges. He looked terrible—dark circles under swollen eyes, his usually impeccable demeanor gone. He reached out and held my hand, his touch surprisingly gentle, as if I were fragile glass.

“Freya,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Thank the Moon you are fine.”

I remembered the look on his face when I fell, that naked terror. Now, feeling how carefully he held my hand, almost reverent, I could practically feel Pearl’s jealousy scorch the air. Her eyes looked like they wanted to shred me.

I withdrew my hand, obviously creating distance. He parted his lips as if to speak, but Pearl got there first.

She pinched her own thigh hard enough to make her eyes water. “Freya! Thank Goddess you’re okay! I was so worried!” She reached out to touch my forehead.

I jerked my head away instinctively. Her hand hovered in the air for a second. Her smile froze.

“Freya, sweetheart, Pearl means well,” my mother rushed to say, desperate to smooth things over.

I glanced at Pearl. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails deeply dug into her palms. She met my eyes with a hatred so pure it almost glowed, sharper than ever before.

Bryce just stood in place and watched me, brow furrowed, his expression unreadable and complex. It made my skin prickle. For seven years his eyes had only ever held contempt when they landed on me. I had thought he’d sneer, “Too bad, even hell did not want you.”

But he stayed strangely quiet.

The days that followed felt wrong in a way I could not quite describe.

My father came to see me very early every morning, with breakfast for me he brought from the pack, especially the brownies, the kind I had once mentioned liking years ago and they never bought again afterwards. I left them untouched on the nightstand.

My mother barely left my side, waking up at my slightest movement. Cassian visited most often. He brought sunflowers every time, which was my favorite.

Yet, I told the nurses to throw them away outright.

Once, that kind of attention would have made me dizzy with joy. Now, their sudden care felt like a chain tightening around my throat, almost suffocating.

I knew they must be hatching a new scheme.