The Moon Never Chose Me Chapter 02

The Moon Never Chose Me Chapter 02

Too much stuff. Every inch of the floor was covered.

Maeve’s litter box was right on my bed. The stench hit me before I even crossed the threshold.

I stood in the doorway, my mind completely blank for a solid five seconds. When I turned around, my mother was sitting in the living room.

I knew she saw it. The mess. The fact that I had nowhere left to stand.

But she just glanced over—one cold, dismissive look—then went back to picking out Maeve’s dress for the next day.

This wasn’t the first time.

I used to have my own room.

Then Maeve started crying that hers was smaller than Caelan’s.

She said they were both double-moon born. She brought home just as much glory. Why shouldn’t she get the exact same treatment?

My parents couldn’t handle her tantrums. They knocked down one wall of my room and turned half of it into her walk-in closet.

Caelan didn’t say a word when he found out. He just slammed the door and disappeared for a whole day.

The next morning, my father turned the other half of my room into Caelan’s tactical gaming den.

Twins need balance, they said.

If one got even a little less than the other, it would ruin their whole dynamic. People would think Moonhart family played favorites.

So I got shoved into the storage room at the back of the estate.

Freezing in winter. Suffocating in summer. The window barely cracked open.

The rain still hadn’t stopped. Water pooled on the windowsill and crept down the wall, seeping across the floor.

And it hit me. I was just like that water in this house. The second space got tight, I was the one who got squeezed out.

First it was my room.

Now it was my last scrap of space to exist.

I shut the door mechanically.

Blocking out the laughter and noise that had never been meant for me.

I didn’t sleep that night. There wasn’t anywhere to sleep.

But I wiped down my little wooden wolf carving and set it clean on the table. Declan Brennan gave it to me. If there was one thing in this house I’d take with me, it was that.

Next morning, my Silverpine Academy advisor, Ellis, called me into her office.

She said my transfer to Lunar Ring University’s Combat Department had been approved.

The campus was in Frostmoon City. Almost an entire continent away from Silvercrown Pack territory.

The Combat Department was their best program. Graduates went into pack security, university training centers, or city response units.

That was exactly what I wanted.

Not to be the strongest fighter. Not to win glory for my family. I just wanted to go somewhere no one knew me and learn how to protect myself.

Ellis looked at me, her voice careful.

“The transfer itself is fine. But you’re not twenty-one yet. Leaving your pack for long-term study requires a guardian’s signed consent form. Have you talked to your family about this?”

I gripped the hem of my shirt, my fingers tightening. Then I smiled.

“I’ll figure it out.”

I barely made it out of the office before I ran straight into my mother.

Maeve was right beside her, eyes red and puffy, clinging to our mother’s arm like a child.

“Mom, I don’t care,” Maeve whined, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Caelan just got first place in the Youth Warrior evaluations. And I didn’t get the Moon Crown Youth Award.”

“We’re double-moon twins. If people find out he won something and I got nothing, they’ll think I don’t deserve to represent Moonhart with him.”

I used to envy her. The way she could demand my parents’ love like it was her birthright.

Now I just glanced at her and started to walk past.

My mother grabbed my wrist.

“Layla, didn’t you win that gold medal in the Youth Defense Plan Competition a while back? The one with the city wolf riot evacuation plan?”

I blinked, wondering if I’d heard her wrong.

“Mom. I did that whole project myself.”

I spent a month sleeping in the library to finish that plan. I even fell behind on training.

But my mother was already cutting me off, impatient.

“I know you put in the work. But what’s the point of you keeping the credit? You’re not the one we’re raising to represent Moonhart. You don’t go to pack socials. You don’t attend the galas.”

“Maeve is different. She and Caelan are our double-moon symbols. If she’s missing one honor, people will start gossiping.”

Twenty years of swallowed resentment and fury surged up in my chest.

So that’s how it worked. The family’s image always came at my expense.

What about me?

Didn’t I work hard? Didn’t I have pride? Didn’t I deserve something that was mine?

Then my fingers brushed the transfer consent form in my bag. And suddenly, I went calm.

I heard myself speak in a voice I didn’t recognize. Cold. Flat. Final.

“Fine.”

“I’ll sign over the credit. But you have to sign something for me first.”

My mother barely hesitated. She snatched the paper from my hands and scrawled her name on the last page.

She didn’t even read the title: “Northern Lunar Ring University Cross-Pack Transfer Program.”

She turned back to Maeve as soon as she was done.

“See? Mommy told you. I’ll never let you lose to Caelan. Not in anything.”

Maeve’s tears vanished. Her face lit up.

On her way out, she bumped my shoulder on purpose.

“See? If you’d just said yes earlier, I wouldn’t have had to cry so long.”

She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Because in this house, anything that could bring glory was supposed to have her name on it. Or Caelan’s. Never mine.

I didn’t say a word.

I just clutched that signed form to my chest.

Like it was the only ticket out I’d ever get.