Rejected Luna's New Beginning

The stack of pack documents felt heavier than usual in my arms as I organized them on Darren's mahogany desk. Three years as his Luna, and I still found myself tingling whenever I entered his office—the space that smelled of him, of pine and musk and power.

My fingers traced over the embossed Silver Creek Pack logo on the folder. "Just a few more minutes," I whispered to my wolf, Aria, who stirred restlessly within me. "Then we can go for that run you've been begging for."

Aria huffed. *We deserve more than scraps of attention.*

I pushed away her complaint, focusing instead on alphabetizing the territorial agreements. Darren had been distant lately—busy with pack matters, he'd said. But I understood. Being Alpha meant sacrifice. Being his mate meant understanding.

The door to the adjoining room remained slightly ajar, and I heard Darren's voice drifting through—not directed at me, but at someone else. Beta Marcus, perhaps?

"—can't keep doing this," Darren was saying, his voice lower than usual. "The guilt is eating at me."

I froze, my hand hovering over a file labeled "Northern Territory Disputes."

"It's been three years," came Marcus's reply. "You've done what you needed to do."

"What I needed to do?" Darren's laugh was hollow. "Forcing a mark on a sixteen-year-old girl during her first shift? Breaking my engagement to Tommy's sister?"

The documents slipped from my fingers, scattering across the polished floor.

*Oh goddess,* Aria whimpered inside me. *No, no, no.*

"I did what was necessary," Darren continued, oblivious to my presence. "Sloan was convenient—available when I needed to break free from Tommy's sister. And now she's useful as Luna."

My lungs constricted. Convenient. Useful. Not loved. Not fated.

"But Macy—" Darren's voice softened in a way it never had for me. "God, Marcus, you don't understand. It's always been her. From the moment I saw her at that pack gathering five years ago. But she was too young then, and Sloan was... there."

The room tilted. My knees buckled as I sank to the floor, desperately trying to breathe through the crushing weight on my chest.

"And now?" Marcus asked.

"Now I have to keep playing this game," Darren sighed. "Sloan's wolf is too weak to challenge me directly. And Macy understands... she's been patient. So damn patient."

I clutched my stomach, nausea rising like a tidal wave. Three years of believing we were destined. Three years of ignoring how he'd found me during my first shift, vulnerable and alone. Three years of excusing how he'd marked me so roughly, so possessively.

All lies.

I stumbled to my feet, documents forgotten, and somehow made it to the door. The hallway stretched before me, endless and blurry through my tears.

---

"The nausea is normal," Dr. Elena Vasquez said gently, her weathered hands still resting on my abdomen. "Especially in the first trimester."

I stared at the ceiling of the pack clinic, unable to process her words. "Pregnant?"

She nodded, her kind eyes crinkling at the corners. "About six weeks along. The Alpha's heir."

The heir. A pup. Our pup.

Aria howled inside me, a sound of such profound grief that I couldn't distinguish it from joy.

"Does he know?" Elena asked, preparing a prenatal vitamin.

I shook my head. "No. And... not yet."

Elena's brow furrowed. "Sloan, he's the Alpha. Your mate. He should be the first to know."

"He's busy," I whispered, the lie bitter on my tongue. "Pack matters."

Something in my expression must have warned her because she didn't press further. Instead, she squeezed my hand. "Take these daily. And Sloan... whatever's troubling you, remember your pup needs you strong."

I nodded mechanically, accepting the small bottle. A pup. Darren's heir. The future of Silver Creek Pack.

And possibly the only thing that mattered anymore.

---

"You're imagining things," Darren said that evening, his voice dangerously soft as he loomed over me in our bedroom. "What you think you heard—"

"I know what I heard," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "You planned it all. You never wanted me."

His eyes flashed gold—his wolf rising to the surface. "Enough!"

The Alpha command hit me like a physical blow, driving me to my knees. Aria whimpered, instinctively submitting to his dominance.

"You will not speak of this again," he growled, looming over me. "Do you understand?"

I nodded, unable to resist the compulsion of his Alpha tone.

He helped me to my feet with false gentleness, his fingers digging into my arms. "Good girl."

Over his shoulder, I saw his phone light up with a notification. A mind-link message.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he read it, then quickly typed a response.

"Macy's asking about tomorrow's pack run," he lied smoothly. "I told her we'd meet them at the clearing."

Another lie. Another betrayal.

And as he pulled me into an embrace that once would have comforted me, I felt something inside me—something deeper than Aria—begin to break.

My hand drifted to my stomach, to the tiny life growing there. The heir he deserved to know about.

But not tonight. Not until I understood exactly how much of our life had been built on lies.