Chapter 49

Elara

Grace’s words snapped something inside of me.

I was exhausted. Tired of being walked all over. And after last night, I wasn’t about to let her just

saunter away after she said such awful things to me.

I moved before Grace could walk away, planting myself squarely in her path in the doorway.

She paused, glancing up at me with surprise—as if she didn’t expect me to put my foot down.

“I am your Luna,” I said, lifting my chin and meeting her cold gaze. “How dare you speak to me

like that?”

For a moment, Grace just stared at me. She didn’t flinch, but I could sense the discomfort in her

posture, no doubt shocked that I—a lowly servant in her eyes—was standing up for myself to

someone like her.

But the shock didn’t last long. Her lips curled into a sneer as her eyes flicked to my neck. I knew

exactly what she was looking at, and the flicker of anger I saw behind her gaze didn’t surprise

me. She couldn’t hide her disdain even if she tried, not that she was trying at all.

“Luna,” she repeated, the word coming out like venom dripping from a snake’s fang. “A

temporary title.” Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Even that little mark of yours is just temporary.”

My stomach twisted, but I refused to let her see it. I held my ground, glaring at her with as much

authoritative anger as I could muster. A feat that wasn’t easy for me, considering the fact that I’d

never held authority over anyone else until recently.

“Emily would make a much better Luna for Alaric, you know,” she continued, her words sharp

enough to cut. “It won’t take long for him to realize it, either. And once he does, you will be

gone. Divorced. Forgotten. Mark or no mark, you are not fit to be by his side.”

Her words were like poison, but I pushed them aside. Grace had always been manipulative, and

her words meant nothing to me.

“Whether my position as your son’s wife is temporary or not,” I bit out, my voice low and

controlled, “what matters is that I am your Luna now. And if you speak to me like that again, you

won’t be setting foot in this house for the foreseeable future. Now get out of my sight.”

Grace’s smirk deepened, clearly unfazed by my words. She glanced at me one last time, her

eyes lingering on the mark on my neck before she turned and strode out of the room.

Only once I heard the front door open and shut, announcing her exit, did I finally let my

shoulders slump.

“Fuck,” I whispered, gripping the edge of the table and hanging my head. My heart was

pounding, palms sweaty, my breath coming out ragged. I wasn’t used to this—standing up to

people like her. And I wasn’t sure if I could get used to it any time soon.

Before I could compose myself, I heard the sound of the girls’ excited chatter as they came

down the stairs. I just barely had enough time to force a smile onto my face before they skipped

into the room.

“Breakfast is ready,” I said, my voice lighter now. “Come sit.”

As they clambered into their seats, I busied myself with cleaning up and preparing my coffee;

anything to avoid letting Grace’s words fester in my mind.

I kept telling myself that she was just jealous, plain and simple. And angry that Alaric, her

perfect son, had marked me. Angry that I was the one wearing the title of Luna, even if it was

supposedly temporary. Angry that I held any kind of sway in anyone’s life, let alone hers.

Or so I told myself.

But later, when the house was quieter and the girls were playing upstairs, I found myself

scrolling through my phone. I told myself it was just to catch up on the news, but the truth was

that I was looking for something—anything—that might explain Grace’s thinly veiled threats.

And it didn’t take long for me to find it.

My heart sank as I stared at the headline on the screen: “Alaric Donovan Spotted Driving

Socialite Emily Harrington Home… Where is Omega Wife?”

Beneath it was a photo, taken through the windshield of Alaric’s car. Emily was in the passenger

seat, smiling radiantly as she looked at him. He wasn’t looking at her, his attention focused on

the road, but it didn’t matter.

I could see the sparkle in his eyes. The kind of sparkle that he rarely showed around me.

And just like that, my resolve shattered.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I read the article over and over again, the words blurring

together as I skimmed through the details. Alaric had driven her home earlier that morning, and

according to the gossip column, they had been ‘laughing and chatting like long lost lovers’.

My grip on the phone tightened as a bitter pang shot through my chest. Of course he had driven

her home. Of course they had been laughing and chatting. She was everything I wasn’t—

poised, elegant, not an Omega.

A perfect match for him in the eyes of this world.

I shouldn’t have cared. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known this marriage was a facade, an arrangement

born out of necessity, not love. But somewhere along the line, especially last night, my feelings

had shifted, grown into something far more than what they were in the beginning.

And now…

Before I could stop myself, I switched apps, my fingers moving almost on their own as I

searched for Emily’s social media profile. She came up immediately—a verified account with

hundreds of thousands of followers.

And of course, her latest post was a photo of herself, perfectly styled in the exact outfit she’d

been wearing this morning, with a caption that read: “A lovely morning catching up with old

friends.”

I sighed, clicking on the post and scrolling to the comments. I wished I hadn’t.

“OMG, you and Alpha Alaric?” one comment read. “Isn’t he married now?”

“Yes. Elara,” Emily replied underneath, “Alaric’s Omega ‘wife’, actually poured tea for me in her

dressing gown and then rudely left the room while Alaric was talking about their marriage this

morning! She’s not fit to be his Luna, if you ask me!”

I stared at the words and then at the steady counting likes on the comment, my chest tightening

further and further each time I read it. Bite tasting like embarrassment rose in my throat, hot and

bitter. She’d made a spectacle of me, turned my life into even more of a public joke than it

already was.

“Damn it,” I muttered under my breath, slamming my phone face down on the table so hard the

screen might have cracked, but I didn’t care. My heart was pounding, my thoughts spiraling, and

there was no stopping them now.

Why had Alaric even agreed to drive her home? Why hadn’t he said anything to defend me this

morning? Did he think I wasn’t fit to be his Luna, too? Was Grace right about everything?

Without meaning to, my fingers fluttered up toward the mating mark on my neck. But just as I

was about to touch it, maybe even send a tentative thrum down it to sense if Alaric was listening

or if he even cared, the sound of the front door opening made me jerk my hand back.

I straightened in my chair, my pulse quickening. I expected Grace to walk in, but instead, Alaric

rounded the corner to the living room looking casual as ever.

I immediately looked away. I didn’t want to see him, not now, not while my emotions were such

a tangled mess. But there was no avoiding it, apparently, because he walked right up to me.

“Elara,” he said by way of greeting, striding over to me and thrusting an invitation into my hand.

“Sorry for the late notice, but we’ve got a banquet to attend tonight. You might want to start

getting dressed now.”

And just like that, he turned and left the room without so much as a second glance.