Unwanted Luna Reborn at Seventeen

Lyra

“I’m going to die soon, Kael,” I croaked. “I want to see you.”

Kael’s voice came back through the phone, and I could practically hear his sneer.“That’s enough, Lyra. I’m tired of these childish games of yours. I have the Alpha inheritance ceremony to prepare for and I have no time for your bullshit.”

A metallic tang coated my tongue. A mouthful of blood bubbled up, and I squeezed my eyes shut, swallowing it down with effort.

“Kael, I really am—”

“Why don’t you call me when you’re really dead?”

Before I could answer, the line went dead. Hot tears continued their steady path down my cheeks.

My fated mate was going to let me die, and there was nothing I could do about it.Kael didn’t want a wolfless mate. Especially not when he was supposed to become the next Alpha of the Northern Territories.

He put me under house arrest to keep anyone from finding out about me. Locked me away like a disgrace and forbade me from attending his crowning ceremony. That was when my health began to fade.

My body began to fail me. My organs stopped functioning properly, my bones and muscles started to deteriorate, and soon, I could hardly get out of bed.

With trembling fingers, I set aside my phone and drew in a ragged breath. Each inhale was like glass cutting the inside of my throat, and when I tried to sit up, a cry ripped through me from the sudden pain.

I fell back onto the pillows and squeezed my eyes shut.

For five years, I had completely devoted myself to him as his wife. And what did I get in return?

Not his heart, but rather lungfuls of blood and excruciating pain on our wedding bed.

Suddenly, a knock on the door pulled me out of my spiral. Heart leaping, I forced myself up onto my elbows and managed a small, “Come in.”

My traitorous little heart hoped it might be Kael, but it was Bianca who stepped into the room.

It didn’t matter to either of them that Bianca was once my best friend—or so I thought. But as it turned out, she had only been using me to get closer to Kael. And then, when he needed the help the most, she swooped in to save him and became his guardian angel.

Even though I was the one who saved Kael, they never believed a word I said—simply because I was wolfless.

Bianca clicked her tongue and strode across the room, ripping open the curtains. The bright sunlight burned my eyes, making me hiss in pain and lift my arm to shield them.

“It’s past noon, and you’re still in bed,” she tsked, shaking her head. “Typical. Well, Kael is about to name me his Luna, so he won’t have to deal with your laziness for much longer.

My eyes widened, agony tearing through me. So this was why Kael had cast me aside. He wanted me gone, erased, so that Bianca could take my place as Luna.

After everything Kael and I had been through together, he still only saw me as a burden.

At thirteen, my entire family—my entire pack, Silvercrest—was slaughtered right in front of my eyes. I was the sole survivor, found running through the forest, barefoot, my nightgown covered in blood and ash.

Kael had been the one to find me. Kael had been the one to take me home. Kael’s family had adopted me, and Kael had been the one to stay by my side throughout all of the nightmares.

He had pulled me out of the shadows, and I had fallen for him because of it.

I never thought that he would be the one to shove me back into that dark abyss.

But that was my own damn fault, wasn’t it? Kael had been kind at first, but he had shown increasing disdain for me over the years, treating me as more of a nuisance than the frightened girl he had rescued.

And yet, even as his hatred for me grew, I continued to bend over backwards to please him. Even when it cost me my own dignity, I thought that if I could just be perfect, then he would accept me as his mate.

After discovering that we were fated mates, Kael reluctantly married me, but only because of his parents’ pressure. He forbade me from revealing our relationship to anyone and treated me like a stranger even though we were wed.

And now… he wanted me dead.

I struggled to crawl out of the bed, desperate to find Kael and demand if this was truly what he wished. But Bianca shoved me down, my head slamming hard against the headboard.

“Bianca.” Blood dribbled down my chin as I struggled to sit up, but I managed it anyway and turned directly toward her. “Bianca, you know I’m dying… I have never done anything to wrong you—why are you doing this to me?”

For a moment, just a moment, I hoped that the girl who had once been my friend might at least show some pity.

Bianca’s lips curved into a smirk. “Why should I spare you? My family destroyed the Silvercrest Pack, and now I get to watch its last survivor die.”

My eyes widened as it clicked into place. “You—” My words cut off as I choked on another mouthful of blood. Crimson liquid splattered across my nightgown, just as it had ten years ago. Only this time, it was my own.

“Yes,” Bianca said coolly. “It is with great pleasure that I watch the final Silvercrest parasite choke to death.”

I didn’t answer; couldn’t because of all the blood. There was so much. Too much.

“They shouldn’t have let you escape all those years ago,” Bianca sighed, stepping into my rapidly narrowing field of vision. “I could have been with Kael for so much longer if they hadn’t. But…” She glanced at her nails as if this were nothing. As if my death were merely an inconvenience. “It was so fun to watch you grovel for his affection.”

She glanced at her watch, then lifted her hand to flaunt the massive diamond on her finger. With smug delight, she showed it off to me, gloating that she was on her way to become Kael’s Luna.

And just like that, she was gone.

As my final moments washed over me like the tide pulling away from the shore, one final tear slipped down my cheek.

What a fool I had been, believing that Kael would ever love me. That he would ever choose me over the girl whose family had stolen my own.

In those moments, nothing mattered except for my silly, dying heart. And in those moments, all I could think was that if I could live again, I would never let that naive thing dictate my life.

In the final second of my life, I saw Kael burst in, shouting my name. For the first time, I saw his face twisted with panic.

I couldn’t understand… wasn’t this exactly what he wanted?

“Kael,” I whispered with my final breath, “I will never love you again…”

It was a promise. Not to him, but to myself; that if I could have another chance, I would protect my heart forever.

And then the world went dark.

A moment later, my eyes snapped open—only I was no longer in the plush, dark room that had become my prison, but somewhere else entirely. Somewhere warm and cozy and familiar.

My bedroom from when I was seventeen.

And there, standing over my bed, was a younger Kael.

“What were you dreaming about?” he asked, tilting his head, dark hair falling into onyx eyes. “Why were you calling my name?”