Rise of the Scarred Luna: Desired by the Alpha King

IRIS’ POV "Let's get a divorce." My words cut through the suffocating silence of our bedroom. Across from me, Jacob, my husband, froze. Earlier tonight, I had caught him in bed with my stepsister. I still couldn't erase the image from my mind—their bodies tangled in the sheets of what was supposed to be our marriage bed, my stepsister, Karina beneath him, her golden hair fanned across my pillow, and Jacob’s mark fresh and glistening on the curve of her neck. I had stood in that doorway, and for one horrifying moment, my entire world had collapsed, especially after Jacob revealed that the two of them were actually mates. But now, sitting across from Jacob in the dim lamplight, the devastation I should have felt wasn't there. Something else had taken its place, a strange, hollow clarity. As if the shock had burned through every fragile hope I'd ever clung to, and all that remained was the cold, unvarnished truth. I had been a fool. I should have known. Should have seen the signs. The way he grew colder after our wedding. The excuses about being too busy to share a bed. The way our three months of marriage passed without him ever touching me—without consummating our union. I had spent those months lying awake, agonizing over what was wrong with me, why my own husband couldn't bear to lay a hand on me. And all along, it was my stepsister. "What did you say?" Jacob's voice was low, dangerous. "I said, let's get a divorce." I met his eyes without flinching. "You have your mate. There's no reason for us to continue this." His jaw clenched. The mask of the gentle, devoted man I had known my entire life cracked, and beneath it, something harder, colder, began to surface. "Iris, think this through." He clenched his jaw and ran a hand through his disheveled hair, his tone shifting back to that familiar soothing cadence he used whenever he wanted to calm me down. "Karina is my mate. The Moon Goddess chose her. It's a call of my wolf... I can't defy fate. But that doesn't change how I feel about you." He stepped closer, his voice softening. "I still love you, Iris. She's just... a biological need. A weakness of my wolf. But you are my wife. We can still have our life together. You just have to understand that I have needs she fulfills—" "You have needs?" I repeated, scoffing. The word tasted like poison as I stared at the man in front of me. He was my childhood sweetheart. My protector. The only man who had ever stood beside me when the rest of the pack treated me like a disease. When I was the wolfless outcast with no scent and a hideous black birthmark consuming half my face, Jacob had been the one to tell me I was beautiful. The one who swore he didn't care about mates, that he only wanted me. He had even promised he would reject his fated mate for me if he ever found her. We were both twenty-one this year and promised to marry each other because neither of us had found our mates. Or so I thought. Turns out, he had found his. And she was Karina. One of the very people who had tormented me since childhood. If I hadn't walked through that door tonight, they would have kept lying to me. For how long? Months? Years? The entire duration of our marriage? The betrayal cut deeper than the infidelity. Because it meant every smile and every promise he gave me in the past, it had all been calculated. And the reason why was sickeningly clear. I was the only legitimate daughter of Alpha of our pack, Rudolf Laurent. But my father had died six months ago in a rogue attack, and despite the pack treating me like garbage my entire life, the elders had insisted I take the position of Luna. As the rightful heir, anyone who married me would become Alpha of the Moonshadow Pack. Jacob had proposed. And I, desperate and in love, had accepted. Marrying him had felt surreal—he was the strongest young warrior in the pack, the Beta's son, and the entire pack had whispered that he was only after my title, that it was pity, not love. I had heard those whispers, and some small part of me had even feared they were true, but I had been too blindly in love to listen, choosing instead to believe that every smile, every touch, every promise was genuine. But I was just after all, a mere stepping stone for him. “I know I was wrong for hiding the truth from you about Karina, but you’re the only one I love—" A bitter laugh escaped me, hollow and mirthless. "You don’t love me, Jacob." I looked at him, my gaze turning sharp. "You were just making sure I wouldn't look elsewhere. That I'd stay docile. Grateful. While you waited for the right moment to take my father's title. Isn't that right?" As soon as I said that, something shifted behind his eyes. The last trace of the boy I had loved vanished, replaced by something cold and sharp. “What now? You think you can just walk away just like that?" he snarled. "Look at yourself, Iris. You're wolfless. You have no scent. You can't even connect to a mind-link. And this—" He crossed the distance between us in two strides, his hand shooting up to grip my chin, his thumb pressing hard against the edge of my birthmark. "Do you think any man would look at this and want you?" The words struck like a blade. For a long time, I had endured the whispers and stares, being the pack's punchline. And the one person who had ever made me feel like I was worth something was now using my deepest insecurity as a weapon against me. "I'm the only one who has ever stood beside you," Jacob continued, each word precise and devastating. "The only one who will ever claim you. Your own father could barely stand the sight of you. I gave you my name. My protection. A place in this world. And you should be grateful." Grateful. The word echoed in my skull, and with it came a numbness, not the kind that breaks you, but the kind that hardens you. Every gentle touch, every whispered promise, every time he had told me I was beautiful, it all curdled into poison inside my chest. "You will attend the Summit tomorrow," Jacob said, straightening his shirt, his composure snapping back into place like a door slamming shut. "You will smile and play your part. And you will never mention the word divorce again." He walked out without looking back. The door had barely clicked shut before it opened again. Karina stepped inside, still wrapped in her robe, her eyes glittering with that familiar cruel satisfaction. She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, a slow smile curling her lips. "Poor you," she murmured. "Did you really think he was ever going to choose you?" She tilted her head, studying me like a specimen under glass. "He was always mine, Iris. You were just... something useful to him." She pushed off the doorframe, pausing beside me close enough that her jasmine perfume made my stomach turn. "Now, get some sleep, sister," she whispered. "You have a big day tomorrow." The door clicked shut. I sat on the edge of the rumpled bed, staring at the space where they had both stood, and a heavy, suffocating weight settled over me. Not heartbreak. Not anymore. Something worse. Resentment. I had suffered enough in this pack. Twenty-one years of being the outcast, the defect, the punchline to every cruel joke. I had endured it because I believed—foolishly, desperately—that someone loved me. That someone saw past the mark, the missing wolf, the brokenness in me And now I was trapped. Married to a man who despised me. Bound to a pack that treated me like a disease. But I knew I couldn't bear any more of this. I need to find a way out. --- The next night, was the Continental Summit. It was annual gathering of all major packs across the continent—Alphas, Elders, and influential wolves under one roof, negotiating alliances and displaying power under the guise of celebration. And the host this year was our pack, the Moonshadow Pack. I wore a midnight gown and a silver mask that concealed the worst of my birthmark, lingering by the wine table where no one would approach me. Even as the Luna of the Moonshadow Pack, I had never been truly acknowledged as one. Perhaps it was better this way, that I was invisible. Across the room, Jacob had his arm around Karina's waist as they paraded around and talked with Alphas and Lunas from other packs. They didn't even try to hide their affair, and it seemed no one really cared. "Alpha Jacob seems to have abandoned her. Who could stand seeing that face?" "Lady Karina is a much better fit as a Luna. It seems the Alpha finally chose the right one." The whispers towards my way never stopped. I drained my glass and looked away. Strangely, seeing Jacob and Karina together no longer struck me with the same piercing pain as yesterday. What remained was something heavier, quieter—the bitter weight of resentment settling deep in my chest like stone. I reached for another glass when the ballroom doors swung open. A heavy pressure swept through the hall, silencing everything at once. Music faded. Voices stopped. The air itself seemed to thicken, pressing against my skin like an invisible hand. "The North Alpha King has arrived!" Murmurs erupted instantly. "The North Alpha King…?" "He actually came?" For a moment, I paused. Even without explanation, I knew the name. Kael Draven. The strongest Alpha alive. The ruler of the Northern Territories. A man feared across all packs. Instinctively, my gaze lifted. Then I saw him. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dressed in black, a dark mask hiding part of his face. Yet nothing could conceal the oppressive aura that followed him, making the entire hall feel smaller. Even Alphas seemed insignificant beside him. I should have looked away. But I couldn't. Then suddenly… A pair of striking silver eyes met mine. My breath caught. Something in my chest tightened violently, as if struck. My grip on the glass stiffened as an unfamiliar heat spread under my skin. Warm. Intense. Unexplainable. For a moment, everything else disappeared, the whispers, the resentment, the suffocating weight of my broken marriage. Only him remained. Only that gaze—sharp, unreadable, piercing straight through me. And I couldn't bring myself look away.