Pregnant and Rejected: The Luna's Lethal Return

Two pink lines. I stared at the small white plastic stick in my trembling hands, my breath catching in my throat. Two pink lines. It was real. After six years of trying, after six years of whispered insults from the pack elders and cold, disappointed looks from my husband, I was finally pregnant. I rested against the cold marble surface of our penthouse bathroom, my hand flat on my flat stomach. A little life was developing within me. Kaelen’s heir. My baby. Pure relief tears fell down my cheeks and out of my eyes. All my sacrifices seemed to be worth it for a moment. I had fallen so much in love with Kaelen that at sixteen I locked myself away. I was a descendant of a lineage of assassins, Lycans that were long forgotten and deadly. My family was a family of shadows, killers, monsters of the dark. But Kaelen didn't want a monster. He wanted a soft, domestic, perfect Luna, a Luna who would smile at pack gatherings and keep his home warm! So I sharpened my claws, and I went down. I swallowed down the forceful growl that ran through my blood. I was taken as a wife, a docile, obedient one, to the most powerful and richest Alpha in the city. I had to surrender my freedom to live in this dark gray, ultra-luxury, industrial-style penthouse with dark gray walls and floor-to-ceiling glass. I could sometimes look out and see all these lights in the city below and think I was a bird in a beautiful cage. But Kaelen was my mate. I poured out my heart, filled with a terrible love, for him. This will solve all of my problems, I whispered to my reflection in the mirror. My dark eyes were tired, my raven hair messy, but there was a new light in my face. He will see me the way he did, he will finally love me, and he is going to be a father. Ding. The private elevator's soft chime reverberated through the massive penthouse. There was a wild flip in my heart. Kaelen was home. He returned from a week's business trip with the neighbouring packs. I wiped my eyes in no time and pushed the pregnancy test into the pocket of my silk robe. I wanted to catch him off guard. I wanted to see his cold, storm-gray eyes light up with joy when I told him the news. I hurried out of the bathroom, moving quietly over the dark hardwood floors, and headed for the living room. "Kaelen?" I called out, a smile playing on my face. You're home early, I didn't expect you till— I couldn't get the words out. My feet froze in place. The smile froze and then began to crack in a million painful ways. Kaelen was in the middle of our living room. He looked, as always, like a stunning, dangerous figure. His dark suit was cut to his enormous figure, his tight jawline sharp, his towering stature heavily muscled. The badges of the pack, which were visible on his collar, were a sign of alpha strength. However, he was not gazing at me. He wasn't the only one. Clinging tightly to his arm was a girl. She was small, frail, had huge innocent blue eyes, and soft blonde hair that hung in gentle waves down her back. The pale pink pastel dress she wore made her look like a fragile porcelain doll. But my blood ran cold when I saw her. It was the scent. Scent is the most important of all things for a werewolf. Beneath the dark pine and rain that cloaked Kaelen, there was a sickeningly sweet scent that emanated from her. As with vanilla beans and crushed flowers. But worst of all, their fragrances were blended together. Entangled in a manner not suitable for unmatched couples. My eyes were drawn down to her neck. There, on her slender collar bone, was a new, angry red bite mark. A mating mark. The room's air was suddenly sucked out. A stabbing, intense pain blazed in my chest, right where my own mating bond with Kaelen lay. It was like a hot knife twisting in my heart. I gasped and stumbled back a step, clutching the edge of the glass dining table to keep myself from falling. My voice shook, "Kaelen…," I whispered. "What... who is this? What is going on?" Finally, Kaelen looked at me. His gray eyes, the eyes that I had looked in for six years, were completely blank. It was not warm. No guilt. It's just a chilling emptiness, calculated. He said, "Sit down, Sienna. His tone was low, rough, and full of the Alpha power he applied to his soldiers. Not his wife. No, I choked out, looking at the girl. She moved closer to Kaelen, crouching against his chest like a scared child. But just before she buried her face in his suit, I caught a glimpse of her eyes. They weren't scared. They were filled with a wicked and triumphant light. "Who is she, Kaelen? Why did she get your mark? Kaelen stepped in, protecting Celeste with his huge body, "Her name is Celeste. Kaelen stepped in, protecting Celeste with his huge body, "Her name is Celeste. "And she is my true mate." It was like a punch in the face. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. The room began to spin. "Your true mate?" I said it again, my voice cracked. I'm your mate, I'm your Luna. We've been married for 6 years now! You were a stand-in, Sienna," he said, his voice flat and cruel. He took them out of his inner jacket pocket and dropped them with a thud on the glass table. I thought you were my mate, we were young, it was real enough, but when I saw Celeste again, my childhood first love, the Moon Goddess made it clear. She is my destiny. Not you. I scanned the papers. Printed at the very top, in bold black letters, was the word: DIVORCE DECREE. "You're divorcing me?" I whispered, "I ask you." The plastic pregnancy test was weighed down in my pocket and was hot. It burned like a brand on my skin. You came here to my house, you came to my land, you came to tell me that you're throwing me away? It's my land, Sienna. And my pack," Kaelen corrected coldly. The pack elders have already agreed. You haven't been able to give me an heir in six years. You are weak, Sienna. The pack needs a real Luna. A strong mother. Celeste will give me the children you couldn't. It was such a joke, I could taste the blood in my mouth. I chewed on my cheek to not cry out. I am pregnant, I cried out in my head. I'm taking you to school with me right now! My hand trembled towards my pocket. I wished to remove the test. I wanted to toss it in his gorgeous, arrogant face and see him crack. I wanted him to remember our late-night whispers, our promises made in the dark, how he held me when it thundered. But then Celeste spoke. “So sorry, Sienna,” she said, her voice high and sickly-sweet. She stuck her head around the corner behind Kaelen's arm and looked at me with a look of pure mock pity. “But we could not fight fate. Kaelen and I belong together. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive us. You can take some money. Go live a quiet, normal life somewhere safe.” I guess my heart broke. It wasn't a loud noise. The click was a quiet one; in the deepest part of my soul, it was deadly. I had made myself a cage around the beast inside me for six years. I'd planted the blood of the assassin Lycan family deep in the folds of soft smiles and submission. I had let myself become weak for a man who just called me a useless placeholder. I watched Kaelen stroke Celeste's blonde hair, soothing her from the 'stress' of my presence, and the heartbreak just came to a halt. The agonizing pain of the breaking mate bond didn't disappear, but it froze. The hot tears on my cheeks froze. I did not take the pregnancy test out of my pocket. Kaelen would never let me go if he knew I was pregnant. He would remove my child from my arms and place him in Celeste's arms. He would leave me in this glass cage, breeding machine, and he would parade his fake mate around the city. No. He abandoned me due to my weakness. He believed I was just a soft, pathetic girl, crying and begging for crumbs of his affection. He had no idea what he had just awoken. I rose to my feet. I rolled my shoulders back. I no longer had any shaking in my hands. Kaelen's eyes narrowed as he seemed confused by the abrupt shift in my stance. He knew he was going to have a breakdown. He was hoping I would be on my knees. I instead stretched my arm across the glass table and grabbed the silver pen. "Where do I sign?" My voice was terrifyingly calm, “I asked,” It didn't sound like the soft Luna he knew. It sounded dead. Kaelen's cold gray eyes clouded with a flash of something akin to regret before his face hardened back. The final page and the pack registry separation form. I turned to the end of the book. I haven't read the conditions. I didn't care about his money and his properties. I drew my name in sharp, aggressive strokes. As I wrote each letter, the bond between us in my chest broke a little further. It was a violent and bloody ripping sensation in my rib cage, but I managed not to let a single gasp slip past my lips. I threw the pen on the table. It was noisy in the quiet room. I looked him in the eye and said, "Done.“Done,” I replied, looking him in the eye. I want nothing from you, money, keep your fake mate. Kaelen growled, "Watch your tone, rogue," his Alpha energy swirling around the room, dark and oppressive. You may have until midnight to pack up and depart from my kingdom, but if you are discovered by sunrise within the city limits, my guards will consider you to be a trespasser. “No need till midnight,” I said with calmness. "I'm leaving now." I turned my back on the man I had loved for six years. I went into the bedroom, my heart like a block of ice. I didn't bring the fancy clothes he bought me. I didn't wear the jewels of diamonds. I went to the back of the closet, lifted up a floorboard, and retrieved a heavy black tactical duffel bag I'd stowed there on the day of our wedding. My emergency bag. I stripped off that soft silk robe and slipped on a pair of black combat pants, a tight black tank top, and heavy leather boots. I tied a silver hunting knife to my thigh—a knife that Kaelen had no idea that I had. I walked back into the living room, and Kaelen and Celeste were sitting on the fancy leather couch. My clothes made Kaelen's eyes widen slightly, his brows furrowed in confusion. Goodbye, Alpha Kaelen," I said, my voice echoing in the cold penthouse. I didn't have to wait for his response. Entered the private elevator and pressed the elevator button for the lobby. The metal doors started to slide closed, and Kaelen stood up, taking a step towards me. His mouth opened, as if he had just remembered something felt very, very wrong. However, the doors shut, and now he was cut off forever. As soon as the elevator began to descend, the adrenaline surged. The mate bond was completely severed. I fell against the elevator's metal wall, a strangled scream tearing from my throat. The pain was like a flash of white-hot, absolute pain. My nose was bleeding, and blood was splashing on the floor. It was believed that severing a bond without a ritual would kill a wolf. My Lycan healing factor took over and tried to save my heart from dying as it violently rearranged my internal magic. When I reached the ground floor, I was panting and had blood smeared all over my face. I ran through the doors in the lobby and out into the cold and pouring rain of the city. I had no place to go. I only wanted to break away from his land. I walked for hours and washed the smell of the penthouse off my skin. My boots took me into the lawless, dangerous neon-lit streets of the Rogue District. The air was filled with the smell of smog, blood, and cheap liquor. I started to have trouble seeing out of my eyes. The effect of the shattered bond and the pregnancy was finally beginning to take its toll. My knees gave way, and I fell into a dark, muddy alleyway. I landed hard on the wet pavement, curled up in a ball, holding my stomach to keep the little life safe. “Well, well, well…”, a deep, rough voice was heard from the shadows of the alley. I wanted to get up, put my hand to my knife strapped to my thigh, but I couldn't feel my fingers. A huge pair of scuffed combat boots came into the dim light of a winking street lamp. I looked up. There was a tall man with sharp, bloody scars covering his body standing over me. In the dark, his eyes were a deadly yellow, wild. A rogue wolf. And the size of him, a deadly one. He bent his head, a wicked, sharp-toothed grin on his scarred face. He drew a long and evil-looking blade from his belt. "Look what the rain washed in," the rogue purred, stepping closer, the blade catching the dim light. "The fallen Luna. You're a long, long way from your golden cage, little bird. And out here... little birds get eaten."