The Luna Queen Is Reborn

The Unfit

He had walked away, just like that like he hadn't just brought abyss to me- one of his own doing.

I was still where he left me- sprawl across the floor with my hand pressed on the warm carpeted flood as if I could anchor myself to the world I had known just moments ago. Moment ago he had stood over me like this was where I belonged- underneath his feet.

Unlike the chaotic thoughts that couldn't find an outlet, the silence of the room was absolute, save for the rhythmic, wet drip of blood hitting the floor—a macabre metronome for my unraveling life.

Yeah my life was unraveling. About an hour earlier I had my makeup meticulously done by Felicity, and now I bear something that marred my looks.

The one thing I was sure I had, because I looked like her- my mother. It was something I was proud of. The older I got, the more I looked like her, but now a scar marred the face I inherited from her.

From here I could still hear the faint, distant hum of the pack in the Great Hall drifted through the walls. They were waiting. They were cheering, perhaps, expecting their future Alpha to walk through those doors and claim her birthright. The irony was so sharp, so suffocating, that the hysterical laugh I had fought to suppress finally escaped my throat.

I needed it to stop. It was grating my nerves.

What? So,what if I couldn't be the heir they wanted. It wasn't my fault I had became this way. Why were they laughing at my misfortune, at my downfall. Had they always been this way, waiting for the moment I falter so that they could laugh all they want.

Then, they would have to deal with this version of me.

I could feel their laughs shredding my last bit if dignity. It keeps peeling my skin- crawling underneath my skin. I had given all I had, why were they still over me like vultures.

My head shook trying to dispel such thoughts, but they remained like they were never the messages, but a part of my nervous system. My hands held my hair in a tight grip.

I wanted it to stop. I wanted silence- a way out of this cacophony buzzing in my head.

A soft body collided against mine. Their soft hands grabbed mine that were still buried in my hair.

"Lia", I heard her voice- faint it almost got lost in the noise.

"Lia, why are you on the floor? You don't belong there",She tugged at my hands to lift me up.

I didn't belong on the floor- underneath someone else's feet. Then where do I belong?

Where was my place?

"Lia , can you hear me? They are still waiting for y...", she looked up from trying to straighten my dress and she glanced up as I turned my face to her.

Her hands shook and her grip on my hand loosened. I saw it, I saw myself in her beautiful honeyed eyes how pathetic and weak I looked- something I vowed never to be. The slashes run deep from my hairline down my cheek- jagged and deep where the claws raked and raised around the edges. It was a stark contrast against the surrounding porcelain skin.

He must have walked away with my flesh under his fingertips.

The skin didn’t just break; it had been shredded. The edges were angry and swollen, turning a violent, bruised purple where his talons had carved away the porcelain mask of my mother’s face. It wasn't just a wound; it was a permanent, jagged map of his disdain.

But who was it that I could see in her eyes- blue eyes, pink lips, arched brows that are softened by the cheekbones. She looked so familiar yet foreign. Her raven hair ran wildly down her back.

Her eyes reflected the horror my head failed to process- the mark jarring, bloody and ugly. I was ugly.

"Li....Lia how? She asks,but my mind stuck to one thing.a

How could this be me. I was....ugly? How could it be?

The thought was a jagged splinter in my mind, sharper than the claws that had put it there. Even the amicable Felicity saw it. Even she couldn't hide the horror. A scream tore through my throat—not a human sound, but a raw, animal keening that scraped the air. I couldn't recognize my own voice.

Felicity pulled me into her soft arms all shivering and nerve wrecked. Even as I fought with the last of my strength against her hold, they remained, refusing to let me loose myself to the demons my father had carved.

"Lia....Lia....Cerelia"

Her broken sobs were louder than my struggles. Her tears soaked through my clothes and I slumped in her arms.

"I'm tired, Fei", I muttered, my voice croaked and my throat burned.

"Then rest, rest. I'll be here", she rocked us.

We allow silence to chaperone the nefarious atmosphere for a while.

"What is the time",

"Almost midnight ", my shoulders tensed in premonition. The ceremony will be over soon, and I could not bear to see any pack members in this state. No, they shouldn't see me this way.

My knees trembled like newborn saplings, threatening to buckle, but I forced myself upright. The world tilted, a nausea rising in my throat, but I fixed my gaze on the door.

As Felicity made to assist me, I yanked my hands away. My gaze stubborn- I wasn't weak I could stand without help. I combed my fingers through my hair, sweeping it forward, allowing the dark curtain of strands to hide the jagged ruin on my cheek.

What would be going on in the Great hall at the moment? Their heir hadn't shown up. Was the air thick with confusion, or had Father already seized the narrative? Had he already stood before the pack and presented Lucas, claiming I was 'unfit' or 'unwilling'?

The thought was a sharper blade than the one he’d used on my face. If he had, then my appearance—scarred, bloodied, or broken—wouldn't just be an embarrassment; but an evidence of how truly unfit I was.

I forced my legs into a steady rhythm, ignoring the tremor in my knees, with Felicity hovering behind me like a worried shadow.

But tonight I'll try not to listen to their whispers or murmurs of protests. I could not be the heir. I just wanted to close my eyes and find the darkness that didn't belong to him.