THE FORGOTTEN LUNA

The night my mate chose my sister, I was holding the tray that carried their engagement rings. Funny, isn't it? For nineteen years, I had been told that some things were simply not meant for me. Happiness. Respect. A place among my own people. Apparently, love belonged on that list too. “Elena, are you going to stand there all night?” My stepmother's sharp voice dragged me back to the crowded ballroom. I looked down at the silver tray in my hands. Two velvet boxes rested on it, their contents catching the light from the crystal chandeliers above us. One ring was for my stepsister, Lyra Vale. The other was for the man I had once believed would be my future. Darius stood in the center of the room, looking impossibly handsome in his black suit. His dark hair was neatly styled, and the confident smile on his face was one I knew too well. It was the same smile he had given me the first time he asked me to be his girlfriend. The same smile he had worn when he promised that my inability to shift wouldn't matter to him. We'll figure it out together, Elena, he had told me. I had been foolish enough to believe him. Now he stood with one arm around my sister's waist, announcing their engagement to everyone who mattered in Shadowmoon Pack. And I was the girl holding their rings. “Come here, darling,” Lyra called. Her smile was sweet enough to fool strangers. I wasn't a stranger. I knew the little spark in her eyes meant she was enjoying every second of this. I walked toward them. The conversations around us gradually faded as people turned to watch. Some looked uncomfortable. Others didn't bother hiding their amusement. Everyone knew Darius and I had been together. Everyone also knew why he had left me. I was nineteen years old and still couldn't shift into my wolf form. In a pack where your wolf was your identity, your strength, and sometimes your only protection, that made me less than nothing in the eyes of many. Darius had been patient at first. Then embarrassed. Finally, he had become cruel. He never said the word useless to my face. He preferred finding gentler ways to make me feel it. “Elena,” he said, extending his hand toward the tray. “Thank you.” His voice was polite. That somehow hurt more than if he had insulted me. I held the tray steady while he picked up Lyra's ring. “Lyra,” he began, turning toward her, “you have brought a kind of happiness into my life that I never thought possible. I want you beside me, not just today, but for the rest of our lives.” Lyra's eyes glistened. “Oh, Darius.” He slipped the ring onto her finger. The room erupted in applause. I stood there, forcing my fingers to remain still around the tray. Then Darius looked at me. For one brief moment, I thought he might say something. Perhaps an apology. Perhaps an acknowledgment that what we had shared once meant something to him. Instead, he leaned closer and spoke quietly enough that only I could hear. “You should stop looking at me like that.” I blinked. “Like what?” “Like I owe you something.” My throat tightened. “I wasn't looking at you.” “Good. Because I made my decision, Elena. You need to accept it.” He turned away before I could respond. And just like that, whatever remained of the boy I had loved disappeared behind the man who had decided I wasn't worth waiting for. “Take the tray to the kitchen,” Seraphina ordered. My stepmother appeared beside me, her expression pinched with irritation. “And try not to ruin the evening with that face of yours.” I looked at her. “I'm not ruining anything.” “Then stop behaving as though someone has murdered your happiness.” I almost laughed. If only she knew how close her words came to something else. My father had been dead for twelve years, and there were still nights when I woke expecting to hear his footsteps in the hallway. I remembered his laughter, the warmth of his hand around mine, and the way he used to tell me that my worth had nothing to do with the strength of my wolf. Seraphina had never liked those memories. She said they made me sentimental. I thought they made me human. “Go,” she snapped. I turned before she could see the tears gathering in my eyes. The kitchen was nearly empty when I arrived. I placed the tray on the counter and gripped its edge, taking slow breaths until the ache in my chest became bearable. I wasn't going to cry over Darius. Not tonight. I had given him enough of myself already. A few minutes later, I slipped out through the side entrance and stepped into the cool night air. Music drifted through the ballroom windows behind me. Somewhere inside, my sister was probably showing off her ring while everyone congratulated her on winning the future I had once imagined for myself. I walked toward the gardens. My father's old oak tree stood near the far wall, its branches spreading over the stone bench where he used to sit with me when I was little. I sat beneath it and reached for the necklace around my neck. A silver crescent moon hung from a thin chain. The metal had grown dull over the years, but I had never taken it off. My father gave it to me on my seventh birthday. I could still remember the way he had fastened it around my neck, his large hands surprisingly gentle. “Keep this safe, little moon,” he had whispered. I had giggled and asked why. He'd brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “One day, you'll understand.” Three weeks later, he was dead. The official report said his car had skidded off a mountain road during a storm. They called it a tragic accident. Bad weather. Poor visibility. A terrible stroke of luck. Everyone accepted it. Everyone except me. I was seven when I lost him, too young to understand the details, but old enough to remember the way the adults stopped talking whenever I entered a room. Old enough to remember Seraphina burning a stack of his papers in the garden. And old enough to remember the expression on her face when I asked what she was doing. She had told me they were useless documents. I had believed her then. I didn't anymore. A breeze stirred the branches above me. I tucked the necklace beneath my dress and stared at the ballroom windows. I had spent years trying to become the kind of daughter my stepmother could be proud of. I had worked harder than Lyra, stayed quieter than everyone else, and learned to swallow insults without giving anyone the satisfaction of seeing me hurt. None of it had changed anything. Tomorrow, I would return to my ordinary life. I would wake up in the small room at the end of the hallway, listen to Seraphina complain about me at breakfast, and go through another day pretending that being unwanted didn't hurt. But tonight, something inside me had changed. Perhaps it was Darius's engagement. Perhaps I was simply tired of being afraid. Whatever it was, I knew one thing. I was done waiting for other people to tell me who I was. I stood and brushed the dust from my dress. Then I heard footsteps behind me. “Elena?” I turned. Seraphina stood a few feet away, her face half-hidden in the darkness. “What are you doing out here?” “Getting some air.” Her gaze moved over me before settling on the hand resting near my necklace. Something changed in her expression. It was quick—so quick that I might have imagined it. Her eyes widened slightly, and her lips parted as though she had seen something she desperately hoped wasn't there. Then her usual coldness returned. “Come inside,” she said. “I'm not ready.” “That wasn't a request.” I held her gaze. For once, I didn't move. Her jaw tightened. “You have no idea how much trouble your stubbornness can cause.” “I'm not doing anything wrong.” “You don't know that.” The words came out too quickly. We stared at each other. For the first time in years, I saw something in Seraphina's face that didn't look like anger or disgust. It looked like fear. Before I could ask her what she meant, she turned toward the ballroom. “Stay away from the northern road,” she said over her shoulder. I frowned. “What?” She stopped but didn't look back. “If you ever find yourself near the old mountain road, turn around and leave. Don't investigate it. Don't ask questions about your father's accident.” My heart began to pound. “Why are you telling me this?” “Because I'm telling you.” “That's not an answer.” She finally turned to face me. “Some things are better left buried, Elena.” Then she walked away. I remained beneath the oak tree long after she disappeared. The old mountain road. I hadn't mentioned my father. I hadn't asked about his death. Yet Seraphina had spoken as though she knew exactly what I had been thinking. I reached for my necklace again, curling my fingers around the silver crescent. For twelve years, I had accepted that my father's death was an accident because everyone told me it was. But if there was nothing to hide, why was my stepmother so afraid of my questions? And what exactly was buried on that mountain road? I looked toward the dark line of trees beyond the pack grounds. For the first time, I allowed myself to consider a possibility I had spent years trying to ignore. Maybe my father hadn't died because of a storm. Maybe someone had wanted him dead. A distant howl rose beyond the boundary of Shadowmoon territory. I froze. The sound was low and strangely mournful, fading into the night before I could identify its direction. Then came another sound. A car engine. I turned toward the main gates just in time to see a black vehicle slowing on the road outside the estate. Its headlights swept across the gardens. For one brief second, the light fell directly on me. The vehicle stopped. I couldn't see the driver through the tinted windows, but I felt the weight of someone watching me. Then the window lowered a fraction. A man's voice drifted through the darkness. “That's her.” My blood ran cold. The car pulled away before I could move. I stood perfectly still, staring at the empty road. They hadn't called me by name. They hadn't needed to. Because whoever had been inside that car hadn't looked at me like a stranger. They had looked at me like someone they had been searching for. And somehow, I knew their arrival had something to do with my father. I closed my hand around the necklace. For twelve years, I had believed the worst thing about me was that I had no wolf. That night, as I watched the taillights disappear beyond the gates, I began to wonder whether that was the very reason someone had come looking for me.