Everyone knows that I'm not his Luna, except for me

Chapter 2

The night I left Ember Hide Pack, the rain was coming down like it wanted to tear the whole mountain range apart.

The downpour washed his scent off my skin little by little. It was freezing; I couldn’t stop shivering. But the cold made my head clear.

By the time I got back to Thorn Fang, the porch light at home was still on.

My dad, Lucas, was standing in the foyer. The moment he saw me soaked, his brows knitted hard. “Moon Goddess, Barbara, did you run all the way here in a storm?”

My mom, Nora, hurried over with a towel, tugging me toward the living room as she fussed over me. She rubbed my hair dry as she scolded gently, “Showing up like this is going to scare people, you know.”

Their scents wrapped around me—steady and familiar. The kind of safety I’d grown up clinging to.

The sense of security came so suddenly that my knees almost bent.

“I’m fine,” I rasped, my voice rough and foreign, “Remember how we’ve been talking about the territory issue? You said maybe it’s time to leave these mountains and set up our main base somewhere else.”

Lucas looked at me. “We did say that. But that was a long-term plan. What’s up?”

I drew in a breath. “If it’s possible… I want to leave this territory. The farther, the better.”

Nora blinked. “What happened? Is this about that person you always mention?”

I pulled a smile onto my face. “You know I’ve never actually dated anyone.”

Lucas frowned. “Then who’s that person who’s always with you, the one you’ve talked about?”

“I just didn’t want you worrying about me.” I paused, then forced the words out. “In fact, I’ve never had a boyfriend. Not from the beginning. Not even once.”

They exchanged a look, clearly unconvinced.

But they were adults, and they knew me well enough to understand there were times when they shouldn’t push.

Nora held my hand. “Listen, Barbara. No matter what happened, you’re Thorn Fang blood. No one gets to make you doubt your worth.”

Her words were like a hook catching in my chest, but I still couldn’t get a single extra sound out.

That night I went back to my room, locked the door, and started clearing out everything that had to do with him.

The medal he shoved at me when he won a tournament at sixteen. The necklace he tossed at me for my eighteenth birthday. The stack of photos that had somehow piled up over the years.

I held open a trash bag and swept them in one by one.

Our housekeeper knocked lightly. “Miss Barbara, you’re throwing all of these away?”

I stared at that mess of a past in the bag and felt oddly calm.

“Yes,” I said. “All of them.”

Not just the things. I threw out those ninety-nine times we crossed the line. The delusions that had crept into my mind late at night, convincing me I was the exception.

The next morning, I was woken up by my phone notifications.

Alexander had filled my screen with messages—dozens of them:

“Where are you?”

“Today’s meeting is important. Don’t be late.”

“Barbara, call me when you see this.”

Just looking at the long list of notifications made my stomach twist.

He’d pushed me away with his own hands yesterday, and now he was spamming my phone to drag me back, like I was some mandatory calendar reminder in his schedule.

My fingers trembled a little as I typed out two words: “Not going.”

Less than a minute later, someone started knocking on my door.

“Barbara?” Nora called from the hallway. “Why aren’t you getting ready? Alexander just called to say you never answered him. You need to head over now.”

I stayed silent.

Lucas added his voice. “This multi-pack meeting is a big deal for the Ember Hide Pack. Alexander’s been preparing this for years for that girl. As soon as she came back, he rushed over to ask how to set it up.”

My hand clenched.

Alexander hadn’t just been blowing up my phone—he’d called my parents, too, to pressure me into showing up for his future Luna.

Nora went on, “That Omega stayed in our territory for a year. I even taught her piano. I put a lot of effort into helping her and Alexander finally meet properly. We wanted you there so she’d at least have someone her own age to talk to, so she won’t feel out of place.”

That’s when it hit me—everyone knew Alexander liked Jessica.

Everyone except me.

I shoved the feelings back down and made my voice sound as normal as I could. “Okay. I’ll be right down.”

I washed up, changed, and put myself together so carefully others couldn’t see a single flaw.

Then I opened my door and stepped out.