The Luna He Discarded

Liora's POV I stood in front of the mirror staring at the fitted blue dress I was wearing.My hair was wrapped up into a bun with two strands in front.I smiled at myself, satisfied by how I looked. "Ma'am the council members have arrived" Philip said from the door. "Okay good" I smiled widely. Tonight the Alpha would be arriving from the council meeting he went for, it lasted for a couple of days and I would get to see him again. I had been counting down the days, marking them quietly in my head every morning since he left. Four days felt like forever when you spent most of your time waiting for someone. I smoothed down the front of my dress one more time and checked my reflection again, turning slightly to see how the fabric caught the light. "Do I look okay?" I asked Philip, who had worked in the main house long enough to have an honest opinion about most things. "You look beautiful Ma'am, the Alpha would be pleased," he said with a small smile. I felt my cheeks warm up a little. Before Kaius, nobody had ever called me beautiful and meant it. In the breeder quarters, the word we always heard was fertile, fruitful. The women there were never allowed to be things like beautiful or pretty. I had spent years learning not to expect kindness from anyone, and now here I was, getting dressed up and excited like a normal girl waiting for the person she loved. "Thank you, Philip" I said, grabbing the small clutch I had set out earlier. "I'll head down now, I don't want to be late." The walk down to the main hall felt longer than usual, my heart picking up speed with every step. The staff were moving around preparing things, setting up extra chairs, bringing out the good silverware reserved for important meetings. Word had gone around that several council members were coming in along with the Alpha, which explained why everything looked more formal than usual. I made my way toward the front entrance because I wanted to be there the moment he walked through the door. I wanted to see his face when he first saw me. Then the doors opened.Kaius walked in, tall and broad just like I remembered him, his presence immediately pulling the attention of everyone in the room the way it always did. I started to smile, started to step forward.Then I saw her.A woman walked in right beside him, her hand resting in his, fingers laced together like it was the most natural thing in the world. She was beautiful in the kind of way that made you feel smaller just standing near her, dark hair falling in soft waves, a deep red gown that fit her perfectly. She was laughing softly at something, leaning slightly toward Kaius. My feet stopped moving on their own.I told myself not to assume anything. Maybe she was someone important from the council, someone he was simply escorting in out of politeness. Maybe there was an explanation that made sense, something that didn't mean what it looked like it meant.But the way his hand was wrapped around hers wasn't polite. It wasn't formal. It was the same way he used to hold my hand, fingers laced together. I swallowed down the tight feeling building in my chest and walked toward them anyway, because I needed to know, because standing there guessing was worse than whatever the truth might be. "Kaius" I said, my voice coming out softer than I wanted it to. He turned his head toward me, and for one second I thought I saw something flicker across his face. But it disappeared so quickly. "Liora, take her bag and keep it somewhere safe" he said, already turning his attention back to the woman beside him, gesturing toward something one of the council members was saying. He didn't look at me again. He didn't ask how I was. He didn't acknowledge that I had been standing there waiting for him, that I had picked out this dress because I wanted him to notice me the moment he walked in. This was the same man who held my face in his hands four days ago and told me he loved me before he left. The woman handed me her bag without even glancing my way, already wrapped up in whatever Kaius was saying to her, and I took it because my body moved on its own even though my mind had completely stopped working. I stood there holding someone else's bag like a servant while the man who told me he loved me walked past me without a second look. I don't know how long I stood there. Long enough that Philip eventually came and gently took the bag from my hands and told me everyone was heading into the main hall for an announcement. I followed the crowd because I didn't know what else to do with my body. Someone handed me a glass of wine on the way in and I held it without drinking from it, my fingers wrapped tightly around the stem.The hall filled up quickly, pack members and council elders gathering together, the air buzzing with whispered questions about why everyone had been called together so suddenly. I found a spot near the back, far from where Kaius and the woman now stood at the front beside Elder Mauve. Elder Mauve raised her hand and the room slowly quieted down. "Tonight we celebrate something this pack has waited generations for" she said, her voice carrying easily across the hall. "Our Alpha has found his fated mate." My stomach dropped straight through the floor. "This is Selene" Elder Mauve continued, gesturing toward the woman standing beside Kaius. "She will stand beside our Alpha as his true mate, and in time, as your future Luna." The room erupted into applause and excited murmurs, people turning to each other with wide smiles, some even cheering outright. I stood frozen in the middle of it all, the sound around me turning into something distant and muffled, like I was underwater. Kaius wrapped his arm around Selene's waist and she smiled up at him, and the crowd clapped louder. The glass slipped from my fingers.It shattered against the floor, the sharp sound cutting clean through the noise of the room, and for one terrible second everything went quiet. Heads turned.Every single person in that hall turned to look at me, standing alone at the back with wine soaking into the hem of my dress and broken glass scattered around my feet