The Luna He Discarded

Chapter4:The Devastating News

Liora's POV

I stepped into the head lady's office, my hands clasped tightly in front of me, trying to steady myself before whatever was coming next.

I saw Elder Mauve sitting there beside her, and a frown formed on my face almost immediately. Whatever this was, having her present meant it wasn't going to be good.

"Liora, please sit" the head lady said, gesturing to the chair across from her desk.

I sat down slowly, my eyes flicking between the two of them.

"You're aware of why you're here" the head lady continued, folding her hands on top of her desk.

"I assume you're about to tell me" I said.

Elder Mauve's lips pressed into a thin line at my tone, but she didn't say anything yet.

"You've been assigned to bare a child" the head lady said simply, like she was reading off a list of chores. "The arrangement has already been approved."

I felt my stomach drop straight through the floor.

"For who?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

The head lady said the name, and something cold settled into my chest immediately. I had heard that name before, whispered among the women in this place, always with the same kind of fear attached to it. He was known throughout the pack as someone unstable, someone whose temper had already gotten more than one woman seriously hurt. Nobody wanted to be assigned to him. Everyone who had ever crossed paths with him came back different, more broken than before.

"No" I said immediately, shaking my head.

"I won't do it."

"Liora" the head lady started.

"I said no" I repeated, my voice rising slightly despite myself. "I've worked cleaning duties this entire time I've been here. I've never been assigned to anyone. Why now? Why him?"

I had spent years in this place doing exactly that, scrubbing floors, washing linens, staying as far from the breeding assignments as I possibly could. The only man I had ever actually been with was Kaius, back when I thought I had escaped all of this completely. I never imagined I would end up back here, let alone be told I had to do the one thing I had managed to avoid my entire time in these quarters.

"This isn't a request" Elder Mauve finally spoke, her voice cold. "You've caused enough disruption already. Consider this part of settling back into your place here."

"My place" I repeated bitterly. "You mean punishing me."

"I mean making sure you understand exactly where you stand now" she said, her eyes hard. "You are no longer someone's guest in the main house, Liora. You are back where you started. It's time you remembered what that actually means."

"I won't do it" I said again, my voice shaking now despite my best efforts to keep it steady. "You can't make me.”

"We can, and we will" the head lady said, not unkindly, but firmly, like she had said this exact sentence to other women many times before and had long since stopped feeling anything about it. "The arrangement has already been finalized. There's nothing left to discuss."

I sat there for a moment, my mind racing through anything, any argument, any excuse, anything at all that might change what I was just told. Nothing came.

"You may go" Elder Mauve said, like she was dismissing a servant who had overstayed a conversation.

I stood up because my legs moved before my mind caught up, my whole body feeling strangely distant from itself, like I was watching everything happen from somewhere just outside my own skin. I walked out of the office without another word, the door clicking shut behind me, sealing in whatever conversation might have continued without me.

I made it halfway down the hallway before the tears finally came, hot and fast, blurring everything in front of me. I pressed my hand against the wall to steady myself for a second before forcing my feet to keep moving, back toward the small room that was supposed to be mine now.

Wren was sitting on her own bed when I walked in, and the moment she saw my face she was up immediately, crossing the room to me.

"What happened?" she asked, gently pulling me down to sit beside her.

I told her everything, my voice breaking apart somewhere in the middle of it, the words coming out in pieces between the tears I couldn't stop. She listened quietly, her hand resting on my back the whole time, and when I finished she just held me for a long moment without saying anything at all.

"I don't want to do this" I said finally, wiping my face with the back of my hand.

"I know," she said softly. "But Liora, you know how this works. They've already approved it. Refusing only makes things worse for you. You've seen what happens to the girls who refuse."

I had seen it. I had seen exactly what happened to women who said no in this place, and none of it ended well for them.

"I don't have a choice, do I" I said, more to myself than to her. Wren didn't answer right away, and her silence told me everything I needed to know.

"I just have to accept it" I said quietly, the words feeling like ash in my mouth even as I said them.

But even as I said it, even as some small defeated part of me started preparing to accept what I had just been told, another part of me, somewhere underneath all the exhaustion and fear, refused to fully give up. There had to be a way out of this.I just didn't know what it was yet.

I sat there long after Wren finally drifted off to sleep beside me, staring up at the cracked ceiling of the small room, my mind turning over every possibility I could think of, no matter how impossible it seemed.I wasn't going to let this happen without trying everything I had first.