Rejected for My Sister: The Plus-Size Luna's Revenge

TALIA VANCE Three years. That's how long I've been waiting for tonight. I take a deep breath as I stare at myself in the mirror while Nessa pins the last piece of my hair up. The dress is gold, Damaris picked it. He said gold looks good on Lunas. Honestly, I don't know if it looks good on me, but I don't care right now. All I know is, tonight I stop being "provisional." Tonight, the whole pack will finally call me Luna and mean it. "You look nice," Nessa says. She's my only real friend here. Everyone else just tolerates me. Before I can answer, the door swings open without a knock and Selene, Damaris's mother, walks in like she owns the room. Well, I guess she does. She’s the Luna Dowager of Hallowmere, she owns everything else, so I guess why not this too. Nessa’s hands pause on my hair as she moves back a little and Selene walks closer. I can see the disgust on her face as she looks me up and down slowly. Her eyes stop on my hips like she's doing math she doesn't like the answer to. "Hmmm…. That dress." She clicks her tongue. "I told the seamstress to leave extra room in the seams. Looks like she listened." She reaches out and pinches the fabric at my waist between two fingers, like she's checking meat at a market. "Good thing gold hides a lot." My stomach drops. Gold hides a lot? What’s that even supposed to mean? I keep my face still even though the words are eating away at me. I've had three years of practice keeping my face still. Today’s just another one. Besides, it all ends tonight. "Thank you, Luna Selene," I say with a small smile. "That means so much." "I do try." She smiles like she just won something. "You know, my Rosalind was always such a small, dainty thing. Takes after her mother's side, I imagine. Some women just carry themselves better, you know." Of course, here we go again, comparing me to my little sister. I smile a little as she leaves and I turn back to the mirror. I've had to endure this all my life. I've literally always been the elephant in the room. The one relatives whispered about at every family dinner, like I couldn't hear them. Even my own mother would always sigh at me whenever she was shopping for my sister and I. Finding dresses for me was a struggle. But my sister, she’s perfect. Perfect body size, perfect face, perfect everything. Everybody loved her. People's eyes would always slide right past me and land on her instead, like I’m not even there. But I’ve gotten used to it, especially from Selene. I've heard worse from her, way worse. This is basically a compliment for her. I clear my throat and nod at Nessa to continue. She wants to talk but I look at her through the mirror and she stops. Consoling is not what I need right now, I need to be ready. **** Damaris is waiting outside my door when I step out. He’s in his ceremony jacket, scrolling his phone. "Ready?" he says without looking up. "Ready," I answer. What else am I supposed to say. We walk down together, his hand barely touching mine. The whole way to the Great Hall I keep telling myself the same thing. Tonight it gets better. Tonight you finally belong here. I think about the last three years while we walk. The gatherings I wasn't invited to because Selene said I'd "make the photos crowded." The wedding dress that had to be readjusted twice before the actual wedding. The whispers every time I walked into a room with Damaris, “how did he end up with a girl so fat? I heard she used to be worse, I heard she cries about it.” I actually believe tonight is different. And that's the part that's going to make what happens next so much worse. **** The Great Hall is packed with every wolf in Hallowmere. I search the crowd for one friendly face and only find Nessa's, near the back, mouthing “good luck.” Damaris climbs the steps first and I follow. My heart is beating so fast I can feel it in my ears as the Beta steps forward holding the ceremonial cup. This is it, Talia, I squeal in my head. This is the part where Damaris says the words that make me Luna for real, not just on paper. He takes the cup and looks at it for a few seconds. Then he clears the throat. "Before we do this," he says, loud enough for the whole hall to hear, "there's something I need to say." The room goes quiet. Even Selene, at the front with her arms crossed. She’s so still, like she's been waiting all night for this exact moment. "Three years," Damaris says. He's not looking at me. He's looking at the crowd, like he's giving a campaign speech. "Three years married. Three years waiting for an heir that never came. My mother warned me this would happen. She told me a woman who couldn't even manage her own body probably couldn't manage carrying a pup either. I told her that was cruel." He pauses. "I should've listened to her sooner." “What?” I mutter. And the entire room bursts into laughter. "Damaris," I whisper. My face is burning. "Please don't do this here." "I used to have to close my eyes," he says, still to the crowd, not to me. "Just to get through it. Do you know how that feels, being married to someone you have to imagine as someone else just to touch them?" Somebody near the front claps and I feel my whole body go hollow. What is he saying? My chest starts beating like it lost it’s pace. "Talia Vance," he says, and his voice drops into that cold, formal Alpha tone. "I reject you as my Luna. I reject you as my mate. I was never bonded to you. I was sentenced to you." What?? The hall gasps like one giant animal. I open my mouth and nothing comes out. Selene steps forward before I can even process the words. She grabs my chin, hard, forcing my face up to hers in front of everyone. "Say the words back, dear. Accept it properly. Don't embarrass yourself any further than you already have tonight." "I won't…" A hot slap lands on my face before I can talk. My cheek explodes with heat and the whole hall tilts sideways for a second. Somewhere behind me, someone spits, and I feel it land wet against the back of my dress. "Say it!" Selene hisses. I say it. The compulsion in her voice, or maybe just the ceremony magic itself, drags the acceptance words out of my throat whether I want them there or not. I hear myself say them like I'm listening to a stranger. “I.. I.. Talia Vance…” I say in between dry sobs. “I accept your rejection.” I'm still catching my breath, still holding my stinging cheek, when the air in the room changes. The backdoors open, and a familiar scent hits me. And almost immediately, a cold, maniacal laugh rings out from Damaris, and his shoulders drop as he turns towards the doors. Every head in the hall turns with him. I turn too, cheek still burning. And when I see who's standing in the doorway, I finally understand exactly why Selene brought her up in my dressing room tonight. It's Rosalind, my sister, standing in the doorway of what’s supposed to be my mating ceremony, and all eyes are glued to her, like she’s the one getting married. “Rosalind? What the hell?” I mutter. "Oh… there she is," Damaris says, smiling, and something about the way he says it makes my stomach turn over. “What… what’s going on here?” “Oh darling,” he says as he points at Rosalind. “This is my true mate.” "What?” The words escape me before I even think of them. “You found your mate? And it’s my sister?” He doesn't even deny it. "Oh… I've known for three weeks, Talia. I just needed tonight to happen first." "Needed…." I can't even finish the sentence. "You really thought I forgot how to plan an entire confirmation ceremony around a woman I was already done with?" His voice doesn't shake at all now, it's ice-cold. "I wanted the whole pack to see me reject you, then choose her. I wanted you standing right here in that dress for it." “What?”