Becoming Lucien's Bride

chapter 2

After that painful encounter last week, time blurred. I wasn’t just weak. I was pathetic. Pathetic enough that even after everything he said, I didn’t leave.

I stayed. Not because I didn’t want to go, but because… where would I go?

It’s not like I had anywhere else. Not a home that would take me back. Not a family that wanted me.

Seven years ago, I met Alpha Grey at a mating ceremony held in our territory—the Silver Moon Pack. He wasn’t one of us. He was the feared Alpha of the Red Moon Pack, known for his ruthless strength and icy rule. Thirty-four. Unmated. Alone. Or so the stories claimed.

He had searched for years—hosting countless ceremonies in his pack, scouring allied lands, attending every Luna selection available to him. And still, no mate.

Until me.

When he stepped into our ceremony, I knew. The bond roared through me like wildfire. My wolf stilled, drawn to him instantly. I remember how my hands shook, how my breath caught when our eyes locked.

I was lit from within.

But his gaze didn’t match mine.

No warmth.

No recognition.

Just… disappointment. Then disgust.

And then he walked past me like I wasn’t even there. Like the bond meant nothing.

He didn’t reject me.

He didn’t even speak to me.

And somehow, that hurt worse.

His silence cut deeper than any formal rejection ever could. It said everything: I wasn’t what he wanted. I wasn’t enough. Just the wrong girl for the wrong man.

But how could I blame him?

I was only an omega. A mistake born to an Alpha and Luna who never wanted me. A blemish on the Silver Moon legacy. Small. Powerless. An echo of my mother’s shame and my father’s guilt.

And he... he was Alpha Grey of Red Moon. Cold. Commanding. Untouchable. A warrior whispered about like a myth. And me? I could barely wield a training sword without bruising.

What did I think would happen?

That he’d feel the bond and fall to his knees?

That he’d claim me, love me?

He left that night without a word.

I couldn’t shake the ache of it. The rejection without rejection. The feeling of being invisible. Like the bond existed only for me. Like I’d been cursed to feel it alone.

And then the rumors started.

They said Alpha Grey had returned to Red Moon alone. That he’d attended another ceremony. That he’d found no mate again.

But that wasn’t true.

He had a mate.

Me.

I cried until my body shut down. My chest ached like something was pressing down on it, refusing to let up. My wolf was restless, howling inside my mind—hurt, confused, desperate. I kept asking myself what was wrong with me. Why didn’t he want me? What did he see that made it so easy to ignore me?

Eventually, something in me snapped.

I couldn’t take the silence anymore. So I did something reckless.

I went to Red Moon.

Alone.

I knew the council would be meeting that day—Alpha Grey, his generals, his Beta, and his father, the former Alpha. It was supposed to be private, reserved only for the highest ranks. But I bribed a maid for information and slipped inside.

The room fell silent the moment I entered. Every head turned.

And then I saw him.

Grey.

He stood from his seat at the head of the table, tall and still, dressed in black with the Red Moon crest stitched in blood-red over his heart. His face was unreadable, but the fury in his presence was impossible to miss.

I froze beneath his gaze. Every instinct screamed at me to run—but I didn’t move. My palms were slick with sweat, and my throat burned from holding my head up.

“What are you doing here?” he had asked, voice low and sharp.

I swallowed hard. My heart was pounding, but I forced the words out. “I’m your mate,” I said. “And I want everyone to know.”

Gasps echoed through the chamber. A few even stood, stunned.

But Grey didn’t blink. He didn’t flinch. Then he laughed. Quiet. Bitter. Disbelieving. But his eyes never left mine, “You’re what?” he asked, stepping down from the podium.

Still, I stood my ground. My legs shook, and shame burned beneath my skin, but that day, I didn’t back away. “I felt the bond,” I said. “At the ceremony. You did too. I know you did.”

“Is that what this is about?” His voice was cold, deadly. “Some fantasy you’ve twisted into truth? Is that what your Alpha teaches you? To do something stupid out of desperation?”

I flinched. There it was—his contempt. His father rose then, lifting a hand to quiet the room, “Grey,” he said, voice clipped, “is what she claims true?”

Grey didn’t look at him. He looked at me. And what I saw in his eyes wasn’t confusion. It was hatred, "Yes,” he said. “She is my mate.”

The silence that followed was louder than anything I’d ever heard.

That day, his father forced him to acknowledge me—not just as his mate, but as his Luna.

When my parents heard the news, they didn’t celebrate and hug me like the loving parents they should've been. Instead, they seemed relieved. By the next morning, a few servants had already packed my things and delivered them to the Red Moon Pack—to the room I was meant to share with Grey.

Our room.

But back then, I wasn’t sad. Not even a little. I had won, hadn’t I? I was finally by his side. I had the title. The bond. The place at his right hand.

I thought, foolishly, that the rest would come in time.

That he would soften.

That maybe he'd stop looking through me like I was nothing.

That one day, he might even touch me and not recoil.

So I waited.

Each day, I tried. I greeted him with quiet hope. I sat by his side at council meetings, trying to mirror the confidence of the Lunas I’d grown up watching. I wore the colors of his pack. I learned their customs. I even memorized the names of his generals and their mates, desperate to prove I belonged.

But every day that passed only made it clearer—I didn’t.

He barely spoke to me. Didn’t eat with me. Didn’t sleep beside me, even though we shared a room. He came in late and left before sunrise, always careful to make it seem like I wasn’t there.

I stopped asking him questions after the first week.

I stopped smiling after the second.

By the end of the first month, I started sleeping on the couch instead of the bed. It hurt less that way—less humiliating than lying awake beside untouched pillows, pretending I didn’t care.

And still… I stayed.

Then he finally did it with me. Once and then I got pregnant. Then the cheating started and I lost my baby. Our baby.

And he didn't feel even a little bit of sadness for our loss...