Second Chance Luna: His Rejected Mate is the Golden Wolf

Betrayed

Paris´ POV

I had been rescued by the timely intervention of a very handsome and powerful wolf who scared off the rogues that had been a heartbeat away from killing me. I still trembled whenever I thought about how close I’d come to dying—and how lucky I was that this man, who introduced himself as Conlan, had appeared out of nowhere and carried me all the way back to the pack house. That alone told me he was a strong wolf, though I didn’t yet know how strong.

By the time we arrived, my wounds were already healing thanks to my Alpha lineage—even if it wasn’t particularly powerful, it was still enough to mend the damage the rogues had caused.

“I’m feeling much better, thank you,” I told my brave savior.

Conlan smiled and gently set me down.

“It was nothing, Paris.” He studied me closely, perhaps checking how well my injuries were closing.

I was about to explain that I was an Alpha too when I caught sight of something I couldn’t ignore. The succession ceremony was coming to an end—and there, standing beside Doris, was Alice, wearing a stunning long white dress and holding the crown used to anoint the Luna.

What the hell?

With a radiant smile, Alice placed the crown on my stepsister’s head—at the exact same moment Doris announced her as the new Gamma.

What was happening?

What had I missed?

Alice and Doris?

Impossible.

“Are you alright, Paris?” Conlan asked. “You’ve gone pale. Are you sure your wounds have healed?”

I didn’t want to be disrespectful to the man who had saved my life, but what I was seeing shattered my world in an instant. I had been betrayed by my best friend—who had conspired to have me killed in the rogues’ attack. Her strange behavior earlier, her flimsy excuse to get us to follow the rogues, her conveniently-timed disappearance right before the ambush—it all made sense now.

“I’m sorry,” I told Conlan—he deserved all my courtesy, even in the middle of the shitstorm I’d just walked into. “There’s something I need to do.”

I ran toward Alice and confronted her head-on.

“You miserable b***h!” I shouted in front of everyone. I saw the horror twist across my supposed friend’s face when she saw me—still alive and a second away from slapping her. “You’re a traitor!”

I took advantage of every pair of eyes now fixed on us to reveal the truth.

“You handed me over to the rogues so they could kill me, and the other warriors who were with us died because of the ambush you set up. How could you do that?”

My slap echoed across the entire garden, and I would have hit her again if Doris hadn’t stepped between us.

“How dare you, Paris, interrupt a ceremony this solemn?” she snapped. “As your Luna, I order you to stop this instant!”

I would have hit Doris too if not for one inconvenient truth: she was my Luna now, and striking her would have been a serious offense. Rage clenched my fists so tightly my nails dug into my palms, and I bit my tongue until I tasted blood.

“Retire yourself immediately, Paris!” Doris barked. “That’s an order!”

I stared at Alice with the cold promise of vengeance burning in my eyes. Just as I was about to take a step back, I felt Conlan’s hand on my shoulder.

“If I may,” he said firmly, “I could offer an explanation about what happened. If you permit it, Luna?”

Doris’s face twisted—she had no choice. It wouldn’t look good for a newly appointed Luna to deny the polite request of a prestigious guest.

“This young lady was attacked by a patrol of rogues,” Conlan began once Doris gave a curt nod. “There were a dozen of them—out of nowhere—determined to kill her, just as she described. They had already slaughtered her companions. I had the luck, or perhaps the Goddess’s blessing, to be passing by at that moment and save this fierce warrior—who had already managed to take down two of her attackers herself.”

Of course, that last part was made up, but I felt oddly flattered by his quick thinking.

“That is what delayed me and kept me from arriving in time for the oath-taking. I offer my sincerest apologies.”

His words smoothed over part of the chaos—until I saw my father rise. His aura alone commanded the attention of every wolf present.

“This misunderstanding is my fault,” he said as he approached Conlan, extending his hand. “I’m truly sorry you had to face an entire group of rogues, my dear friend.”

I blinked in surprise at the familiarity between them—enough to conclude that Conlan was far more important than I’d thought.

“When we received news of multiple rogues near the border, I made the decision to advance the ceremony.”

Conlan accepted my father’s explanation with a nod—but someone else decided to speak.

Dave.

Now acting as the Alpha of Moon’s Bright.

“Alpha Conlan, it’s a pleasure to have you here at our succession ceremony,” he said, voice dripping with forced politeness. “As the newly appointed Alpha, I welcome you to our pack and thank you for clarifying what happened.”

Conlan responded courteously, though his expression made one thing crystal clear: he was disappointed to learn Dave was my father’s successor.

“Now that everything has been explained,” Dave continued, “please escort Paris to her room so she can finish recovering from the ordeal.”

What a pathetic attempt to get rid of me. My glare burned into him. That had always been the story in my family—because I was the wolf who couldn’t shift, they treated me with disdain. I was done with it.

“I am not satisfied with any of the explanations given,” I said, my voice sharp as a blade. I leveled an accusing stare at Doris and Alice. “There are still loose ends I would like to clear up.”

Every gaze turned to Alice. Dave pressured her to speak—but just as her lips parted, Doris jumped in yet again.

“This is a complete waste of time,” she snapped, waving her hand dismissively. “Are we really going to entertain the accusations of a nobody—just a simple patrol girl—against my Gamma? Or have you all forgotten that she—” her eyes gleamed with cruel delight as they landed on me “—isn’t even a real wolf? Did you forget she can’t shift? Because if she could, she would have fought the rogues properly. In fact, they probably attacked her because they saw how weak she was—perfect prey for a bit of fun.”

Pure malice. And now that she had power, she was even more dangerous.

A few people snickered. Others whispered their agreement, emboldening the new Luna.

My father came up to me and gently asked me to step back. But even he couldn’t make me retreat.

It wasn’t fair.

None of this was fair.

In a single blink, I felt utterly alone. My best friend had betrayed me—had almost gotten me killed—for a stupid Gamma position promised by my stepsister.

I raised my voice, fueled by grief and fury.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I had lost everything: my father seemed more worried about maintaining his composure in front of the guests than about what had been an attempt to murder his own daughter, and my lifelong friend had betrayed me, handing me over to my stepsister in exchange for a position of status at her side. There was nothing left for me in Moon’s Bright. Nothing worth living for in that pack.

“This won’t end here! Tonight, someone tried to kill me, and I swear by the Goddess I won’t rest until the truth comes out!”

Doris snapped, losing her composure. She ordered the guards to remove me by force. They stepped forward, ready to drag me away—

But then I heard it again.

The same furious, earth-shaking roar that had saved my life before.

“Don’t you dare lay a single finger on her!” Conlan thundered, making the guards recoil instantly.