“It’s fine,” I said, though my voice came out hollow.
It wasn’t fine. Nothing about this was fine. But what else was I supposed to say?
Elder Elisse stopped beside me, her gaze lingering on my face as if searching for something. Perhaps she was looking for the strong Luna she had once believed I would be.
Instead, all she found was a broken woman barely holding herself together.
“I didn’t think he would go this far,” she murmured.
Neither did I.
My gaze drifted back to the cake.
A bitter memory surfaced. There was a time when Alpha Cain would never have done this. A time when he looked at me the way he was looking at that woman now.
A time when I was his entire world. I could still remember it so clearly. The way he pursued me relentlessly despite my origins. The way he ignored the whispers, the disapproval, the countless reasons why I wasn’t a suitable Luna for the Foreshadow Pack.
He didn’t care. He chose me anyway.
“I will give you everything,” he had told me once, his forehead pressed against mine, his voice filled with a sincerity that made my heart ache even now. “Even the most precious moonstone in the land of wolves. You deserve nothing less.”
I had believed him. I had believed all of it.
“Stephanie,” Elder Elisse called softly, pulling me back to the present.
I blinked, realizing I had been staring blankly at the cake.
“I…” I hesitated, then let out a shaky breath. “Let’s just… finish this.”
She seemed surprised for a moment, but then nodded.
Together, we stood before the cake. I picked up the knife with trembling hands.
“This was supposed to be our moment,” I whispered.
Then I cut into the cake. The blade slid through the soft layers, revealing the color hidden inside.
Pink. It was pink. A girl.
My lips parted, but no sound came out. A daughter. We were having a daughter.
A small, fragile life that deserved so much more than this.
For a brief moment, something flickered in my chest. Hope. But it was quickly swallowed by the overwhelming pain that followed.
The next morning, I became a story. Not a person. Not a Luna. Just a story.
Everywhere I went, I could feel their eyes on me. Hear their whispers.
“The Luna.”
“The one Alpha keeps cheating on.”
“How pitiful.”
“I heard she cried all night.”
A bitter smile tugged at my lips. They weren’t wrong. I had cried.
“Stephanie.”