LUNARIA’S POV

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as I sneaked around the palace. I felt like a fugitive trying to run from her sentence.

I had learned to be stealthy while walking a long time ago, when you spend the whole of your teenage years being mocked by your peers it was the easiest way to hide away from them.

I had made it to Donald’s house in a record time, my heart beating with excitement that I had made it out of the palace without being dictated to by anyone.

“Lunaria, what… What are you doing here?” he asked, looking at me like he was staring at a ghost.

I frowned. What did he mean by asking me that?

“I came to see you,” I said, smiling brightly at him.

“It’s midnight, lunaria, you shouldn’t be outside by this time,” he said, pulling me into the house.

I didn’t care about that, not when running away from the prison I called home was all that was on my mind.

“I wanted to see you,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his neck as I pulled his head down for a kiss.

Donald’s kisses were the highlight of my day. The way his arms would wrap around my body as he pulled me closer to his body and his lips slowly gliding through mine like he was trying to memorise the moment.

They always left me breathless each time.

But tonight, it felt different— forced.

I slowly pulled away, frowning at the way his hands remained by his side like he would get burned if he touched me, “What is wrong?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled, his eyes avoiding mine.

“It’s not nothing when you refuse to kiss me back,” I muttered.

“You shouldn’t be here. You have to leave Lunaria,” he said.

He was calling me lunaria, not princess, not baby, not love.

His eyes, they weren’t staring at me with the softness that they usually had, it wasn’t like the usual stare that caused the butterflies in my stomach to go crazy.

“Donald, I am not leaving if you don’t tell me what is wrong,” I said, staring at him with fierce eyes.

“You can’t be here because we cannot be seen together,” he said.

I blinked, “Wha… what?”

“We can’t… we can’t do this anymore,” he said.

My legs wobbled, and my breath hitched like I had run a mile, “Donald, what is going on?”

“I think we should break up,” he said, staring at me with a cold look in his eyes.

“Break up? Break up? Donald, I am your mate for goddess' sake, you can’t just say those words and think that…”

“I don’t want to be with you anymore,” he said, cutting me off.

Tears welled up in my eyes, my hands reaching out to grab him, “Did I do something? Did I say something?”

He moved away from me, like my touch burned him, “You need to leave now, lunaria” he said.

“I am not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on,” I growled, my fist clenched by my side. “You are my mate, you can’t just tell me that you want to break up without giving me a reason Donald,”

I gasped, my eyes widening in fear, “Is it about Lycan Kieran? I have a plan, we… we have to leave tonight,” I said.

I sounded like I was losing my mind, and truthfully I was, my sanity was barely holding on by a thin thread.

“It has nothing to do with Kieran but everything to do with you,” he yelled.

I jumped in fright, Donald has never spoken to me in such manner. He looked like he couldn’t even look at me without his face scrunched up in disgust.

“You and I are never going to work because you are an omega and you have no wolf,” he hissed.

The words sliced through me like a silver blade dipped in an ancient wolf’s bane.

“Donald!” I rasped, my hand placed on my chest as I tried to stop the pain from breaking me.

“You know that I am telling the truth, I can’t spend the rest of my life being tied to an omega, to something like you…” He spat, his voice dripping with disgust.

“Donald,” I mumbled, my legs shaking as I tried to hold myself up.

My stomach twisted in dread, he was done with me. I could see it in his eyes.

“Was it ever real? Did you ever like me?” I asked, staring at him with tears in my eyes.

He looked pained, like he hadn’t expected me to ask him the question, “I never liked you, and I just thought that if I stayed with you, the pack would see me as someone…”

He used me?

But why didn’t that feel true? Why was he staring at me like I was the one who had stomped on his heart?

“If I weren’t an omega, would… would you have…”

He barely looked at me. I guess I have my answer. I was the problem— an omega who couldn’t be loved by anyone.

Donald stood tall, “I am sorry Lunaria, and I have to reject you. I have found someone, someone who has the qualities that I want in a mate,”

“You can’t say sorry. Sorry isn’t going to fix this. You say sorry when you have mistakenly stepped on someone,” I hissed.

“I…”

“No,” I mumbled, squeezing my eyes shut. If I squeezed hard enough, maybe I would wake up from this nightmare.

“I, Donald Dickson, forsake and reject you, Lunaria Adam as my mate,”

I gasped, my chest churning in pain as I felt the sharp sting slicing through my heart. My feet wobbled, unable to hold me up from the pain that had dropped on me like a boulder.

The pain felt like I was only a step away from death. I stared at Donald, expecting that he would run to my side and maybe try to make things right. But he stayed rooted to the spot, like he was in shock at what had happened.

What was he staring at me like he was in pain?

He had been the one who had ended things, but he looked like he was just a second away from breaking down.

I was a crying mess, and the air felt too thick to go into my lungs. Each breath felt like a sharp rod was lodged in my lungs. My eyes couldn’t break away from his lips, the same lips that had brought me pleasure were now the same ones that brought pain.

“I…” I froze, the words feeling trapped in my throat. I was only delaying the pain with a watch breath that I took.

“I, Lunaria Adam, accept your rejection,”

My heart felt numb, the pain had subsided to a bearable point, and I stood to my feet, my steps uneven as I stared at him.

“I guess I don’t need this anymore,” I said, yanking the necklace off my neck. I couldn’t have anything that belonged to him anymore.

“Lu…”

I rushed out of the house, I couldn’t bear to stand there any more, not when I knew that I would drop to my knees and plead that he take me back.

He wanted someone who had a wolf and wasn’t an omega. I should respect that. I wanted to respect it, but I couldn’t. I had spent the most of my youth loving him, cherishing every moment that we had shared.

I ran through the forest, my feet slamming hard against the cold hard ground, twigs snapping as I moved. A small part of me wanted Donald to come after me, to tell me that it would all be okay.

But a branch slapped my face, bring me back to the reality that I was trying to elude. My body felt like it was thrown in a pit of fire, my body aching as I moved.

I couldn’t run away, not when I knew that nothing was waiting for me out there. I couldn’t survive in a world with Donald.

“You should have told them about me,” my wolf huffed at the back of my mind.

I should have, but I wanted it to be a surprise. I wanted to surprise Donald on our wedding night. I had wanted him to be the first person to see my wolf. But now, it just felt stupid that I had kept it hidden.

I howled to the moon, feeling as my heart cracked slightly as I cried, there was no need in telling anyone about it. I will forever keep the illusion of being an omega with no wolf.

I made my way home, it wasn’t a surprise that I found my mother sitting by the entrance like she had been waiting for me to return.

“He rejected me,” I cried into her chest.

“It is all for the best Luna, you need to focus on your future now,” she said.

She didn’t sound surprised, but I was too far locked in my pain to notice.

If loving hurts like this, then I guess I will keep my heart locked forever.

Lycan Kieran will always be the enemy, nothing will ever change that.