My Luna Mother Ruined Me for Her Favorite—So I Chose the Rogue King

Back at the pack house, my mother called me into her study. Her tone, for once, was gentle. "Evelyn, you were smart enough not to fight Celeste for a mate today. You did well." The words drove through my heart a second time. She had traded my humiliation for Celeste's glory—and she was pleased with the bargain. "Mom, do you have any idea what those words did to me?" My voice trembled. "Every Council pack will remember me as the joke whose own mother stood up and called her reckless, coarse, and unworthy of being a Luna. Who is ever going to choose me now?" Her face went cold. Her palm cracked against the desk. "Why are you still this selfish?" "Celeste has no mother. No one to fall back on. Her greatest fear is being abandoned. If you take the Crown Prince's Luna position from her, she'll spend the rest of her life in your shadow." "You have everything. Why must you fight her for the one thing she might still have?" My throat burned. I looked down at myself. I lived in the room Celeste hadn't wanted. I wore the clothes Celeste had grown bored of. I ate only what Celeste liked to eat. What exactly did I have? What my mother didn't know was this: from the day I was born, I could hear the voice beneath her voice. I used to think it was a blood-link—something rare and sacred, a bond only shared between mother and daughter. Because in those early years, I was in it, too. On border patrols, she'd wonder if I'd eaten enough. Watching another wolf pup stumble in training, she'd wonder if I'd fall like that someday, muddy and bruised. Back then, I knew—without a doubt—she loved me. Then Celeste came. Because Celeste was pitiful, I couldn't touch what Celeste liked. When we both fell sick, Celeste was tended to first. Every year, the moment my father's gifts arrived from the border, her people were already on their way to collect them—every last one—and pass them to Celeste. Every time, I told myself the same thing: Celeste was pitiful, and my mother had to be seen as fair. Until the day of my First Shift. Every wolf who endures a First Shift knows the truth of it. Your bones twist out of place, one by one. Your skin stretches from the inside as another body tears its way out of you. The pain crushes your human mind down into nothing. At Celeste's First Shift, my mother abandoned her mission—risking her command—and raced back to the pack house to sit with her through the night. She stroked her hair, over and over, her voice soft. "I'm right here, Celeste. I'm not going anywhere. I'm proud of you." At my First Shift, I waited all night. All I got was a letter. One line. No warmth. "The border situation has escalated. I can't leave. Don't make me feel guilty for doing my duty." My mother's voice pulled me back into the study. "You know I've never played favorites, Evelyn. I've chosen a good mate for you." She slid a file across the desk. "A patrol wolf. Common bloodline. He won't drag you into pack politics. He is the best mate you could hope for." The best you could hope for. I looked at the file and almost laughed out loud. What she'd given Celeste was the crown of a Queen Luna—the position every Council pack bowed to. And me—the only pure-blooded Alpha's daughter of the Blackwood Pack, her own flesh and blood—should count herself lucky to be handed off to a patrol wolf. "No. I won't take him as my mate." I shoved the file back across the desk. "Father is still at the border. Without his word, you don't get to decide this alone." That was what broke her. Her palm slammed across my face. I staggered back into the bookshelf, my cheek burning. "I'll send the chosen mate registration to the Council myself. Once it's filed, it's binding. As long as your father doesn't object in time, it will pass." Tears spilled over. I shoved the door open and ran back to my room. Nora took one look at my swollen face and pressed a cold cloth to it. "How could she hit you? You're her daughter—" The tears came harder. Maybe in my mother's heart, Celeste was her daughter. And I was nothing. Once the swelling faded, Nora picked up an envelope from the table and handed it to me. "Seraphina had it sent. She said it was for you and no one else." I opened it. Inside was an ice-blue wolf-head brooch—the sigil of the Rogue King of the Northern Wastes. A handwritten note was tucked behind it. "My mate. Wait for me. —Rowan" I closed my fingers around the brooch. For the next several days, the entire pack house buzzed with preparations for Celeste's bonding ceremony. Nora stood at the window, red-faced with rage. "The Luna emptied the private vault for Celeste. Every piece in it should have gone to you." Once, that would have destroyed me. Now I barely felt it. A knock at the door. My mother's attendant. "Miss Evelyn. The Luna wants to see you." I had barely stepped into her room when a teacup grazed past my head and shattered against the wall. My mother roared at me: "Evelyn. Apologize to Celeste. Now."

I didn't move. "I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I apologize?" My mother pointed at the shredded gown on the floor, her voice thick with fury. "You destroyed Celeste's ceremonial gown, and you still have the nerve to stand there and say you did nothing?" A bitter laugh escaped me. "Where's your proof? Are you going to condemn me without any?" She pointed at the young she-wolf kneeling on the floor. Lyna—one of Celeste's personal attendants. "She saw you last night. Near Celeste's chambers. You couldn't be the Crown Prince's Luna, so now you want to take it out on Celeste." I looked at Lyna. "What time did you see me?" "Around ten." "Where?" "Near the pine grove." "What was I wearing?" Lyna swallowed hard. "A… a gray coat." Nora stepped forward, her voice shaking with anger. "You're lying. There are no lights near the pine grove after dark. You were too far away to make out the color of anyone's coat in total blackness." Lyna finally broke. She burst into tears, begging. "Forgive me, Luna! I tore the gown by accident. I was afraid of being punished, so I lied—" Celeste shot to her feet and slapped Lyna hard across the face. "You brainless idiot. How dare you frame Evelyn?" She turned to me, head lowered. "Evelyn, I'm truly sorry. I should have kept a closer eye on her." "It's not your fault." My mother soothed Celeste first, then turned to me. "This has been a misunderstanding. Let it end here." "No." I met her eyes. "Lyna accused me of things I never did, and she was set on seeing me punished for them. She doesn't walk out of this without paying for it." My mother's face froze. And a second later, I heard her thoughts again. 【 Evelyn takes everything too seriously. Do I not see the truth? To punish Celeste's servant is to humiliate Celeste in public. 】 My nails drove into my palms. I looked at her, my voice bitter. "Mother—if it had been me who ruined that gown, would you have let it end here?" She paused, brows knit. "I'll deal with Lyna by pack law. Are you satisfied now?" Lyna was dragged out, still sobbing. Celeste's eyes were red, as if she were the one who'd been wronged. Then my mother spoke again. "Celeste's gown is ruined. There's no time to make another. Give her the one your grandmother left you." I stared at her, unable to believe it. That gown was my grandmother's last gift to me—brought to me by my father's own hands. The most precious thing I owned. And now she wanted to tear it from me. For Celeste. "On what grounds?" My voice went sharp. "Celeste's own servant caused this. Why am I the one paying for it?" "Celeste is the future Queen Luna. She has to wear only the finest. You're being mated off to a low-ranking patrol wolf. The ceremony will be a plain little thing. What use do you have for a gown like that?" She grumbled under her breath. "I really don't know what your father was thinking. Something that fine should have gone to Celeste. On you, it's wasted." Something inside me shattered. I screamed at her. "That's because Father knows who his real daughter is—and you never have! Sometimes I truly wish you weren't my mother. At least then you couldn't keep tearing me apart!" The blood drained from her face. What replaced it was rage—the kind that could swallow anything in its path. "Enough, Evelyn. You've gone too far." Her eyes went cold. "Perhaps I should teach you how to be a daughter with a silver whip. My daughter, especially." Nora threw herself forward. "Luna, please. Miss Evelyn's First Shift went wrong. Her body can't take silver damage—" "Can't take it?" My mother's voice was thick with disbelief and fury. "She carries the strongest bloodline on this land. She has access to the finest healers, the finest mentors, the finest training tools in the territory. What right does she have to be weak?" A bitter laugh slipped out of me. Every one of those things—the healers, the mentors, the tools—she had quietly signed over to Celeste. What had I ever actually been given? But my heartbreak meant nothing to her. She had me dragged to the punishment room, forced to my knees at the center of the floor. Then she took the silver whip down from the wall herself. The same whip she used on rogues. On traitors. On warriors who had committed the worst of crimes. She raised it—and brought it down on my back. She didn't stop. One lash, then another, then another. The pain tore through me all at once. Silver burned like fire through flesh, straight into the bone. My clothes soaked through with blood. Deep inside me, my wolf howled, thrashed, and finally collapsed into a broken whimper. Before the darkness took me, I heard her voice one last time. "This time, Evelyn, I hope you finally understand what you did wrong." In that instant, something was ripped out of my blood. The blood-link between us snapped clean. I closed my eyes. Mother—the greatest mistake of my life was ever wanting your love. From this day on, I owe you nothing. And I don't love you anymore.