Their Forgotten Luna

What is Real?

Cierra:

The discharge papers were still warm in my hands when the nurse wheeled me to the front doors of the infirmary. The sun outside felt too bright, the air too clean. Everything smelled wrong — like a life I didn't remember living.

Dominic had offered to walk me home, but I'd told him I could do it. He looked so tired, so worn, and like he just needed to sleep. My legs shook the whole way, every step a reminder that I was still half-broken, still wolf-less.

The moment I stepped through the Beta estate's doors, the air changed, so heavy and judgmental.

My father's eyes raked over me from head to toe. "You look… weak and pathetic."

I kept my chin up. "I'm still healing."

"You're an embarrassment," he snapped before I could take another step inside. "Out there, bleeding in front of half the pack. Making us look like we can't defend our own."

My stepmother, draped in silk and disdain, smirked like she was smelling something foul. "And running to the Alpha's brother for protection? Pathetic. If you'd stayed by Dane, this wouldn't have happened."

My stomach twisted. I don't even remember Dane being there. I didn't remember most of that night at all — except Dominic.

Before I could answer, she stepped forward. The sharp scent of her perfume burned my nose.

"You will not ruin this family's name with your pity act," she said, voice low and venomous.

"I almost died," I said, my voice shaking.

"And yet here you are, breathing. Why can't you be more like Alyssa? You ungrateful little—" The crack echoed in the foyer.

Her palm burned across my cheek before my brain even caught up. My head snapped to the side, the copper taste of blood blooming on my tongue.

For a heartbeat, no one moved. My father didn't even flinch.

That was the moment I knew.

I didn't belong here. I wasn't sure I ever did.

I turned without a word; the sting on my cheek was nothing compared to the burn in my chest. I didn't pack. Didn't look back. My bare feet slapped against the marble, then the gravel path, then the hard-packed dirt of the road that led to the one place my body seemed to remember, even if my mind didn't.

By the time I reached the Obsidian Pack's grounds, my vision was blurred — not from the hit, but from the pressure in my chest that wouldn't let up.

He was there like he'd been waiting.

Dominic was leaning against the side of the training hall, arms crossed, watching the treeline. The second he saw me, his wolf flared — I could feel it even without mine.

"Cierra?" He pushed off the wall, his eyes sweeping over me, catching the redness on my cheek. His voice dropped. "Who did that?"

I swallowed hard. "I… just needed to leave."

His jaw locked. "Who?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I whispered, my throat tightening. "I just… I didn't know where else to go."

His whole stance softened in a way I'd never seen in any other man. "You came to the right place."

And before I could lose my nerve, I stepped into him — into the steady heat of his body, the solid wall of his chest, the arms that closed around me like they'd been made for it.

The tears didn't come until I felt his hand cradle the back of my head, his thumb brushing the sting on my cheek. "You're safe here." This time, I didn't want to leave.

Dominic:

The red in her face flared something wrong in me, something I had no control over. I knew I would handle this once she settled. Those leeches never respected her, never cared for her, but I had no idea it had ever gone far enough for one of them to hit her.

THWACK!

THUD!

The sounds of training behind us seeped into the silence she had created the moment she stepped into me.

"Wow, their form is crap." She mumbled into my shirt, making me laugh.

"It is, indeed. I was trying to figure out how to fix it, but nothing I do seems to sink in." She stepped from me then, walking to the crowd like she wasn't just in a hospital bed, like she wasn't barefoot with a handprint across her face… like a goddess unleashed.

"Your feet are wrong! What do you think is going to happen if you don't keep your feet planted?" No one answered her, so I did.

"You'll end up on your back," I grumbled.

"Right, and if you're on your back, you're dead." She said, walking over to a female, squatting at her feet, and adjusting her stance to perfection.

"If you don't plant yourself, you're as good as dead before you start."

There was a chorus of "Yes, Beta!" As she corrected each stance before turning to make her way back to me with a smile on her face.

"That was fun. Do I like training?" She asked, the smile on her face making her seem like this week had never even happened.

"You do, and you're amazing at it." Dane's voice came from behind me, his tone one of awe and need. My chest flared hot with rage and jealousy. I know at some point she will get her memory back. I don't want to lose the time I have with her because he can't keep his nose where it belongs.

"Who smacked you, Cierra? Did Darlene do that?" He asked. He knows they hit her and haven't stopped it?

"Let it go." She growled, her eyes flaring in a way that surprised us both.

"I'm tired, can we go inside?" She asked me. Before I could say anything, Dane took her hands, making me growl.

"Can we talk, please?" He asked, making her jerk her hands free.

"Please stop acting like I mean something to you. I feel the mating pull with Dom, not with you. Whatever you think we were before, it's done." She took my hand, pulling me away with her. Pride bloomed in my chest at the fire I hadn't seen in her in years, not since they had turned her into the quite submissive thing she had become before the attack. This was her before they smothered out her fire. I couldn't wait to see what she did next.