30 Days, I'm Not Your Luna

Chapter 2

Selena’s POV

The morning sun shone through the large windows of our room, but it brought no warmth. The house felt cold and empty, like a museum. I sat at the long dining table, staring at a cup of coffee that had gone cold an hour ago.

My body was aching from getting no sleep. I could still feel Theo’s touch on hands, on my skin, and the bitter taste of that pill was still in the back of my throat.

30 days.

That was all I had left.

The heavy front door opened with a loud bang, followed by the sharp, terrifying sound of high heels clicking against the floor tiles.

My stomach twisted because I knew that walk.

Evelyn Kensington, the former Luna and Theo’s mother, swept into the dining room. She was dressed in a pristine grey suit with her hair pulled back so tightly that it looked painful. Her eyes, cold and sharp landed on me immediately.

"Sitting around doing nothing, as usual," she said, her voice dripping with disdain. She didn't say hello. She never did.

"Good morning, Evelyn," I said, my voice quiet and tired. I stood up out of respect, though my legs felt weak. I'm still reeling from the pain Theo caused me last night.

She walked over to the table and looked down at me. A cruel smile played on her lips. "I spoke to Theodore this morning. He told me the good news. Finally."

I looked down at my hands. "The divorce."

"The freedom," she corrected sharply. She walked around the table, circling me like a predator. "Do you know how long I have waited for this day, Selena? Three years. Three long, embarrassing years of watching my son play house with a charity case."

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from crying. "I tried my best, Evelyn. I care about him."

"You failed," she snapped, slamming her hand down on the table. The coffee cup rattled. "You had one job, Selena. One simple duty. To produce an heir for the Sirius Pack. And look at you. Three years, and your womb is as empty as your head."

The injustice of it burned in my chest. She didn't know. She didn't know that her son, the perfect Alpha, handed me a contraceptive pill every single time we were intimate. She didn't know that I wanted a baby more than anything in the world, but I was forced to stay like this to satisfy the terms of a contract.

"It... it wasn't the right time," I whispered.

"It wasn't the right time because you are defective," Evelyn hissed. She leaned in close, her expensive perfume choking me. "You are an Omega. You are the weakest of all of us so l didn't expect you to be fertile. But you couldn't even try. You are useless as a Luna, and you are useless as a woman or wife."

She straightened up, looking at me with pure disgust. "It’s no wonder Theodore is replacing you with Claire from the River Styx Pack. Now that is a woman. Strong. Powerful. She will give him lots of strong pups within a year and wash away the stain of your failure."

Tears pricked my eyes, and I tried not to full blown cry.

"I love him," I said, my voice shaking. "I loved him before any of this."

Evelyn laughed and it was a cold, dry sound. "Love? Do you think love matters? You’re bad luck, Selena. You always have been."

She took a step closer, her eyes narrowing. "You bring disaster wherever you go. Look at your parents. They were fine until you came along. And then? Dead. Gone. You cursed them, just like you’ve been cursing this family. You ended up alone because you deserve to be alone."

The air left my lungs, and I felt like a fish out of water. My parents’ death was the open wound of my life, the nightmare I woke up from screaming. To hear her use it as a weapon against me... it broke something inside me.

"That's not true," I gasped.

"It is true," she said, turning her back on me. "Pack your things, Selena. Start today. I want you out the second that divorce goes through. Don't leave a single trace of your bad luck behind."

She walked out of the room, her heels clicking away, leaving me standing in the wreckage of her words.

I couldn't stay downstairs. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. I ran up the stairs, past the master bedroom that smelled like Theo, and kept going until I reached the wooden door at the end of the hallway.

The attic.

This was the one place Evelyn and Theo never went. It was dusty and cramped, but it was mine.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. In the center of the room was a small, battered desk covered in sketchpads, pencils, and loose gemstones.

I sat down at the desk with my hands trembling and grabbed a pencil to do something with the pain before it tore me apart. I began to draw. Lines appeared on the paper, sharp lines that slowly turned into the curve of a necklace. It looked like a shield. A heart protected by thorns.

‘You deserve to be alone,’ Evelyn had said. ‘You bring disaster.’

I looked at the drawing, and I thought about the thirty days left on the calendar.

"I am not a disaster," I whispered to the empty room.

I thought about the pill I had taken last night. I thought about the way Theo had looked at me, with love as our bodies joined. He was going to marry another woman. He was going to have children with her and he was going to build the family I always wanted and l would be left with nothing.

No husband. No home. No family.

Anger started to burn in my chest.

Why did I have to follow the rules? The contract was ending anyway. Theo was throwing me out anyway. What did I have to lose?

I put the pencil down.

"Thirty days," I said to myself, my voice gaining strength.

For the next thirty days, I would play the part of the perfect wife and Luna during the day. But at night... I wouldn't take the pill anymore. I will hide them and flush them.

I'm going to conceive.

I don't care about the contract anymore. I want a child. I want someone who shares my blood. Someone who will look at me and see their mother, not a "useless Omega." I wanted a family member who would never, ever abandon me.

If Theo won't give me his heart, I will take the one thing he refuses to give me. I will have his child. Not for the pack. Not for him. But for me.

My heart was pounding with the rebellion of my decision when a soft sound from my phone broke the silence. I looked down at the screen, wiping a tear from my cheek.

It was an email notification. My secret email account.

The one under the name Violet Stone.

Subject: New York Jewelry Exhibition - Final Selection

My breath caught in my throat as I opened the email with shaking fingers.

> Dear Ms. Stone,

> We are pleased to inform you that your piece, "The Silent Moon," has been selected as a headline feature for the upcoming New York Jewelry Exhibition. The judges were captivated by the emotion and unique craftsmanship of your design. This is a rare honor for an anonymous designer...

I stared at the words, reading them over and over again. The New York Exhibition was the most prestigious event in the world. Designers waited their whole lives for a chance to be displayed there. And they had chosen me.

A small, genuine smile touched my lips for the first time today.

Downstairs, I was Selena, the rejected wife, the failure, the bad luck. But up here? Up here, I was Violet Stone. I was a genius, and someone finally realized that.

I looked at the drawing of the thorny heart on my desk and picked up my pencil again with my grip firm this time.

Let Evelyn call me useless. Let Theo plan his strategic marriage. They had no idea who I really was. And in thirty days, when I walk out of that door, I won't just be walking away as an ex-wife. I will be walking towards my destiny.

And if my plan worked... I wouldn't be walking alone.