Fake Heirness. True Luna

Chapter 4: Rejection

Irina’s POV

True to her words, Julie made sure I didn’t have a moment of peace. One day I was the Alpha’s daughter, the next I was a maid. I did everything. I scrubbed the stone floors of the great hall until my knees were raw and the scent of harsh lye soap burned my nostrils, a smell that had never touched my skin before. I polished the silverware for formal dinners I was no longer permitted to attend, my reflection warped and small in the curved surface of a spoon—a pathetic, servile creature I didn't recognize.

The pack watched. Some with pity that they quickly masked when others were near. Most with cold indifference, or worse, a smug sense of justice served. I was a living lesson, a reminder of what happened to those who overstepped.

But it was the private moments, inside the family wing, that were the most exquisite torture.

“Irina! This tea is cold,” Julie’s voice would sing out from the sitting room, a false sweetness coating every word. “Be a dear and fetch a fresh pot. And do try to be quicker this time. I’m so parched.”

My mother. No, I couldn’t call her that anymore. Luna Rosette, sat by her side, with a photo album open on her lap. “Oh, don’t trouble her, Julie darling,” she’d say, but her hand would be stroking Julie’s hair, her eyes never leaving the daughter she’d just found. The correction was a formality, nothing more.

“It’s no trouble, Mother,” Julie would purr, her eyes locking with mine as I took the teacup. They were hard and glittering with malice. “Irina doesn’t mind. Do you?”

“No,” I’d whisper, the word ash in my mouth. “I don’t mind.”

I would turn to leave, and Luna Rosette’s voice would stop me, soft and distant. “Irina, when you come back, could you bring the blue album? The one from when she was a baby? We want to see what we missed.”

I’m not sure if she is losing her mind or trying to convince herself that Julie was here when she was a baby. She is showing her my photos while pretending she is me.

Julie was taking everything that was once mine.

The worst was the clothing. Julie’s closet was now filled with my old dresses, my favorite sweaters, my riding boots. She would often call me in to help her choose an outfit.

“This one is lovely, don’t you think?” she’d ask, holding up a deep blue gown I had worn to the last pack solstice celebration. Lancer had told me I looked like the moon come to life. “It’s a shame it was wasted on you for all these years. It fits the true heir so much better, doesn’t it?”

She’d watch me, hungry for a reaction, as I stood with my hands clasped, my eyes downcast. Theia disappeared for a couple of days, she needed some time to process what happened, and now that she was back she would pace like crazy inside me, telling me to shift so she could put her in her place.

One afternoon, I was on my hands and knees, scrubbing the hearth in her bedroom fireplace. The ashes from last night’s fire were stubborn, clinging to the stone. My hands were blackened, my nails cracked and filled with grime.

Julie was sitting at her vanity—my old vanity—brushing her long, ashy-blond hair. Our eyes met in the mirror.

“You know,” she said conversationally, “I used to dream of having a sister. Someone to brush my hair. To tell my secrets to.” She set the brush down and turned, a cruel smile playing on her lips. “I suppose this is the next best thing. You can brush my hair, Irina. Come here.”

I rose stiffly, my knees protesting. I took the brush from her hand.

“Be gentle,” she cooed. “My scalp is very sensitive. A real Alpha’s daughter has a more… refined constitution.”

I began to brush, my movements mechanical.

“Mmm, that’s nice. You’re quite good at this. Perhaps you found your true calling after all.” She let the silence hang for a few moments before speaking again, her voice dropping, meant only for my ears. “He asks about you, you know.”

My hand stilled for a fraction of a second before I forced it to continue.

“Lancer,” she clarified, as if I might have thought she meant someone else. “He’s so devoted to the pack, so strong. The perfect Beta. He tells me he’s so relieved the Moon Goddess showed him the truth before the mating bond was cemented. He says he pities you, of course. But he’s so looking forward to serving his real Luna.”

The brush trembled in my hand. It was a lie. It had to be a lie. I hadn’t seen Lancer since that day, but now that she is mentioning him…

She must have felt the tremor, because her smile widened. I knew how to keep my temper in check, how to pretend that everything was fine, but Lancer’s wound was still fresh, and she was making sure I felt the pain.

“I suggest we leave personal business aside, I’m only a maid after all,” I replied, keeping my tone flat so she wouldn’t notice my pain.

I kept my strokes even, my face a mask of empty servitude. But inside, Theia was clawing at my ribs, a snarl building in our throat.

Julie’s smile in the mirror was one of pure triumph. She had drawn blood without laying a finger on me. She closed her eyes again, basking in her victory.

Then, her gaze flickered to the doorway, so fast I almost missed it. Her expression shifted in an instant. The smug satisfaction melted into a wince of pain, her eyes widening. She gasped, a sharp, theatrical sound, and her hand flew up to snatch the hairbrush from my grasp.

“Ow! Irina, stop! You’re pulling too hard!” she cried out, her voice a perfect blend of shock and hurt. She yanked her head away, making a show of rubbing her scalp. “Why would you do that?”

I stumbled back, the brush now in her hand. “I… I wasn’t. I was being gentle,” I stammered, confusion making me slow.

The air in the room shifted. The bond, that dormant, aching thread in my chest, erupted into a violent, electric tingle. A wave of protective fury, cold and absolute, washed over me from the doorway.

Before I could turn, a hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me backward. The grip was iron, bruising. I gasped, my head whipping around to see Lancer.

His face was a storm. His eyes, which had once looked at me with warmth and promise, were now chips of frozen anger. He looked from my startled face to Julie’s expertly crafted expression of pain.

“What are you doing to her?” he growled, his voice low and dangerous.

My heart plummeted. “Lancer, I didn’t— she— it wasn’t me—”

He didn’t let me finish. He dropped my wrist as if my skin had burned him, his lip curling in disgust. “I’ve tried to see past this, Irina. I’ve tried to find the girl I thought you were. But this? Petty cruelty to the one person who showed you mercy?” He shook his head, the movement final. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be bound to someone with such a spiteful heart.”

The world tilted. No. No, you have to see. You have to see her!

But he wasn’t looking at me. He turned to Julie, his posture softening infinitesimally. “Julie, I am so sorry. This won’t happen again.”

Then his hand was on my arm again, not a grip but a vise. He all but dragged me from the room, his strides long and furious. I stumbled, trying to keep up, my protests dying in my throat.

Lancer was not going to give me chance to explain. He was taking her word over mine.

He didn’t stop until we were in the middle of the main courtyard, the heart of the pack. Warriors training nearby paused. Omegas carrying baskets of laundry stopped to stare. Windows filled with curious faces.

Lancer released me with a shove that sent me stumbling to my knees on the cold cobblestones. The impact jarred my bones. I looked up, humiliation burning my cheeks.

He stood over me, his chest heaving, his voice projecting to carry across the suddenly silent courtyard.

“Everyone! Hear me!” he shouted, his tone ringing with a authority I had always admired, now turned against me. “I have tried to hold onto a bond that was built on a lie. I have tried to find honor in a connection to an impostor!”

He pointed a shaking finger at me, kneeling in the dirt. “But I have seen her true nature! I have seen the jealousy and the spite she harbors against our true Alpha’s daughter, the one who begged for her to be shown kindness!”

The pack murmured, their eyes hardening. They saw their future Beta, righteous and angry. They saw the disgraced maid, humbled at his feet.

“I will not be tied to this!” Lancer declared, his voice cracking with a performance of pain that tore me apart. “The Moon Goddess may have paired our souls, but she could not foresee the deception in her heart! I Lancer Marshall, future Beta of Blue Moon Pack, reject you, Irina Johnson, as my mate.”

A pain I had never felt before erupted from my chest. Tears filled my eyes as the connection between us snapped from his end.

“Lancer, please, hear me out,” I pleaded, trying to make him see that I was not who he thought I was. “I didn’t hurt her, she started acting out as—”

“I don’t care about your excuses, Irina. Accept the rejection or face the consequences of being paired to someone who doesn’t love you.”

I gulped. This was not the Lancer I knew, but perhaps… I never knew him at all.

“I, Irina Johnson, o-omega of Blue Moon Pack, accept your rejection, Lancer Marshall,” I muttered, my voice dying at the end when the pain became unbearable.

Lancer walked away, he didn’t help me stand up even as my consciousness faded. That day I made a promise to myself.

I wouldn’t be naïve anymore. I had to understand that I was no longer an Alpha’s daughter, I was a maid, and I had to be smarter than this.

I couldn’t fall for Julie’s games anymore.