Chapter 2
CLARA POV
"I will never give up my admission to Tyla," I said, meeting Darius's gaze. "Never!"
My words rang through the hall.
"You—"
"Alpha, please, let it be." Tyla hurriedly interrupted him, her voice trembling.
She stepped closer and held his arm, tears gathering in her eyes. "I told you before not to ask the Luna to give it up. If I fail to win the pack competition in four years, I will accept my fate. Maybe I simply lack the ability to succeed."
Her shoulders shook as she lowered her head against him.
The pack competition had nothing to do with the academy. Every pack sent its fighters, and Tyla was to lead ours but that doesn't mean I have to transfer my admission to her.
"Stop pretending, Tyla. You disgust me!" The words escaped before I could hold them back. "If you truly didn't want my admission, you wouldn't have discussed transferring it to him in the first place."
Her eyes widened, and she quickly shook her head.
"You misunderstand me, Luna Clara. I never mentioned transferring anything to the Alpha. He insisted because he felt sorry for me." She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I have no powerful background like you. You were accepted because of who you are, while I have tried so hard and failed every time."
She glanced at Darius, then looked away as though she could no longer bear to face me.
"I don't want it anymore, even if it would benefit the pack. Please, don't argue with the Alpha because of me and let the auspicious time pass. I don't want to be the reason you fail to renew your bond."
Her voice broke on the last sentence. Darius wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and my stomach twisted.
She was the one holding my mate, yet somehow I was the villain standing in the middle of their love story.
"Clara, how can you accuse Tyla?" Darius said, his hold on her tightening. "She has nothing to do with this. I came up with the idea. I'm the one who wants you to transfer your admission to her."
"Then why are you blaming me for refusing?" I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. "If this was truly your idea, why can't you accept that I have the right to say no?"
His jaw tightened. He drew a breath and smoothed his voice into patience.
"Are you really going to let the auspicious time pass without transferring the admission, despite the benefits it will bring to the pack?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You're the one who made this demand. You're the one threatening not to renew our bond if I refuse. If anything bad happens because we miss the auspicious time, it will be your fault for using our bond to force me into giving up what belongs to me."
Darius only sighed, as though I had wounded him.
"So you think I'm the one at fault? Not your selfishness? Is it really so difficult for you to sacrifice one admission for the good of the pack?”
"The Luna is so selfish," someone muttered from the crowd before I could reply.
I turned sharply toward the voice.
"Why can't she give up the admission? What does she need it for?"
The words struck harder than I expected. I searched the faces around me, hoping someone would speak up for me, but most of them avoided my eyes.
"Yes! It's not as if the admission is useful to her," another pack member added.
"She got it freely because of her birth," a third person said. "Meanwhile, Beta Tyla has fought for years to enter the academy. Imagine what she could accomplish for our pack during the competition in four years if she entered. She could bring us pride."
I had spent years helping this pack grow stronger. I had stood beside Darius through difficult decisions and given up pieces of myself for our people. Yet all it took was one refusal for them to forget everything.
I opened my mouth, but Elder Onyx stepped forward before I could answer.
"Luna, you should give it up. You won't even participate in the competition, so why not let someone who will participate actually go to the academy?"
I looked at the elder who had once praised my contributions to the pack. Today, he couldn't even hide his disappointment in me.
"Please, Luna," another pack member urged. "Just agree so the bonding ceremony can continue. There is only one minute left."
One minute. The last light had almost slipped behind the stage. Once it was gone, the missed ritual would be seen as a bad omen for the Alpha and Luna, a warning that something was wrong with our union. Darius knew that. He knew exactly what we stood to lose, and still he had put me here.
"Are we really going to pressure the Luna like this?" another voice asked hesitantly. "She is the rightful heir, after all."
For a brief moment, hope stirred in my chest. Then Tyla pulled away from Darius slightly, her face wet.
"Perhaps we should just begin the ceremony. I don't want to be responsible for ruining such an important day."
"Tyla, it's not your fault," someone immediately reassured her. "It's the Luna who refuses to cooperate."
I had never felt so alone in a hall filled with my own pack.
Darius lifted his head.
"Since you refuse to cooperate, don't blame me for what happens next. Someone, bring the Luna seal and the thumbprint ink!"
"What are you planning to do?" I demanded.
"Since you don't want to do this the easy way, I'll make the decision myself," he said with a tired sigh. "I'm the Alpha. I cannot think only about you. I have to consider the future of the entire pack."
Two guards hurried forward with a small tray. On it lay the Luna seal and a dish of ink gleaming black in the torchlight. Beneath them was a transfer agreement.
The blood drained from my face. It had already been prepared. Every word, every condition.
"So you had already planned this?" My voice came out quieter than I intended. "Even before I agreed, you had prepared everything to make sure Tyla got my place?"
"Yes," he answered without hesitation.
He didn't even feel ashamed.
"Hold her down."
The guards seized my arms. One forced me to my knees, and the stone struck my kneecaps hard enough to make my teeth ring.
"Darius, don't do this!" I struggled with my wolf strength against their grip. "You can't force me to sign away my own admission!"
"I'm sorry, Clara," he said, his voice low and kind. "This is for the pack's sake. You'll thank me later. It's for your own good."
For my own good? Was that what he called stripping me of my choice in front of everyone who was supposed to respect me?
I twisted toward my father, who stood among the watching elders.
"Dad!" My voice cracked. "Dad, please. Say something."
For one foolish second, I believed he would step forward. He might despise me, but surely he wouldn't stand by while another man humiliated his own daughter. Surely, somewhere beneath all his disappointment, I was still his blood.
He looked at the guards holding me, then at the document on the tray.
"You should obediently sign the transfer agreement," he said. "You are the Luna. You should act like one."
I stopped struggling. His words hurt more than the guards' grip, more than the stone digging into my knees. The man who was supposed to protect me had told me to obey the people destroying me.
Am I overreacting? Am I truly wrong for fighting for myself?
Darius crouched in front of me and took my hand. His grip was warm, almost gentle.
"Stop fighting me, Clara."
"Darius, please..."
He ignored my trembling voice and pressed my thumb into the cold ink, then against the paper. He picked up the Luna seal and stamped it down beside it. The sound of the seal striking the page seemed deafening. Black ink smeared my skin.
My admission was no longer mine. He had taken it in front of the entire pack, and not one person had stopped him.
He signaled his guards to release me. I sank forward, catching myself with one hand against the cold floor, my other hand trembling in my lap.
Darius stood and straightened his clothes.
"See? It wasn't that hard, was it? It's for everyone's benefit."
I slowly raised my head.
"How could you do this to me?"
My gaze locked onto his, tears streaming down my face as I searched for even a trace of the man, the mate I had loved for years.
“Luna, please stand up. Don't behave like this. You're hurting the Alpha,” Tyla said as she hurried toward me.
She reached out as though she wanted to help me up, but suddenly stumbled backward. Before she could fall, Darius caught her in his arms.
“Clara!” Darius shouted. His furious gaze snapped toward me.
“How could you push her like that?”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“I didn't,” I whispered, shaking my head.
“Please, don't be upset, Alpha,” Tyla said softly, clutching his arm. “I'm sure Clara didn't mean to hurt me.”
She lowered her gaze to her stomach and placed a protective hand over it.
“I just hope our baby is okay.”