Get Back The Abandoned LunaChapter 2: Pregnancy

Scarlett's POV

"Faye, darling—remind everyone here. Didn't you tell Alexander he wasn't good enough for you? That you were leaving to find someone worthy of your time?"

The crowd stirred like disturbed water.

Heads turned toward Faye, who'd gone from pale to crimson in the span of a heartbeat.

"That was years ago," she stammered, her perfect composure cracking. "I came back to—to help—"

"Help with what, exactly?" I stepped closer, and this time Alexander's hand twitched as if he wanted to stop me but didn't dare. Not with all these witnesses.

"Because if by 'help' you mean climbing into bed with my husband, then I suppose I should thank you for making his betrayal so obvious."

Someone gasped. Another person cursed under their breath.

Faye's eyes brimmed with practiced tears. Real fear flickered behind them now as she realized the crowd was turning.

She turned to Alexander, her voice breaking beautifully.

"Alpha, I—I realize now it was a mistake to come. I should leave before I cause more trouble—"

She made it three steps before Alexander caught her arm.

Time seemed to slow. I watched his fingers wrap around her wrist, watched him pull her back against his chest, watched his arm slide protectively around her shoulders.

Every wolf in that ballroom saw it.

Every witness to our mate bond watched him choose her over me.

The mark on my neck—the one he'd given me three years ago during our mating ceremony—began to burn.

Not the pleasant warmth of a bond being honored, but the searing pain of betrayal made manifest.

"Scarlett." Alexander's voice was low, dangerous, vibrating with barely restrained Alpha command. "You know how important tonight is. I need everything to be perfect for the Council representatives."

His eyes bored into mine, and I saw the threat there, cold and clear.

"If you keep making a scene, it won't just be my reputation that suffers. Your perfume business, all those contracts you've been negotiating—they'll disappear overnight."

He wasn't wrong. Half my clients were in this room right now, watching this disaster unfold.

The Council representatives he'd invited were already whispering among themselves.

But I was done being managed. Done being threatened. Done being his puppet Luna who smiled and stayed silent while he destroyed everything we'd built.

"You're absolutely right, ALPHA," I said, loud enough for the nearest cluster of pack members to hear. My smile was sharp enough to draw blood.

"This celebration is far too important to ruin with messy emotions. So please—" I gestured toward Faye with exaggerated courtesy, "—take care of your ex. Just remember where your wife sleeps when you're done."

I held his gaze for one more second, letting him see everything he'd destroyed in me.

Then I turned on my heel before he could respond, before I could see whether he'd follow or stay with her.

We both knew which he'd choose.

The crowd parted for me like I was toxic.

Their silence was worse than any insult—heavy with judgment, thick with pity, loaded with the weight of witnesses who'd seen their Luna humiliated and done nothing to stop it.

I walked through them all with my head high and my spine straight, even as my heart shattered with every step.

Even as I felt Kara retreating deeper into my consciousness, whimpering like a wounded animal.

Behind me, I heard Alexander say something in a low voice. Heard Faye's tearful response. Heard the music resume—tentative at first, then growing bolder.

The celebration continued.

As if nothing had happened.

As if I hadn't just been erased in front of everyone who mattered.

* * *

I barely made it through the front door before my legs gave out.

My hands hit the marble floor first, then my knees. The impact sent shockwaves up my thighs, but the pain was nothing compared to the fire spreading from the mark on my neck.

"Luna!" A voice echoed from somewhere in the house, panicked and distant.

I couldn't answer. Couldn't do anything but crawl toward the nearest bathroom, my coat dragging behind me like a wounded animal's tail.

The bathroom tile was cold against my palms.

I barely got the toilet seat up before I vomited again—violent, wrenching heaves that brought up nothing but bile and champagne I didn't remember drinking.

The mark burned hotter.

Inside, Kara was howling. The sound echoed through my skull like a death knell.

"He's killing us," she whimpered. "Every time he touches her, it kills us a little more."

I knew. God, I knew.

Because this was the Moon Goddess's punishment.

When the Alpha who marked you takes another to his bed, your body bears the consequences.

Every thrust, every moan, every moment of his pleasure becomes your pain.

The bond doesn't lie.

It can't.

I had felt it before—those unexplained moments of nausea during pack meetings, the sudden weakness that hit me in the middle of training sessions, the burning sensation that woke me from sleep at 2 AM.

I had thought I was sick. Overworked. Stressed from managing both the pack and my business.

Now I understood.

Every time my body rebelled, it was because Alexander was with her.

In our bed. In our home.

While I bled myself dry trying to build his empire.

I sat there on the bathroom floor, my back against the tub, and stared at nothing.

I hated the Moon Goddess for this. Hated her with every fiber of my being.

She punished the faithful while the betrayers walked free. She bound women to men who destroyed them and called it divine will.

She watched her daughters suffer and did nothing.

Nothing.

* * *

I spent the night in the bathroom. And Alexander didn't come home.

Till 8 AM, I heard the front door open.

Alexander's footsteps in the hallway—heavy, purposeful, heading straight for my office.

I set down my coffee cup carefully and turned to face the door.

He walked in without knocking, still wearing last night's suit. His hair was mussed, his tie undone. He smelled like Faye's jasmine perfume and sex.

The mark on my neck twinged.

We stared at each other across ten feet of expensive carpet.

Then he opened his mouth and detonated my entire world with a simple sentence:

"Faye is pregnant."

Chapter 2 Broken and Betrayed

Scarlett

“Faye is pregnant.”

For a second, I thought I had hallucinated the words. I blinked slowly, trying to process Alexander's words. The sincerity on his face told me he wasn't lying. He had not only brought back his lover, but also gotten her pregnant.

I stared at Alexander, waiting for the smirk, the punchline, the sign that this was some sick joke.

But his eyes were steady—unashamed.

Not only had he brought back his lover, but he’d also given her what I’d been trying to give him for years.

An heir.

“You bastard!” The scream ripped from me before I could stop it.

So that explained it.

The burning on my mark these past weeks, the phantom ache on my neck—every time his wolf mated with someone else, my body paid the price. And every time I asked him, he brushed me off, claiming I was “overthinking.”

I swung my hand at him, but he caught my wrist mid-air. My fingers digging into flesh.

“Scarlett,” he said with controlled calm, “don’t do something you’ll regret.”

My wolf snarled through me. “Let go, bastard!”

His claws slid out, just enough to threaten, not enough to draw blood. “If you challenge my authority again, I will remind you who rules this pack.”

Not us.

Not together.

Just him.

My wolf whimpered, wounded deeper than I was. She had begged for our mate’s acceptance for three years. Begged, compromised, endured. Only to be replaced by the woman he truly wanted.

I swallowed the metallic taste rising in my throat.

“Are you naming her Luna?”

“No.”

The word was immediate, almost panicked. His wolf flinched, retreating behind his eyes.

“You are still the Luna of Crescent Moon,” he insisted.

I laughed, not from amusement but sheer disbelief. “You claim to love me, yet you impregnated someone else.”

His jaw tightened. “I didn’t plan it.”

“That’s worse.”

His eyes darkened. “Scarlett, listen to me. The pack needs an heir. You couldn’t give me one.”

The words hit harder than the infidelity itself.

You couldn’t.

As if my body’s silence was a moral failure, a betrayal equal to his.

“You could have talked to me,” I breathed, voice shaking. “You could have tried.”

“I did try,” he snapped. “For years. The council is pressuring us. Our allies are watching. I can’t risk Crescent Moon crumbling because you refuse to step down.”

“Step down?” I repeated.

“From your role as my mate. Not Luna. I need both. My power, and my lineage.”

There was no remorse in his words, making my heart tightened.

“You want the title wife and the womb mistress,” I whispered. “Two women, one throne.”

“Stop being dramatic. She’s just carrying the heir.”

“And what happens after she gives birth?”

His silence was a confession.

Faye would always have him.

And he would always let her.

“Reject me,” I said, voice cracking. “I won’t stand beside a man who humiliates me.”

“No.” His hand tightened painfully. “There will be no rejection. Ever.”

“Why?”

“Because the moment I reject you, half the pack becomes loyal to you, not me. And I won’t risk rebellion.”

There it was—finally, the truth.

Not love.

Not devotion.

Control.

My laughter was hollow. “So I’m your safety net? Your hostage?”

“You’re my Luna,” he hissed. “And you don’t get to walk away.”

Before I could spit another curse, a knock sounded.

Alexander opened the door.

Faye stood there, draped in white silk that conveniently highlighted the swell of her stomach—barely visible, but deliberately accentuated. Her hair was braided, her lips glossed, powder hiding the exhaustion of early pregnancy.

“Alexander,” she murmured sweetly, stepping inside. “I was worried. You left so suddenly.”

Her doe-eyes flicked to me with performative concern. “Oh, Luna Scarlett, you look pale. I didn’t mean to disturb you two. I just worry I’ve caused trouble. I know you’ve tried for so long, and I’m sure it must be painful.”

She stroked her stomach, smiling softly. The gesture was subtle, but I caught the message.

‘Look what I gave him. Look what you couldn’t.’

I smiled back and answered her sharply. “Painful? No. What’s painful is that you don’t understand your place.”

Her expression faltered.

“You’re a surrogate, Faye. Nothing more. Your child belongs to the pack—and to me as Luna. You will never be anything but the Alpha’s hidden lover.”

For a moment, fear cracked her perfect mask that almost made me laugh.

Then she clutched her belly, gasping dramatically.

“Alexander—my stomach—”

He rushed to her instantly.

What made me sick wasn’t her act.

It was his.

“Scarlett,” he snapped over his shoulder, “be careful how you speak to her. She’s carrying my heir.”

Your heir.

Not our heir.

As he helped her out, his voice lowered, but not enough that I missed it. “Faye, don’t listen to her. You deserve more love than that cold Luna ever gave me.”

~

I swallowed the grievances and fury swell deep in me and left the scene. As I walked downstairs, forcing myself to keep my chin high—I was Luna and yet eyes followed me with pity and some of them looked at me in satisfaction—whispers trailed behind me.

“I heard the Luna couldn’t conceive?”

“Maybe that’s the reason why the Alpha chose Faye.”

“Our pack needs heir—good thing Faye was there to provide one.”

“I pity our Luna.”

Pity.

That’s the least I wanted them to view me.

I wanted to scream that I had been poisoned once, that someone sabotaged my heats. I wanted to hurl truth like a weapon.

But no one would believe me now. Not after he paraded her like a trophy—as if she were his Luna.

My legs carried me to my office. I shut the door, locked it, and finally let myself shake.

I picked up my phone and called the Wolf King. No answer.

I called every Alpha who owed me a favor and even left a voicemail to call me back once they see my message.

Then, out of desperation—I could my lost loyal lieutenant.

He didn’t pick up either.

I felt abandoned in every direction.

Finally, a familiar name appeared.

Alpha Reno.

I answered quickly. “Alexander cheated. Faye’s pregnant. He plans to raise the pup inside the pack—without rejecting me.”

Reno’s breath was heavy. “Scarlett… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t help me,” I whispered. “Help me stop this.”

“You know we can’t interfere with internal pack affairs. Not unless there’s physical abuse or threat to life.”

I laughed brokenly. “So what—infidelity is fine as long as he doesn’t kill me?”

“Legally… yes.”

“And what about Luna's rights? Do I lose everything if I leave?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “Unless you become Alpha yourself. But the council hasn’t passed the bill allowing female Alphas.”

“Because enough men voted against it.”

“Because they’re afraid,” Reno corrected. “A female Alpha threatens the power structure.”

I stared at the ceiling and couldn’t help but let out a mocking chuckle.

“Unless…” Reno continued hesitantly. “If you secured backing from the strongest Alpha in the region, others might follow.”

“The Nightshade Alpha,” I breathed.

A man feared, respected, and impossible to manipulate.

Reno exhaled. “Be careful, Scarlett. Once you move, there’s no undo.”

“I know.”

I hung up.

I slumped onto the couch, dizzy. Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I wiped them before they fell.

“Kyra… are you there?”

My wolf didn’t answer.

Our mate bond had crushed her spirit.

I pressed a palm to my chest. “Don’t go. I need you.”

Still nothing.

So I steadied myself.

Because if she couldn’t fight— I would.

I pulled open a drawer and retrieved documents—pack laws, council regulations, old treaties my father once used.

I read them through blurred eyes, highlighting sections, circling loopholes, searching for weapons disguised as words.

If Alexander wanted power—I would strip him of it.

If he wanted control—I would shatter it.

If he wanted legacy—I would rewrite it.

My hands shook, but not from despair.

From clarity.

The world thought I had no options. Alexander thought he owned me.

He had no idea who he had just pushed to war.

Now, I needed to contact the one man who might help—Kathleen's brother. The only one powerful enough to stand with me.