Get Back The Abandoned Luna

Scarlett's POV

I caught his scent before I saw them.

Sandalwood and cedar-that was Alexander's scent, the one I thought I'd love for the rest of my life.

Now it clung heavily to another woman, like a brand that seared my senses, leaving me frozen beneath the arched doorway of the ballroom, unable to take another step.

The lights blazed brilliantly. Crystal champagne flutes clinked, laughter rang out, strings played melodiously-everyone was celebrating the Crescent Moon Pack's glorious rise from tenth place to second.

That ranking was a number I had built over three years, with blood and sweat, with every resource under my name.

And here I was, the one who should have been the guest of honor, still clutching a garment bag in my hands.

A white silk gown, every seam embedded with crushed diamonds-I had designed it myself for tomorrow night.

Yes, tomorrow night.

Everyone I had asked had clearly told me the victory celebration was tomorrow evening.

If I hadn't overheard the seamstress's casual comment during this afternoon's fitting, I would still be sitting at home, completely oblivious to what was happening here.

I stood still in the doorway for another three seconds, then let my gaze sweep across the crowd until I found them.

Alexander stood in the center of the hall, impeccable in his tailored suit, his hand resting naturally on Faye's slender waist.

They stood so close together, as if he had already forgotten the fact that she had once rejected and abandoned him.

Faye pressed against him, her emerald eyes half-lowered, her lips curved in that all-too-familiar smile-the kind of satisfied smirk that only someone who knew they held the absolute upper hand would wear.

His scent saturated her entire being.

"Luna-!"

Ruby's shocked exclamation exploded beside me, sending ripples through the previously calm waters like a stone thrown into a still lake.

Every eye in the ballroom instantly focused on me.

The music faltered first, then stopped abruptly. Champagne bottles suspended mid-pour, servers frozen in place.

I heard whispers surge toward me from all directions like a tide:

"Didn't the Alpha say the Luna was feeling unwell-"

"Now both of them are here, this is-"

Feeling unwell...

So that's how it was. That's how my husband had placated them, spinning such a pathetic lie.

I didn't move a muscle.

My wolf, Kara, let out a low whimper deep in my consciousness-not anger, but something deeper, something that had finally reached the limit of what it could endure.

Alexander was walking toward me now, his steps hurried, using his tall frame to shield Faye from view.

He stopped three paces away, his azure eyes scanning over me as he lowered his voice so only I could hear:

"Scarlett, your timing is... inappropriate."

I stared at him without speaking, but I didn't need to question him. Guilty consciences always came prepared with excuses.

"There are Council representatives here tonight. I simply needed a female companion," he continued, his tone shifting to that official cadence he used to placate subordinates in Council meetings-not the voice one used with a wife. "Your position as Luna won't change in any way, I assure you. We can discuss this matter at home, but right now-"

He assured me.

I almost laughed out loud.

The tone of someone granting favors. He was actually discussing my own identity with me in the voice of a benefactor.

Five years ago, he had been nothing more than a fallen Alpha, ruthlessly abandoned by Faye, marginalized by his own pack, standing at the gates of my father's territory with eyes worn down by years of hardship.

I had been the one to walk toward him.

I had chosen him.

I had brought him home.

I had publicly announced the merger of our two territories at my father's memorial service.

I had advocated for him time and again, convincing each dissatisfied elder one by one, even letting everyone believe he had been the mastermind behind it all.

I had personally molded him into what he was today.

And now he stood here, bestowing "assurances" upon me as if everything I had was his to give.

Rage boiled inside me like molten lava, Kara roaring in the depths of my consciousness, demanding I tear apart this ungrateful man before me. But I forced myself to remain calm, because true strength never loses composure in front of a crowd.

"Alexander."

I spoke, my voice not loud, but in such dead silence, everyone in the ballroom could hear every word clearly.

"This is the territory my father left behind," I said, meeting his eyes directly, making each word clear and forceful. "So I'll only say this once: make her leave this place. Or you can both get out together."

Absolute silence surrounded us.

Even Alexander fell quiet, staring at me intently, his jaw clenched tight, his eyes holding an expression I had never seen before.

It wasn't anger-it was closer to the kind of discomfort and panic that only surfaces when forced to confront something one has been deliberately avoiding.

I tasted power in that moment, that intoxicating sense of control.

For the first time in three years, I saw fear in Alexander's eyes.

Fear of losing everything he now possessed, fear of returning to the state of having nothing that he'd known five years ago.

"Scarlett," he finally spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse, "you don't understand how complex this situation is-"

"I understand perfectly," I cut him off, taking a step forward.

"I understand that you've been having affairs behind your lawful wife's back with the woman who abandoned you. I understand that you've let everyone in the pack know I've been kept in the dark. And I understand that you're now trying to use my patience and tolerance as cover for your sordid behavior."

Faye stepped out from behind Alexander, her green eyes flashing with defiance.

"Scarlett, you're always so aggressive. Can't we discuss this calmly?"

I turned to her, my lips curving into a cold arc.

"Fine, let's discuss it. Shall we talk about how you seduced a married man? Or how graciously I should share my husband with you?"

As my words hung in the air, the atmosphere in the ballroom grew even more tense.

I could feel everyone holding their breath, waiting to see how this drama would unfold.

Scarlett's POV

The silence stretched for nearly ten seconds.

The pack elders present exchanged glances, none daring to speak first.

I knew what they were calculating-nearly half the people in this ballroom were Winter Wolf veterans, those who had fought alongside my father for years and watched me grow up.

No one dared to choose sides before they'd figured out where they stood.

Alexander understood this better than anyone, which is why he could only lower his voice:

"Scarlett! Do you know what you're saying? Faye came back alone with nowhere to go. If you make her leave, where can she go? She's someone I grew up with-"

"Really? I thought you'd forgotten about the past," I interrupted him. "Grew up together, and then she decided you weren't good enough for her and walked away without a backward glance."

I slowly turned toward Faye, who stood behind Alexander, her emerald eyes fixed on me.

For the first time, that carefully maintained innocent expression showed a visible crack.

"You were the one who left without hesitation back then," I said, my voice not loud but every word crystal clear, "and now you're the one crying about having nowhere to go."

I paused for a moment, a cold curve forming at the corner of my mouth.

"The Goddess truly is fair-you're both experts at betrayal. One abandons old love, the other betrays his wife. You really are a match made in heaven. Since that's the case, why don't you abandon everything here and go be rogues together?"

Alexander's face turned ashen.

He wanted to argue back, his Adam's apple bobbing, but no sound emerged.

Someone in the crowd couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.

I remained where I stood, my spine straight, my expression calm as still water.

But my heart held no sense of victory.

I forced myself to suppress that ache, burying all the complex emotions deep within, maintaining only a mask of composed control on the surface.

Just then, someone in the crowd spoke up.

The voice wasn't loud, but in such dead silence it was unnaturally clear:

"But... we can't be without an Alpha... The pack has no heir, and just like this... it's ultimately unsustainable."

Another voice immediately followed, like a spark falling into dry kindling:

"Indeed, a woman can't really be Alpha..."

Alexander's eyes instantly darkened. He clenched his fists, his chest heaving violently, his lips trembling as he tried to defend-

Thud.

Everyone heard the sound from the floor simultaneously and turned their heads in unison.

Faye had collapsed to her knees.

Her hands clutched desperately at my calves, her delicate makeup already ruined, mascara streaming down her pale cheeks.

She lifted her face, her eyes red and swollen, her voice trembling as if something was gripping her throat tightly.

After choking back a sob, she finally forced out those earth-shattering words:

"Luna, please! I need Alexander! I... I'm pregnant!"

In the ballroom, all sound vanished instantly.

I looked down, staring at those trembling hands clutching my legs, watching Faye's tear-streaked face gazing up at me, and suddenly felt the mate mark on my neck burning like a red-hot brand against my skin-

That searing pain, those countless sleepless nights I had attributed to overwork, stress, or inexplicable physical weakness-everything suddenly had a rational explanation in that single second.

Every time my body suddenly gave out, every time that burning pain jolted me awake from nightmares-

It was all because of this.

Because they had been carrying on their affair for so long. Because he had long ago betrayed our mate bond.

I stood frozen in place, staring at those clutching hands and that rain-soaked face, motionless.

I could feel countless complex gazes falling on me like needles and thorns from all directions, as if everything familiar was being stripped away from me piece by piece.

The respect, status, and future that had once belonged to me-all crumbling at this woman's single sentence.

The pack needed an heir. This was an iron law, an unspoken expectation in everyone's hearts.

And I, the Luna who had been married for three years without conceiving, had become the greatest obstacle at this crucial moment.

Alexander only briefly avoided my gaze-one second, no more than two-then bent down to gently pull Faye up from the floor, his movements careful as if he were helping a precious, fragile piece of porcelain.

Then he straightened up, faced the roomful of guests, his voice steady and carrying that Alpha authority I knew all too well:

"This child is the heir to the Crescent Moon Pack. I will not let Faye leave."

Discussion erupted like a surging tide.

"The Luna's inability to conceive is a well-known fact..."

"The pack always needs succession, this is unavoidable..."

"Miss Faye is, after all, the one the Alpha truly loves..."

"Now that there's an heir, the situation is different..."

Those whispers pressed in from all directions, like mud and sand gradually rising past my ankles, submerging my knees.

Kara let out an extremely low whimper deep in my consciousness-not an angry snarl, but the sound of something much heavier falling-muffled, dull, carrying a kind of complete despair I had never experienced.

But I could not collapse here.

Absolutely not!

I repeated this phrase in my mind, then turned around and walked out of the ballroom with firm, decisive steps.

No one called out to stop me. Not even Alexander.

I felt countless complex gazes behind me-some sympathetic, some gleefully schadenfreude, others coldly calculating.

But I didn't look back, maintaining my straight spine and composed gait until I completely disappeared from their sight.

Scarlett's POV

The corridor was empty, the lighting much dimmer than in the ballroom.

I stopped beside a classical column, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes, letting my spine press against the cold stone as that bone-deep chill seeped through my back and penetrated my entire body.

I had not been defeated.

This chess game had only just begun-I was far from defeated.

I needed to think calmly about one issue, a crucial question I had suppressed for three years and never wanted to face.

My inability to conceive was not a natural defect.

Two years ago, after a routine examination, the attending physician secretly approached me, quietly slipping the test results into my hands.

He told me that my hormone levels were extremely abnormal, symptoms indicating long-term interference from some special herb.

At the time, I took that report to Alexander.

He was silent for a long time, finally saying dismissively: It might be a stress response from high-intensity training. Let's observe for a while longer.

And then nothing more came of it.

No thorough investigation, no comprehensive inquiry, no one held accountable.

At the time, I naively thought he was protecting me, not wanting me to endure the enormous pressure that an investigation would bring.

Now I finally understood the truth. He simply didn't want to investigate. Because from the beginning, he didn't care about the results.

He hadn't just betrayed me-he had never seen me as someone who needed to be cherished and protected.

In his heart, I was perhaps nothing more than a tool for obtaining power and status.

Anger came more swiftly than sorrow, more sobering, like a fierce fire igniting from deep within my chest, burning away all the soft emotions that still retained any warmth.

This was the pack my father had left behind, the bloodline inheritance and ancestral territory of the Winter Wolf clan.

It belonged to no outside coveter, not to a woman who had run back after being abandoned for five years, and certainly not to the unborn child in her womb.

I would never fulfill their wishful thinking.

Kara resonated with me deep in my consciousness, that powerful force belonging to Alpha bloodline beginning to awaken within my body.

I felt a long-absent desire to fight-that Winter Wolf instinct my father had passed down to me: to strike back in desperate straits, to be reborn through betrayal.

---

Father's old study was located in the deepest part of the main building, sealed for nearly two years.

I gently pushed open the heavy oak door. The mixed scent of camphor and old paper rushed toward me, carrying the weight of accumulated years.

I didn't turn on the harsh overhead lights, only twisted on that antique bronze desk lamp that had accompanied my father for years.

Warm yellow light spilled across the solid wood desk I had known since childhood.

The bottom drawer required a special key to open.

I removed the necklace I had worn close to my body, which held the only key my father had left me.

When the drawer opened, inside lay neatly arranged legal documents, important correspondence, and a thick contact book with a cover worn to a shine-all in my father's handwriting, densely packed and orderly, meticulously recording every ally relationship, every important name who had once owed the Winter Wolves a favor, every crucial piece of information he worried might be lost if he suddenly passed away.

I carefully examined each page with complex emotions.

Then tears suddenly welled up in my eyes as I saw every escape route my father had laid out for me, every possible source of aid, every painstakingly arranged plan.

He had long foreseen that I might face today's predicament, which is why he had so meticulously recorded this precious information.

Yet I had failed his expectations, allowing the Winter Wolf bloodline to fall into such a passive situation.

Plip-

A tear fell, landing like fate itself on a familiar name.

Lucien Nightshade.

Beside it was detailed notation my father had added later, the handwriting slightly smaller than the main text, clearly supplemented after careful consideration:

During the Nightshade Pack succession dispute, Lucien was at a disadvantage. I provided financial assistance in the Winter Wolf name. Later, our two families discussed the possibility of marriage alliance, but it was abandoned due to Scarlett's firm refusal.

In case of difficulties, he is the best option.

I read this precious passage three times, each word burning deeply into my memory.

Father's guidance was correct-this was absolutely the best option.

The Council never interfered in internal pack affairs, and as a woman, I had no independent military force as backing.

Father's old subordinates could only cautiously choose sides in secret, and as long as Alexander successfully stabilized the core leadership, the longer time dragged on, the fewer chips I would have in my hand, until I might have nothing at all.

The Nightshade family controlled one-third of the northern territories and wielded the greatest influence in the Council.

More importantly, Lucien himself was renowned for his iron-fisted methods and absolute fairness, never participating in political speculation, which made each of his positions carry enormous influence.

And I had little doubt... he would definitely help me, though it would require paying a price.

I took a deep breath, picked up my phone, and dialed Kathleen's number. As soon as the call connected, I got straight to the point:

"Kathleen, help me. I need to speak privately with your brother. This is urgent."