The Unwanted Luna: Claimed By The True Alpha King

For seven years, I was the barren, wolf-less Luna, tolerating my husband's coldness and his "friendship" with Haven.

I thought I was defective.

Until I found the papers transferring our pack's wealth to Haven's son-a boy with Aiden's eyes.

When I tried to leave, Haven framed me for kidnapping the child.

Aiden didn't ask for an explanation. He didn't check the tracker that proved my innocence.

He let them drag me to a warehouse, bound in silver chains that burned my skin.

Drugged into a feral state, my own mate beat me until my ribs shattered, believing I was a rogue enemy.

Through the haze of pain, I heard Haven's voice over the intercom, laughing.

"She thinks she donated a kidney to you, Aiden. She doesn't know we drained her Wolf Essence to boost your power."

My weakness wasn't a sickness. It was a theft. They had cannibalized my soul to build his throne.

I was supposed to die there.

But as Aiden walked away, leaving me in a pool of blood, a power I thought was lost ignited in my veins.

I dragged myself to the wall and wrote with trembling, bloody fingers:

"I REJECT YOU."

The bond severed with a crack like thunder.

They thought they were burying a dog.

They didn't realize they were waking a Phoenix.

Chapter 1

Charlotte POV:

The study was freezing. It smelled of old paper and the lemon polish the Omegas slathered on everything. I wasn't supposed to be here. The East Wing was Aiden's territory, strictly forbidden to me, his wife, the Luna of the Herrera Pack.

But I needed my mother's moonstone earrings. They were the last piece of her I had left. Aiden had confiscated them during his last rage, claiming they were "too trashy" for a Luna.

My hands shook as I opened the bottom drawer of his mahogany desk. No earrings. Instead, a thick folder bound in red leather sat there.

Asset Transfer Agreement.

My heart hammered against my ribs. In our world, the Pack operates like a massive corporation bound by blood laws. Assets aren't just cash; they are territory, the spirit veins that fuel our wolves.

I flipped it open. My eyes scanned the legalese until they hit the beneficiary.

Leo.

Aiden was transferring the core spirit vein and thirty percent of the Herrera Corporation shares to a seven-year-old boy. A boy who, officially, was just a distant cousin's kid.

The guardian signature next to Leo's name made my breath hitch.

Haven Herrera.

"So, the rumors were right," I whispered to the empty room.

I looked at the lawyer's addendum clipped to the back. It stated clearly that Charlotte Knox-Herrera held no executive power and no inheritance rights. I was a figurehead. A decoration. A Luna in name only, stripped of authority because I couldn't shift.

Laughter drifted in through the heavy velvet curtains.

I walked to the window. Down in the garden, the late afternoon sun bathed the manicured lawn in gold.

Aiden was there. My husband. The Alpha. He looked magnificent, dark hair windblown, broad shoulders straining against his white shirt. He wasn't scowling. He wasn't looking at me with that mixture of pity and disgust I'd eaten for breakfast for seven years.

He was smiling.

He lifted Leo high into the air. The boy giggled, his eyes flashing with a premature amber glow. Haven stood beside them, clapping, playing the perfect mother.

"Higher, Daddy! Higher!" Leo squealed.

Daddy.

The word was a knife in my gut.

Just then, the former Alpha, Aiden's father, stepped onto the patio, raising a glass of champagne to the boy. He was acknowledging Leo as the future.

Leo wiggled and kicked over a tray of drinks. Red wine splashed all over Aiden's pristine white shirt.

I flinched, stepping back. I expected the roar. I expected the "Feral Madness" Aiden claimed he couldn't control-the rage that usually ended with broken furniture or bruises on my arms.

But Aiden didn't roar.

He gently set the boy down, wiping a smudge of wine from Leo's cheek. He kissed the boy's forehead.

I stared at my reflection in the glass. Pale skin, dark circles, a body wasted away by stress and the "vitamins" the pack doctor forced on me.

"You don't have Feral Madness, Aiden," I said, my voice cracking. "You're just an asshole."

For seven years, I bought the lie. I thought his violence was a sickness. I thought if I was submissive enough, my wolf would wake up and I could fix him.

But my wolf was dead silent. And Aiden wasn't sick. He was just in love with someone else.

"I swear by the Moon Goddess," I choked out, tears finally spilling over. "I'm done."

Charlotte POV:

I sat on the edge of the bed, a suitcase open at my feet. Just clothes I bought with my allowance, sketchbooks, and trinkets that didn't belong to the estate.

On the nightstand sat a document I'd printed from the library. Dissolution of Mate Bond. In the human world, divorce papers.

The door handle turned. The air grew heavy-Alpha aura. It felt like walking underwater.

Aiden walked in, smelling of cedar and rain.

"Why is it so quiet?" he asked, loosening his tie. He didn't look at me.

"I was packing," I said.

He turned, eyes narrowing at the suitcase. "Going to the countryside estate? Good. You look like a ghost. The city air doesn't suit you."

He tossed a velvet box onto the bed.

"Happy anniversary," he said. "Or whatever. Haven reminded me."

I opened it. A silver anklet.

My stomach turned. Silver is poison to us. It burns the skin and suppresses the spirit. For someone with a dormant wolf like me, it just made me feel like I had a permanent flu.

"Thanks," I lied, voice hollow.

"Put it on," he commanded. "It has a tracker. With all the Rogues roaming around, I need to know where you are."

It wasn't a gift. It was a shackle.

He hit the shower. His phone lit up on the dresser. I shouldn't have, but the image of him holding Leo burned. I picked it up. Passcode was still the date he took over the Pack.

I opened the Mind-Link logs-modern tech that recorded telepathic conversations.

H: She's so annoying today. Just looking at her makes me sick.

Aiden: Bear with it. Her family's land integration is almost complete.

H: I miss your touch. My heat is coming soon.

Aiden: I'll be there. Just have to deal with the ice block at home first.

I dropped the phone on the duvet like it was hot coal.

Ice block.

Aiden stepped out, towel around his waist. He looked at me, eyes darkening with performative lust.

"Come here," he said.

He reached for me. As his hand touched my arm, a violent shudder ripped through me. Physiological rejection. My skin burned.

"Don't," I gasped, pulling away.

His face hardened. "Don't? You are my Luna. It is your duty to breed."

"I... I don't feel well." My temperature spiked. My body was physically rejecting the bond because the trust was shattered.

Aiden growled. "You are useless, Charlotte. You can't shift. You can't handle business. And now you can't satisfy your Alpha?"

Suddenly, his eyes glazed over. Mind-Link.

"What?" he barked at the air. "Leo? I'm coming."

He grabbed his clothes, dressing frantically.

"Intruders at the border," he lied smoothly. "I have to go."

He left me shivering with heartbreak fever, clutching a silver anklet meant to keep me a prisoner.

As the door slammed, I curled into a ball. The bond between us was fraying like an old rope. And for the first time in years, deep in my soul, I heard a sound.

A whimper. My wolf was crying.

Charlotte POV:

I woke up to the smell of bleach and rubbing alcohol.

I was in a VIP room at the Pack Hospital. Kayla, my best friend and one of the few Betas who didn't treat me like garbage, sat in the chair.

"You're awake," she said softly. "Found you on the floor, Lottie. Fever of 104. Aiden... wasn't there."

"Business," I rasped.

"Business?" Kayla scoffed. "If by business you mean sitting in the pediatric ward with Haven, then sure."

I sat up, ripping the IV tape. "Take me there."

"Lottie, no..."

"Now, Kayla."

I walked down the hallway, clutching the IV pole. Even with dull senses, I smelled it. Cedar and rain.

I stopped outside a room. Blinds partially drawn.

Haven sat on the bed, sobbing beautifully. Aiden paced, flooding the hallway with calming pheromones he never wasted on me.

"They called him a bastard, Aiden!" Haven cried. "The other pups... said he has no father."

Aiden stopped. He wrapped his arms around her. "He is not a bastard. He is my son. The future Alpha."

"But Charlotte..."

"Charlotte is a placeholder!" Aiden roared, punching the wall. Plaster crumbled.

I flinched. Usually, he'd turn that rage on me. But here, he took a deep breath. He controlled the madness for her.

"She gave me her kidney years ago," Aiden said, voice lower. "I owe her life. That is the only reason she is still Luna. But once Leo shifts... once the Council sees his power... I will annul the marriage."

"I'm pregnant again, Aiden," Haven whispered.

Silence. Then, Aiden fell to his knees, pressing his face against her stomach. Reverent.

"I will protect you," he vowed. "I will protect our pack."

Our pack.

I wasn't part of the "our." I was the obstacle.

I didn't scream. A cold calm settled over me. The death of hope.

I turned and walked back to my room, ripping the IV out of my arm. Blood trickled down, but I didn't feel it.

"Lottie?" Kayla ran after me.

"Take me back to the Manor," I said. "I have something to do."

Back at the estate, the house was quiet. I walked into the living room.

Crash.

Leo stood by the fireplace. At his feet lay the shattered remains of a porcelain doll. An antique, imbued with a protection spell from my grandmother. The totem of my maternal line.

Leo smirked, eyes gleaming with malice.

"Oops. It was ugly anyway. Mommy says all your things are ugly."

Something inside me snapped.