1

LUARA

REJECTED LUNA

The Rose the Alpha Broke

Prologue + Chapter 1

My name is Luara Althea Silvermoon.

I'm eighteen years old.

And inside my own pack, I learned way too early what it means not to belong.

It's not something anyone says out loud.

It's the way their gaze slides past too fast when they see me coming. The silence that settles when I sit nearby. The laughter — always held back — that bursts out the second they think I'm not watching.

Here, everyone has a wolf.

Everyone but me.

My wolf never woke up.

And that's not just an absence — it's a brand. A label. A flaw carved into my skin.

Too white.

Too blonde.

Too big.

Too fat for a future she-wolf.

Too slow for a hunt.

Too wrong to ever be chosen.

I learned to count my steps, measure how much space I took up, breathe quietly. I learned to exist like someone apologizing for being in the world.

If there's one place where it doesn't hurt, it's home.

My father, Eron Silvermoon, calls me "my moon" even when I try to hide my face behind my hair. He says it like I'm something rare, precious, untouchable. Like the world out there doesn't have teeth.

My mother, Maelis, touches my face gently when she thinks I'm asleep. She kisses my forehead like she could erase everything I heard that day. She never asks too many questions. She just stays.

They love me.

And that love is the only thing that never asked me to change.

But outside these walls…

Out there, I'm the mistake everyone sees.

I have a sister.

Lisa Silvermoon.

Lisa was born ready.

She never had to learn to defend herself because no one ever came for her. Never had to bow her head, because the world always bent for her first. Hair red as a living flame. Green eyes that always knew exactly where to aim. A thin, light, correct body.

Lisa never raises her voice. She doesn't need to.

She destroys with smiles.

When we were kids, she'd shove me out of the play circles. As teenagers, she switched to words. Now, too grown to fake innocence, she just watches while everyone else does the work.

"You should try looser clothes," she told me once, pretending to care. "Just so you don't draw attention."

I already drew attention just by existing.

At Wolf Academy, inside the pack, the contempt has a smell. A sound. A routine.

The hallways stretch too long when you walk them alone.

The classrooms go too quiet when you step in.

And the comments always come — sooner or later.

"She still hasn't awakened."

"Imagine if she became a luna."

"She'd have to run twice as hard."

I'd smile. Always smile.

Because I learned that crying in public hurts worse.

There's a name that echoes through all of it.

A name woven into my story since childhood.

Kael Draven.

The alpha's son.

The future alpha.

My oldest mistake.

I fell for Kael back when I still believed kindness was something natural. We were kids and he held my hand — just once — pulling me close during a game. That was enough. I tucked his name somewhere no one else could reach.

Kael grew up.

And I learned that some men are only good when someone's watching.

Around the elders, he's polite, steady, respectful. The kind of leader who inspires trust.

Around his friends… around me… he's something else entirely.

"You'd never keep up on a hunt like that, Luara."

"Your wolf must be sleeping out of shame."

"I don't even know why you bother."

He'd laugh every time. Always laughing.

I never cried in front of him.

Not once.

At night, I'd talk to the moon. Not because I believed she answered, but because her silence hurt less than the voices here. I'd whisper, asking if my wolf existed. If she could hear me. If she was scared too.

Sometimes I thought maybe she was waiting for me to survive first.

At the academy, every day was a test I never signed up for.

Training sessions that left me behind.

Stares that measured me.

Laughter that trailed after me.

Lisa moved through the hallways like she owned everything. And maybe she did. She never had to fight for space. The world always cleared a path.

I watched. I stored it all away. I swallowed it down.

I'd come home with slumped shoulders and a tired heart. My mother always noticed. My father always pretended he didn't. They protected me the only way they could.

But love can't silence an entire pack.

Sometimes I'd stand in front of the mirror and try to see what they saw. Try to find something beyond the big body, beyond the missing wolf, beyond the label of failure.

And still, I kept showing up.

Kept waking up.

Kept going.

Kept existing.

Because deep down, something in me still held on.

Something that still believed the moon doesn't make mistakes.

That the goddess doesn't play games.

That every rose bleeds before it blooms.

And maybe — just maybe —

this pain was only the beginning.

***This work has been signed with NovelToon, and piracy such as reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited.***

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***