Chapter 2: A cold home

The first morning in Moonstone Pack was colder than the cabin I had left behind.

The chamber they gave me was large, with walls of stone and tall windows covered in heavy curtains. A grand bed stood in the center, draped with silver furs. It should have felt like luxury. But to me, it felt like a stranger’s cage.

The silence pressed against my chest. I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, listening for footsteps that never came. Kael had not returned after the feast. He hadn’t even shown me to the room. One of the servants had led me here, bowed stiffly, and left without a word.

No warmth. No welcome.

I rose from the bed and went to the mirror.

The girl who stared back looked lost. My dark hair was tangled from sleep. My eyes were red from holding back tears. My skin was pale against the silver gown I had been forced to wear the night before.

A Luna. That’s what they called me now. But I didn’t feel like one. I felt like a trespasser.

The hallways of Moonstone were long and echoing. Servants moved quickly, their heads bowed, their eyes sliding past me as though I were a ghost.

When I entered the dining hall, voices hushed.

Wolves sat at the long tables, eating breakfast. They glanced at me, then whispered behind their hands. Some didn’t bother hiding their smirks.

“She’s too weak.”

“Did you see her hands? No scars, no strength.”

“Kael deserves better.”

I walked past them, trying to hold my head high, though my cheeks burned.

At the far end of the table sat Kael. He was dressed in dark leathers, his hair slightly damp as if he had already trained before dawn. His plate was full, but his eyes were on reports laid across the table.

He didn’t look up when I sat beside him.

“Good morning,” I whispered.

No answer.

I tried again. “Did you sleep well?”

Still nothing.

The silence stretched until my chest ached. I stared at my food but could not eat. Each bite felt heavy in my throat.

At last, he rose, gathering his papers. His chair scraped against the floor.

“I have training,” he said, his voice curt. “Stay out of the warriors’ way.”

Then he was gone.

I sat there, surrounded by eyes that pierced me like knives. And for the first time, I wondered if dying alone in my cabin would have been easier than living as Moonstone’s Luna.

By midday, I escaped to the gardens.

They were the only place that felt alive here. Rows of roses, ivy curling along stone walls, fountains trickling softly. The air was fresher, the whispers of the pack fainter.

I sank onto a bench, breathing in the scent of flowers, trying to calm the storm inside me.

That was when I heard a familiar voice.

“Fianna?”

I turned.

Lyall.

Her face broke into a smile as she hurried toward me. She was dressed in pale green, her long dark braid swinging over her shoulder. Her eyes sparkled the way they always had when we were young.

I rose to my feet, shock rushing through me. “Lyall? What are you doing here?”

She laughed softly, hugging me tight. Her embrace was warm, familiar, and for the first time since stepping into Moonstone, I felt like I wasn’t drowning.

“I couldn’t believe it when I heard,” she said, pulling back to study me. “Fianna, married to Alpha Kael? The pack is still buzzing. I had to come see for myself.”

I blinked. “You’re… part of Moonstone now?”

She tilted her head. “In a way. I’ve been visiting for months. My uncle does trade with Kael’s council, so I help with the records sometimes. You know me—I always find a way to sneak into places I don’t belong.”

I smiled weakly. “That hasn’t changed.”

Her expression softened. “You look pale. Are they treating you badly?”

The words almost cracked me open. I wanted to pour out everything—the whispers, the coldness, Kael’s distance. But instead, I shook my head.

“I’ll manage,” I whispered.

She touched my hand gently. “You don’t have to manage alone. You still have me.”

The warmth in her words steadied me. Lyall had always been there, even when the rest of the world turned its back. Perhaps fate had not left me completely helpless.

Days turned into weeks.

I tried to fit into the rhythm of Moonstone Pack, but it was like wearing clothes that didn’t belong to me. Too tight. Too heavy.

The wolves trained at dawn, their roars shaking the ground. I watched from the edges, ignored or dismissed when I offered help. In the council meetings, I sat silently beside Kael, my presence barely acknowledged.

The pack called me Luna, but it was only a title. A hollow word.

Only Lyall spoke to me with kindness. She visited often, bringing food to my chambers, walking with me in the gardens, making me laugh with old stories. With her, I almost felt human again.

But Kael…

Kael was a wall I could not climb.

He ate quickly, spoke rarely, and vanished into training or council work before I could find the courage to ask him anything. When he did look at me, his eyes were cool, detached, as though I were a duty he had been forced to carry.

And yet… sometimes, when he thought I wasn’t looking, I caught something in his gaze. A flicker of something raw. Pain, maybe. Or guilt.

It vanished each time before I could name it.

One night, restless, I wandered the hallways.

The moonlight streamed through tall windows, silvering the floors. My footsteps echoed softly as I moved toward the council chamber.

I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. But when I heard Kael’s voice, low and sharp, I froze.

He was inside with Ryn, his beta.

“She’s too weak,” Kael was saying. His tone cut me like glass. “The pack doesn’t respect her. They never will.”

My heart thudded painfully.

Ryn’s reply was quieter. “She’s trying, Kael. Give her time.”

“No,” Kael snapped. “She’ll never be Luna in truth. This marriage is a shield, nothing more. I won’t let her become a weakness.”

The words struck harder than claws.

I stumbled back from the door, my breath shaking, my hands trembling. My chest felt hollow, as if the air had been stolen from me.

Weak.

A shield.

Nothing more.

The whispers of the pack had been cruel, but hearing it from him—the man bound to me by blood, was worse than any w

ound.

Tears burned my eyes, but I swallowed them back.

Because now I knew.

Kael didn’t just see me as weak. He saw me as nothing.