Chapter 2 The Fake Luna

Astoria POV

The slap came so fast I barely saw it. A sharp crack echoed through the training grounds, and my head snapped to the side.

Pain bloomed across my cheek, hot, and stinging, but I refused to give them the satisfaction of reacting.

Like I always did I remained firm, cold, and didn’t waver on her hit.

“Look at you,” Amelia sneered, standing before me in all her perfect, golden-haired glory.

“A pathetic little hybrid who doesn’t even have the power of the Vallesteria bloodline.” She openly mocked me, laughter dancing in her voice, while her friends stood beside her, watching me being beaten, as their lips plastered with amused smirks.

“You don’t belong here.” She added, a low growl lacing her voice.

Slowly, I turned my head to face her. However, before I could fully meet her gaze, she struck me again. My head snapped to the side from the force of the impact.

Laughter erupted from her friends.

I bit my lower lip, trying to endure more. The cut on my lips throbbed and a metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.

“You should have been cast out years ago,” Rosalia, the Beta’s daughter, added with a smirk.

“She’s nothing but a disgrace,” Cassandra, the Delta’s heir, barges in, crossing her arms. “Why do you even bother staying here? No wolf, no magic, what are you really?”

I had no answer.

Because I didn’t know.

I had been born with the blood of Alpha Alaric running through my veins, yet I had never shifted.

My mother’s magic, the power that should have passed to me, was nothing but a silent curse that haunts me.

My body carried both legacies, yet neither accepted me.

“You’re weak, Astoria,” Amelia continued, her voice laced with disgust. “A mongrel trying to play at being one of us. The sooner you realize your place, the better.”

I clenched my fists. I had spent my entire life trying to prove myself, trying to carve a space in a pack that never wanted me.

But no matter how hard I trained and no matter how much I endured, it was never enough.

I met Amelia’s gaze, the same piercing blue as our father. “I may not have the power,” I said quietly, “But at least I am not a coward hiding behind a title.”

The moment the words left my lips, I knew I had made a mistake.

Because Amelia’s eyes darkened, her nostrils flaring which indicates she was utterly annoyed by what I have said.

Before I could move, her nails slashed across my arm, tearing through skin.

Pain burned through me, but I bit down on my lower lips, refusing to cry out.

“You will regret that,” she whispered angrily.

Rosalia and Cassandra laughed, as if they found it amusing that I was being hit. They are damn well aware that I couldn't heal myself.

As I tried to stand on my ground, their laughter echoed with mockery and their eyes glinted with cruel amusement when Amelia hit me again, and this time. It was my biceps who got torn by her long nails.

I held Amelia’s gaze, even as my blood dripped onto the dirt beneath me. My wounds ached, and my pride tattered, but something in me had already been wishing to escape in this place.

I didn’t want to be here, but my Alpha father forced me into imprisonment within this place.

He blindly believed in the oracle’s prophecy. That one day, I would become a powerful Luna.

A daughter who possessed both the power of the werewolf and a witch. A hybrid that is capable of starting a war or bringing peace to the packs.

A force that could shape the future, for better or worse.

However, things changed when I turned 19 and still hadn't manifested any of the powers from my parents.

The hope my father had placed in the prophecy began to fade, replaced by doubt and frustration.

My world truly began to crumble when I turn at the age of 21. Another prophecy came. It foretold a fake Luna in our pack, a hybrid who would bring destruction.

And so, my father, consumed by frustration and madness, turned all his anger towards me. He blamed me for every misfortune that befell our pack.

And he began to turn a blind eye to the cruelty I endured. The taunts, the beatings, and the isolation I received from my older sister.

And soon, the entire pack followed her lead, branding me as the cursed Luna.

“You should have never been born,” Amelia spat. “A useless mutt like you will only bring destruction to the entire pack.”

Before I could utter a word, her fist slammed into my ribs, a sharp burst of pain ran through my body.

I groaned as I collapsed onto the ground, instinctively I curled myself in a desperate attempt to shield myself against the blows.

But she didn’t stop.

A harsh kick landed against my side, forcing the air from my lungs in a ragged gasp.

“Do you still truly believe that you are the true Luna of the Vallesteria? What a fucking joke.”

Amelia laughed, dripping with ridicule.

“Maybe she was still delusional,” Rosalia added from somewhere above me. “A half-witch, half-wolf. No magic, no wolf. No use to anyone. The only real Luna of the Vallesteria bloodline is Amelia, the legitimate daughter of Alpha Alaric.”

Cassandra scoffed. “Oh, please. She’s nothing more than a stain on our pack. How can you compare her to our dearest Amelia?”

Laughter followed, a disgusting mocking laugh echoes in my ear.

“A fake Luna like you should be burned to death,” Amelia added with a grunt.

Then she kicked me again.

I felt my skin bruise, the pain radiating through me like fire. Stinging in my flesh with pain.

My fingers dug into the dirt beneath me, but I didn't move.

This wasn’t new, this was a normal routine that I always endured.

They wanted me to cry, to beg, but I wouldn't give them that kind of satisfaction.

I let the blows come, absorbing all the hits they gave.

My body ached yet somehow I was reluctant to leave this place.

I had thought about running away, I had dreamed about it. A hundred and thousand times.

But I never did.

Because as much as I suffered in their hands, as much as I was beaten and hated, and treated like an abomination, I was still safe here.

Because I knew that once I left this place, there was only one fate waiting for me…

Death.

Either I would be slaughtered by rival packs or fall into the hands of hunters who despised our kind with unwavering hatred.

And so I stayed and endured everything.