The Luna Who Wasn't Chosen
Oladejo Khadijat Oyindamola · Ongoing · 39.6k Words
Introduction
In a world where fated mates are bound by blood, status, and prophecy, Thalia Ryker was nothing more than a nameless she-wolf in the shadows of the Moonridge Pack. No title. No lineage. No future. Until the night of the Blood Moon. One accidental mark from the Alpha changed everything—igniting a bond that should have made her Luna.
But instead of love, Thalia was met with betrayal, erased from her pack, framed for treason, and hunted by the very wolves she once called family.
But Thalia isn’t the girl they buried in the woods.She’s the secret daughter of a feared bloodline. The rightful heir to a power older than the packs themselves. And she’s done playing by their rules.
As war brews between the Syndicate and the Council, and a forbidden second bond begins to awaken within her, Thalia must decide: return to the wolf who rejected her... or rise alone and burn the world that tried to break her.
She wasn’t the Luna they chose. But she’s the one fate won’t let them forget.
Chapter 1
Thalia
The Moon Festival was never meant for girls like her.
Not for the healer’s apprentice. Not for the quiet one who stood at the edge of bonfires, pretending to smile while others danced under starlight and moonsilver. Not for the girl without a bloodline worth remembering.
And yet, there Thalia stood, dressed in borrowed silk that didn’t fit her right, with jasmine oil behind her ears and her heart pounding like it was trying to escape.
The music pulsed through the clearing, loud and wild, as pack wolves reveled in the promise of fated mates and Luna blessings. The moon was full and white as bone, it hung above, watching with ancient indifference.
She shouldn’t have come.
Her fingers twisted the edge of her shawl as she watched Cassian, Alpha of Moonridge, stalk through the crowd. He moved like a storm in a room full of candles, too dangerous, too magnetic.
He was smiling, barely. Tossing nods at warriors, stopping to greet the Elder Council, then continuing toward the ceremonial circle.
Thalia's stomach knotted. She turned to leave. She didn’t belong here.
A voice cut through the haze. “You smell like jasmine.”
She jumped, startled. Cassian stood before her, closer than he’d ever been. She blinked. “Alpha Cassian.”
His gaze was unreadable, a war between recognition and something deeper. “Thalia.”
A pause stretched between them like a string pulled taut.
He tilted his head. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I—I was invited. Nova insisted. Said everyone should come.”
A low growl rumbled in his chest. “Nova’s always been reckless.”
She shrank back, but something in his expression shifted. A flicker of something raw, almost panic. Then he stepped even closer, nostrils flaring.
“No,” he murmured. “No, this isn’t right…”
The drums behind them thundered louder, the rhythm matching her racing heart. And then...
Cassian grabbed her arm.
She gasped as warmth exploded under her skin, his hand searing against hers.
He inhaled sharply. “Fates, it’s you.”
Before she could ask what he meant, his eyes darkened. His wolf surged forward, and he bit her.
Not gently. Not ritually. Not in front of the Elders or with her consent.
Fangs pierced skin.
The world tilted.
The drums stopped.
And silence screamed.
---
Cassian
He’d marked the wrong girl.
Cassian staggered back, blood on his lips, horror tightening around his chest like a noose. Around them, the pack froze in stunned silence.
Elder Verin was the first to speak. “Alpha… What have you done?”
Cassian didn’t have an answer. One moment, he’d caught her scent, and everything in him had locked into place. Wolf instincts overrode thought, reason, tradition.
His mate. His true mate. The bond was undeniable.
Except… it wasn’t supposed to be her.
Not Thalia Ryker, the orphaned healer with no rank, no standing, no place beside an Alpha.
“I didn’t mean to,” he rasped. “It—it wasn’t planned.”
Elder Mora stepped forward, gentler but firm. “There is no undoing a mate mark, Cassian. You know that.”
Thalia clutched her arm, blood soaking through her sleeve, eyes wide with betrayal. “Why me?”
He reached for her, but she flinched. And that broke something in him.
“I didn’t want this,” she whispered.
Neither did he.
But his wolf had chosen. And now everything was unraveling.
---
Thalia
She ran.
Fled past bonfires and dancers and shocked faces. Past Nova’s outstretched hand, past the Elders calling for her to stop. Into the dark, into the trees.
The forest swallowed her.
Her lungs burned, tears hot and blinding. The bite throbbed at her neck and shoulder, pulsing with unfamiliar energy, like a thread tying her to him, tugging with every heartbeat.
She clawed at it, at her skin, at the invisible bond.
Cassian Blackthorn had marked her.
By mistake. In public. Without consent.
She didn’t want to be anyone’s Luna. Not like this.
The woods grew colder as she pushed deeper into them, branches whipping her face, roots trying to trip her. She didn’t stop. Couldn’t. Not until the festival and the pack and the mark were far behind.
She collapsed against an ancient tree, shaking.
And there, in the silence, the truth came like a cruel whisper: no one would believe this was an accident.
Not the Elders. Not the pack. Not Elira who was the Alpha’s intended Luna.
No one.
They’d say she planned it. Tricked him. Used magic or heat or scent.
Because girls like Thalia weren’t chosen by Alphas. They weren’t destined for anything but the background.
Her hands trembled as the mark on her shoulder glowed faintly in the moonlight.
“What have you done to me?” she whispered. To him. To herself. To the moon.
---
Cassian
The Elders demanded a closed council at dawn.
He didn’t sleep. Couldn’t.
Nova came by his chambers once, face pale. “You need to fix this. Now.”
But how?
He’d marked Thalia, and the bond was real. Faint, unstable, but unmistakable.
He felt her fear. Her pain. Her distance like a blade under his skin.
He wanted to say sorry. Wanted to explain.
But what words could fix this?
By morning, the damage was done.
Elira, his political match, chosen by the Council was already spinning the story.
“She seduced you,” she said coldly. “You’ve shamed your title. And her.”
“She did nothing wrong,” Cassian snapped.
“She exists,” Elira hissed. “And now the entire pack will suffer for it.”
---
Thalia
They came for her before sunrise.
Four guards. Silent. Grim.
She didn’t fight as they escorted her to the Council Hall. She barely felt her feet on the ground. Her body was lead and ash and betrayal.
The chamber was full. Elders, warriors, Crescent delegates. Cassian.
He didn’t look at her.
Elder Verin rose. “Thalia Ryker, you stand accused of unlawful bonding, intentional seduction, and destabilization of the Alpha line.”
She flinched. “What? That’s not...”
“Silence.”
Cassian finally stepped forward. His jaw was clenched, voice tight. “It was my mistake.”
Elder Verin scoffed. “Then rectify it. Reject her. Now.”
The room held its breath.
Cassian looked at her.
And said nothing.
The silence screamed louder than any rejection.
---
Thalia
They didn’t imprison her.
They exiled her.
Banished by sunrise. No goodbye. No voice of defense.
Nova wept when she hugged her.
Cassian didn’t come.
She walked out of Moonridge with nothing but a cloak, a satchel of dried herbs, and the ghost of a bond still thrumming faintly beneath her skin.
The forest awaited.
And somewhere in the distance, something else stirred, watching. Waiting.
Last Chapters
#38 Chapter 38– Wolves in the Fog
Last Updated: 1/28/2026#37 Chapter 37– Flame and Whisper
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#36 Chapter 36– The Turn of the Blade
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#35 Chapter 35– The Howl Before the Storm
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#34 Chapter 34– Truths That Bleed
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#33 Chapter 33– The Trial That Never Was
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#32 Chapter 32 – Ash in the Vaults
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#31 Chapter 31 – When Power Sleeps
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#30 Chapter 30 – Smoke in the Hollow
Last Updated: 1/23/2026#29 Chapter 29– Echoes of a Crownless Court
Last Updated: 1/23/2026
You Might Like 😍
A PRINCESS IN DISGUISE; BOUND TO THE ENEMY KING
I fell to my knees, the cold marble digging into my skin. I had studied for years in the flickering candlelight, memorizing every herb and poison to pass the healer's exam. I wanted freedom. I wanted to save my mother from the servant's quarters. I placed second. I thought I had won my life back.
But the King didn't give me a badge of honor. He gave me a death sentence.
"Raven Thorne shall be wed to the King of Grok," he announced, his voice echoing in the silent hall. Princess Ellie, the woman who had tormented me for years, slapped her hands over her mouth to hide her cruel laughter. She was supposed to marry the Beast. Now, I was the lamb being sent to the slaughter in her place.
They say King Liam drinks the blood of his enemies. They say he is more monster than man. And now, I have to walk into his bedroom, wearing the Princess's silk gown, and pray he doesn't tear me apart.
I looked at the King, tears streaming down my face. "I'll do it," I whispered, my voice trembling. "But my mother must be safe."
I sold my body and soul to a monster to save her. But when the carriage door opened and I finally looked into the Beast's golden eyes, I realized the terrifying truth...
He wasn't a stranger. He was the man I met in the woods.
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
First Taste in a Century
But Lysander’s arrival spells disaster. In a clumsy accident, he doesn't just ruin dinner; he obliterates her state-of-the-art scientific instruments. With her life’s work destroyed and her synthetic supply cut off, the scent of his living blood overwhelms her engineered senses. Forced to break a century-long abstinence, she takes what she needs, only to find herself addicted not just to his taste, but to the man himself.
Using the equipment as a flimsy excuse to lure him back, Vivienne battles a terrifying new obsession. She craves his body despite believing he’s taken, despising her own weakness. Meanwhile, Lysander’s initial terror curdles into a forbidden fascination. Can a relationship survive when one person feels everything, and the other only hungers?
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
The mafia princess return
Tango with the Alpha's Heart
“He met her at the Alpha training camp,” he said. “She is a perfect suitor for him. It snowed last night, indicating that his wolf is happy with his choice.”
My heart sank, and tears made their way down my cheeks.
Alexander took my innocence last night, and now he is taking that thing in his office as his Luna.
Emily became the laughingstock of the pack on her 18th birthday and never expected the Alpha's son to be her mate.
After a night of passionate love, Emily finds out that her mate has taken a chosen mate. Heartbroken and humiliated, she disappears from the pack.
Now, five years later, Emily is a respected high-ranking warrior in King Alpha’s army.
When her best friend invites her to a night of music and laughter, she never expects to run into her mate.
Will her mate figure out it is her?
Will he chase after her, and most of all, will Emily be able to keep her secrets safe?
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
King of the Underworld
However, one fateful day, the King of the Underworld appeared before me and rescued me from the clutches of the most powerful Mafia boss's son. With his deep blue eyes fixed on mine, he spoke softly: "Sephie... short for Persephone... Queen of the Underworld. At last, I have found you." Confused by his words, I stammered out a question, “P..pardon? What does that mean?”
But he simply smiled at me and brushed my hair away from my face with gentle fingers: "You are safe now.”
Sephie, named for the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, she's quickly finding out how she's destined to fulfill her namesake's role. Adrik is the King of the Underworld, the boss of all bosses in the city he runs.
She was a seemingly normal girl, with a normal job until it all changed one night when he walked through the front door and her life changed abruptly. Now, she finds herself on the wrong side of powerful men, but under the protection of the most powerful among them.
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
The Dark Witch & The Alpha Book 2
The vampire queen (Ambrosia) and Pythia will become close and discover the true origins of their pasts. They rely on each other when their mates are not around. New family is discovered and it is time they all come together to face one of the toughest moments in the dark witches history.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
Tempted By The Enemy
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
