Chapter 5. I’m the Luna Now

Charlotte’s POV

It was her word against mine, no one bothered to listen to what I had to say.

Everyone judged me and rained curses on me.

“How could she be so desperate as to use devil’s dust and force him to mate with her?” they said without even giving me the chance to defend myself.

How could I purchase something so rare and expensive? No one has asked, the devil’s dust is a substance that fills with lust and erases all reason. Once consumed, sex is the only remedy. Kiana must have put it in my food, although I have no idea how she managed to get Adonis to dance to her tune, but even Adonis didn’t believe me.

According to him, he doesn’t remember meeting Kiana that day and the last thing he remembers is me calling out his name.

This whole situation served to paint me as a greedy and desperate woman who coveted the title of Luna and tell you what? It was working. The hate I received tripled and this time it was inevitable because Adonis had marked me as his so even if I tried to escape he would still find me unless I break our bond by rejecting him but as you already know I’m a weakling and can’t stand the pain.

It turned out that Adonis didn’t want me anymore, he treated me like everyone else did and avoided my path like a poisonous snake.

A week later and my ex-best friend was getting married to my mate. The pack house was filled with several people, all wearing happy expressions on their faces, except for me.

I laid curled up in the darkness, forced to listen to the cheers of the people outside.

All I ever wanted was to live a simple life, but what I didn’t know was that my path was cursed right from birth. Even the one person I had sworn had my back betrayed me, even my fated mate sided with my enemy. There was clearly no place for me here, but I was forced to stay to witness my own downfall.

My heart felt like it was being torn to pieces, I clutched my chest tightly as the pain consumed me, I fell into a deep sleep hoping to never wake up.

***

The cold sensation of water splashing across my face revived me.

I woke up to find Kiana frowning at me. “Didn’t you get enough sleep?” Her tone was hard to decipher, I could smell my mate on her and it broke me even more.

“You have the man now, Kiana. What else do you want?”

The harsh sound of her palm colliding with my face echoed through the room. “It’s Luna to you, girl.”

I wonder what happened to my best friend.

“I’ve known you for years, you don’t scare me, Kiana,” I said fearlessly, even though my cheek hurt from her previous slap.

“As punishment for talking back at me, you will have to clean up the pack house all by yourself.”

She placed one foot on my bed and leaned forward. “I once gave you the choice to reject him, and you proved to me that you were never my friend by choosing not to.”

I blinked in disbelief. “You and I both know that I have always been in poor health and rejecting him would have killed me.”

“And? What’s the problem, you can’t die for me? I remember saving your life once.”

She was right and yet she sounded so wrong. It was hard to believe that a girl I once thought was my best friend would view my life as insignificant because of a man.

She got up from the bed and said, “You brought this on yourself, now get moving, bitch.”

I swallowed hard and resigned myself to my fate. “Yes, Luna.”

I was in the living room cleaning the table when I smelled my mate. I turned around and met his gaze, but he quickly looked away and continued walking.

“Adonis.” My voice made him stop. He looked at me and I almost smiled in relief, he hasn’t looked at me in days.

“Won’t you at least hear me out?”

“What’s there to hear?” he asked. “You keep blaming Kiana for your wrongdoings and to think she’s your best friend.”

“But it’s true,” I defended myself, “Kiana is the one who—”

“Enough, Charlotte!” The harshness of his tone made me flinch. “It was Kiana who suggested I marry you as my second wife. She is also the reason why I haven’t rejected you yet,” he revealed.

I struggled to understand the reasons behind Kiana’s actions. Why would she suggest he marry me just to force me to sleep with him?

“She says you have a weak heart and could die from the pain.”

So she knew all this while yet…

“I gave you a chance when I asked you to be my second wife and you gave me your answer by luring me to bed with you.”

I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t true but good would that do, he wouldn’t believe me anyway.

“I’m keeping you here out of pity and also for Kiana’s sake, but I want you to know that there will never be anything between us again, you had your one night of fun and that’s all you’ll ever get. For your own sake, stay out of my way and sight. I can’t believe the Moon Goddess chose someone like you as my mate.”

That’s it, I’ve had enough. I don’t care if I die of pain, it’s better than staying here and being treated like shit for something I obviously didn’t do.

Mustering up every single bit of courage I had inside. “I, Charlotte Day, reject you, Adonis Rios, as my mate.”

Immediately I said that, a sudden pain pierced me like a sword and I fell to the ground with my hands on my chest and blood pouring from my mouth. The sky lit up like a fire fly and then went back to normal, what a spectacular.

Well, then I guess it’s goodbye.