She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 05

She Rejected the Alpha and Became Her Own Moon Chapter 05

The moment my words landed, the Alpha’s face. 

twisted in pain, and he slowly clutched his chest 

and buckled to one knee on the ground. 

I startled back a step, but he caught my hand at 

once. 

His voice shook, and without meaning to, he let 

the weight of an Alpha command bleed into it. 

“Take it back. Now!” 

The pressure of it pinned me in place so I couldn’t 

move. 

He seemed to recover as well, and he stood and 

pulled me into his arms. 

“Don’t do this, and don’t ever say that again. For a 

second there I thought it would kill me.” 

The feelings I had left called out to me. 

Against my own will, I wanted to hold him back. 

He might not be mine as a fated mate, but the 

Moon Goddess had recognized me as his second mate and granted us a sacred, unbreakable bond. 

He coaxed me in a flustered voice. “As long as it 

doesn’t get in the way of her treatment, I’ll agree to 

any terms you want.” 

It was the final blow. 

I drew my hand back. 

Even when he was making me a promise, he put 

Iris first. 

I’d already gone numb, and I tugged the corner of 

my mouth into a smile. “I don’t want anything.” 

What I wanted was my freedom. 

From here on, I would run my own life, and no one 

would push me around. 

None of it had anything to do with him anymore. 

I didn’t need him to hand me my freedom as 

charity. 

He looked like he still wanted to say something, 

but the announcement started calling West Coast 

passengers to board. 

Iris waved and called to him from a short way off, 

and he answered her without hesitation. 

Before he went, though, he squeezed my hand one 

more time. “Once your sister’s better, we’ll sit 

down and talk this through properly.” 

I pulled my hand free and said nothing. 

There had been nothing left to talk through 

between us for a long time. 

By the time his back disappeared for good at the 

far end of the gate, my delayed flight had finally 

started boarding. 

We each turned away, and from that day on, we 

never had to meet again. 

***** 

The plane cut through the thick clouds and 

touched down at the airport in Florida, a fine 

drizzle drifting past the window. 

I stepped out of the terminal with my single 

carry–on, and a warm, damp breeze rolled over me, 

thick with the scent of fresh greenery, rich earth, 

and the faint trace of gardenias drifting from 

somewhere far away. 

It was nothing like the dry, biting, pine–scented 

wind back north. 

I drew a deep breath, and for the first time in what 

felt like forever, the tight knot in my chest 

loosened just a little. 

I hadn’t told anyone where I was going. 

Before boarding, I’d switched to a new phone. 

number and deleted every contact connected to 

the Pack, my family, and Ethan from my social 

accounts. 

For the first eighteen years of my life, I’d lived in 

Iris’s shadow. 

I wore her hand–me–downs, listened to my parents tell me over and over that I should be more like Iris, 

and gave up the things I loved because Iris always 

got them first. 

The next five years were spent trapped in the Pack 

apartments, with my entire world revolving around. 

Ethan. 

His preferences became the rules I lived by, and 

“Luna” became the only identity I had left. 

This time, I only wanted to be Aurora. 

Just Aurora Hart. 

Before coming here, I’d searched online for places. 

to rent. 

After an hour–long train ride into the old district, I 

found a small ground–floor house tucked away on 

a quiet street in the heart of St. Augustine’s 

historic neighborhood. 

The house was old, with white walls stained by 

creeping moss. 

The front door opened onto a tiny yard where a 

cluster of hydrangeas the previous tenant had planted still drooped quietly in one corner. 

My landlady was a kind elderly woman. 

When she saw me arrive alone with nothing but a 

suitcase, she lowered the rent by two hundred 

dollars without hesitation and even left me a 

basket of oranges picked from her own backyard.