The Luna You Betrayed Is No Longer Yours

_Author’s POV_

The night before the wedding, Rowena sat on the edge of Velvet’s bed.

It was late. The estate had finally gone quiet after hours of last-minute preparations, florists repositioning arrangements, caterers confirming menus, Elvira issuing corrections to people who hadn’t asked for her opinion. The hallways had settled into the particular stillness of a house that had exhausted itself getting ready for tomorrow.

Rowena had chosen to come to Velvet instead of summoning her.

Velvet was folding laundry that didn’t need folding, which was what she did when she was trying not to say something.

"You know you don’t have to come with me," Rowena said carefully, her beautiful eyes stable as she stared at Velvet.

Velvet’s hands slowed. "Sorry?"

"When I leave." Rowena kept her voice easy. "The Ashthorne estate is mine. There’s staff there already through the management company. I don’t need to bring anyone." She paused. "You’ve been in this household as long as I have. You have relationships here, routines. I’m not assuming you want to start over."

Velvet set the laundry down hurriedly and turned around.

"With respect, my Luna," she said, "that is the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said to me."

Rowena blinked in shock as she looked at her.

"I came into this household because of you," Velvet said. "My contract has always been tied to your accounts, not Moonreign’s, you made sure of that yourself two weeks ago." She crossed her arms.

"Where you go, I go. That’s not a discussion."

"I’m making it a discussion."

"And I’m ending it." Velvet picked the laundry back up. "I’m not staying in a house where Mrs. Park has decided she outranks me. I’d rather pack boxes."

Rowena was quiet for a moment. Then: "Grace?"

"Grace is coming too. She told me yesterday. She didn’t want to make a fuss about it."

Rowena looked at the window. Outside, the garden lights were still on, reflecting the wedding decorations in a soft light that made everything look more romantic than it deserved to.

"Alright," she said without arguing. There was no use since Velvet seemed to have made up her mind.

"Good." Velvet snapped a pillowcase straight. "Now go to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

It was.

The next morning, Grandmama Maelis appeared at Rowena’s door at exactly eight with Hannah behind her and the energy of a woman who had been up since six deciding things.

"The guests will start arriving at eleven," Maelis said. "I want you in the main reception hall to help welcome them."

Rowena, who was sitting at her vanity with her hair half-done, met Maelis’s eyes in the mirror. "You want me to greet wedding guests?" She couldn’t believe the audacity.

"You are still the Luna of this pack," Maelis said. "Until the dissolution is finalized, your presence is required at formal pack gatherings. This qualifies."

Velvet, standing behind Rowena with a hairpin between her teeth, made no sound. But her eyes said everything.

"Fine," Rowena said casually. There was no big deal, she would indulge in their madness for now. Soon, she’ll be gone.

She kept her makeup light. She wasn’t performing anything, she simply did what she always did, which was take care of herself with the same quiet attention she applied to everything else. Foundation, a little definition around the eyes, her lips in a shade one step warmer than natural. Her mother’s pearl earrings, because they were hers and she felt like wearing them.

She chose a dress the color of deep water, structured, and elegant, the kind of thing that didn’t need to try at all. It was just perfect.

Velvet finished her hair and stepped back to look at her.

"Oh," she said softly. Just that.

Rowena looked at herself in the mirror.

She looked, she thought, like herself. Which was the only thing she had ever been trying to look like.

Kaelen first saw her when she came down the stairs.

He was standing in the entrance hall with two pack elders, mid-sentence, and he stopped.

Not visibly. Not in a way that the elders would have noticed. But Virella, standing three feet to his left in her wedding dress, noticed. She tracked his gaze to the staircase and her expression did something brief and controlled before rearranging itself.

"Trying to compete?" Kaelen actually asked, when Rowena reached the bottom of the stairs. His voice was light, almost amused. The tone of a man covering something with a joke.

Rowena looked at him as if he was stupid. "I only just put on a dress, Kaelen. Don’t flatter yourself."

She moved past him into the reception hall.

The guests had begun to arrive, regional pack members, alliance families, older couples who had known the Varkos name for decades. They came in and saw Rowena standing near the entrance, composed and unhurried, and the reactions moved through the room in a quiet wave.

She heard the murmurs even before she fully reached them. And it was safe to say that Kyra loved the attention even more than Rowena.

That’s her? The Luna? Luna Rowena?

Three years she ran this pack.

And he brought another woman home.

What a waste. What an absolute waste.

Rowena smiled at each guest who approached her, answered questions politely, accepted condolences that were dressed as pleasantries with the same gracious calm she applied to everything.

Across the room, Kaelen watched her work the reception with the ease of someone who had been doing it for years, because she had, and felt something move through him that he couldn’t immediately name.

It sat between pride and regret and something sharper than both.

Virella appeared at his side and slipped her hand into his. He looked down at her, beautiful, bright-eyed, his choice.

He looked back across the room at Rowena.

She wasn’t looking at him. She was laughing at something an elder had said, genuine and unguarded, and the sound of it carried across the room in a way that made two nearby conversations pause.