Wonderful Luna

6

Elise’s POV

It was unbelievable that she was there, standing at the entrance of my house, waiting for me.

Where had she been when I was chasing the Rogue King?

Only now did she show up again—and in the worst possible circumstances.

“Leave me alone, Morgana,” I said while debating how I was going to get up the stairs to the front door without a ramp. Though honestly, that was the least of my problems.

Morgana stepped closer, her demeanor making it clear nothing good could come of this.

“I heard that Lucian rejected you,” she said with smugness, her voice laced with pride and barely concealed satisfaction.

“That’s the least of my concerns right now,” I replied, trying to sound indifferent to the truth that had been gnawing at my heart all day.

“Really? You know, I don’t believe you. But don’t worry, I’m here to help you.”

“I said leave me alone, Morgana. You’d better go.”

“And what if I don’t, Elise?” she responded, her voice not just defiant but threatening. “You’re nothing in this pack now, nothing but a cripple. Or haven’t you figured that out yet? Besides, I’m just here to help you.”

Before I could stop her, Morgana grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and started pushing it toward the stairs that led to the front door.

“Stop it, I can do it myself,” I protested, but it was useless. Morgana kept pushing.

I tried to stop her, but my arms were too tired from the effort I’d put in that day, overworking them far beyond what they were used to. Morgana, on the other hand, was a warrior—one of the strongest in the pack. There was nothing I could do to stop her. With strength and skill, she managed to haul the wheelchair up the steps to the front door.

“I warned you, Elise,” Morgana whispered into my ear when we reached the top. “Things can change in an instant, and for you, they have. Permanently.”

Before I could respond, Morgana lifted the wheelchair higher than was safe. Like it was nothing more than a wheelbarrow and I was a sack of sand, she tipped it over and sent me tumbling down the stairs. I tried to hold on to the arms of the chair, but Morgana shook it violently, and I rolled down the steps.

It was a hard fall.

I hit my head, my hands, my torso, and even my legs. My leggings tore at the knees, and the skin there didn’t fare much better.

I tried to get up, but Morgana reached me before I could push myself up with my arms. She pressed her knee against my chest, pinning me back to the ground.

“You’re nothing, Elise. Nothing. Soon Lucian will ask me to be his Luna, and then I’ll fulfill my promise: I’ll order them to kill you.”

I was too bruised, too humiliated, too vulnerable to do or say anything to stop Morgana at that moment. For the first time in all our confrontations, I said nothing. I just waited for her to leave.

Several minutes passed after she was gone, and I stayed there, lying on my back, staring at the sky, wondering if she was right.

I wasn’t anything or anyone in the pack anymore. Just a cripple. A burden. A dead weight that would soon start to weigh on my brother, on Riley, on Lena.

Finally, I got up, the cool afternoon air seeping into my still-aching skin.

The scrapes and bruises covering my body were superficial compared to the open wounds I carried inside.

Now I wasn’t just a cripple—I was a rejected cripple in a world where strength, courage, and reputation determined your worth.

How was I supposed to survive in a place like this?

It wasn’t just about my inability to use my legs anymore. Morgana would ensure my life was a nightmare until the day Lucian chose her as his mate, as everything seemed to indicate he would. Once she had the security she needed, she would kill me, because as long as I was alive, I would always be a threat to her position.

I dragged myself into the house. The wheelchair was lying at the foot of the stairs, so at least I didn’t have to bring it up. I wouldn’t have known how to anyway. I sat down and opened the door, only to face the next challenge: the house I’d lived in my entire life wasn’t designed for someone who couldn’t walk.

Why would it be?

You don’t realize how inconvenient stairs are—meant to be shortcuts to other levels—until you can no longer use your legs.

Why?

Why the hell did this have to happen to me?

A week ago, everything was perfect. I was going to marry Lucian, I was the leader of the pack’s female warriors, and we were on the verge of avenging our parents. Now all of that had evaporated because of a simple piece of metal lodged in my spine.

Should I risk asking the surgeon to remove it?

Sitting there in front of the stairs—an insurmountable wall preventing me from doing something as simple as going to my room—a 98% chance of quadriplegia didn’t seem so different from my current situation. And there was still that 2% chance of getting my old life back.

Full of anger and pain, I stayed there in front of the stairs, crying for an indefinite amount of time, until the doorbell rang.

It had to be Riley and Lena, who’d promised to stop by after their guard shift.

Was it that late already?

I rolled my wheelchair to the door, but it was the scent that revealed who it was.

It couldn’t be!

“Eli? I’m going to open the door, okay?”

It was my brother’s voice. He wasn’t alone—there was someone else with him. A third person who couldn’t be anyone other than Morgana.

Connor had a key to the house, and he used it when he realized I wasn’t going to open the door.

The three of them entered like the gust of a storm, scattering the puzzle I’d been trying to piece together—one that was missing its final piece.

“Eli, by the Goddess, what happened to you?” Connor exclaimed when he saw me. I noticed Lucian’s genuine concern as his eyes scanned me, and Morgana’s fake, hypocritical expression as she pretended to care.

“Training was a bit rough today,” I said without much energy.

Morgana stepped closer as if she hadn’t seen me earlier that day.

“I can’t believe it, Eli. How could you even think of training today, in your condition? Lucian, you should speak with the trainers at the center. How could they have allowed this?”

Morgana was one of the few people in the pack who could address Lucian by name and dare to suggest what he should do.

Lucian’s expression was filled with genuine horror. He was truly worried about how I looked. Even though he had rejected me, the mate bond was too strong for mere words to break it. Although he would never take me as his partner again, he would always care about me—my pain would always be his pain.

That’s why Morgana had to get rid of me.

“I’m taking you back to the hospital, right now!” Lucian growled as he reached out, his arms extending to lift me.

Even though I didn’t want him to touch me, I couldn’t help but enjoy the look on Morgana’s face when she saw how genuinely concerned Lucian was about me.

“Let go of me!” I growled back with all the strength I had left. “You and I are nothing now, and I don’t want to go back to the hospital. All I want is to go to my room.”

My eyes turned to Connor, and Lucian shot him a glare, as if my brother were depriving him of the greatest honor.

“I’ll take you,” Connor said. “And tomorrow I’ll order renovations to the house to begin immediately.”

I had fought enough that day and still needed to conserve my energy for the difficult days, weeks, and months ahead. I swallowed my pride and let my brother carry me.

“Lucian is thinking of taking Morgana as his mate,” Connor said after laying me on the bed and heading to the bathroom for some ointment and bandages.

“I already suspected that,” I replied, trying to sound indifferent. “She’s always dreamed of being the pack’s Luna. But when she received her wolf and wasn’t Lucian’s mate…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

Connor returned with painkillers and the bandages he would use to treat my wounds.

“I wanted you to know now, Eli, to spare you any unpleasant surprises.”

Spare me unpleasant surprises?

Was there anything left that could still surprise me unpleasantly?

“Is he going to make it official, like he did with the rejection?” I asked, wincing as the ointment stung my skin.

“Not yet. He wants to speak with you first. That’s why he came, and also because I had to promise him that you were fine and had left the hospital on your own. But after seeing the state you were in when we found you, I know he’s going to scold me for letting you go.”

“I’m not his property anymore. I’m not even his mate. He’s the one who rejected me,” I snapped, my voice dripping with anger. “I could leave whenever I wanted and go wherever I pleased.”

Connor’s lips twitched, and even though he tried to hide it, I saw it. He wasn’t convinced by what I had just said.

The awkward silence between us was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

Someone else had arrived.