The Alpha’S Rejected Luna

ARIA’S POV

“Sometimes I wish we’d never opened the door on that night.”

My mother’s words were sharper than any slap. I froze where I stood, halfway in the kitchen doorway. She didn’t whisper . She said it loud enough for the whole house to hear , and for Lila to hear.

Lila’s lips curled into a smile as always , her perfect blonde hair catching the light . “You mean the night of the heavy storm right ?” she asked, tilting her head to a side. She already knew the answer to that but asking would have mother remind me of my place.

“Yes,” Mother said, her voice clipped, tired, and cruel. “The night she was left on our porch . We should have let the rain take her. Or better still let someone else claim her. She was never meant for us. I took her in out of pity but sometimes I regret my decision.”

I bit my tongue so hard I could taste blood.

They didn’t say Aria. They didn’t say my name.

Just her.

A shadow in my own home. Or house because this never felt like a home. Never for once did i feel the safety and love that  I should in a home.

The plate in my hand slipped, shattering on the floor. My mother’s glare cut into me. “Careless, as always.Stupid girl”

Behind her, Lila smirked. She smirked because she knew. Because she was the real daughter. The golden one. 

I wasn’t. I never was.

Lila was always the treasured one. Although a couple months younger because mother was pregnant for her when they found me on the porch. 

They only kept me for luck probably fearing if they left me out something bad could happen to her . 

They never failed to remind me of how unwanted I was, a nuisance in their home and how I would remain one.

In three days, I would turn twenty. Twenty years since the storm had left me on that porch. Twenty years of living under this roof as nothing more than a burden. Twenty years of being the outsider, the Porch Girl.

Later, while Lila sat preening in front of her vanity, I lingered in her doorway, leaning against the frame. She didn’t invite me in, but she didn’t chase me away either. She loved having an audience.

“You know Daniel is coming later,” she said casually, running her fingers through her hair. Her tone was light, but her eyes found mine in the mirror, sharp with warning. “Don’t wear that red dress you love. It doesn’t suit you anyway. Besides…” Her smile widened. “Daniel might think you’re trying to catch his attention.”

I swallowed hard, my throat tight.

Daniel. My Daniel. My childhood crush, the boy I had once thought looked at me differently, the boy who smiled when I stumbled and made me feel seen , who picked me up when others mocked me. The boy I had built daydreams around.

Those were good times. I was grateful for his care and affection and stupidly thought it could be more.

But he hadn’t chosen me. He had chosen her.

He always would.

“I wasn’t going to,” I muttered.

“Good.” She turned back to her reflection. “I’d hate for you to embarrass yourself. Everyone knows Daniel’s mine.”

Mine. The word stung rather sharply.

Lila got everything. Every toy, every dress, every scrap of affection. If I were ever given something, a doll, a book, a dress bought on discount, even Christmas gifts from neighbors she would find a way to take it and mother would let her, smiling as if it was right.

Even the pearl hairpin that once was mine, one of the only gifts I had ever received on my birthday from an old lady I helped mow her lawn every two weeks , now glittered in her blonde hair.

“Doesn’t it look perfect?” she asked once when I confronted her. “It was just wasted on you.”

And I had said nothing. Because what was the point?

At school, it was no different.

“Porch Girl.”

That was the only name I ever seemed to have. Porch Girl. They whispered it when they thought I couldn’t hear. Sometimes they laughed right in my face. Other times… it was worse. That look of pity in their eyes, like I was something broken they didn’t know how to fix.

“She’s not my sister,” Lila had told them once, her voice was casual  “My parents just took her in because they felt sorry for her and so now… we’re stuck with her.”

The words had spread far and wide, The whole school couldn’t stop talking about it for months . From then on, it wasn’t just my family who reminded me of how unwanted I was,It was the whole school.

The Porch Girl, The stray, The mistake.

Even now, years later, people still glance at me with both pity and disdain. Although I had vowed to pretend I didn’t care, it hurt still.

That night, when the house finally fell silent, I went downstairs, tiptoeing  through the hall, past my parents room , past Lila’s room where I could hear giggling , until I reached the front door.

When I opened it ,the porch greeted me with cool air and soft sounds of crickets.

I shut it behind me gently,avoiding a particular headboard that seemed to always creak stepped out into the night. The air was really cool, the weather was quite friendly and comforting. Above me, the moon hung large and glowing, spilling silver light across the empty yard.

I tilted my head back, staring at the moon as I always did and never once has it failed to calm the storm rising within me.

I’d lost count of how many nights I’d done this ? How many nights I had stood on this porch, staring at the moon, saying the same silent prayer?

Please, Someone, Anyone. Come for me.

I never said it aloud. My lips barely moved. But the plea was there, carved into my heart.

The storm had left me here twenty years ago. And somehow, part of me still believed that someone would come back. That there was a reason I’d been abandoned. That maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t meant to rot in the shadow of Lila forever.

But no one ever came for me. 

I wrapped my arms around myself, my dark hair spilling across my face. That was another difference between us. Lila’s hair was golden, radiant. Mine was dark, heavy. Even our appearances separated us into two different worlds: the golden daughter and the forgotten stray.

And I hated myself for it.

I thought of the whispers at school. The laughter. The way Daniel’s eyes always found Lila now, never me. I thought of the way my mother looked at me with disgust and never love.

Every reminder of who I was. Every reminder of what I wasn’t.

I pressed my forehead against the porch post, closing my eyes.

The storm might have ended twenty years ago. But inside me, it had never stopped. The rain still beat against my ribs. The thunder still echoed in my chest, reminding me that I was nothing more than the Porch Girl.

And as the moonlight poured over me, I whispered the words that had haunted me my entire life.

“Why me?”

The night did not answer.

But somewhere deep inside, I thought I heard it. A voice softer than the wind,a low whisper.

You are meant for greater things.

I opened my eyes, heart pounding. But the porch was empty, and so was the  yard . Only the moon watched me.

Yet the whisper lingered.

A soft promise.

A beginning of something I couldn’t describe.

ARIA’S POV

“Lila, sweetheart, be more careful with your dress. Don’t stress yourself, you really could get stained.”

Mother’s voice floated across the room like honey, sweet and soft, only for the golden child of the family.

I stood bent over the floor, scrubbing at a stubborn stain that had been there since last week, the water from the bucket kept stinging my knuckles.

“Aria, put your back into it,” Father snapped from his chair. He didn’t even look up from his newspaper. “You’re always so slow. Are you a snail?”

Lila let out a laugh, light and delicate. “Maybe scrubbing floors just isn’t her forte .” She flicked a strand of her golden hair over her shoulder, flashing me that perfect smile that charmed teachers and friends alike.

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted iron.

Invisible. That was what I was. Not even worth a name at times. Just the other one.

When the stain refused to lift, I pressed harder, my knuckles scraping against the w