THE ALPHA’S SECRET BABY

LUNA

I woke up before the alarm.

That never happened.

I stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, wondering what had pulled me out of sleep. The house was quiet. Even the old wooden floor outside my bedroom had stopped creaking.

Then I felt it.

A strange pressure settled in my chest.

Not pain.

Something deeper.

Something alive.

I sat up slowly.

My wolf.

She had been restless all week, but this was different. Usually, she was a faint presence in the back of my mind, quiet and easy to ignore.

Tonight, she was awake.

Completely awake.

Luna.

Her voice brushed against my thoughts.

I froze.

She had never spoken to me clearly before.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

Tonight.

I frowned.

“Tonight what?”

She didn’t answer.

I pushed the blanket away and stood. My legs felt strangely light as I crossed the room toward the mirror.

Eighteen.

I stared at my reflection.

There was nothing special about me.

Brown hair that never seemed to stay neat no matter how much time I spent brushing it. A small nose. Ordinary brown eyes. A face people rarely noticed unless they were looking for someone else.

I looked exactly like the girl everyone expected me to be.

Invisible.

I touched the necklace around my neck.

It had belonged to my mother.

She had died when I was young, leaving me with very few things that were truly mine.

I missed her most on days like this.

I wondered what she would have said if she were here.

Maybe she would have smiled and told me eighteen wasn’t as frightening as it sounded.

Maybe she would have hugged me.

Instead, I had Maya.

“Luna!”

I jumped.

Maya’s voice came from downstairs.

“You’re going to make everyone wait!”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’m coming!”

I grabbed the blue dress I’d laid across my chair the night before.

It wasn’t expensive, but I liked it. The fabric was soft, and the color brought out my eyes.

I changed quickly and pulled my hair into a loose ponytail.

When I opened my bedroom door, Maya was standing in the hallway.

She looked me over.

Her gaze stopped at my dress.

“You’re wearing that?”

I looked down.

“Yes.”

She sighed dramatically.

“It’s your eighteenth birthday, Luna. You could at least try to look pretty.”

My fingers tightened around the necklace.

“I like it.”

“Of course you do.”

She walked past me.

Maya never needed to raise her voice to make me feel small.

She had always been beautiful.

Long dark hair. Perfect features. The kind of confidence that made people turn their heads when she entered a room.

And she knew it.

I followed her downstairs without saying anything.

The smell of food filled the house.

Someone had decorated the living room with silver balloons and ribbons. A few pack members were already there, talking and laughing.

I smiled politely as I entered.

“Happy birthday, Luna.”

“Thank you.”

“Eighteen already.”

“Thank you.”

The same words over and over.

I tried to enjoy it.

I really did.

But that strange feeling inside me wouldn’t go away.

My wolf was pacing.

Something is coming.

I swallowed.

“What is it?” I whispered.

Maya glanced at me.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes but didn’t ask again.

Then the room suddenly became quiet.

Not completely.

But enough for me to notice.

People had turned toward the entrance.

I followed their gaze.

And everything inside me stopped.

Adrian had arrived.

The Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack.

I’d seen him before, of course.

Everyone had.

But seeing him from a distance was different from standing in the same room with him.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed simply in black.

He didn’t need anything else.

People moved aside when he walked.

Not because he asked them to.

Because they knew better.

His eyes swept across the room.

Then they found mine.

The strange pressure in my chest became unbearable.

My wolf went completely silent.

For one terrifying second, I couldn’t breathe.

Adrian stopped.

His expression changed.

Barely.

A slight tightening around his eyes.

A pause.

Then he looked away.

I stared at him.

Why did he look at me like that?

And why did my body suddenly feel like it had recognized something my mind couldn’t understand?

Mate.

The word appeared inside my head.

I nearly dropped my glass.

“What?”

My wolf repeated it.

Mate.

No.

That wasn’t possible.

I looked at Adrian again.

He was speaking to one of the elders now, but his attention wasn’t really on the conversation.

Because every few seconds, his eyes returned to me.

My hands started shaking.

My eighteenth birthday.

My wolf awakening.

The strange pull.

The way Adrian was looking at me.

It all suddenly made sense.

He was my mate.

The realization should have made me happy.

Instead, fear crept into my stomach.

Because there was one problem.

Adrian was the Alpha.

And I was Luna.

Not the Luna of the pack.

Just Luna.

The quiet girl everyone overlooked.

The girl who had spent most of her life being compared to Maya.

There was no way someone like Adrian would choose someone like me.

Still, a tiny part of me hoped.

Maybe the stories were true.

Maybe mates really were meant to find each other.

Maybe tonight would change everything.

Adrian looked at me again.

This time, our eyes met for longer.

His jaw tightened.

Then he walked toward me.

My heart sank.

Or maybe it lifted.

I couldn’t tell.

He stopped a few feet away.

The room had gone completely silent.

Everyone was watching.

Adrian looked at me.

“Luna.”

My name sounded different coming from him.

I swallowed.

“Yes?”

He stared at me for a long moment.

Then his face hardened.

And I realized something was terribly wrong.

LUNA

“Because you’ll never be my Luna.”

His words landed harder than I expected.

For a moment, I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t even think.

The room around me seemed to disappear. The voices, the music, the clinking of glasses—everything became distant.

All I could hear was the faint whimper of my wolf.

He rejected us.

I swallowed.

“But you’re my mate.”

The words came out so quietly that I wasn’t sure anyone heard them.

Adrian did.

His jaw tightened.

“I know.”

My eyes searched his face.

“Then why?”

He didn’t answer.

That hurt more than the rejection itself.

Someone behind me whispered.

“She actually thought the Alpha would accept her?”

Another person laughed under their breath.

He