Chapter 2

The doctors didn’t replace anything wrong with Carmela except a few bruises, but Tatum insisted on her being hospitalised for the best care with a full bodycheck. Leila spends all the time she can squeeze out visiting Carmela.

The whispers about her have gotten louder than ever now that Carmela has returned, with everyone asking, when will Alpha Tatum make Carmela his Luna?

The question is not if he will but when he will. Everyone in the pack is so certain of it.

As for Leila, she pretends not to hear these gossips, she tries not to think about it. She is just happy that her long-lost best friend who saved her has returned but the happiness is not a full one.

Leila knows the truth in her heart and it is the pain that comes with it that makes her still live in denial.

Alpha Tatum has tirelessly spent the last two years looking for his lost love and now that he found her, it was only a matter of time before she got the axe of rejection and let his rightful woman take her place.

She knew she stole the time with him and she was okay with that. But the baby? The baby really came at the worst timing…

“I can’t believe you went through all that Carmi, thank the goddess for the power of true love, what would have happened if the Alpha hadn’t found you?” Tracy, one of Carmela’s old friends in the pack says to her.

Carmela is lying down in her hospital bed with her feet stretched on Leila’s lap while two other women, Tracy and Edna sit by her side.

“Of course he will!” Edna laughs with Tracy as if Leila is not present, “He found Carmi as his mate that night, remember?! The mate bond would guide him!”

Tracy’s words make Leila’s heart pound with a pang but she keeps a straight face.

“Right on! The mate bond is sacred!,” Edna snorts a reply, sneering in Leila’s direction all but pointing fingers in her face, “…not something that can be easily stolen!”

Leila’s eyelashes quiver and she looks up calmly. Carmela pats her friend on the wrist lightly, giving Leila an apologising smile. Leila gives her a bitter smile in return, shaking her head slowly.

In the past two years, these women said worse things.

“The Alpha found Leila as his second chance mate, so please drop it about me being the Alpha’s mate, okay? It would put him in an awkward position.” Carmela says with a graceful but sad smile, sighing lightly, “I missed my chance…”

Her words were like oil, and the flames of her friends’ fury exploded.

Edna rolls her eyes at Leila. “Oh please, Carmi, you are too kind! The Alpha found his mate two years ago, remember?! Hell, you were born our Luna! You bear the phoenix mark, no?!”

Leila glances over timidly as Carmela reaches for her neck with two of her beautiful fingers, sorrow and happiness on her face in reminiscence.

That’s right. The phoenix mark. Their pack has been different from all packs where the Luna is chosen when the Alpha comes to age and replaces his fated mate. Their pack’s Luna is revealed long before that – in a prophecy at the birth of the Alpha. Tatum was born the heir, and his mate was going to be the most powerful Luna in history, with the mark of a phoenix on her body.

Carmela got the mark on her collarbone when she was ten, right where the mate mark would be.

And that was when everyone started treating her as the future Luna. Tatum, too. He has been waiting for her to come of age, and he did, he found his mate’s scent on that fateful night, only Carmela got kidnapped before he could trace it to her, and that scent disappeared like it was never there with her.

“You would have been our Luna and married to your mate if this thief didn’t steal it right from you!” Seeing the pitiful look on Carmela, Edna bursts out.

Leila’s face turns paper white. She shoots her head up in shock. They never liked her, she knew, but they weren’t bold enough to take it to her face, until now.

She wants to say something, anything to tell them it’s not okay, but she can’t. Because they don’t know her secret. They can’t know. They hate her already, and if they got to know that she’s not actually the Alpha’s second-chance mate, they would tear her apart.

“It’s okay, ” Tracy pats Edna with a faux smile, staring at Leila as she continues her “comfort”, “Now that our true Luna is back, the title will be hers, finally. You need to start preparing for your wedding with the Alpha, Carmi.”

Carmela gasps, putting her hands over her mouth to feign shock.

“No guys… I have no intention of becoming Lu-”

She fakes a violent cough, not to finish her statement and points at the water dispenser in the corner of the room.

Leila quickly rushes over to the dispenser and returns with a glass of water for Carmela.

Carmela sits up and reaches over, but the glass falls through her fingers and shatters with the water spilling everywhere.

“What are you doing?!,” Edna retorts at Leila. “Can you not get anything right at all? What if you spill the hot water on Carmi?!”

“Don’t just stand there like a dunce, get something to clean this mess, make yourself useful for once,” Tracy barks at Leila as well.

Leila grits her teeth at their disrespect, feeling the rage to remind them of her position.