Luna Who Broke the Line Chapter 01
Another fight over the stuffed bear. Another shove. My sister Talia hit the ground. And my mother threw the Pack adoption record in my face. I was four.
The document came from the Blackthorn Pack
Registry. A pale silver moon seal sat in the corner.
The girl in the photo looked a little like me. Same eyes, same brow. But my mother’s finger covered her name.
“Freya Grayson. If you keep bullying Talia, don’t blame us for sending you back.”
I didn’t understand Pack Registry back then. Couldn’t understand a moon seal. All I knew was that “sending
you back” hit my young wolf like ice water.
I let go of the bear.
After that, anything Talia wanted, I gave up.
She liked my room. I moved to the balcony. She wanted my dress. I said I never liked it anyway.
One day she wondered aloud what it felt like to rank first on an exam. I stayed up tutoring her every night. Then I started turning in blank tests at Blackthorn Prep.
Ms. Green and the other students began whispering. My old scores had to be fake.
The looks they gave me shifted. Surprise curdled into contempt.
My brother Callum was so ashamed he wouldn’t even look at me. Said I wasn’t his sister anymore.
Only Gideon Whitmore stayed. My childhood fiancé.
The Alpha heir of Blackthorn Pack.
He held my shaking hands once and said, “Freya. Even if the whole world throws you away, I’ll stand by you.”
I carried those words for years.
The day SAT and national Pack scholarship scores dropped, I ran to find him. My scores were near
perfect. I could finally tell him I’d be joining him at Royal Warrior University.
I found him in the garden behind Blackthorn Prep. He was comforting Talia. She’d bombed her exams.
“Talia. Don’t worry. Even if you can only get into
Blackthorn Community College, I’ll be there with you.”
Her face lit up. Then she hesitated, voice small. “But Freya will be upset…”
Gideon ruffled her hair. Dismissive. Tender.
“She grew up with her real parents. You were adopted
into the Grayson family. Talia, you need taking care of more than she ever will.”
Callum caught up and added, “Exactly. She still has her birth parents. She still has this family. You only have us. Only Mom and Dad. Only Blackthorn Pack.”
I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.
Years. Years of swallowing every hurt meant for Talia. And in the end, she was still the one everyone held.
That night, I opened my college application portal. I removed Royal Warrior University from my enrollment list.
I replaced it with Silver Coast University. A thousand miles away. Southern territory.
If everyone had already left me behind, I’d leave Blackthorn Pack behind too.
I’d find my own stars.
Gideon was standing in front of me before I snapped out of it.
“When did you get here? Wait. Have you been crying?”
His voice was still so gentle. If I hadn’t seen the strand of Talia’s freshly dyed pink hair still wrapped around his pinky, I might have believed the garden was just in my head.
I wiped my face and gave him the first excuse I could grab. “Nothing. Just some dust in my eyes.”
Gideon’s face settled into something knowing. “You tanked your exams, didn’t you? And you’re too proud to say it.”
Before I could answer, his voice went bright. “But it’s fine. I changed my enrollment commitment. We can stay together now.
I stared at the page on his phone. Blackthorn Community College. Then at his scores. High enough for Royal Warrior University. Easily.
I couldn’t breathe.
He hadn’t been saying empty things to comfort Talia. He’d actually done it. Given up the school he’d dreamed of since he was a pup. To stay by her side.
Was she worth that?
When I didn’t speak, Gideon waved his hand in front of my face.
“Hello? Are you that moved? I told you. Even if the whole world throws you away, I’ll never leave you.”
His eyes were bright. Earnest. And for a second, I was ten years old again.
he summer an eight–year–old boy walked me home. He took the homework Talia had “accidentally”
shredded and pieced it back together with tape. Strip by strip.
His eyes stayed red that whole night. He’d said the same thing then. In the same voice.
Now it just made me sick.
Inside me, my wolf curled low. The one I’d kept quiet since I was small. She didn’t growl. She just watched me, quiet and steady. Like she finally understood. The light we’d been waiting for was shining on someone else now.
I closed my eyes and swallowed the bitter taste.
“I don’t feel well. I’m going home.”
“Okay. Get home safe.”
He reached for my face. Like always.
I stepped aside.
His hand hung in the air. He opened his mouth. His phone rang.
Talia’s voice spilled through the speaker. Coaxing.
Sweet. “Gideon, don’t forget. You promised to take me shopping for move–in supplies this afternoon.”
The smile tugged at his mouth before he could stop it. “I know. When have I ever broken a promise to you?”
By the time he pocketed his phone and looked up, I was already gone.
Around the corner, out of sight, I buried my face in my knees. Let the tears fall.
The one person I thought would never betray me. He’d left me too.
My world had narrowed to a single point–myself.