My Luna Mother Ruined Me For Her Favorite—So I Chose The Rogue King Chapter 03
I didn’t move. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Why should I apologize?”
My mother pointed at the shredded gown on the floor, her voice thick with fury. “You destroyed Celeste’s ceremonial gown, and you still have the nerve to stand there and say you did nothing?”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “Where’s your proof? Are you going to condemn me without any?”
She pointed at the young she-wolf kneeling on the floor. Lyna—one of Celeste’s personal attendants.
“She saw you last night. Near Celeste’s chambers. You couldn’t be the Crown Prince’s Luna, so now you want to take it out on Celeste.”
I looked at Lyna.
“What time did you see me?”
“Around ten.”
“Where?”
“Near the pine grove.”
“What was I wearing?”
Lyna swallowed hard.
“A… a gray coat.”
Nora stepped forward, her voice shaking with anger.
“You’re lying. There are no lights near the pine grove after dark. You were too far away to make out the color of anyone’s coat in total blackness.”
Lyna finally broke. She burst into tears, begging.
“Forgive me, Luna! I tore the gown by accident. I was afraid of being punished, so I lied—”
Celeste shot to her feet and slapped Lyna hard across the face.
“You brainless idiot. How dare you frame Evelyn?”
She turned to me, head lowered.
“Evelyn, I’m truly sorry. I should have kept a closer eye on her.”
“It’s not your fault.” My mother soothed Celeste first, then turned to me. “This has been a misunderstanding. Let it end here.”
“No.”
I met her eyes. “Lyna accused me of things I never did, and she was set on seeing me punished for them. She doesn’t walk out of this without paying for it.”
My mother’s face froze.
And a second later, I heard her thoughts again.
【 Evelyn takes everything too seriously. Do I not see the truth? To punish Celeste’s servant is to humiliate Celeste in public. 】
My nails drove into my palms.
I looked at her, my voice bitter.
“Mother—if it had been me who ruined that gown, would you have let it end here?”
She paused, brows knit. “I’ll deal with Lyna by pack law. Are you satisfied now?”
Lyna was dragged out, still sobbing. Celeste’s eyes were red, as if she were the one who’d been wronged.
Then my mother spoke again.
“Celeste’s gown is ruined. There’s no time to make another. Give her the one your grandmother left you.”
I stared at her, unable to believe it.
That gown was my grandmother’s last gift to me—brought to me by my father’s own hands. The most precious thing I owned.
And now she wanted to tear it from me. For Celeste.
“On what grounds?” My voice went sharp. “Celeste’s own servant caused this. Why am I the one paying for it?”
“Celeste is the future Queen Luna. She has to wear only the finest. You’re being mated off to a low-ranking patrol wolf. The ceremony will be a plain little thing. What use do you have for a gown like that?”
She grumbled under her breath.
“I really don’t know what your father was thinking. Something that fine should have gone to Celeste. On you, it’s wasted.”
Something inside me shattered.
I screamed at her.
“That’s because Father knows who his real daughter is—and you never have! Sometimes I truly wish you weren’t my mother. At least then you couldn’t keep tearing me apart!”
The blood drained from her face. What replaced it was rage—the kind that could swallow anything in its path.
“Enough, Evelyn. You’ve gone too far.”
Her eyes went cold.
“Perhaps I should teach you how to be a daughter with a silver whip. My daughter, especially.”
Nora threw herself forward.
“Luna, please. Miss Evelyn’s First Shift went wrong. Her body can’t take silver damage—”
“Can’t take it?”
My mother’s voice was thick with disbelief and fury.
“She carries the strongest bloodline on this land. She has access to the finest healers, the finest mentors, the finest training tools in the territory. What right does she have to be weak?”
A bitter laugh slipped out of me.
Every one of those things—the healers, the mentors, the tools—she had quietly signed over to Celeste.
What had I ever actually been given?
But my heartbreak meant nothing to her.
She had me dragged to the punishment room, forced to my knees at the center of the floor. Then she took the silver whip down from the wall herself.
The same whip she used on rogues. On traitors. On warriors who had committed the worst of crimes.
She raised it—and brought it down on my back.
She didn’t stop. One lash, then another, then another.
The pain tore through me all at once. Silver burned like fire through flesh, straight into the bone. My clothes soaked through with blood. Deep inside me, my wolf howled, thrashed, and finally collapsed into a broken whimper.
Before the darkness took me, I heard her voice one last time.
“This time, Evelyn, I hope you finally understand what you did wrong.”
In that instant, something was ripped out of my blood. The blood-link between us snapped clean.
I closed my eyes.
Mother—the greatest mistake of my life was ever wanting your love.
From this day on, I owe you nothing.
And I don’t love you anymore.