Aria's POV
I dropped the heavy pot of stew and it crashed to the kitchen floor, sending hot liquid everywhere. My hands were shaking so badly I couldn't hold anything steady anymore.
"Stupid rogue!" Jessica snapped from behind me. "Can't you do anything right?"
I fell to my knees and started cleaning up the mess with my bare hands, even though the stew was still burning hot. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
"Sorry doesn't fix anything," Jessica said coldly. "This is the third thing you've broken this week. Maybe you should go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."
Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away. I'd been living in the pack house for two weeks now, and every day was harder than the last. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do anything right.
Mrs. Chen rushed over with a mop. "It's okay, dear," she whispered to me. "Accidents happen."
But Jessica wasn't done. "Alpha Damon needs to know about this. A Luna who can't even make dinner without ruining the kitchen? Pathetic."
I wanted to escape. For the past two weeks, I'd been trying everything I could think of to show I belonged here. I woke up at four every morning to start cooking. I cleaned every room in the pack house until it sparkled. I learned everyone's favorite foods and made special meals just for them.
None of it mattered.
"I'll make a new pot," I said quickly, standing up. "It'll be ready in an hour."
"Don't bother," Jessica said. "We'll order pizza. Again."
She walked away, and I heard her talking to the other women in the next room.
"She's hopeless," Jessica said loudly, making sure I could hear. "Did you see her trying to fold clothes yesterday? She can't even do servant work properly."
"I heard she volunteered for the border patrol mission," another woman said. "Like she could actually help protect the pack."
They all laughed, and my face burned with shame.
I had volunteered for border guard. And for the supply run to the dangerous southern region. And for the night watch job that no one else wanted. I thought if I could show I was brave, maybe they'd respect me.
Instead, Damon had looked at me like I was crazy.
"You want to do what?" he'd asked when I offered to help with border patrol.
"I want to help protect the pack," I'd said. "I'm stronger than I look."
"You're a rogue who's been living as a slave," he'd said bluntly. "You have no training, no experience, and no business being anywhere near pack security."
"But I could learn—"
"No." He'd turned away from me. "Stick to cooking work. It's more your speed."
The memory made my chest ache. Everything I did was wrong. Everything I said was stupid. I was trying so hard to be great, but I was failing at every turn.
I started making a new pot of stew, my hands still shaking. Through the kitchen window, I could see Damon training with the pack fighters. He moved like water, graceful and strong. Every few minutes, he'd laugh at something one of the guys said, and the sound made my heart skip.
He never laughed when he was with me.
In fact, he barely spoke to me at all. In two weeks, our conversations had been reduced to: "The coffee's too strong."
"Clean the upstairs bathroom."
"Stay out of my office."
That was it. No good starts. No asking how I was feeling. No recognition that I was his mate at all.
I stirred the pot and tried not to think about how much it hurt.
"Aria!" Mrs. Chen called from the dining room. "Could you come help set the table?"
I wiped my hands and went to help her. The dining room was already full of pack members getting ready for dinner. I tried to smile at everyone as I put out the plates, but most of them just ignored me.
"I still can't believe she's supposed to be our Luna," I heard someone whisper.
"She's not Luna," another person said. "Alpha Damon hasn't publicly claimed her. I bet he never will."
"Good," the first person answered. "Can you imagine having a child killer as our leader?"
My hands froze on the plates. Child killer. That's what they thought of me. Not someone who'd made a terrible mistake as a child, but a monster who'd killed her own sister on purpose.
"I heard he's thinking about rejecting her," someone else said. "My cousin in the Silver Moon Pack says their Alpha's daughter is single. Maybe Damon will choose her instead."
"Anyone would be better than this rogue."
I finished setting the table as fast as I could and ran back to the kitchen. My chest felt tight, and I couldn't breathe properly. They were right. Damon was going to reject me. He was going to send me away and find someone worthy of being his Luna.
The thought made me feel sick.
I spent the rest of the evening trying to stay unseen. I served food without speaking to anyone. I cleaned up afterward while the pack members talked and laughed like I wasn't there. I washed every dish twice to make sure they were perfect.
By the time I finished, it was past midnight. The pack house was quiet, and everyone had gone to bed. I was walking toward my room when I heard voices coming from Damon's office.
I knew I shouldn't listen. I knew it was wrong. But I couldn't help myself.
"You can't keep doing this to her," I heard Beta Marcus say. "She's trying so hard to fit in, and you're treating her like dirt."
"She needs to earn her place," Damon responded. "I won't hand her anything just because of the mate bond."
"She's your mate!" Marcus said, his voice getting louder. "The Moon Goddess picked her for you. There has to be a reason."
"The Moon Goddess made a mistake," Damon said coldly. "I needed a strong Luna. Someone who could help me lead the pack. Instead, I got a broken rogue with blood on her hands."
Each word felt like a knife in my heart.
"So what are you going to do?" Marcus asked.
There was a long pause. Then Damon spoke, and his words destroyed me totally.
"I'm going to reject her," he said. "I've already called Alpha Stevens about his daughter. She'd make a much better Luna than Aria ever could."
I pressed my hand to my mouth to keep from making a sound. Damon was going to reject me. He was going to choose someone else.
I turned to run back to my room, but I bumped into something in the dark hallway. Strong hands grabbed my arms to steady me.
"Aria?" a voice said. "What are you doing out here?"
I looked up and saw Beta Marcus looking down at me with concern. Behind him, I could see light spilling out of Damon's office.
"Did you hear that?" Marcus asked quietly.
I nodded, tears running down my face.
"I'm sorry," he said. "You shouldn't have had to hear it like that."
"It's okay," I whispered. "I knew this would happen. I knew I wasn't good enough."
"That's not true," Marcus said strongly. "You are good enough. Damon's just—"
"Marcus?" Damon's voice called from his office. "Who's out there?"
Marcus and I both froze. If Damon found me here, listening to his private talk, he'd be furious.
"Go," Marcus whispered. "I'll handle this."
I started to run toward my room, but I wasn't fast enough. Damon appeared in the hallway, and his green eyes went right to me.
"Aria," he said, his voice deadly quiet. "What are you doing here?"
I opened my mouth to explain, but no words came out. How could I tell him I'd heard everything? How could I say I knew he was planning to reject me?
"Answer me," Damon said, moving closer. "Were you listening to my private conversation?"
My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode. This was it. This was the moment he'd throw me out of his pack forever.
But before I could answer, a loud crash came from somewhere in the pack house. Then screaming.
"Alpha!" someone yelled. "We're under attack!"
Damon's head snapped toward the sound, his body going into full Alpha mode. "Marcus, get the men. Aria, get to your room and lock the door."
But as we all ran toward the sound of the screaming, one thought kept echoing in my mind: What if this attack was tied to me? What if someone had come to finish what they'd started ten years ago?