The room was in shambles.
A thick tension choked the air as glass crunched beneath my boots. The curtains had been ripped from the rods, the heavy drapes lying in tangled, velvet piles on the floor. Damon had kicked over the wine stand, crimson liquid bled across the marble like spilled blood. Kael was breathing heavily in the corner, having just driven his fist through the ancient painting our father once prized. And I...I stood in the center of it all, chest rising with every ragged breath, my eyes wild.
"Damn her!" I barked, slamming my fist onto the already splintered table. "That wretched little human is going to bring us nothing but shame!"
Kael cursed beneath his breath. "She’s weak. She fainted over a sip of water! Pathetic!"
"She doesn’t belong here," Damon snarled, pacing like a predator. "We should’ve sent her back the moment she stepped into this palace."
My blood boiled, my veins pulsing with fury. "She dared to push me away. Me. I should’ve let her die on that floor."
Kael scoffed. "And she still has the guts to cry like she’s the victim."
"She’ll never be our Luna," Damon said coldly. "She’s just... filth."
The fury gripped me again. I swept the edge of my arm across the desk, sending scrolls, ink, and silver trinkets flying to the floor. My brothers followed, trashing what remained of the room like a storm unleashed.
And that was when she entered.
She didn’t flinch at the sight of our destruction; if anything, she looked amused. Her red dress clung to her curves as she stepped inside with all the grace of a queen who already knew she was winning.
"Well," she said smoothly, brushing imaginary dust off her wrist, "seems like someone had a rough day."
"I still don’t believe this," she said, her voice low and tight. "That you three would actually choose Lisa over me."
Kael, lounging near the window, didn’t even look up from the glass he was swirling in his hand. Damon tensed from his place on the couch, but said nothing. I kept my eyes on her, watching the slight tremble in her lips before she masked it with her usual confidence.
She wasn’t just angry. She was hurt.
I stood slowly, not because I agreed with her, but because she wasn’t wrong about one thing: she’d been in our lives for a long time. That gave her certain... expectations.
"Belinda," I said, voice level. "This isn’t about choosing her over you. You know damn well the only reason she’s here, the curse. She’s connected to it."
Her eyes softened just a little, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips. I knew that look. She wanted me to say more. To make it feel like she still had a chance.
"I know," she replied, almost like a whisper. Then her smile twisted. "But it still stings. A measly human? After everything we’ve been through? And remember, my lineage has produced the Luna for years," 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂
Kael finally looked up, his jaw ticking, but I raised a hand subtly. Not yet.
"You think we wanted this?" I said, stepping closer. "You think we asked for the bond? For the dreams? The pull?"
"She doesn’t belong here," Belinda shot back, her voice rising slightly. "Not with you. Not like I do."
Damon stepped forward, eyes soft. "You weren’t just anyone to us," he said, the truth heavy in his voice. "You still aren’t."
"We wanted it to be you," Kael added, quieter. "All three of us. You know that."
Belinda’s chin trembled for a heartbeat, but she lifted it stubbornly. "Then why does it feel like I’m the outsider now? Like I’m the backup plan?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
I walked closer to her, stopping just a foot away.
"You’re not a backup, Belinda," I said, and meant it. "You were our first choice. You know you were. The Moon Goddess decided otherwise, but we will still choose you."
"And you’re just... going to accept that?" she asked, voice shaking. "You’re going to let her steal everything we were building?"
I swallowed hard, the words catching in my throat. I had asked myself the same question a hundred times since the bond took root. Since the moment I felt that other tug, primal, cosmic, inevitable. "It’s not about letting her take anything," I said carefully. "It’s about trying not to lose everything in the process."
Belinda laughed bitterly, but it was more pain than humor. "Too late," she whispered. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her midsection, as if trying to hold herself together. "You don’t understand what it’s like to be chosen first and then pushed aside. I can’t even breathe around you three without feeling like I’m in someone else’s space."
Kael stepped closer, guilt carved into every inch of his expression. "You’re not in someone else’s space, Bel. This was always your place. We’re the ones fumbling to figure out how to make space for something we didn’t ask for."
She looked at him then, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "But you are making space for it, aren’t you? For her? And I’m just... what? The ghost of what you wanted before destiny handed you something shinier?"
"That’s not fair," Damon said sharply. "This isn’t about shinier or better. This is about bonds that none of us chose, bonds that are rewriting the way we feel, whether we want them to or not."
"But I chose you," Belinda shot back. "I chose all of you. I fought for you. And now I have to stand here and watch you get dragged away by some invisible thread?"
I clenched my jaw, hating how helpless I felt. "We’re being dragged, Belinda. That’s exactly it. We didn’t leap into this. We didn’t ask for it. But the bond, it’s like trying to resist gravity. You can fight it, but you tear yourself apart doing it."
She stared at me, breathing hard. "So what do I do, then? Watch you all fall in love with someone else while I stay standing on the outside? Pretend I’m fine with being left behind?"
"No," I said quietly. "You stay and you will be our Luna."