“Daisy, I can finally fulfill my promise to you,” I said as I saw the dress that my friend, Daisy Lorelai, sewed herself 6 years ago.
My fingers trembled slightly as I smoothed the dress, memories tightening my chest.
It was the dress she wanted to wear on her child’s 5th birthday. But sadly, Daisy died while giving birth to her twin kids, a boy named Charlie and a girl named Charlet.
In the last minutes of her life, she asked me to take care of the baby twins as well as her mate, Elstan Wolfang, the Alpha of Darkhide Pack, and became the pack’s Luna.
So, here I was, wearing my best friend’s dress and baking the twins a cake. I even added the strawberry glaze Daisy used to make.
But as I put the cake on the table, a shrill voice shrieked behind me, “How dare you wear my mom’s clothes!”
My heart clenched. The sharpness of her words pierced deeper than I would ever know.
As I turned to face Charlet, who had an angry look on her face, she looked so much like Daisy at that moment.
“You aren’t going to say anything?” Charlie barked while protecting his twin sister behind him, as if I was going to hurt Charlet for being rude to me.
His green eyes that were similar to Elstan’s eyes were filled with mistrust.
I took a deep breath before answering, “I’ll only wear it today, because I promised your mom.”
“No!” they yelled together as they grabbed the dress from the right and left.
“Kids, don’t, it is….”
Before I could finish my sentence, the sound of fabric tearing was heard first.
The dress that Daisy had specially sewn became tattered and unwearable at the bottom. I stared at the torn lace, stitched by hands that time lay buried beneath the earth.
“Daisy will be sad if she sees this,” I muttered, the words barely audible over the lump in my throat.
Charlet snapped, “I think Mom will be happy, since you don’t deserve to use this!”
“Yes, you can never replace our mother nor wear her favorite dress!” Charlie responded, his voice cracking with spite.
Then without warning, they slammed the cake that I had just placed on the table into the dress.
“We won’t eat this cake, it’s poisonous,” Charlie said.
Then Charlet responded, “Yes, eat it yourself!”
The cream splattered on the floor, made me lose control of my feet and stumbled backwards, my back hitting the counter.
They laughed at me with satisfaction.
“Luna, are you okay?” the maid from the kitchen asked softly, kneeling beside me and helping me up.
I could not hold back my tears when she asked me that. The word Luna stung more than soothed.
Of course, at first, I never wanted to take Daisy’s position. She was the loving Luna, adored by every pack member. Her absence left a hollow that no one could truly fill.
But in the final moments of her life, she had grabbed my hand, her voice faint as she spoke, "You’re the only one I can trust, Jennete. You are their godmother, right?
“As for Elstan… just stay with him until you find your own mate."
So, I did. For five years, I stayed.
When others my age were wrapped in the arms of their destined mates, I was still alone, waiting, and holding on to a dead woman’s plea.
And through it all, I endured the twins’ naughtiness, or could be said, their cruelty.
The sound of sharp scolding jolted me. Their nanny stormed into the kitchen and scolded, “Kids, don’t be naughty to your Mom. I told you….”
I raised a hand gently to stop her, forcing a tired smile. “It’s okay. I just need to change clothes and clean myself up.”
Then I turned to the maid who had helped me, “Please clean up the cake and buy a ready-made one to replace it.”
“But Luna, you’ve been making this cake since last night….”
“That’s okay,” I said weakly, my voice barely above a whisper.
As I reached the stairs, a venomous voice rang behind me.
“This is just the beginning,” Charlet threatened. “If you don’t leave immediately, you’ll regret the next time we see you.”
Charlie added, louder and more cruel, “Yes! Get out of our house, you wicked witch!”
I did not look back. I could not.
I could not bear to see the two children I raised with all my heart and soul turning against me since a month ago.
The moment when she had arrived, Daisy’s twin sister, Dasha Lorelai.
“Please… let me come home,” she had begged, standing at the pack’s border, her clothes tattered, her lips trembling, eyes swollen from tears and bruises and her knees in the mud. “I have nowhere else to go.”
She had returned after vanishing for fourteen years, because she could not bear the shame of being wolfless.
Elstan had been reluctant at first. But when he heard the name, his expression softened.
“She’s Daisy’s sister,” he said, as if that alone was enough to erase the past.
I reminded him of the laws. Of how the pack would react to a runaway member being accepted so easily.
“This will divide the pack, Elstan. You’re the Alpha. They look to you for fairness.”
But my voice had become a thorn to him.
“You just hate her,” he snapped. “You always did. You can’t stand not being the center of attention.”
From that day on, something shifted between us. The man who once held my hand during full moons began walking past me without a word.
The twins were shocked when Elstan brought Dasha home and thought she was their mother whom they had only seen in photo albums.
Since then, they both became attached to Dasha, and the twins who used to call me ‘Mommy’ started called me a wicked witch who took their biological mother’s soul.
What was more cruel, two weeks ago, they killed the dog who I had raised since I was teenager.
I cradled its small, trembling body in my arms, my voice breaking as I screamed, “Why are you giving this dog chocolate?!”
The twins just blinked innocently, one of them shrugging. “It’s just a dog. If it died, then it died. Why are you crying over it?”
And Dasha, standing off to the side with folded arms, said casually, “Jennete, they’re just children. They didn’t know better. Don’t scold them anymore, okay?”
I looked at her in disbelief, pain rising like a tide in my throat. But it was not over.
When Elstan found out, he did not even lift an eyebrow. “Just raise another dog. No need to cry over something old and useless.”
Old and useless. That was how he saw it—even though he knew how much that dog means to me.
It was the only family I had after my parents, who was a Gamma, died because they were attacked by rogues while teaching schouts outside the pack.
In the end, I took it to the clinic myself. But it was too late. It lay still, lifeless. Not even a final bark.
After that day, something inside me cracked. There was nothing left for me here. I became a ghost in that house, drifting only to fulfill my last promise—to Daisy.
She had sewn a beautiful dress for the twins’ fifth birthday. She believed in celebration, in kindness. And I wanted to honor that.
But instead of appreciation, I was mocked and even threatened.
In the silence of my room, I stared at the mirror, whispering, “Daisy, I fulfilled your last wish, but they don't love me, and I really have to leave this time. I hope you understand me.”
I picked up my phone and booked a flight to leave here in three days.
