Amnesia Luna Begging Won't Win Me Back

I was attacked by rogues while gathering herbs in the Whispering Forest. When I opened my eyes in the Healer's clinic, Alpha James Anderson was standing by my bed in a tailored suit, scowling at me. Before I could speak, Olivia Parker, standing right beside him, broke the silence. "Emma, you're finally awake! You scared us half to death." I didn't answer. My eyes drifted down to their hands, fingers tightly intertwined. The second they noticed me looking, their hands sprang apart like they’d been electrocuted. I let out a soft laugh. "So, while I was knocked out, you two started dating?" "And see? I told you guys I shouldn't have gone into the Whispering Forest alone. Luckily, I'm fine." "Wait... you two didn't get so caught up in your romance that you forgot to prep for my First Shift ceremony, did you?" James looked like he couldn't take another second of this. He leaned down, his voice vibrating with rage. "Emma Miller! You're twenty-six years old! What coming-of-age ceremony are you even talking about?!" I froze. Because in my memory, I had literally just turned eighteen, waiting for my very first shift. The room fell so quiet I could hear the thudding of my own heart. Only then did I truly take in the two people standing before me. James didn't look like the boy I remembered before I passed out. He was older, broader, looking strikingly like his father. In a suit, he no longer looked like a kid playing dress-up. And Olivia, quietly beside him, was no longer the broke pack student who lived in faded jeans and thrift-store tees. My gaze settled on the Tiffany brooch pinned to her chest. I used to have one just like it—an eighteenth-birthday gift from my mother. Back when Olivia gave her first speech as a Pack representative, I offered to lend it to her. She had blushed, ducking her head, her dimples framed with nervousness. She had said, *"Emma, it's way too expensive. I can't walk onto a stage wearing something worth years of my living expenses."* Now, she wore an identical luxury brooch, carried a designer bag worth thousands, wore flawless makeup, and smelled of expensive perfume. Noticing my stare, Olivia parted her lips to explain. I just smiled faintly. "Looks like you finally got the life you always wanted, Olivia. Congratulations." "Enough!" James snapped, his brows knotting in disgust. "Emma Miller, how long are you going to keep playing dumb? You think pretending like this will make me fall for you again? Dream on!" I looked at him in total confusion. "Why would I want you to fall for me?" "Aren't you with Olivia?" Olivia finally found her voice, her eyes welling with tears. "Emma, please listen. James and I... it's not what you think. We... we haven't..." The door swung open, and the lead Healer walked in. "Ms. Miller, are you feeling any pain or dizziness?" I shook my head gently, my hair rustling against the pillow. "Healer... why are they telling me I'm twenty-six?" "Isn't this the year of my first shift?" "Why are they playing this kind of sick joke on a patient?" The Healer’s expression darkened. James and Olivia were ushered out into the hall. After that, a steady stream of Healers and apprentices examined me. By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, they delivered their final verdict. "Ms. Miller, you have severe retrograde amnesia." "You have lost all memories between your rogue attack at age eighteen and falling down the stairs one month ago." I stared at their moving lips, but all sound seemed to fade into white noise. So... I really was twenty-six?Aside from my memory gap, my vitals were completely fine. After a few more days of observation at the clinic, I was cleared to go home. James came to pick me up. He had been cold and distant the entire time. Truth be told, before Olivia entered our lives, I always assumed James and I would end up together naturally. I watched him toss my bag into the trunk and open the passenger door for me. I held up my uninjured hand in surrender. "Spare me." "I don't think you're my chauffeur." "But sitting in the passenger seat when you have a mate? That’s inappropriate." Fury flushed across his sharp face. "Emma Miller! Are you ever going to stop this act?!" I had no idea why he was so furious. I held my ground, watching him calmly. Then, I sidestepped him, opened the rear door myself, and climbed into the backseat. James slammed his door so hard the car shook. He drove like a madman, flooring the gas as if eager to send me straight to the goddess. The scenery outside was completely alien to me. Eight years had erased everything. Through the crowded skyline, I caught sight of the abandoned warehouse James and I used as our secret hideout as kids. It had been torn down and turned into a shiny commercial district, cold and sterile. Buried underneath it were all the silly promises we once made. We had sworn we would protect the Ridge Pack together. We swore we’d adopt a cat when we grew up. And James had once turned bright red, swearing: *"Emma Miller, just wait until I mark you as my Luna."* The car came to a screeching halt. The violent jolt ripped me from my golden memories. "Get out." James pulled open my door, his tall frame casting a heavy shadow over me. "Once we're inside, drop the amnesia charade." "Don't think I'm as easily fooled as those idiot Healers." He suddenly gripped my chin, his fingers digging in hard. "If you terrify Lily again, you’ll regret it." A sudden, sharp ache bloomed in my chest. A single tear spilled over and landed on the back of his hand. He flinched as if burned and pulled his hand away instantly. I bit my lip. The contrast between the boy I remembered and the cold monster before me made my vision blur. I dragged my feet toward the mansion. The closer I got to the front door, the tighter my chest felt. Tears kept slipping down my cheeks uncontrollably. When I stepped into the foyer, my vision was swimming. Yet through the blur, I saw a little girl running straight toward me. She had eyes that were the spitting image of James's. Instinctively, I crouched down and opened my arms. She slapped my hands away and launched herself straight into James's embrace. "Daddy! Why did you bring her back again?!" I froze, stepping back awkwardly. "Lily!" Olivia rushed in behind her, looking frantic. "Don't speak like that!" I forced a tight smile at Olivia. "Olivia, it really isn't right for me to stay here." "I can find an apartment outside." "I won't get in the way of your family of three."James let out a mocking laugh. "Emma Miller, get to your room." "Let's see how long you can keep this up." "You love playing the amnesiac victim, right?" "Then stay here. When you finally remember who you are, then we'll talk about you moving out!" With that, he took Lily's hand and brushed past me. As he walked by, he whispered coldly, "I just hope you’ll still want to leave by then." I was left alone in the vast, empty living room. The moment I said *family of three*, Olivia covered her face and ran off, seemingly in tears. Soon, I heard James and Lily coaxing her softly from an inner room. Fine by me. I looked around the house at my leisure. On the mantle sat a framed photo of the three of them. Taken at an amusement park, framed against exploding fireworks. Olivia was leaning into James's chest, smiling softly. Lily held her hand, looking up at them both, her little face glowing with pure bliss. I saw Olivia’s medals, matching couple cups, and a crayon drawing by Lily: three wolves under the moonlight, with crooked letters reading: *My Family.* With every item I looked at, the dull ache in my chest worsened. By the time I reached the last photo of James and Olivia, the pain was so sharp I could barely stand. The front door clicked, and a maid walked in carrying bags of groceries. Seeing my ghost-white face, she dropped the bags and rushed to catch me. "Luna Anderson! You're back from the clinic!" "Goodness, you're drenched in cold sweat. Let me help you to the couch." My trembling hand gripped her arm. "I'm fine." "Could you... please show me to my room?" "I don't know where I sleep." Under the maid’s bewildered gaze, I offered a weak smile. "The Healers said I have amnesia. I don't remember much right now." She supported me down the hallway to a tiny room tucked away in the farthest corner. When she pushed the door open, a smell of damp dust hit my nose, making me cough. The maid looked embarrassed, clearly aware of how pathetic and neglected this room was. In the end, she didn't offer any excuses. She just softly murmured as she closed the door: "Maybe it's a blessing that you forgot." I collapsed onto the narrow wooden bed. The frame groaned under my weight. Only then did it hit me. The maid had called me *Luna Anderson.* Shouldn't the Luna of this house be Olivia? My head was spinning, but as I glanced around the bare room, my eyes caught a fountain pen tossed on the corner of the desk. It was my father's pen—his only keepsake. I never left it behind. If it was here, this really was my room. Why had I been living like a disgraced servant in my own mate's house? Didn't I have anywhere else to go? Ignoring the pounding in my skull, I dragged myself to the desk. Inside the drawer, I found a leather diary. And a ring. A silver band that matched the one on James's left ring finger perfectly. I flipped open the diary and read page after page. The journal documented every trace of James’s betrayal—the strange perfumes on his shirts, the cozy photos on Olivia’s social media, the nights he never came home. On the very last page, I saw what I had written just before the accident: *At the next Moon Gathering, I will publicly reject him.* Tucked inside the back cover was a yellowed business card embossed with a royal claw crest: *Personal Direct Line of the Alpha King.* I stared at it as a buried memory surfaced: I had been the top Healer prodigy of my generation at the Lycan Academy. The Alpha King himself had offered me a position as the Luna Queen’s personal Healer. I had turned him down. Because I chose James.I stared at the royal crest, stunned. The shock was so overwhelming that the throbbing headache faded into the background. I re-read the pages, word by word. *A daughter, Lily Anderson, born into the pack.* *Irreconcilable differences. We cannot live together anymore.* I frowned and kept turning pages. The diary was nearly full, leaving only a few blank pages at the end. The ink on most entries was smeared and distorted by water stains. A single journal, carrying all the tears of my adult life. I read about the joy of James confessing his feelings after my rogue attack. The thrill of being marked. Olivia serving as my maid of honor, weeping uncontrollably at our mating ceremony. And then, the predictable patterns of betrayal. James staying out all night. The scent of foreign perfume on his jackets, the pictures of him and Olivia all over Instagram. Right when I first considered rejecting the bond, I discovered I was pregnant. During those brutal nights of morning sickness, I sat alone holding my father’s pen, waiting for James until dawn. Then Lily was born. I read entries where I begged James not to leave while holding our sleeping daughter, pleading with him to remember our childhood. Reading those tear-stained, ink-blotted words, I only felt disgust. With my memories stuck at eighteen, I couldn't fathom how the fearless Emma Miller had groveled so low for a man. And on the day I mysteriously tumbled down the stairs, I had already finalized my plan to reject him at the Moon Gathering. The fall had simply hit pause on everything. The scent of dinner drifted in from the crack under the door. I snapped the diary shut, looked up at the dim lightbulb overhead, and pressed a hand over my chest. "Thank goodness. I'm eighteen again—fearless Emma Miller." I stayed in the house. Partly because I needed time to adapt to this reality after my amnesia. Partly because I needed a strategy—James was the Alpha of the Ridge Pack. Everyone bowed to him. How could I break free without him crushing me? I traced the golden lettering on the royal card. I still had a way out. Over the next few days, I lived like a phantom in the mansion. Only Mrs. Brown, the cook, spoke to me. Even then, she carefully avoided mentioning James and Olivia. Our first major clash happened on the day I was scheduled to have my arm cast removed. It happened to be the annual Wolf Pup Training Showcase for Lily. The girl who normally glared at me showed up at my bedroom door the night before, twisting the hem of her shirt. "Take me tomorrow." Her tone was rigid and demanding, completely devoid of the sweet, spoiled voice she used with James and Olivia. "No," I replied calmly, not even looking up from my herbology textbook. "Don't you want Olivia as your mom?" "Let her take you." Lily suddenly burst into hysterical wailing. "I don't want her to!" "Everyone at the academy says Olivia is a homewrecker!" "They say I'm a homewrecker's bastard!" "None of the other pups will play with me anymore!" "It's all your fault!" She lunged into my room and slammed directly into my fractured arm. "If you hadn't stolen Olivia’s spot, they wouldn't hate me!" Pain shot through my bone, stealing my breath. The next second, my uninjured hand swung out and slapped her across the face. "Get out."