Rebirth Of The Rejected Luna Chapter 87: Fix Things

**Tiana's POV**

"Dear goddess!" I gasped, spinning around to face Theo, my heart racing. "You scared me!"

His lips curled into a smirk, his arms not releasing me. Instead, he pulled me closer to himself and kissed my lips lightly. "Sorry, couldn't resist. You looked so serious just now. What's going on with you and Layla?"

I sighed, resting my forehead against his chest. I was still breathing slightly heavily from the shock of his presence. "Layla. She's upset. Really upset, Theo."

His smirk faded, replaced by a furrowed brow. "What happened?"

"Apparently, we’ve both been terrible at keeping her involved in... Our life," I told him, sighing. My shoulders sank dejectedly. "She feels left out by you, Amara, me and everyone. She’s hurt, Theo. She even found out about the mating ceremony from other people, not us. I can’t believe we let her feel like this."

Theo's expression darkened, his jaw tightening. "She told you all that?"

"Yes," I said softly. "And she’s not wrong. We’ve been so caught up in everything—your Alpha duties, my training, Amara with the baby. She said that we’ve overlooked her. I don’t know how to make this right."

Theo sighed deeply, rubbing his hand over his face. "I should’ve seen this coming. Layla’s always been good at hiding how she feels, but I should’ve known. She’s my sister. And the other day... She also confronted me. About the whole rogue issue but we managed to move past that. It was silly of me not to check on her after that time."

"She feels like we’ve all abandoned her," I said, sighing again. "She’s angry, and she has every right to be. I would be angry if I were the one too. It's almost like she has no one to turn to. I know how that feels. I had a brother... And a stepsister... But..." I trailed off, taking in a deep breath. It was getting too emotional for me to handle.

Theo pulled me closer, his arms tightening around me protectively and he pressed another kiss to my cheek and then to my hair as well. "We’ll fix it," he said. "I’ll talk to her. We’ll talk to her. Layla’s important and she's supposed to know this. I guess we've just made her feel left out. I won’t let her feel like she’s alone in this pack."

I nodded against his chest. "We have to. She deserves better than this."

"She does," Theo agreed, kissing the top of my head.

*+*+*+*+*+

The next morning, I decided to go and talk to Layla again. We had only two days until the mating ceremony and I did not want it to happen without her blessings. I had betrayed her without knowing if and I needed to let her know that it wasn't my intention to make her feel that way.

I took a deep breath as I approached her room. The door was slightly ajar, but the sounds inside gave me pause. I heard shuffling, maybe drawers opening and slamming shut.

“Layla?” I called, knocking softly before pushing the door open wider.

She was by her closet, stuffing something into a bag. The moment she saw me, her movements froze, and she gave me a glare.

“What do you want?” she asked in a cold tone. She did not seem to want my presence at all but I had to talk to her. I was barely able to sleep at night knowing that she was mad at me.

“I wanted to talk,” I said gently, stepping inside the room. “Please, Layla. Let me explain—”

“There’s nothing to explain,” she cut me off sharply, slinging the bag over her shoulder. “And I’m not in the mood for whatever excuse you’re here to give.”

“It’s not an excuse, Layla. It’s the truth. I know I’ve hurt you, and I hate that I did. I hate that I made you feel like you didn’t matter. But I’m here now, and I want to fix things.”

“Fix things?” She laughed humorlessly, shaking her head. “You think you can just waltz in here and fix things with a couple of apologies? Do you even realize how long I’ve been feeling this way? How long have I been invisible to everyone, including you? I tried my best to make you feel seen because I knew how badly it hurt not to be seen and the moment you were bold enough, you left me to be all by myself like everyone else.”

“Layla, I know I messed up, but I swear, I didn’t mean to—”

“Stop!” she snapped at me. “Just stop. I’m tired of hearing what you didn’t mean to do, Tiana. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make me feel any less abandoned. And honestly? I don’t even want to hear it anymore.”

“Layla, I care about you. You’re like a sister to me. I don’t want us to drift apart.” I said. I was getting frustrated but not with Layla. I was frustrated with myself because if not for me, she would not have had to feel this way.

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before,” she said, her voice icy. “Before you started confiding in Fiona. Before you forgot about me in the middle of your perfect little love story with my brother. Before you let everyone else come before me.”

“Layla, that’s not fair—”

“Fair?” She threw her hands up in frustration. “You’re right, Tiana. It’s not fair. None of this has been fair. And you want to know the truth? I don’t want to hear another word from you right now.”

"If that’s what you want, I’ll go. I just wanted to make things right."

She didn’t respond, didn’t even look at me as I turned and walked toward the door.

“Layla,” I said softly, pausing at the doorway.

"Get lost," She spat. "You are not here because you're sorry. It's only because you are about to become Luna and you want me to approve of it and give you my advice."

"That's not—"

"Save it.”