Chapter 2

Two years after Cassius became an Alpha, his pack demanded a Luna and I thought he would choose me. I was stupid to think that. To him, I was his best friend but my heart stuttered in his presence. Cassius didn’t see me as a romantic partner. He had no interest in romance, actually.

I made my father propose the idea of linking our families. Cassius revered my father too much to say no to his face, so he came to me. He told me he didn’t want to mate with me as he only saw me as a friend. It broke my heart but I was persistent. I sent my father back with an ultimatum. If Cassius did not mate with me, the Adelard family would find another pack to support. He had no choice.

His pack had their reservations. My father’s name was the only good thing about me. I had a bad temper. I was vain and rude. How could I lead as the Luna when I behaved like a surly sixteen-year-old even at twenty? No one opposed me to my face because I had Cassius and my father backing me but I heard all the bad things people said about me.

I believed their views would change after I became Luna. Thrust into the limelight after two decades of living in the shadows of my father’s mansion, I went loose. I thought I was the beginning and the end while being nobody, a ‘silly little girl’ as my father used to call me.

I wasn’t silly. I lived twenty years in solitude, my head buried in books to pass the time. I could read, write and speak three languages. I read books on business and administration, I read on history, politics, and religion. At sixteen, I took over managing the affairs of my father’s estate. At nineteen, I became Cassius’s unofficial adviser.

I learnt to embroider, to dance, and conduct myself in a dignified manner. I even learnt to cook and bake. I shifted as early as fifteen into a magnificent alpha wolf and I learnt to control my shift in a few months. With all these skills, I scorned those who said I would not be a good Luna. I was fit to be an Alpha even.

With my father’s ultimatum, Cassius had no choice but to be engaged to me. The preparations took six months and even though I knew he was purposely dragging the engagement, I did not change my mind. I loved Cassius and he loved me, albeit as a friend. For me, we were a perfect match.

It was on the day of our engagement that Cassius met his true mate, April Arlington. She had nothing to offer him politically or aesthetically. She was humble, naïve, and plain-looking but everyone loved her. She could not look after herself not to talk of the thousands in our pack, but people said she would be the perfect Luna.

I hated her.

With her arrival, things started to go wrong. High society shunned me, everyone laughed at me, including my maids and strange things began to happen. My jewelry disappeared, strange holes appeared on my new dresses so I had to keep buying more, making me seem wasteful. People showed up to events in the same dresses as me despite my clothes being custom-made. Every time this happened, I confronted and blamed April.

I became the evil witch who not only stole April’s mate but constantly bullied her. The more I attacked April, the more distant Cassius became. We were engaged and with my father’s influence he was fast climbing up in life so he was forced to choose me rather than his mate and a year after our engagement, with a lot of pressure from my end, we went ahead to hold a Mating Ceremony.

My already bad reputation plummeted to the ground after that but I was happy, especially when I saw the distraught look on April’s face when Cassius and I officially became mates. To me, I won but it turned out to be a disaster. Once I mated with Cassius, he pushed me away and made it clear that he hated me.

Still, I tried to hold on to him but a year later, I was exhausted. On the night when we were celebrating Cassius’ five years as an Alpha, I decided I could no continue to bully April. I poured her a glass of wine as a sign of goodwill and a minute later, she collapsed, frothing at the mouth.

That was the end for Persephone Adelard, the wicked woman who stole someone else’s mate, bullied the innocent woman and then tried to kill her.

**

“Perse, I told you to stop going around without breakfast. Can you now see the reason?” I looked at Cassius as Lorenzo and Sylvia excused themselves. “I can’t have you dying just a week before our engagement.”

When I looked at Cassius who just entered my room, all I felt was fear. The image of him slicing my father’s neck made me shiver and close my eyes.

“I – My father –“

“The Alpha has not come to see you. He may have not heard of the incident.” Cassius gave me a pointed look but I looked away with a foreign emotion boiling in my guts.

Lies.

“If – I must go to him then. I’ll go to him since he hasn’t come to me.” I pushed out of bed.

“You shouldn’t be pestering the old man at your age, Perse –“ Cassius reached out to me but I flinched away from his touch. “Persephone,” he called my name in shock as I scrambled out of the bed and put distance between us. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He asked but I could only shake my head with a lump in my throat.

“Please, go out,” I said to Cassius and he stiffened. He opened his mouth to say something but I shook my head again. “Please.”

With one last lingering confused look at me, Cassius left my room and I burst into tears. Tears poured from my eyes like a leaky faucet as I slid down to the ground, my back against the bedframe.

I came back to life. The goddess gave me another chance at life so I must live and this time, I must live differently. I had to change the fate of the Adelards. Now, I knew better than to beg for love. In my past that could still be my future, my father died protecting me. My father who I never had a good relationship with, was the only person to stand beside me. I would not let my foolishness cost him his life this time.

“My lady, miss –“ Hannah, one of my maids, rushed into my room with her eyes taking up a large part of her face when she saw me sitting on the ground and crying. “Are you alright?” She hovered beside me.

With a silent nod, I stood, wiping the tears from my face and straightening my face.

“They betrayed you!” Sylvia’s voice from the past screamed in my ears. I shook those words out of my head.

“My lady, does your chest hurt?” She clasped my hands which I had unknowingly clutched to my chest.

It hurt.

It hurt that I died so unfairly. It hurt that my father died for nothing. It hurt that everyone turned against me, including the girl holding my hands right now. It hurt that the man I loved and sacrificed everything for had plunged a blade into my heart without remorse. Everything hurt.

But now, I would take a different path.

“Hannah?” I called the red-haired girl clasping my fist in her hands.

“Yes, miss?” She responded, eager to please.

“I will be a master worth serving to you,” I vowed.

“Miss! Of course, you are already worth serving,” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with resolve.

This girl could be bought over with a few gold coins so I ignored those false words.

 “Help me change. I’ll be paying my father a visit.”

As she prepared a dress for me, I heard her mutter to herself, ‘Do I have to flatter her a bit more?’ It made me chuckle.

 “Hannah, you will need to work on your tact if you’re to continue working for me,” I told her. “And you have one chance.”

In the past, I ignored all her excesses because I liked that she always tried to please me but while I was turning a blind eye to her faults, she was busy working for April.

 “I – I will do my best, my lady.” She bowed low.

If I was to survive this life, then I had to be smart. Smarter than April.