2. Reborn with a splash

[Diana]

‘... before dying you asked a question to yourself — “who am I?” I am giving you a second chance to find an answer to this question. Who are you? How do you define yourself, Diana?’

I faintly heard a voice as I felt my lifeless body hovering in a cold place with darkness engulfing me.

Splash!

I woke up with a gasp. Coughing hysterically as water gushed into my nose rising to my forehead.

Panting, I looked around.

“Oh, my! Finally, she is up.” Willa, my step-mother, said.

She had a glass jar in one hand and her typical black fixed hand fan in her other hand, behind which she hid her face from her nose.

I looked at her, and her maids, baffled.

Willa shoved the glass jar in my personal maid, Vera’s hand, and hugged me, burying my face in her breasts.

My cheeks squished as she rubbed her cheeks in my hair.

“I was so worried about you, my honey bee. For once, I thought you died.”

Willa said in her exceptionally beautiful voice. Her voice was like a siren’s song and her ocean blue eyes suggested she had directly emerged from the sea.

“I thought I died too,” I said, wiping the water off my face. 

I looked around my room. I was still living in the Xenon palace. Willa was still pretending to be a caring mother…

Although I did not know which caring mother woke up their daughter, almost drowning them in a splash.

I rushed down the bed and looked at myself in the floor to ceiling mirror in my closet room.

I gaped at my sixteen-year-old self. 

“Oh my, Diana… are you ok, honey bee?” Willa asked with a honey-dripping concerned voice.

I was bruised on my face, hands and neck.

I remember now. It’s the time when we were training for the entrance to the Xenon academy. But during the physical training, Reese, my half-brother, and his friends ganged up on me and beat me till I lost consciousness. 

In the past, Willa manipulated me to believe that I was weak and that education and physical training wasn’t good for me because it wasn’t ‘lady-like.’

I lost my mother when I was an infant and right after my father married Willa, who took care of me and soon Reese was born. Willa wasn’t just the mother figure for me, I wholeheartedly considered as my mother.

But she not only prevented me from getting educated but also tricked me into making Reese the beneficiary of the properties and estates my father left in my name after his death.

After that, I saw her true colours.

I was thrown out of the Xenon palace and lived as a maid.

It was all so gradual, manipulative and subtle that I thought I deserved to be treated the way they treated me and eventually when Reese found his mate, I was accused of poisoning her and then thrown out of the pack. 

Then my step-mother tried to kill me using other rogues.

I thought being discarded from the pack was the turning point of my life, but I was wrong.

This is the turning point in my life. The day I quit my education in the fear of getting beaten up again. 

The Xenon pack was famously known as the Hidden pack because it was hidden from the rest of the world.

It had huge invisibility barriers all around it and was cut off from the rest of the world. There are strict pack rules that every member of this pack had to follow if they didn’t want to face the consequences, which could also be death.

All those rules were forsaken when Reese became the alpha of this pack.

My father. He must be alive now.

“Diana! Diana! Honey, are you ok? I am so worried about you.” Willa put her hand on my forehead. “Oh, my. You are cold.”

“That’s probably because you splashed icy water on my face, mother,” I said rather harshly.

Seeing her face now just created a bitter feeling in my chest.

I didn’t want to see her face or even hear her pathetic voice that eventually ruined my life.

I learnt how to become a lady from her and all I became was utterly weak, self-conscious, and always dependent on men. Living on their mercy.

“Oh!” she chuckled lightly. I saw her eyes change for a few seconds.

That’s right Willa, I see through your facade now.

I was so enraged that I wanted to cry.

She was the one I trusted my whole life, and where did I end up? In a brothel, selling my body to survive.

A shiver ran through my body as those pale grey eyes flashed before my eyes.

My death.

I felt those flames scorch my skin as if I was burning in them again.

Hyperventilating, I stepped away from Willa, my back pressed against the cupboard.

“Oh goddess, Diana! Diana! What’s wrong with you, baby?” Willa panicked. “Call the royal doctor immediately!” She ordered Vera, and she dashed out of the room.

Tears trailed down my eyes as I flopped on the floor.

Willa sat on the floor in front of me and pulled me into her hug.

My teeth chattered, but I pushed her away from me.

Her embrace used to be my safe place. Her betrayal hurt worse than death. Because when she wrapped her arms around me, I hugged her back tightly.

“Oh dear. She is shivering! I just wanted to wake her up. What is wrong with her?” Willa stroked my back.

Doctor Lyvia rushed into my room.

Willa helped me get up and made me sit on my bed, which was half wet now thanks to Willa.

Lyvia was thirty years old.

A woman who served me and my father until the very end.

I remember she died two months before father’s death.

Her death was as mysterious as my father’s death because some said she died in a rogue attack, while the others said that the brakes of her car failed and it fell from the cliff.

I was so happy seeing Lyvia alive again. I hugged her tightly, breaking into sobs.

Lyvia helped me relax.

I wish my father would have married her instead of Willa.

Lyvia was the second most beautiful woman in the Hidden pack.

The first will always be my mother, Arleen. 

Even when I was a kid in my previous life, I saw sparks between Lyvia and father. Lyvia was my mother’s best friend and maybe that was why my father didn’t marry her.

But I wonder why my father married Willa? She might have tricked him into marrying her. 

That sly fox.

I sneaked a peek at Willa, and she was faintly glaring at Lyvia. How the hell was I so blind to her obvious toxicity?

How did I allow a woman like her to control the course of my life?

I clenched the baby pink gown I was wearing into my fists.

“What happened, princess? Did you have a nightmare again?” Lyvia asked.

When I looked in Lyvia’s eyes, I understood the actual difference between genuine concern and fake one.

“Nightmare?” I looked at her, confused.

“Yes, sweety. You fainted and after Reese brought you back, I applied ointment to your wounds, but a whole day passed and you didn’t wake up. I thought you were having nightmares again, so I had to sprinkle water on your face to help you get up,” Willa said, forcing tears in her eyes.

Sprinkle water? I looked at my drenched bed. That was a fucking shower and the way she splashed water on my face, I almost choked to death.

“Luna, pardon me? But why didn’t you call me earlier?” Lyvia confronted Willa. “Princess could have been severely injured and those bruises look terrible. You should have called me immediately.”

Lyvia never liked Willa, and now I understand why.

But in my previous life, I didn’t like Lyvia either.

“And how was Princess Diana hurt so badly?” Lyvia frowned.

“She was practising for a physical fitness test to enter Xenon academy with Reese and his friends. It’s normal for kids to get hurt during physical practices. I told her not to go. Our fragile Diana might get hurt, but she didn’t listen…” Willa said, trying to look pitiful.

I rolled my eyes. 

Wait! One day has passed? Oh no, I had to register for the entrance exams. It means today is the last day to get registered.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“What?” Willa looked at me.

“Princess, it’s noon,” Lyvia said.

The academy closes in two hours.

I need to hurry and register for the entrance exams.

This time, I will not allow myself to depend on anyone and the first step towards independence was education, proper education.

I jumped down from the bed and ran into my closet room, signalling Vera to follow me.

Taking off my drenched clothes, I changed into a plain beige shirt and a black knife pleated above-knee skirt. I put on the black leather boots and a brown cape coat with a hood on top of my shirt. Vera tied my hair into a high and brought me my bag.

Vera was a mute. Maybe that was why Willa put her under my service. But I remember, when I was thrown out of the palace, she helped me and sheltered me in her home.

But I had been a jerk to her in my previous life. She couldn’t explain herself properly to me and because of my bad temper, I never tried to understand her.

“Diana? What are you doing, honey bee?” Willa asked. She looked completely baffled.

I walked past her, ignoring her.

If I said I was going to register for the academy, I was sure she would throw some tantrums and waste the precious two hours of my life and I would lose one whole year to start my education.

I can’t make any wrong decisions in this life.

I don’t know how I came back to life, but I know I was given a second chance, maybe by God, to relive my life and I will not waste a second of this life.

My steps halted as I stepped out of my room, just to see my father, Alpha Urza, walk towards my room.

“Diana! Sweetie!” Willa ran after me and stopped speaking when she saw my father.

I had never seen my father smile in my previous life. Today, too, his face was devoid of all emotions.

I saw a faint warmth in his eyes only when he looked at Lyvia, otherwise his gaze was so cold it could cut ice.

“Princess…” Lyvia came out too, and I felt the tension fall on the three of them.

Lyvia quickly averted her eyes after her gaze locked with my father for a few seconds.

Willa stood with her fan covering her face. Even though she faked a smile, I saw her clenched fist gracefully placed on her back.

“Alpha.”

“Alpha.”

Both Lyvia and Willa said with a bow.

My father nodded once, and they lifted their heads.

He looked at me, and then at my bag slung over my shoulders.

“Where are you going?” His deep voice came gruffly. 

I gulped and lowered my gaze.

I couldn’t lie to him, but it was always awkward when I talked to him.

Even in my previous life, I tried avoiding him and having any conversation with him as much as possible. 

It was only after his death; I realised the true worth of my father in my life.

I stiffened my body and stepped closer to him.

As a sixteen-year-old, my height was almost insignificant before his well built and muscular body.

He always had a cold aura around himself and in my previous life I saw him through Willa’s eyes, who stuffed all kinds of fear in my mind against my father.

But in reality, my father was… drop dead gorgeous. His dark eyes and hair complimented his chiselled body. If perfection was a word, it would be my father.

For the first time in two lives, I dare lift my gaze and look in his eyes.

“F-father…” I called him and I saw his eyes widen invisible inches.

That’s right, I never called him father and I regret it so much. 

Yes, he was cold to me, but I was colder to him. I used to run away from his mere sight. I regret it so much, but this time… even if I get nothing from him, I will be warm to him.

“I am going to register for the entrance exams of Xenon academy,” I said.

“What?” Willa squealed. “Honey, you are injured, and you fainted in the physical training. Exams will be tougher. What if something worse happens to my fragile bee? Honey bee, mother is so worried about you…” Willa sat beside me, holding my shoulder. 

I couldn’t lie to my father or else you wouldn’t even know about it, fox. I thought, looking at her fake tears trailing down her eyes.

I smiled at Willa and wiped off her tears, “mother, I am your strong daughter. I will pass the exams alive.” I said with an innocent smile.

“But what is the need, honey bee? You are weak and I don’t want you to end up like your mother…” she stopped as if she spoke those words by mistake, but I knew every word that dripped from her fangs was thoughtful poison she created in her head. “Oh, I am sorry… I was just… worried.”

“Take the princess back to her room and attend to her injuries,” father said and my heart dropped. “Let her rest. She is not going to the academy.”

Father said, looking at Lyvia.

Willa smiled and hugged me, kissing the side of my head. 

“Let’s go inside, honey. No need to get yourself into a dangerous environment like the Xenon academy. You will stay at home with me. Without you, mother feels so lonely,” Willa said, caressing my cheeks.

I knew it! But I didn’t know she would so skillfully attack father’s wounds to use it against me. 

The entire pack knows how madly father loved my mother.

In my previous life, I kept thinking that my father hated me because my mother became weaker after giving birth to me and eventually succumbed to death.

But right now… I saw something else in his eyes. I didn’t know what that was.

Worry about me?

Or fear of losing me like he lost my mother?

Or something else.

Whatever it was, it had very slight, almost undetectable warmth.

Willa was about to take me back to my room when I said.

“I want to attend the academy, mother. Reese can attend the academy because he is a boy, but I can’t because I am a girl? I know I am weak, mother. But… I want to become strong like my brother.”

Willa made a really strange face at my words.

I lowered my gaze, allowing the bitterness in my heart for her to flow out like tears.

“You don’t want me to go to the academy because I am a girl, right? What is the use of educating me when one day I will be married to some man and leave this pack? In the end, that’s all I will be… someone’s something.”

I sniffled. My tears were strangely not fake, but squeezed from the deepest wounds in my past. It hurt.

Willa and Lyvia looked at my father, who looked at me, shocked. 

I knew those words were far ahead of my age, but if emotional drama would get me to proper education, I wouldn’t back away from it.

“N-no… honey… that’s not the reason. It wasn’t even in my mind. I was just worried about you. You are so young and such words… my child…” Willa seemed to be out of her cunning words. 

Oh, revenge feels so great when it’s served cold. 

Lyvia sat on one knee in front of me.

She was dressed in a shirt and pants and over it was her royal green doctor’s coat with Xenon pack’s royal symbol for medicine threaded on her coat’s pocket with gold. A wolf and a snake in two larger columns of peace symbol.

“Princess… do you really wish to go to the academy so bad?” she asked.

“Yes. I want to,” I said.

Lyvia smiled and got up, looking into father’s eyes.

“Alpha. Princess’ injuries are my duty to heal and I promise I will take care of her. But if she wants to go to the academy… I think…” Lyvia couldn’t maintain eye contact with father for too long.

Father’s gaze didn’t leave Lyvia, even when she dropped her gaze to me.

He looked at me and then at his butler, who stood beside him. He whispered something to the butler, and he bowed and left.

“Do you have the documents ready for the registration for the exams?” Father asked, and I don’t know why my heart skipped a beat.

I nodded instantly.

“Ok. Come with me,” he said.

“Alpha… where are you taking Diana?” Willa asked, and I swear I would have snarled at her, but I didn’t.

“To the academy for registration,” he said in a low, composed tone.

“But is this the right time? Look at her injuries… I am worried she might faint again,” Willa said.

Thank you Willa. I was waiting for this moment.

“Lyvia can come with us!” I said, a little more excited than I should be. 

Lyvia stiffened her body, and father peered at her.

Oh God! These adults! 

I held Lyvia’s hand with a gleeful smile.

“You said my wounds were your duty. What’s wrong, Lyvia?”

She glanced at father and then forced a smile at me. “S-sure… princess.”

Father turned around and started walking. I dragged Lyvia with me. I turned around and looked at Willa, who looked completely flabbergasted. 

I waved bye to her with my hand and smiled. “See you later, mother…”

She awkwardly waved back at me and forced a smile, “be careful on the way, honey bee…”

Yeah, this honey bee will carefully sting you out of my father’s life.

The smell of the fire burning behind her smile was so satisfying. But I knew she wasn’t someone who would accept a defeat.

I have to be ready for worse things to come from her, especially in the academy. She was the luna of the pack after all. She held much more power than me.

Waking up with a rough splash on the face had never been this satisfying.