3. Fabricate her results

[Diana]

Father’s Excalibur was waiting for us near the entrance of the palace. The black and silver beauty that spoke of royalty and wilderness. Cars always enticed me in the past, but father’s Excalibur allured me. 

I sat on it once when I had to accompany my father for a medical checkup in the past.

Hal, father’s butler, opened the door for me.

I got in the back seat with Lyvia and my father sat in the passenger’s seat. Hal started the car.

Tingles of excitement ran through my body as I watched Hal deal with those buttons, gears and steering wheel. It was so cool; it made my heart flutter.

Lyvia smiled at me. “Princess seems to like cars.”

“I love them!” I gave her an excited smile.

I felt my father’s gaze on me through the driver's mirror. He swiftly shifted his gaze on the road ahead when I glanced at him in the mirror.

Soon, we reached the academy.

The academy was basically a gothic castle in shades of white, grey, brown and black aesthetics. The Xenon academy had been an academic hub of our pack for centuries. 

My father had graduated from the same academy.

My great grandfather added a rule to our pack rules that girls and boys would be given equal opportunities and that no discrimination shall be made between them. Ever since that day, Xenon academy had started accepting girls, even though the ratio of girls actually sent by their families to study was lower than the boys.

The huge iron main gate opened up as soon as father’s car neared the school. Hal drove inside the precinct and stopped in front of the castle’s entrance.

Hal opened the door for Lyvia and father opened the door for me.

He didn’t show much expression, nor did he talk much, yet those small actions felt warm.

Should I hold his hand? I thought, then shook my head. 

No way. Until I have a death wish.

The three of us stood, peering at the building. I was standing in between the two of them. 

Father looked at Lyvia and then at her doctor gown.

“I think it’ll be better if you remove the doctor’s coat on the school campus,” father said.

“Y-yeah. Yes, alpha,” Lyvia panicked and fumbled out of the coat. But then she had no idea what to do with that coat.

“Give it to Hal. He’ll keep it until we return,” father said.

Embarrassed and flushed, Lyvia nodded, licking her lips and gave the coat to Hal, who accepted it with upright posture and a slight bow.

Lyvia corrected the creases on her white shirt and stood beside me.

I never paid attention to how perfect Lyvia’s body was, but now I see why my father had a hard time taking his eyes off her.

Her amber eyes with those lush eyelashes were like the sun's eclipsing every time she blinked. Her lips were plump and thin with a naturally pink tint.

Her brown hair with soft curls was tied proudly in a high ponytail, revealing her sharp jawline and neck. Her shirt flowed frivolously over her breasts, waist, and hips, revealing her voluptuous cleavage and curves.

Her pants gallantly flowing from her hips to her black closed toe wedges highlighting her height.

I glanced at my father, whose eyes lingered on Lyvia’s dropped gaze as if he was searching for something in them.

I chuckled, gaining father’s attention and froze immediately. 

When Alpha himself enters the academy, does his daughter need to do a job on her own?

No. Not at all. The staff members completed all the formalities for my registration.

Now the only thing left was giving the entrance exams and the physical fitness and combat tests.

Father was having a private meeting with the staff and the principal of the academy. 

While I was with Lyvia in the infirmary at the academy. 

“Does it hurt?” she pressed the bruise on my face.

“No. I am fine,” I said, swinging my legs as I sat on the bed.

She applied the ointment to my bruises. “Princess, tell me honestly. Who gave you these wounds?”

“Reese and his friends. They asked if I wanted to prepare for the physical fitness tests with them, and I agreed. I thought it would be a one-on-one match, but Reese and his friends attacked me together,” I said.

As innocent and clueless as I sounded, I knew how important it was to tell elders who genuinely cared about me about what was happening with me.

In my previous life, I told everything to Willa, and she always covered up for her son and gaslighted me.

That wasn’t happening this time. 

Lyvia let out an angry sigh. I could see rage redden her face. 

“Princess, I know you don’t like me… but if anything like this happens in the future. Tell me, ok? I-I… I really care about you…” she said, gulping. Her eyes nervously flickered, waiting for my response.

I could understand why she was so nervous. I never treated Lyvia well. I blamed her for not being able to save mother because that’s what Willa made me believe. 

I was so ashamed of myself. I nodded, lowering my gaze.

“Lyvia… I am sorry…”

She raised her brows in confusion, “for what, princess?”

“For blaming you for something that wasn’t in your control,” I said, hesitantly.

Lyvia gaped at me blankly. I saw a glint of tears in her eyes. She gave me a sad smile and finished attending to my wounds.

She went out while I rested in the infirmary.

So what am I going to do now?

I have to monitor Willa and Reese because I have a gut feeling that they were the reason for Lyvia’s accident and my father’s untimely death. But what did they do?

I have to get them out of my father’s life. But how do I do that?

No. One step at a time. First, I need to pass the entrance exams and physical tests. 

And the most important thing, I have to stay away from Devon. I know he is my mate and I also know what storm I brought into his life by associating with him, so in this life I will stay away from him.

I want him to stay safe, and I wish the same for the Wenos pack.

Meanwhile, I will have to monitor the Jupitus pack and remain miles away from that tyrant.

Just thinking about him turned my bones cold.

But before any of that, I need to gather strength and my independence.

*****

I fell asleep thinking about everything I needed to do.

It had been an hour since Lyvia left and father wasn’t back either. I jumped down from the bed and was about to head out of the infirmary when I heard Lyvia’s voice.

“Prince Reese and his friends ganged up on Princess Diana. Her injuries aren’t that bad this time, but you have to do something about it. They were clearly bullying her. She is a kid, she wouldn’t understand, but…”

“Lyvia, calm down,” father’s deep voice increased the gravity between them. “Did she tell you that?”

“Yes. Alpha…”

“Don’t worry, I will take care of this myself… my way,” father said.

“T-thank you,” Lyvia said, lowering her gaze.

“She is my daughter. I should thank you.”

Lyvia nodded, lowering her gaze. She placed her hand in her back pocket, licking her lips.

Father contemplated her as an awkward silence hovered around them.

My father cleared his throat, breaking that silence. “Is she sleeping?” 

“Y-yes… the medicine’s effect.”

Father nodded. 

“Should I wake her up?” Lyvia asked, taking a quick glance into my father’s eyes.

“No. No need. I will get her myself.”

Father walked past her and I was about to run back to the bed and pretend to be asleep when Lyvia said.

“She finally called you father…”

“Hmm,” he said, and I heard his footsteps approach. 

I dashed back to the bed, almost crashing against it and jumped up on it before father entered the infirmary.

I felt my father stroke my hair gently. I wanted to see his face, but I couldn’t open my eyes. He picked me in his arms carefully and walked to the car.

Something like that had never happened in the past. The only barrier between me and my father was Willa.

Not even a day had passed when I destroyed that barrier and opened up a little to him and I had already seen sides of my father I couldn’t see in twenty years of my previous life.

My head was resting on my father’s firm chest as he gently wrapped his arm around me like a seatbelt. We were in the back seat of the car. It was a really foreign sense of security I felt at that moment.

I heard the door on the passenger seat open.

“Sit on the back seat,” father’s voice came out more like an order and Lyvia sat beside me on the back seat.

I felt Lyvia’s strong yet gentle hands stroke my hair.

“Should I carry her?” Lyvia asked.

“No, let her be,” father said… warmly.

I just hoped I wasn’t there, in between them, third wheeling.

*****

I had registered for the entrance exams, but I had to qualify it to get admitted into the Xenon academy.

The exams were tough. The physical tests and combat were even tougher and since I quit my studies early in my past life, I would not get any help from my past experience.

I had to start from zero. I was worried about how I would do that, but…

“They will tutor you for the exams. If you need mentors for any subject, art form or if you don’t like any of them… let me know… I will get you new mentors,” father’s threatening gaze sent a wave of shudder in the train of mentors standing in my room.

The exams were in a month, so I was grateful that he hired those mentors for me. I needed them… a lot.

Father transferred the parents of all Reese’s friends near the borders, so they had to shift to the other side of the pack and Reese was left all alone.

Father made him recite and write the pack rules hundreds of times, where it was clearly mentioned that a man must respect a woman and protect her and harm her in no case. Also that if there was a duel or combat, one must make sure it’s fair. 

There were hundreds of rules based on fair play and treatment of women. So, I could only imagine what torture Reese went through and this time Willa could neither cover up for him nor protect him like before.

My days were tightly scheduled, and the mentors prepared me essentially for the entrance exams. It was like a crash course where they taught only what was necessary for the exams.

But even in that Willa found ways to cancel my classes and waste my time by raising random situations that ate up my time which could be used for my physical training.

I knew she wouldn’t give up easily, but I would not give up either.

Physical tests didn’t work on crash courses. I had to learn them from the basics. There was no other way, and I knew my father wouldn’t pull strings because he was bound by the rules of the pack, one of which was — never sort to the wrong means.

Accidents kept happening while I trained for the tests.

Sometimes the machines I was training with would malfunction, sometimes I would get hurt even when I was being careful. One time, the swords I was practising with broke, almost piercing my eyes. And once the guns I was practising with heated dangerously.

If I was the Diana from the past, I would have been frustrated to my soul and quit right away. I would spend my days remaining in my comfort zone and never growing stronger.

But I couldn’t afford to be that Diana anymore.

It was thanks to my skilled mentors I was never hurt badly. But I frequented Lyvia’s clinic a lot, almost every day. It was a good thing because I got closer to her and she smiled more often around me as I recited my day to her.

I knew she reported everything to father, so because of me, they got some private time together as well. I wanted them to get closer.

I knew it was all Willa’s doing, but I used that to my advantage this time. 

Willa didn’t want me to get a proper education, but why though? What could she get if I wasn’t educated properly?

The alpha throne was Reese’s anyway. There has been no female alpha in the history of our pack. So, why?

Finally, the day of my written exams arrived. It was a three-hour paper including multiple-choice questions, on-liners and essay type questions.

The bones in my hands were aching from writing the paper. But I did well. I knew I would pass the written exams. But the main problem was the physical and combat tests that were to happen one week later, once the results of the written exams were declared.

I was scared that Willa would do something during my physical tests, but…

“Princess Diana has to fail the written exam… fabricate her results or whatever... she cannot enter the academy...” I heard Willa talk to someone.

I wondered why she came to the academy on the written exams where she couldn’t even cheer Reese up. She was there to pull me down.

My whole body turned cold hearing those words.

My heart raced as I tried to see who she was talking to. I covered my mouth with my hands as my eyes widened. It was one of my maths mentors, Fin.

“Don’t worry, luna. Princess Diana will not make it to the physical tests…” Fin said. “She is weak in mathematics, anyway. No one will doubt.”

I gingerly stepped back and dashed through the corridors. I covered my head, finding an isolated balcony.

“What should I do now? If I don’t pass the written exam even by one mark, I will not be eligible to give the physical tests. Damn it!”

My heart palpitated in my chest. 

“I worked so hard…” I punched the balustrade. “No… I will not let her succeed…”

Should I tell my father about it? No. I don’t have any proof to back my accusation against the luna of the pack and the most respected teacher. Without proof, I will only end up making a fool of myself.

This could backfire. One wrong step and Fin can easily blacklist me. I am a sixteen-year-old clueless princess, anyway. Who would trust me?

And my image in the pack isn’t that great either. Back then, I was cold and rude to everyone around, so people shunned me without hesitation after my father's death. I had to improve my image too.

“Oh God! I was a disaster and a complete idiot!”

But how do I stop him from manipulating my results in one week?

My head was hurting badly.

Should I talk to Lyvia?

“UGH!” I kicked the balustrade in frustration.

“Unless you are trying to either break your leg or the castle’s only silent spot, you shouldn’t be kicking a public property like that,” I flinched at the voice and turned back with a jerk.