Four

Tears flowed freely from Anastasia’s eyes; she couldn’t believe how she had not ran out. She didn’t know how she left the pack house noiselessly without screaming, she felt completely detached from her body.

Her paws padded against the forest floors leaves crunching as she ran over them. Her wolf howled in distress and pain of loss. Anastasia knew she was troubling the forest but didn’t care, she howled louder.

Her best friend who she trusted with her life was just sleeping with her mate to be. The betrayal was simply just too much. Elizabeth had been smiling at her, laughing with her, cooking for her and caring about her only for it to be fake. 

She let out another sorrowful howl, she had no physical wounds to lick. The internal wounds hurt much worse.

Since they didn’t even notice her presence, they were embracing each other. She made up her mind. She would not go through the mating and be miserable and used for the rest of her life.

Anastasia approached a stream and stared at her wolf in the moonlight. It was very dark brown with a streak of white. Fat drops of tears fell into the stream causing it to ripple. 

This place was her safe space, where she comes to think when overwhelmed. Right now she couldn’t think, she couldn’t even breathe. She wanted to ignore the pain in her chest but she couldn’t possibly ignore it.

Anastasia looked up to the moon and howled. She prayed to the moon goddess for guidance. Particularly, ever since she was little she had always felt attached to the moon goddess and found it awesome that she had a crescent shaped birthmark on her shoulder.

 A little relief flowed through her, thanking the moon goddess she made herself to her house.

Twigs and leaves stuck from her hair as she entered her house barefoot. Her parents were waiting for her. She really didn’t want to deal with them at the moment.

Her mother began to scold her but froze when she saw her state. Anastasia knew her state was very sorry. Her hair was in disarray, her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her dress was dirty. She looked like a hot mess.

“What happened?” her father said breaking the silence in the quiet room. She stared at them emotionlessly.

“I’m not mating with Philip. I’ll never mate with him.” She said with a growl.

“This again? I already told you that you have no choice in this. Its your duty to the pack.” Her mother scolded re-tying her night robe tighter.

“I have a choice and my answer is NO!” Anastasia yelled. Tears from nowhere started streaming down her face again. She didn’t want to cry in front of her parents so she quickly wiped them away. They calmed down a little seeing it as one of her tantrums.

“What did you do?” her father asked in a bored tone.

Anger boiled her red blood. ‘What did she do?’ how dare they ask her what she did. Before she could stop herself words flew out of her lips. She had no control over them.

“What did I do?!!! I have done nothing!!! I have done everything you guys have asked and what did I get in return. My best friend is in bed with my supposed mate.” She ended the 

sentence with a near shout shaking in anger. Her parents probably have never been spoken to like that before. 

She wanted to see the anger and shock on their faces. When she met their eyes all she met was guilt. It hurt her more than she was already hurting.

The parents looked guilty as she stared at them. She couldn’t believe it.

“You knew.” She whispered almost not believing it. Her parents knew her best friend was sleeping with her supposed mate. Who else knew except her? Was she really that gullible?

“You knew all this time and you still want me to mate with that man.”

“you will not address your Alpha that way Anastasia. You really have no choice in this. You have to mate with Alpha Philip, it is your destiny. Its what you were born to do.” Her mother said, clearing her throat. She scoffed at the words coming from her mother’s mouth. She couldn’t believe how delusional they were to think she would still mate with Philip.

“How can you do this to your very own daughter? How can you give me up to a man I barely know, a man that wants to use me and drain the life out of me? A man who doesn’t love me.” she asked genuinely. Her voice cracking at the end of her sentence. She wanted to know why her parents felt they could do this to her if they really loved her.

Anastasia stared at them waiting for them to answer. They looked really uncomfortable. She felt utterly useless. Was she really that hard to love? She had done everything they wanted, all she wanted was a little parental love. The parents were a beautiful robot couple. Completely and utterly emotionless.

The silence stretched on. Her parents seemed to be silently communicating with each other. Betrayal washed over her again. First the entire pack, her best friend and now her parents’ were keeping things from her. She had enough.

Just as she was about to storm out of the room. Her parents dropped a bombshell on her. It caused her to question everything she knew and more.

“You are not our real daughter.”