Chapter 2

"Why?", Rayne asked softly lying on the floor.

She was bleeding profusely from her head. She looked up at the man who was standing before her. The man she had loved deeply with all of her heart and whom she thought loved her just as much as well.

"Anthony, why? You said... you said you loved me so much, so why?", she managed to ask again, gathering all her strength.

Anthony leaned down and scoffed.

"Love you?", he asked mockingly.

"And you believed me?", he asked her with a smirk.

"What an idiot", another female voice mocked.

"You are right, she really is an idiot", Anthony agreed standing up and wrapping his hands around the other woman.

"Unlike her council", he added.

"Guess you should have listened to them, huh?", Anthony asked Rayne with an evil grin.

"When they told you not to marry me. Guess you should have listened to their advice, my queen", he mocked her.

"Wh... What?", Rayne asked, blinking her eyes in disbelief.

"Did you really think I loved you? I hate you. I hate you so much it took a lot for me not to just kill you all this time. But you were essential for my plans. You weren't at first but after I heard stories of your kindness and your naive nature, I had to see for myself. So I made a plan to meet you. You remember the accident we had when we first met? The one I saved you from?", Anthony asked her and Rayne felt more and more shocked the more she listened to him.

"Yes, that was me. I planned that accident so we could meet. And after meeting you, I saw that you were everything they said you were, kind and naive. Your naivety made you an essential part of my plan so I had to keep up the act. I had to pretend to love you", he revealed.

Tears streamed down the Rayne cheeks as she listened to him.

"And as for the love of my life....", the man said and glanced at the woman standing next to him.

"We didn't meet until you brought him into the palace", the woman spoke up.

"We immediately connected. We were more alike than the two of you. We both knew what it felt like to be living under your shadow", she said accusingly.

"Hm mh", the man agreed.

"After meeting her it was much easier for me to carry my plans against you out, she had been your friend for such a long time, she knew basically everything there was to know about you. She knew all the right things I had to say to make you fall deeply for me", he continued.

"And boy did you fall. You fell so deeply for me that you worked hard on your own to give me power without me even asking for it", he said with a smirk and began to laugh.

"How perfectly stupid", the other woman commented and joined the man in his laughter.

Rayne stared at the smiling faces of the two traitors standing in front of her and she felt a sharp pain in her chest. One was her best friend whom she had known her whole life, Sophia and the other was the man she had loved with all of her heart. She almost still couldn't believe that they would do this to her. After everything she had done for them, especially for him. She had insisted on being with him even when her council had objected and advised against it.

'He is not fit to be the mate of the Luna', they had told her. But she had turned a deaf ear to their words. She had worked actively and slowly rose his ranks, giving him more and more power and then eventually marrying him. Just this morning she had gone to discuss with her council how she could equalize their statuses. Because even though they were now married she was still higher in power than him as she was the Luna, after inheriting the position from her father, the late Alpha. She wanted to see how she could name him the Alpha, equalizing their powers. She hadn't told him of course, she wanted it to be a surprise. But she was the one who was surprised in the end.

When she came to see him after her meeting, she had walked in on a scene she never would have expected, her husband, the love of her life, with her best friend, together. She had been so shocked. She had expected them to immediately apologize, to give her an explanation and tell her that it was a mistake. She was hurt by what she saw but she knew deep in her heart that if they had apologized, begged for her forgiveness, she would have forgiven them, especially Anthony, that was how much she loved him. But none of these things happened, instead of apologizing they told her to do her worst. That they were tired of hiding anyways. She had been dumbstruck. She had immediately broken down and lashed out. In her rage she had headed for Sophia, she had just grabbed her by the shoulders when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She turned around and was shocked to see Anthony holding a knife with her blood on it, he had stabbed her. The man she loved and trusted had stabbed her.

"Although I must confess", the sound of his voice brought her back.

"Killing you now was certainly not part of my plan", he continued to speak.

'Plan....', she repeated in her head.

'What was his plan?'

"But it doesn't matter. I can still make it work, after all you already discussed making me the Alpha with your council", he said and she lifted an eyebrow in surprise.

'How did he know?'

"I must say, I am kind of thankful towards you. I wouldn't have been able to come this far in plans if it had not been for you", Anthony said with an evil smile.

"So thank you", he said and grinned devilishly.

She didn't really hear his words. As she began to slowly drift into unconsciousness, her mind drifted back to the questionable decisions she had made because he had endorsed them, how she had risked the safety of her pack for him, how she had failed her father and her pack. She regretted it all, all of it.

'If only.... If only I could have another chance.... If I could do it all over again....'

These were the words she repeated in her head, as she laid on the floor bleeding out until she slowly slipped away into the cold hands of death.