“I would never…” I tried to speak, but the words came out weak and unconvincing even to my own ears.
“Look at her,” Hazel said, pointing at me. “Look at the guilt on her face. She knows what she did.”
Did I? I touched my own face, wondering what expression I was wearing. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely control them.
Cian stepped closer to me, and the mate bond between us pulsed with his anger and disgust.
“Is this true?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous. “Did you attack your own sister to steal her place at the altar?”
“I… I don’t…” My voice failed me completely.
The crowd pressed closer, their faces twisted with outrage. I saw my father pushing through the crowd, his face gray with horror and shame. When our eyes met, he looked at me like he’d never seen me before.
“Fia,” he said, his voice breaking. “Please tell me this isn’t true.”
But I couldn’t tell him anything. My mind felt like it was fracturing into pieces. Everything I thought I remembered was being rewritten before my eyes.
Hazel moved to stand beside Isobel, who wrapped protective arms around her injured daughter.
“She always resented me,” Hazel said quietly, just loud enough for the crowd to hear. “She couldn’t stand that I was chosen to marry an Alpha while she was stuck with a sentinel.”
HAZEL
I stood at the back of the ceremony hall and watched Fia’s world crumble around her. Every confused gasp from the crowd, every horrified whisper, every accusatory stare sent a thrill straight through my chest. This was better than I’d imagined. So much better.
The bruises on my face throbbed, but the pain was nothing compared to the satisfaction bubbling up inside me. I’d done this to myself. Punched my own face against the bathroom wall until the skin split and darkened. Ripped my own dress. Messed up my carefully styled hair. Every injury was deliberate, calculated, worth it.
Fia stood frozen at the altar in my wedding dress, her face pale as death. She looked like she was going to be sick. Good. She should feel sick. She should feel every ounce of the terror and humiliation she’d put me through my entire life just by existing.
Many would be led to believe that I was the villain in her story. Like I was cruel to poor, sweet Fia for no reason. But they didn’t understand. They hadn’t watched their mother’s face crumple with shame when Father brought home his pregnant fated mate. They hadn’t been five years old and suddenly expected to call some random Omega woman their stepmother. They hadn’t watched their real mother, a proud Luna, reduced to nothing more than a discarded trophy wife.
I remembered that day so clearly. Father’s voice when he told us. Mother’s face. The way she tried to hold it together for me, but I could see the cracks forming. She’d been Luna of this pack. She’d stood beside Father for years, had given him a daughter, had done everything right. And none of it mattered because some Omega showed up along the way with a mate bond glowing between them.
The worst part was that everyone expected us to just accept it. To smile and nod and pretend everything was fine. To welcome this interloper and her parasite child into our home like they belonged there.
I’d prayed every night that they would die. That the childbirth would go wrong. That the baby wouldn’t make it. That something, anything would happen to send them away and restore my mother to her rightful place.
But Fia survived, even if her mother did not – at least not for long. She came into the world small and delicate, with big doe eyes that everyone seemed to love. Even as a baby, she drew attention. People would coo over her in Father’s arms while me and mother stood to the side, forgotten. Fia’s mother lingered for a while, her weak body and compromised immune system succumbing piece by piece to the rot. And when she finally passed, it wasn’t Father who was left alone. It was me and mother, left to raise someone else’s child under the scrutiny of a pack that no longer saw us at the forefront.
I thought maybe she’d be born a Luna. That would have been the final insult. The daughter of a mere Omega ranking beside me in the pack hierarchy. But fate had been kind in that one small way. Fia was an Omega, just like her late mother. Weak. Submissive. Below me.
Surely that would be enough. Surely my position was secure now. I was the Luna daughter. I would stay the pride of Silver Creek. I would marry well and bring honor to our pack. Fia would fade into the background where she belonged.
But she didn’t fade.
That was the thing about Fia that drove me insane. No matter what I did to her, no matter how much I tore her down, she bounced back. She had this confidence that made no sense. She was an Omega. She should have been meek and quiet and desperate for approval. Instead, she walked around like she owned the place. Like she had every right to be here.
And people loved her for it. They called her beautiful. Not as beautiful as me, obviously. I had the classical features, the perfect proportions, the elegant bearing of a Luna. But Fia had something else. This girl next door prettiness that people found approachable. Comfortable. They gravitated toward her in a way they never did with me.
I tried everything to break that confidence. I spread rumors. I excluded her from social events. I made snide comments about her and her late mother. I reminded her constantly that she was merely the daughter of the second wife, the interloper, the Omega who’d ruined my mother’s life.
Nothing worked. She just kept smiling and holding her head high and acting like she belonged. She did not even hate me for it.
Then she found her fated mate.
Milo. A sentinel. Nobody special. Just some warrior with muscles, a decent face and a ten inch cock. But he was her fated mate. The Moon Goddess herself had chosen them for each other. And suddenly Fia had something I didn’t. This cosmic connection that made her special in a way I could never be.
I’d been eighteen and mate-less while my younger half-sister paraded around with her destined partner. Do you know how that felt? Watching them together, seeing the way they looked at each other, knowing they had this bond I might never experience?
It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair.
So I decided to take him from her.
It was easier than I expected. Milo wasn’t as devoted as he pretended to be. A few lingering looks, some carefully placed touches, a suggestion that maybe the mate bond wasn’t as important as he thought. He fell right into my lap. Literally.
The sex was fine. Good, even. He definitely knew how to use what he had, and yes, the goddess Selene had been generous in that department. But the real pleasure came from knowing I’d taken something that was supposed to be Fia’s. That I’d proven her precious mate bond meant nothing in the face of what I could offer.
Still, it wasn’t enough. Milo was just a sentinel. Having him didn’t change my position or bring me any real power. If anything, pursuing him was beneath me. I needed more.
Then when I hit twenty three, Skollrend showed a sudden interest in our pack.
Alpha Cian. Everyone knew his name, knew his reputation. Cruel. Powerful. Dangerous. His pack was one of the strongest in the region. An alliance with them would mean everything for Silver Creek. It would elevate us from a struggling border pack to something with real influence.
And he wanted a bride from our pack of all places in the world.
HAZEL
Of course he chose me. I was the elder daughter, the Luna, the obvious choice. Fia already had a mate, so she was out of consideration. That, to many-including my father, was my moment. My chance to finally have everything I deserved. To become the Luna of a powerful pack and leave this place.
But it still wasn’t fair, was it? I had to settle for an arranged marriage while Fia got to keep her fated mate bond. She’d always have that over me. That cosmic connection I could never claim. Then with me as Luna of Skollrend, she would take over Silver Creek as honorary Luna.
Over my dead body.
So I took Milo away from her completely. Convinced him to reject the bond. Convinced him to run away with me, or so she thought. The plan was perfect. She’d lose her mate, I’d escape the wedding, and Cian would blame the pack for the insult. Our father would be ruined. Maybe even killed. And when the time was right, I would blame it on the obsessed Sentinel.
But then Mother came up with something even better.
She was the one who suggested using Fia as a replacement bride. At first I thought she was joking. But the more she explained, the more brilliant it became. We could set Fia up to take the fall for everything. Make it look like she’d attacked me out of jealousy and tried to steal my place. Cian would be furious. The pack would turn on her. And I’d swoop in at the last moment, injured and heroic, to save the day.
I’d still have to marry Cian, but it would be different now. He’d be grateful to me. Protective. And Fia would be destroyed in a way she could never recover from. Ever.
So I beat myself up. Split my own lip against the sink. Punched my face into the wall until the bruises bloomed dark and ugly. Tore my dress. Locked myself in a closet and waited for the right moment to make my entrance.
Watching Fia standing at that altar in my dress, her face exposed, the crowd turning on her, it was everything I’d dreamed of and more.
And now came the best part.
Father pushed his way through the crowd toward Fia. I saw the horror on his face, the shame, the desperate need to defend his precious daughter. Of course he would try to save her. He always protected her. Always chose her mother over mine.
“Wait,” Father said, his voice shaking. “There has to be some explanation. Fia wouldn’t…”
“Wouldn’t what?” Mother cut him off sharply. She moved to stand beside me, her hand on my shoulder in a show of maternal protection. “Wouldn’t attack her own sister? Look at Hazel’s face. Look at what she did.”
Father’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. He looked between me and Fia, clearly torn. Good. Let him suffer. Let him feel what it was like to have his world ripped apart by choices that weren’t his.
“Hazel,” he tried again. “Are you absolutely certain…”
“Are you seriously questioning your daughter right now?” Mother’s voice rose with indignation. “Your legitimate daughter, who has been beaten and locked away? You’re going to side with the girl… the omega who did this?”
The crowd murmured agreement. I saw several wolves nodding. Father’s face went gray.
I knew I had him. He might want to defend Fia, but he couldn’t. Not in front of the whole pack. Not when I was standing here with visible injuries and a clear story. His spine had always been weak when it came to Mother. She’d spent years making sure of that. Comeuppance for his sin of betrayal.
This was my moment. Time to seal Fia’s fate completely.
I walked forward slowly, letting my limp be visible. Every step looked painful. I’d practiced this in the closet, figuring out exactly how to move to sell the story of someone who’d been violently attacked.
Cian watched me approach. His face was unreadable, but I could feel the tension radiating off him. The mate bond between him and Fia must have pulsed in the air. I had to be careful here. Had to make sure he blamed her completely.
I stopped right in front of Fia. She stared at me with these wide, confused eyes. Like she still couldn’t process what was happening. Like she still believed there had been some mistake, some misunderstanding that could be cleared up.
“What did I do to deserve this, little sister?” I asked softly.
My voice broke on the last words. Tears welled up in my eyes, real tears because I was thinking about everything she’d taken from me just by being born. The legitimacy. The attention. The stable position in my own home. The mate bond I never got to experience.
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