To be abandoned by the one I call fiancé at our engagement ball, so publicly, was so embarrassing I wanted to die on the spot.
I ? An alpha Queen ?
Abandoned ?
I could hear their whispers.
"I mean, who would want to marry her?" they whispered.
"Didn't she kill her own parents?" another whispered.
"Didn't she turn her own sister into a slave?" another scoffed.
Their judgmental gazes burned into my soul, and my heart throbbed in pain.
"Didn't she destroy the Rage Pack who terrified the east?" someone added with a chuckle.
"That's why she's called the villainess."
"Everything around her dies!"
"Should we even be at this ball? Isn't it a myth that her family is cursed and in every generation there is one with the active curse?"
"She seems to be the chosen one for the most deadly reason," another whispered.
"If we stay here she will suck the life out of us. Let's find an excuse to leave. No one will risk their life to dance with her."
My nails cut into my flesh.
"If not that she was crowned by His Majesty the Emperor Alpha and this wedding was blessed by him, I wouldn't dare attend!" another sneered.
Even after all my hard work, people still saw me as poisonous and deadly. Is it my fault that these coincidences happen around me?
I was about to run out of the room when his hand came into view. I raised my eyes and my heart stopped. His eyes were like glass mirroring my soul.
I was enchanted, drawn to him. I didn't know when I took his hand and began to dance. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was intoxicated, like a dream I didn't want to end.
Wrapped in his scent, his breath, his words, his face. He was beautiful , so beautiful that the whispers around me changed and my heart stopped hurting.
"Wow! Who is he?"
"He's so handsome!"
"He's even more beautiful than the beautiful alpha," another whispered.
Suddenly I felt it, a bond, and my body turned to stone as he said, "Mate!"
I froze, pulling out of his grasp, and I turned my back on him. "I reject you."
I could feel the pain from what I had just said in his heart.
Because our hearts were connected.
Then I turned and crushed his rose. "I reject you as my mate."
I will never, probably never, see a more hurt look in another's eyes in this lifetime.
He walked away briskly. My whole body reacted to the rejection; my wolf was going crazy. "What are you doing? You dare to betray me? I've given you everything you've ever wanted, yet you deny me my mate?"
"Damn you, Eren! You are terribly cruel! You really are a villainess!" my wolf screamed at me, so much that I couldn't bear the rest of the ball and retired to my chambers early.
How dare he?
Someone with such a lowly reputation approach me as a mate?
The utter audacity!
A good-for-nothing omega male, barely ranked, walked up to me and almost ruined my master plan at my engagement ball!
Him? My mate?
I scoffed. The goddess surely must be joking. Thankfully, the moon goddess was brilliant enough to spare me the humiliation.
I scoffed again as I admired the white wedding dress. The dress was art itself.
Made by the finest designer in China, it was extremely hard to purchase, as the fashion designer only made one selected wedding dress a year.
Although she lived in the human realm and was extremely difficult to contact, I had to wait for the eclipse to open a portal into her realm so I could meet her personally.
After all, she valued sincerity over money. I sighed, watching as my maid combed my hair. Suddenly, the comb tangled in my hair, pulling slightly.
I felt her halt; her breath hitched at her mistake. Our eyes met in the mirror. I whirled around, striking my palm against her cheek.
She stumbled, bumping into the other maid. They fell to the ground. Her bottle of jasmine oil spilled, some drops staining my feet.
"You stupid, good-for-nothing omega! Lately, it seems you have all forgotten your place!"
"Forgive me, Your Highness," they exclaimed simultaneously on their knees.
This marriage was making me very irritable. I knew marriage to this alpha was against everything I believed in.
But my pack's resources were vastly depleting. Our lands barely produced any crops, and our trees were dying. The pack was highly vulnerable as reproduction had vastly reduced among the female lycanthropes.
I don't know if it's the so-called royal curse rumored to be upon my family that could be the cause. Which is why I needed this marriage. Matthew, the Alpha of the Lunar Pack, was vastly wealthy and powerful. Their kingdom was overflowing with prey, land, and gold. Just what my pack needed.
The doors to my chamber opened, and my identical twin sister, Eldora, stepped in.
Our gaze met. Her lips curled into a deceitful smile. "Your Highness," she bowed.
"Eldora, I suppose you must have something vastly important to tell me if you are hell-bent on disturbing my rest," I sneered. Let's be honest, I didn't like her.
That there was someone who had a resemblance to me was irking, but to have the exact same features was just absolutely infuriating.
So I avoided her mostly. Plus, she was unnervingly nice, gentle, and kind, like she could never hurt a fly.
What the fairytales would call the perfect princess, and I, the evil twin sister. I scoffed at the thought, realizing the maids were still busy gathering the broken pieces of the jasmine jar.
"Get out, all of you!" I snapped, annoyed at their sluggish behavior.
They scurried off, and I moved to my large king-sized bed with its mahogany frame.
"You don't have to be so hard on them, you know," Eldora pitched in, and I scowled at her.
"If you have nothing better to do than pity servants, then please excuse yourself from my chambers," I said, sitting on the soft bedsheets, waiting for her to leave.
She suddenly brought out a small pouch from her pocket. "I brought you a snack," she beamed at me. My lips pressed into a thin line.
"Is this another attempt to poison me? I bet you would be happy if I suddenly choked to death on the night before the wedding?" I said venomously, and she huffed.
"Not everyone is attempting to harm you! You are paranoid for no reason!" Eldora said in a voice so calm it made me increasingly furious.
I glared hard at her. "Are you saying your queen is mad?"
She went on her knees and used her hair to wipe my feet. "I wouldn't dare."
"Prove it." I cornered her, enjoying this exact position where she was.
Beneath me.
At my feet.
Her blue gaze met mine; a betraying green kissed her iris.
No one else would notice the subtle difference. You would have to look hard at both of us to know. My eyes had no green.
"Worship my feet," I instructed, my face expressionless, wondering if she would defy me.
Her lips touched my feet. "You are my queen."
I beamed in satisfaction and rose to my feet, stretching my hand to her. "Sister, do rise. We are family; don't do this." I said, helping her up as she took my hand.
My gaze fell on the maid at the far corner of the room. She scurried over with a bowl, and I washed my hands.
All the while, I and my sister stared at one another. An uncanny reflection in her eyes.
"Take her gift," I said to my maid.
She took the gift from my smiling sister as I sat on the bed again.
The maid stood holding the cake. "Eat it," I ordered, and the maid hesitantly took a bite.
"Thank you, sister. The cake is wonderful," I said to her, wondering if she would finally show her true colors.
Instead, she bowed. "I'm grateful that you enjoyed it. It was my last wish before your wedding. You are truly kind."
Disdain filled my stomach like a pit. "Goodnight, sister."
She turned and left without looking back.
The morning came fast, and the pack was buzzing with activities. The maids helped me into my dress. I was pleased with the final look.
The sun was high up in the clouds, the sky clear as I looked out my window.
Maybe marriage wasn't so bad, I thought as my gaze suddenly met his.
My mate.
He stood there at the bottom of the castle.
I could see the raw pain in his eyes, knowing I wouldn't be his.
I could never be his.
I scoffed, wrinkling my nose like I smelled something nasty.
Mostly because I loathed him.
"Sister, it is time." I heard Eldora's voice. She was my only surviving family. It was only proper for her to be my bridesmaid.
My stomach twisted the more I stared at him from above. I couldn't believe it. I was nervous.
My mouth was dry, and my wolf howled in agony for denying her the one she belonged to. "Go to him," she urged me.
"I will not," I argued with her.
"You cannot do this to me. I will never forgive you." She growled furiously.
"Forgiveness will not save my people," I said sternly.
"Hurry up, Your Highness. We will be late for the wedding," Eldora urged me.
Gathering my courage, I turned and walked right into her blade.
My sister hugged me for the first time in eighteen years. I hadn't noticed we were alone in the room.
"I wish it could be different, sister," she whispered as pain pierced my heart and tears filled my eyes.
Her spare hand yanked the crown from my head. As I struggled to catch my breath against the blade in my chest, I howled in pain. It was no ordinary blade—it was silver soaked in wolfsbane.
My eyes roamed all over her form. Her hair styled like mine. Her dress just like mine. Her eyes were like mine.
Blood now soaked my dress. I tried to speak, and blood spilled from my mouth. "H-how d-dare you!"
She pushed the blade until I backed up against the window. She grinned like a creep. "Finally, sister, finally the throne will belong to its rightful heir," she whispered.
"H-how c-could you…" I choked in agony. "Y-you're my s-sister."
She burst into laughter. "Oh, please! Spare me the antics. Die, sister, like you were always meant to, right from the belly," she whispered and pushed me from the window.
I was falling.
Like lightning from the sky.
I tried to turn, but I couldn't hear my wolf anymore. I was losing consciousness.
As I closed my eyes in death, the last thing I saw was his face.
The face of my mate. The omega I rejected.