Chapter 3

I moved to the garden, surprised by how I was able to glide through walls.

My first stop was with my parents. Mum and Dad clicked glasses with each other as they rejoiced.

“Freya would live, honey. I'm so happy” Mum cooed.

Dad's lips formed a thin line as he contemplated before replying to her. “I'm worried about Kira. Isn't it too extreme to place her in a silver cage?”

"We shouldn't worry ourselves over the heartless child!" Mum's reply was defiant, not too sincere, like she was fighting an inner battle.

But none of it moved me again.

They lost me in the protection of a liar like Freya.

They let her manipulate their minds and truncate their emotions.

Dad moved forward, obviously avoiding Mum's comment, and mingled with the crowd.

"We just killed the eldest daughter" I heard.

Turning toward the sound, the same assassin who killed me was seated, dressed like distinguished guests, but had a small radio in their ears with which they were communicating.

"Yes, Alpha." Their leader said. "Very soon the younger sister would step off the stage. We shall..."

He stopped, I advanced towards them, they wouldn't see me anyway.

I leaned over and heard what the latter was saying. "Ruin that celebration now! They dared to fool everyone that their youngest daughter was sick."

The killer was surprised. "Yes. That's the reason why Alpha Eden is marking her"

"Expose the younger sister's lie first" Their Alpha instructed. "I shall send you the original doctor's report about her health. Once this ceremony is ruined, Eden would desert them and we shall strike"

I stood rooted as I heard this.

Their target wasn't only me. Even Freya would die tonight?

I looked at the podium, she swung her hips happily, not showing any signs of weakness or fatigue as Eden's mark glimmered on her neck.

"I have an announcement" Eden stopped the party with a happy smile.

He was obviously too immersed in his act with her now to remember I ever existed.

"I'm pleased to inform everyone that Freya Collins shall be the future Luna of this pack." He paused, looked around before he continued. "I revoke my previous engagement with Kira Collins, in the name of the goddess"

No one gasped, or asked him why.

Freya ran to his embrace with tears of joy. “I love you, Alpha Eden”

Something felt tight in my chest.

It felt empty and hollow as if waiting for something…

“I love you too” Eden's reply suddenly dropped, filling the void.

He loved her too. Yet I didn't cry or break down.

“What happens to Kira now?” Someone from the crowd asked.

“Where is she!?” Another one asked. Eden’s smile faded, he hesitated before replying. “She was currently under arrest for attempting to murder her sister!”

Everyone gasped. The music blared even louder and enjoyment resumed like he hadn't talked.

"The Alpha has sent the doctor's report. We should act now" The men spoke.

I tried to kill Freya who caused all the misadventures in my life? Even Eden could say something like this?

I guess Kira Collins has been dead for a long time.

I stood there and watched the bad men plot my family's downfall, they set the medical reports to the large projector secretly, and informed their Alpha.

They returned to their table, under pretense.

"But why will Kira try to murder her sister? She's the Alpha’s original mate, right?” The guests asked themselves.

My mum walked through me with scripted pride. "Not allowing the Alpha to mark Freya even though the doctor's reports show that Freya would die soon is attempted murder”

"Such a selfish sister Kira is!”

"She doesn't even fit to be with the Alpha"

More compliments poured in for Freya and more curses for me.

Amidst these sympathy, the projector screen flickered to life, stopping the event abruptly.

"Who turned the projector on?"

"What's this?"

Freya and Eden stopped, her face wide with a smile.

Then the original doctor's original report filled the screen in bold letters.

"Fuck!" Freya staggered back in shock. "Turn this thing off!"

Eden squinted his eyes.

"Doctor's report?"

The guests looked at each other, everyone passing through my lifeless body, moving towards the projection.

"Why are the reports showing Negative?"

Another guest stood before the projection. "She's perfectly fine?"

The glass slid from mum's grasp. "F..Freya!?"

"What is this!" Dad's panic roar shook the room.

Freya was cornered, Eden had released her from his embrace, all the guests looking at her for answers and her easily manipulated parents losing face already.

For the first time in her life she had nowhere to run to.

Eden shook his head. Demanding with painful expressions. “What is this, Freya?"

"I can explain…”

"You lied to us?." Mum's voice trembles with sorrow. “So you weren't cursed!?”

I felt a strange sense of joy, fulfillment and accomplishment for the first time in a while.

Freya left the podium, tears rushing down. “Mum, I can…”

“Don't explain" Dad's voice had suddenly dropped low, sad and hurtful. He turned to the door. “Go and bring Kira”

The guards ran out, through my body towards the cage.

Dad's hand was shaking. I stood directly before him, close enough that if I were still alive he would have felt my breath.

"Why?" I asked, even though he couldn't hear me. "Why didn't you ever believe in me, Dad? I was your daughter too. Your first seed, before Freya, it was me!"

He looked straight through me at the door, with the kind of gaze I always pray he looked at me in the past, waiting for a daughter who wasn't coming back.

The guests began to ask, Eden's family getting furious.

“So everything was a lie?” Eden's mum came forward. “You guys lied against Kira?”

“Luna, we didn't know…” Mum tried to explain but the guards' arrival stopped her.

The guards bowed their heads. “I'm sorry, Alpha Collins”

Dad passed through my body to grab the guard. “What the fuck are you apologizing for?”

Eden bolted down from the podium.

"Where is Kira Collins! What have you done to my mate!?"

He ran past me down the corridor, his shoulder cutting straight through mine like I was air.

The guards dejectedly told them the truth. “Lady Kira is dead….!”