ACE OF HEARTS

On the night that was meant to mark our bond, my mate forced me to kneel and beg forgiveness from my older sister, Ella.

"Ella has suffered enough because of you, Alice."

I lifted my head slowly.

Victor, the future Alpha, stood before me. Tall, composed, and perfect. The man who used to look at me like I was something worth protecting. Now his gaze feels like judgment carved in stone.

His fingers brushed my neck, caressing the cold iron leash that was tightly coiled there. He pressed on one of the edges, making me choke as the needle inside slightly touched my artery.

"Give her what she deserves, Alice. Admit your mistake."

My mistake?

The marble floor beneath me was freezing, but it wasn't the cold that made my body tremble. It was the way the entire hall watched. The way silence pressed down on me, thick and suffocating, as if everyone had already agreed I was guilty.

I let out a breath that almost turned into a laugh.

"Sister Ella…" My voice came out hoarse, dry from holding back too much for too long. "I won't apologize for something I never did. Never."

For a fraction of a second, so brief I might have imagined it, Victor’s fingers stilled against the collar and his face hardened.

Then the shift was instant.

Victor struck me. A sharp crack split the air as my head snapped to the side, and pain exploded across my cheek. My body hit the marble harder than I expected. My ears were ringing, and the coppery taste of blood began to fill my mouth.

The guard yanked my head up, forcing my eyes to land on Ella. She hid behind Victor's shoulder, her face half-covered, fragile and delicate, everything I used to think I needed to protect.

But her lips... were smiling.

She... of all people in the world, shouldn't have treated me this way.

"A year ago, you let those hunters torture your own sister just because you were afraid your position as Luna's candidate would be threatened by her," Victor said, hateful threading through every word, like a story he had told himself so many times it became truth.

"And now," he added, exhaling like this was exhausting for him, “When Ella is willing to accept your apology so we can proceed with our mate ceremony peacefully… you're still being stubborn?"

I stared into Victor's silver eyes, at the man who once stood in front of me and swore that no one would ever hurt me as long as he was alive. There was no hesitation or doubt in them. There was no attempt to understand either.

My jaw tightens. "I've said it many times, I didn't do any of that."

“Still lying, I see…” His voice dipped, quieter than before. “This is your last chance, Alice.”

My lips trembled. "This is also your last chance to earn my mercy, Victor.”

"Drag her." His voice dropped, sharp now, stripped of all pretense of gentleness. "If words can't soften her vicious heart, then let the fighting ground sand comfort Ella tonight."

The guard didn't wait.

I stumbled as he dragged me backward out of the hall. My scalp was burning with every step I tried to keep up with, but failed to. If I slowed even a fraction, he pulled harder.

I didn't scream. I wouldn't give them that.

I watched my mother and younger brother stare at me with contempt. My father just stared at me coldly, his thumb stroking the surface of the bracelet on his wrist, a remote control that could at any time command the collar around my neck to strangle me, and tiny needles piercing my arteries if I tried to transform or escape.

Just... why... why did they love Ella so much? Couldn't they give me even one-tenth of the love they had for her?

My eyes went back to Ella. Her smile brought me back to a year ago. She had smiled that day, too, when she took me on an adventure to the border forest, saying she was curious about something.

It was something the pack elders had expressly forbidden, but Ella insisted. I followed anyway, because that's what I have always done to make sure nothing bad happened.

By the time we reached the deeper part of the forest, my limbs were heavy. My vision blurred at the edges.

I remember asking her what was wrong with me. I remember her not answering, and that's when she sold me to the hunter. My life, exchanged for her ambition.

She was supposed to walk away after that, back to the pack and pretend nothing happened. But hunters don't honor deals. Not with our kind. They took her too.

Because why settle for one wolf… when they could have two?

Under the dim cell lights, the hunters did things that no race could ever forgive. I... never forgive.

Several men dragged me to the center of the room and bound my hands, hoisting a rope over a wooden beam. I hung there like a goat ready for slaughter. One hunter began to skin my shoulders, laughing maniacally.. Each time my skin was regenerated, he slashed it again, and again.

Every second, there was a hell that tore at my soul.

Ella was curled up behind the bars of a dog cage in the corner of the room. When the hunter asked me if Ella would have fast regeneration, too, my whimpering voice became pleading.

“Don't touch my sister, please," I sobbed through the blood. "She can't do what I can. You won't have any fun with her. Just... please, just leave her be."

Ella's body was trembling, and her blank eyes stared at me, as if her soul had fled her body. In my naivety, I thought she felt every cut that landed on my skin and was sad for me, but...

"Not me! Torture her again! She's not that easy to kill, see! Just play with her!" Ella screamed, her fingers gripping the cage door to prevent it from opening, offering me as a sacrifice for her own safety.

On the fifth day, I managed to break through the hunters' defenses when they were careless. I carry the unconscious Ella on my back out of that hell. When the hunters were chasing us, I made a choice. I left Ella hidden in the bushes, while I ran in the opposite direction to draw them away.

I thought… that was how I could protect her. I thought that was how I could fix everything.

That was my biggest mistake.

When I returned, covered in blood, I found Ella in Victor's arms, surrounded by my parents and the patrolling pack members. She was sobbing hysterically.

"Alice sold me to the hunters!" Her voice breaks perfectly in all the right places. "She just stood there and watched them torture me! ARGH!"