Chapter 4

Bella's POV

Cold water drained down my hair, forcing me awake from my slumber.

I lifted my head weakly and found Peony standing before me, her expression murderous. Her teeth were clenched tightly, her eyes burning with undisguised intent. If looks could kill, I would have been dead a long time ago.

“What do you want, Peony?” I managed to ask, surprised by the courage in my voice to question her, courage I hadn’t possessed for years.

For as long as I could remember, I had behaved like her servant. I walked on eggshells around her, shrinking myself so I wouldn’t provoke her anger. I learned to stay silent just to avoid Father’s punishments.

But right now, none of that mattered.

Being docile had only taught them one thing which was that I was disposable. A living stain on their family name.

“Did you know,” she said suddenly, her lips curling, “that it was Father who had your mother killed?”

Her words struck me, i slowly raised my head to look at her, confusion flooding my mind. What was she saying? My mother had died in a fire.

How was Father responsible for that?

As if reading the disbelief on my face, Peony laughed.

“He sent rogues to set the hut she was staying in on fire,” she continued casually. “He wanted both of you dead to preserve his reputation. But you survived, and he was forced to bring you into our home. Did you really think you deserved to live after bringing nothing but shame and embarrassment to this family?”

Her voice faded into noise as my mind began to scream.

My mother hadn’t died in an accident but had been murdered.

As the truth shattered me from the inside, a sharp pain tore through my body. A knife slid into the side of my stomach, ripping a cry from my throat as warm blood spilled down my skin.

“Jaxon is getting mated to you this evening,” i said calmly as she watched me bleed.

“He’s even going to mark you as his Luna, just like you always wanted.”

“Why?” I whispered, tears blurring my vision as pain burned through me.

“Why, Peony?”

As if her answer could somehow make sense of the knife still buried in me and why she had always hated me.

“You don’t deserve to live, Bella,” she hissed. “Not as my stepsister. Not even as Jaxon’s mate!”

She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper.

“Sadly, I can’t kill you. Jaxon would suspect me. So I came up with something better.”

A devilish grin spread across her face as she turned to leave the cell.

“She’s just an omega" Peony said to the guards outside. “She should have passed out by now and won’t wake until you’re out of the pack. Sell her to the rogues my father contacted and see to it that she's taken to a brothel. They’re waiting outside.”

She paused, her voice dripping with cruelty.

“That way, when Jaxon realizes she’s missing, she’ll already be a broken thing. A prostitute in some filthy motel, forced to please men for the rest of her miserable life.”

She walked away, satisfied.

She didn’t know I had heard every whisper.

I was in pain.

Not just from the stab wound Peony had inflicted, but from the beatings Jaxon had ordered his men to give me earlier. Every inch of my body throbbed, yet somehow, I didn’t pass out. My weak omega body was healing, painfully slowly, but it was healing nonetheless.

That alone shocked me.

I was still conscious, despite being stabbed with a poisoned knife. It was almost impossible for anyone to survive.

When I heard the servants approaching my cell, I forced my eyes shut. They would be taking me out of the pack to sell me, just as Peony had planned. I let my body go limp as they lifted me, pretending unconsciousness as they stuffed me into a sack.

The fabric pressed tightly against my face, suffocating and stealing my breath. Still, I endured it.

I held myself still, ignoring the burning in my lungs, ignoring the blood soaking into the sack as the servants carried me away.

The sharp, rhythmic sound of drums can next, causing my heart to clench.

Without needing anyone to tell me, I knew we had left the dungeons. Jaxon and Peony were getting mated tonight after all.

“What is that you’re carrying?” a voice suddenly demanded.

My body froze.

Inside the sack, I struggled not to breathe too loudly nor give myself away. Fear crawled into my throat.

Right now, the only thing that mattered was getting out of this pack alive and having my revenge on all these enough ruined my life.

I began counting in my head, praying silently that the servants would come up with a convincing lie for the guards who had stopped them.

When the sound of the drums faded behind us, I relaxed slightly knowing that we were out.

Peony must have planned to use the coronation ceremony as a distraction to get me out unnoticed. But Jaxon who was ever desperate to maintain control, had stationed warriors everywhere.

“Where are they?” one of the voices asked sharply.

Panic surged.

I clawed at the inside of the sack with my nails, desperation fueling me as my chest tightened.

If only I had my wolf.

If only I weren’t wolfless, I would have torn through the sack without effort. But I wasn't.

As my vision began to blur from lack of air, a loud noise suddenly rang out,followed by a scream.

My body jolted.

The sack was ripped open violently, cool air rushing into my lungs as I gasped desperately for breath.

Standing before me was Sumi.

“Are you alright, Bella?” she asked urgently as I sucked in air, coughing, shaking.

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” I forced the questions out of my mind all at once, my thoughts tumbling over themselves as I stared at her in disbelief. How had she known?

“I overheard what Peony told you earlier at the cell and decided to keep watch. We need to go, Bella. We can’t keep talking instead of escaping,” Sumi responded, her voice sharp but laced with urgency.

I forced myself to stand, but my legs wobbled under me, weak and trembling from the beatings Jaxon’s men had rained on me earlier. My side ached in a hot, sharp line from Peony’s knife, blood soaking through my clothes, dripping down like slow betrayal.

“Go, Bella. I’ll stall them while you get far. We can’t go together,” Sumi whispered when she noticed how hard it was for me to walk.

I shook my head in disbelief. She was the gamma’s wife, yes, and powerful—but she was alone. Alone against a dozen servants Peony had sent with me. Even with the strongest wolf, how could she fend them all off?

Was she planning to return to the pack after this? I could see the bruises covering her body, dark and angry like a map of the abuse her mate had inflicted, the same mate who had marked her, broken her, yet she stood to help me anyway.

“No, Sumi. We need to leave together,” I whispered again, shaking my head fiercely. I refused to let her fight alone. She had never abandoned me before, not when my world had collapsed under Jaxon’s cruelty. Why would I let her do it now?

Before I could think of what else to say, a sharp, aggressive push slammed into my back.

I fell face-first, tumbling over the edge of a cliff I hadn’t noticed.

“Mo!” I gasped, reaching desperately for the roots and rocks that jutted out from the cliffside, my fingers scrabbling for roots but none held.

I rolled helplessly, out of control, the air whipping past my face as the sound of Sumi’s grunts echoed behind me, fuel and terror blending into one.

Then I plunged into moving water.

Sumi’s agonized scream pierced the air, and my chest tightened. I struggled to stay afloat and reach her, but the current was stronger than my arms, dragging me down as panic clawed at my lungs.

I thrashed, desperate, until the air left me and I was sinking, believing my death was imminent. My eyes shut tight, anticipating the end, and for a moment, I thought all her sacrifices had been in vain.

I opened my eyes when a scent hit me. My eyes shot open, and in the darkness, I struggled to focus. I couldn’t tell whether I was alive or already in the next world.

The scent grew closer and slowly, I shifted my gaze to my side. Two large, bulging eyes glowed in the darkness. My chest froze as I realized they were Lycan eyes.

How had I come to their cursed lands? My mind raced as the darkness pressed in.

A voice cut through the night before I could even think of anything else.

“Run, Bella Popovski. Run!”

The words froze me, chilled me to the bone.