Chapter 2

Selena's POV 

A piercing scream sliced through the night's chill air and it took a moment for me to realise that I was the person screaming. The rejection rendered my heart into pieces and I felt the pain like it was something physical. My wolf howled and thrashed, mourning the loss of her soul mate, her better half.

White hot pain streaked through me as I could feel the bonds snapped. The loss of something visceral overwhelmed me as I let out a mournful keening.

“Stop her, she's making such a dreadful scene.” I could hear someone say but it was like trying to hear underwater. Something hard and fast slammed into me, the shock and the physical pain of the impact jolting me out of my daze.

I looked around wildly, my gaze catching my father's whose hands were raised again as if to strike me again. For a moment, all I could hear was the ringing in my ears as I stared at the man I had called father for the past 18 years of my life.

The fact that they preferred Serena over me was very obvious in the difference between the way we were individually treated, I was the mistake, the one they wished never existed but never had my parents laid a hand on me.

I knelt on the soft grass, quietly gaping at my father. My body felt the blow but my heart refused to believe that he had struck me.

Roland let out a quiet growl, eyes flashing yellow as his wolf tried to come out to protect his mate but that was only for a brief moment as he wrangled control back from his wolf, ending his growl with a fake cough.

It was probably a mistake but it renewed the hope that was slowly dying in me. It was no use though as his next words cut through me like a blade to paper.

“This is for the best Selena, don't make a scene.” His words were said quietly but also firm.

I grasped his hand tightly, “Please…..please Roland, I'll do anything. I'll start going to the gym, I'll train harder, I'll go on a diet! Just please…..don't do this, don't hurt me this way.” I rested my head on his hand I was still clinging to, tears rolling down my cheeks in fat drops.

He ripped his hand from me like it burned, “You could die and be reborn again but it still wouldn't change the fact that I am in love with Serena, not you.” He said ‘you’ like I was something lower than filth, disgusting. 

I crawled to him, sobbing almost hysterically, “But I'm your mate! The goddess paired both of us together for a reason, I'm your other half!”

He rolled his eyes, scowling like I had insulted him, “then I must have done something to offend the goddess in my past life because you're worse than a mistake, being mated to you is a punishment.”

I turned to my sister, the one who had always defended me, the most important person to me, “Serena….”

She winced, her eyes softening, flashing with regret, and then hardening with a hint of something smug as she stood beside Roland, “Selena, the thing is Roland and I have actually been dating for three weeks now.”

The ground fell away from me, leaving me off balance, “What?” I asked faintly, softly. My gaze zeroed into their clasped hands, “Serena, this is no time to joke!”

“It's not a joke twin sister, Roland and I have been together for three weeks. Both of our parents knew about it, we kept it a secret in case any of our mates were going to be obstacle but I haven't found my mate and Roland's mate is….Well, you.”

“I have loved him since our childhood, Serena, you know this. He is my mate!” I screamed at her, tears falling anew. I didn't know whose betrayal was stronger, his or hers.

Serena said nothing at first, then in a pitying voice she carried on, “He is mine, he loves me.” I noticed how she didn't mention how she felt about him, solidifying what I knew, she was only with him because of his title.

I saw the smugness and resentment in her eyes and I knew, the sister who had braided my hair was gone. Left in her place was a girl only interested in keeping what she believed was hers.

My father butt in, “How could we ever have a Luna as ugly and shapeless as you? We would be laughed at as a pack for generations.” His voice became softer, more manipulative, “You can't surely want that for us, as a member of the pack, it is your duty to always put the pack's needs first and this pack needs a rightful Luna.”

Every word tightened the barbed wire around my heart. Resigned, I could only nod my head, “Yes, it does.” I whispered defeatedly.

“Excellent.” The alpha clapped his hands, reaching into his suit pocket, he brought out a pile of papers and a pen, “Just sign here and we can finally be done with this drama.”

I glanced at the papers, looking at Roland in confusion but it was his father who answered, “Transfer papers to another pack.”

Stunned, I could only ask, “You're kicking me out of the pack?”

This time it was Roland that answered, “It is only temporary, just until my wolf accepts Serena as my mate which cannot happen if you are still within the vicinity.”

I shook my head frantically, “No, please, I won't cause any trouble….my whole life is here, please don't make me leave.” My fingers trembled as I pressed them to my lips, afraid.

“I’m afraid that's not possible Selena, you have to go.” The alpha said like I was luggage that could just be shipped off and not a human.

In a flash of defiance, I stared up at Roland, “What if I don't want to come back? What if I meet someone over there?”

Roland's eyes flashed yellow, “Mine!” He roared, spit flying everywhere. Serena laid her hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him but he shrugged her hand away, still growling. Serena's mouth tightened with anger as she stared at me with renewed interest, a calculating gleam in her eyes.

“Just sign the damn piece of paper!” My father shouted at me.

I protested fervently, “But–”

The alpha cut in, “Sign it!” He roared, using his alpha command on me. The ability of an alpha to control his pack members against his will.

I looked at my mother in helplessness, pleading with my gaze as my body began moving on its own but she looked away, ignoring my doomed fate steadily approaching.

I sobbed harder, stuttered ‘please’ and ‘no’ falling from my lips as my trembling hand signed my name and my fate away.

The alpha snatched the paper back, glancing once, twice to see if I had really signed it, “It is done.” He muttered and walked away, his wife and son following with my parents trailing behind as usual, leaving only my sister and me. 

“You should have just stayed in your place sister.” Her words were like poison wrapped in silk.

Broken, I kept my gaze on the grass, “Why? Why do all of this?”

She ignored my question, “If you want to truly be left in peace, there's only one way that can happen.”

I lifted my head slightly, just enough to peer at her through wet lashes, “How?” 

Her smile raised the hairs on the back of my neck. She threw a dagger at my feet, one that glinted familiarly as my stomach twisted. I had given her for our 16th birthday and she in return promised to use it to protect me.

How ironic, I smiled bitterly.

Her face was like ice, years of good memories forgotten in one night, she whispered, “End it. End it all, the pain of your miserable existence. Only then will you know peace from me.”