Diana stared at the wall of her room.
Papers pinned on the wall were connected by a red string with numbers allocated carefully. Pictures of all she was yet to know in this second life and the people she held dear from both lifetimes were also scattered onto the wall before her. This was the timeline of the future she knew for the next ten years.
Diana’s misfortune was set in stone the moment Axel returned to the Crescent Pack which would be two months from now. But her bad luck began way before that—it was the Tribute Ceremony that started it all.
Her gaze flickered to the picture of a smiling Anastasia. Diana’s gaze darkened as she caressed Anastasia’s picture which was scratched by the knife many times already. “I want to see if you can still smile brightly after I exact my revenge on you. Losing everything you hold dear, realizing what you have is nothing but a mere sand castle. I want to see you crumble, my dearest best friend.”
The feeling of blood trickling down her thighs, Diana would never forget the moment she realized she was losing her unborn child.
Diana’s gaze shifted to the open window of the attic where the bustling noise came from. She glanced at the woman beside Alpha Dylan’s photograph. “Today. I will snatch your fate right under your nose… and I am not sorry for it.”
One by one, Diana took down the map of the future from the wall. With the burner by her side, she stood near the open window and burned the papers as her gaze remained fixated beyond the windowpanes.
There she saw Anastasia holding a basket filled with biscuits. The latter was welcomed by Lorraine, Diana’s mother.
Holding the knife in her right hand, she scratched the window glass. A bland smile appeared on her face as she watched Anastasia’s bright smile. “I cannot wait to show the world your true colors, to show the people how rotten you are inside. Compared to you, I am not your match in my first life. But this time… this time, I will be fighting fire with fire. Even if it means I will have to become the devil himself, I will gladly do so just to bury you all with me.”
Diana looked down at the photograph of the young gamma who was destined to be selected by Alpha Dylan Clain today. She was meant to continue the bloodline of the Blood Claws Pack alpha genes. Diana tore the picture into pieces as she threw them to the burner, forever vanishing into ashes. “The first step is mine.”
A knock on the attic’s door pulled Diana from her trance.
“Diana, let us go. The Tribute Ceremony is about to start.” Beta Mason chirped from the other side of the door.
A sweet voice answered. “Coming, Dad!”
Diana erased all traces of malediction from her face as soon as she opened the door.
THE FLAGSHIPS OF THE CRESCENT PACK, WHICH was a howling white wolf that formed a crescent half-moon, littered the tents that were set up for the Tribute Ceremony. While white tents were cramped together in front of the foggy forest, delta-ranked werewolves were posted everywhere while epsilon-ranked ones were stationed at the high towers as lookouts.
At the center of the tents, the alphas invited to the Tribute Ceremony were seated. They were the men who once lost their mates or those who were not lucky enough to find their mates yet. And as an alpha, the leader of their respective packs, it was important to secure an age—lest an incident would take their lives.
The mated alphas and betas were seated in the next biggest tent.
Alpha Nathan stood upon the end of the trumpet’s sound. Raising his goblet, he started his welcome speech as the host of the Tribute Ceremony. “Welcome, distinguished guests!” He raised his goblet as a sign of toast. “It is my great honor to live and tell the tale of hosting the prestigious Tribute Ceremony of this generation, providing hope and connecting with the grace of the Moon Goddess once more.”
On cue, howls of gratitude toward the Moon Goddess rang within the misty forest.
As the sun started to come down, the moon started to peek.
“I will not make this long. Seeing our candidates ready, I will end this by saying… bless the Moon Goddess!”
Alpha Nathan’s words were echoed by the listeners. “Bless the Moon Goddess!”
There was only one person who did not utter such words—Diana Ritchell.
Standing with her head hanging down, she was able to hide the insanity within her eyes. She wanted to laugh at the alpha, Axel’s father.
‘Bless the Moon Goddess? I want to see if you can still smile after you witness the end of this ceremony. After all, this is not called the Bloody Tribute Ceremony without a reason. This day will go down in the history as the most brutal event like what happened in my first life. I remembered how I trembled after seeing a parade of body bags…. All because of one person.’ Diana thought before she looked beside her where a woman also looked at her and gave her a smile.
Luna Riza stepped forward to the podium. “The rules of the old will be applied to the ceremony right now. The alphas will shift to their wolves and hide inside the forest. Then, the ladies will enter the forest without shifting.”
On cue, the alphas who were participating in the event shifted into their wolf forms. But one black-furred wolf, the biggest among the flock of beasts, looked at the group of young ladies.
For a moment, Diana met his gaze.
With a clammy hand, she remembered how she won the gamble. Now, it would depend on how she would take him to her side. She remembered his words when she claimed to know of his past: “Many have tried to fool me by this useless claim. You are not the first one, woman. People like you… disgust me.”
Diana’s smile came to halt when Luna Riza’s next words pulled her from her trance.
She showed a red flag. “If this flag will be taken by the lady to the innermost part of the forest, she will have the right to choose an alpha—even if the alpha has been claimed by the other females. There will be only one flag identical to the one I am holding. Keep an open eye and do everything you can. Bless the Moon Goddess.”
Before, Diana did not get the nuance of the Luna’s words ‘Keep an open eye and do everything you can’ not until the first drop of bloodshed was made right in front of her. This time, Diana, who knew where the flag was hidden and what the tricks were with the last obstacle were, smiled at Amber.
“Let us do everything we can, Amber,” said Diana in a shy tone. It was only a friendly mimicry, but the hidden meaning beneath such words was not left unnoticed by those who listened to the beta’s daughter.
As soon as they neared the misty forest and were deemed safe from hearing, Tiffany, the pack doctor’s daughter, finally showed her true colors. “Why are you here, anyway? You neither lost your mate nor got rejected.”
“Just because you are the beta’s daughter, you are already abusing the authority,” said another lady who recently lost her mate from a rogue attack.
Diana, who was walking side by side with Amber, merely smiled at the latter as if she was telling Amber to not mind them. “I don’t want to wait for my mate, a predestined being who will shape my future.” She looked back at the girls who were criticizing her. With a stoic face, she continued. “I want to be the one to shape my future. So when the end draws near, I won’t have any regrets.”
Her words silenced the women, giving Diana a look filled with puzzlement, including Amber.
Diana immediately smiled like a silly woman. “Just read that quote from my father’s book. Oh! Look, we are about to enter the forest.” She turned in the right direction as soon as she entered the forest.
Following her, the other ladies also set out in their own directions.
Diana, who was about to vanish into the mist, stopped in her tracks and looked back at Amber who was taking the left direction. Diana screamed with her nonchalant girly tone. “I hope you will get the red flag, Amber! Fighting!”
Amber smiled brightly. “I will try too! You be careful with those girls and the forest predators.”
Nodding her head vehemently, Diana finally turned around. As she vanished into the mist, her smiling façade slipped, revealing a grim expression filled with malice and mockery.
‘Me? Be careful? You are the most dangerous one here. Your obsession with Alpha Dylan will lead you to the massacre of all the girls. Yes, Amber. Get the red flag. Kill them all. And when you are down, I will kill you myself before you kill me. Hurry up. I am… waiting.’
Diana grinned as she vanished into the darkness.
The good thing about ceremonies maintained for over millennia, the higher-ups would respect them to the point of avoiding the usage of the rising technology—and Diana took this blind spot and used this to her advantage. After separating herself, she immediately situated herself atop a Willow Tree.Having been in siesta mode for over three hours since the Tribute Ceremony began, Diana heard the rustles and howls within the misty forest. The sound of claws hitting the moldy forest floor did not leave her heightened senses. And the smell of blood grew stronger as time passed.Diana, who was leaning against the tree trunk with her legs hanging on the topmost branch, could not help the cold grin on her face. Staring at the light blue sky, she inched her arm beneath her head as a pillow while listening to the cries of the women in the Tribute Ceremony being slaughtered one by one.Like a symphony of the devil himself, Diana waited for the entanglement of blood and desire to reach her tempor
Right after Diana was freed from the awarding ceremony of the Tribute Ceremony, she heard the voices of her mother and father from her right side. In between them, there was a horde of spectators from the Tribute Ceremony. She could have squeezed herself to meet them halfway, instead, Diana took this opportunity to walk away from them—it was as if she did not hear them in the first place. The heavy downpour of rain began, soaking her black shirt and white shorts. Yet her muddy shoes did not falter, for her strides were predetermined already. ‘As expected, like what happened in my last life, the killing spree was not a big deal in a Tribute Ceremony. In fact, it is quite normal. For this generation who enjoyed peace more than the turbulent times, it is quite a big deal for the younger folks. But for the older ones? No rule has been breached.’ Diana thought. A warm yet abrupt hug pulled Diana from her trance. “!!!” “Diana! Oh, goddess! Diana Ritchell!” cried the elder woman who was
‘I doubt if Amber was treated like this in the first timeline,’ Diana thought.Hands in her luggage, she stood in front of a room akin to a utility room inside the Blood Claws Pack. Sighing at how childish the alpha was acting, she opened the dingy old door with the rusty key Beta Seymor gave her right after arriving at the back of the pack house.No welcoming. No introduction. Nothing. Diana’s arrival was treated like a grand secret befitting of a criminal.“I wouldn’t wonder if I find any dead body here,” mumbled Diana. She wandered around the tiny room.Aside from a bed which was fairly new, a cabinet, a study table, and a chair, there was nothing. There was no source of light either. The wall had yellowish streaks on the wallpaper. Cobwebs littered the corners of her ceiling. And the small window right in front of her study table was dusty.“At least the bed is comfy.”Diana did not mind being in this kind of room. Almost all her life, she lived as the lesser one. This time, she w
Diana listened as the pack house’s backyard was full of all the werewolves living in the pack house—mostly unmated ones—and those who finally earned themselves a cabin after meeting their mates or having a family of their own.With her head against the wall and her eyes closed, she listened to the laughter of the children as they waited for the grilled meats prepared by their parents.The cute giggling of the children and the cooing sounds of the infants, Diana relished the sound. With her other hand on her stomach, the corners of her lips tugged as tears continued to stream down her face.After spending her second day in the Blood Claws Pack, Diana realized how close-knitted the werewolves in the supposed ruthless pack were. Every night, as long as the moon shone over them, they would gather in the pack house’s backyard and eat together like a big family.‘In a world where everyone forgot about your existence, I will never forget you, my sweet child. I may not have the privilege to h
Diana stood in front of the fuming alpha. Head bowing down and hands hiding behind her, she waited for him to calm down—or at least when he would stop pacing back and forth in front of her. With a fidgety Sally beside Diana, she opted to retain her façade of a humble and cowardly omega. “Uhm, A-Alpha?” Diana bit back her yelp when she received an elbow from Sally, warning her not to act presumptuously in front of the alpha. She looked at Sally, bit back her laughter, and bowed down again. ‘You look hilarious, Sally. Eyeing me like that when in reality I am your alpha’s second chance Luna, only, your alpha is acting as some lovesick fool who can’t be moved,’ Diana snickered at the back of her mind. A low growl pulled Diana from the trance she was in. ‘What is it now? Sadly, I do not have a list of errands to give you right now in case you go nuts again.’ “!!!” Wide-eyed, Diana looked up when Alpha Dylan Cain pulled her wounded knuckles which were not even bandaged. She looked at Sa
Diana stared at her torn palms.Though her wolf was whimpering the entire time Sally vented her fury, the bubbling raw anger inside her was so close to erupting. In most cases, the wolf counterparts were usually the stronger ones. They were the ones who would become the pillar of support for the human at the end of the day. But for Diana, especially ever since she turned back time, it was always her who would act as the pillar of stability for her wolf.In fact, since she came back to the time when she was still eighteen years old, Diana was yet to shift. It was either she was too busy plotting the future or too busy playing as the ‘omega Diana’.Right now was the perfect example. Diana had the urge to snap Sally’s neck while the latter was hitting her palms. But the fleeting instinct to protect herself immediately vanished after thinking of her unborn child. If she wanted to make this revenge become successful against those powerful people, she needed to at least endure this.Sally
Diana ended up being summoned to the alpha’s office—alone. This was all thanks to Sally pointing out how she tried to kill her. Now, Diana reduced her grand plans to Sally. She only had the strong urge to use her once and discard her later on. Of course, Diana did not let her inner turmoil affect her nonchalant stance in front of the ruthless alpha.With only the two of them inside his office, there was no need to pretend.Though she was still weary of him, his previous actions and words rang inside her mind like a go signal. With this, she dared test the waters by sitting before she was told to do so.“What is the reason why you came?” asked Diana. Though she could only look him in the eyes for at best a minute or two due to rank difference, Diana was still able to see how heated he looked at her—as if she really did something that offended him. “I am the one who got hurt alright. And the comfort room has no damage whatsoever just so you know.”Diana’s voice eventually grew smaller a
“Have you heard?” A voice of a woman resonated inside the comfort room for girls.“Heard what?” Another woman’s voice answered.“If you want to tell something, you better spit it out right away!” A newly entered woman spat from the background, clearly, she was only using the mirror and not the cubicle.“A representative of the Werewolf Committee will be coming here and he is someone from the Crescent Pack!”The sound of the toilet flushing followed.“Crescent pack? Isn’t that the pack where our next luna is from?”“What luna? I never heard my father about any luna and isn’t she hated by the alpha to the point that Alpha Dylan did not bring her here to our pack?”“Back to the topic, what is a representative from ‘the’ Werewolf Committee doing here anyway?” The woman's voice from the mirror piped in.“I don’t know? Might be another scheme to bring us down in a form of an inspection like ‘that’ year.”The sound of the running water ensued followed by the nearing footsteps.As always, Dia