Chapter 3

Chapter 3

AVALINE

I gasped awake, my heart beating hard against my ribs as I felt the phantom pain of being burned alive. I could still smell the smoke and I grabbed my throat, expecting to see burned skin. But all I felt was smooth unmarked skin that was still in its original appearance.

I was very confused as I looked around and I blinked rapidly, trying to focus on my surroundings. 

This wasn't the burning stake, where I was being jeered to death for a crime I didn't commit.

Rather I was in my small servant's quarters, lying on the narrow cot that served as my bed, and the room was being illuminated by the light from the room that was coming in through the open windows.

But how? I remembered dying. I remembered being burned alive while watching Aida trying her best to save me.

A weak noise from the corner of the room made me freeze instantly. I turned my head slowly, hardly daring to breathe, and there she was. 

Aida was lying down on the pile of blankets I had made for her on the floor, her small body shivering despite being covered by a lot of clothes around her. Her dark hair was plastered to her wet forehead brow, and her breathing seemed to be coming out in laboured gaps.

The fever. I remembered this now with startling clarity. This had happened four months before my death, before I discovered the mate bond, before everything went so wrong.

Aida had been so ill, and I had...

I felt ashamed as I remembered what I had done. I had abandoned her. Left her here alone and burning with fever because Dion and Alistar had dangled the possibility of acceptance in front of me like a carrot before a starving horse.

"Mummy," Aida whispered, while being delirious, her small hand reaching out into empty air.

 "Mummy, it hurts."

The word struck me hard like someone had shoved a dagger into my chest. Even while under the fever and barely conscious, she still called for me. Aida still trusted me to protect her. And I had failed her so completely.

But not this time. This time would be different.

I got up from my cot and made my way towards her makeshift bed, pressing my palm gently against her burning forehead. 

Her skin felt like fire underneath my touch, and I could feel the way her small body was shaking from cold even with her insanely hot body temperature.

"I'm here, sweetheart," I whispered, gently smoothing her hair back from her face. "Mummy's here."

Her eyes slowly opened, looking unfocused and glassy from fever, but she seemed to recognize me.

 She broke into a small smile as she said,

"Mummy stayed," she breathed, her voice sounding so low that I had to strain my ears to catch her words.

"Of course I stayed," I said, though the words tasted like ash in my mouth. Because I knew that in my previous life, I hadn't stayed at all. I had cursed her for getting sick at a time like this, was fully convinced that she had done it on purpose to make sure that I looked after her and not chase after the loves of my life and as a result I had left her here to suffer alone while I chased after men who would never love me.

The sound of approaching footsteps in the hallways immediately made me tense up. I knew who it would be before they even reached my door. The same scene was about to play out exactly as it had before in my previous life but this time I would be ready.

The door was kicked open without so much as a knock, because servants didn't deserve privacy as far as they were concerned.. Solaya was the one who stepped in, her blonde hair was already styled and arranged in a pleasing arrangement despite the early hour, and she was followed by Dion and Alistar. 

Their scent filled the room and indirectly my nostrils but there was something different this time around. Instead of the usual fluttering of butterflies in my stomach that I got whenever they visited me. I felt only a cold, analytical detachment. I saw them clearly now, what they truly were, perhaps for the first time in my life.

Dion, characterized by his dark hair and cruel mouth was the kind of Alpha that was so quick to anger and slow to forgiveness. 

Alistar with his brown hair and black eyes that hid a heart of stone. And Solaya, sweet, innocent Solaya, who manipulated everyone around her with the skills of a well thought puppet manipulator.

"Avaline," Solaya began, her voice sounding meek and nice that had once fooled me completely. She pressed herself closer to Dion's side, her blue eyes were wide with what appeared to be nervousness as she bit her lips glancing at me as she spoke.

 "Dion and Alistar wanted to go for a picnic in the woods today, and they asked me to come with them."

She paused, glancing between the two brothers, with what I thought was uncertainty but I recognized it now as her putting up a show for my sake.

 "But I told them I would only come if you came with me too, because I know how much you love them and I want them to see your devotion."

Her words were exactly the same from my last life. But now I could see the real trap that was hidden beneath the kindness she was showing me. She wasn't trying to help me win their affections one bit, despite my delusional back then.

She was actually setting me up to be humiliated, to be shown around like a lovesick fool while she basked in their attention.

"Yes," Dion said, sounding impatient as he added as well. "Solaya seems to think you would enjoy joining us."

Alistar nodded his head although his expression screamed that he wasn't in support of this and found the whole idea distasteful to begin with.

"It would be...good for you as well to watch and learn from others how a real lady conducts herself in company."

In my previous life, those words had sent my heart soaring with joy and affection for the brothers.

 I had been so desperate for any scrap of attention from them that I had overlooked the insult buried in the invitation. Now I could see it clearly for what it was: another opportunity for them to make me feel small.

I looked down at Aida, whose fever-bright eyes were staring at me face with complete trust. She still believed that I would choose her over them.

But I couldn't let them know that my priorities had shifted from looking after them and demanding their love for me to the only person that gave me a purpose on earth. Not yet. I needed them to believe I was still the same pathetic, lovesick girl they had always known.

"Oh, that sounds wonderful!" I said, sounding excited like I had remembered being in my past life.

 "I would love to come with you. Just give me a few minutes to get ready and put on some makeup, and I'll be right there."

I stood up, moving toward the cracked mirror on the wall as if I was actually planning to put on makeup for them and I shook my head internally scoffing at them before turning and giving them a fake smile as I said. "You can go ahead without me. I'll catch up once I'm presentable."

Solaya's smile was bright as it stretched across her face, but I caught the flash of satisfaction in her eyes. She thought she had won, she thought she had successfully manipulated me into abandoning Aida for their amusement.

"That's perfect," she said sweetly. "Take your time. We'll be by the old oak tree near the stream."

From the floor, Aida let out a weak cry, her small body shaking from chills. "Mummy," she whimpered, reaching out with one trembling hand.

The sound seemed to piss Dion's eyes as his face got darker as he glared down at the sick child.

"Get that reject to stop calling you that disgusting name," he snarled, his voice filled with contempt and hatred for her as he added. 

"And get rid of her. I don't want to see her face around the pack house anymore."

Alistar nodded in agreement, his lips curling into a satisfied smirk as he looked at Aida like she was s

omething he had stepped in. 

"She's not part of our pack. She doesn't belong here."