Ch: 7 ​The Lie.

Tiana’s arms wrapped around me in a crushing hug, and I just stood there, stiff as a board.

“Oh, Yara! Thank you!”

Her voice was bright, breathless, and giddy with a relief that felt all wrong. It scraped against my nerves, which were already raw and bleeding from what I'd just done.

“You saved me. I knew you’d choose me. You’re the best sister in the world!”

Sister.

The word felt hollow. Everything did. The tiny, warm pulse that had flickered to life inside me was gone, stamped out. I felt its absence like a physical wound, a cold, empty hole right in the center of my chest.

I gently, almost mechanically, pushed Tiana away from me. My hands felt numb.

“I… I have to go,” I mumbled, unable to meet her eyes. I couldn't stand to look at the face I had just sacrificed my entire future for.

“Of course,” she said, and her voice was so light. She patted my cheek, a quick, almost dismissive gesture. “Go rest. You look awful, poor thing. But you did the right thing. The noble thing. I’m so proud of you.”

She was already turning away, her limp from the "sprained ankle" looking suspiciously minor as she headed back toward the party.

I walked out of the break room on legs that felt like they were carved from stone. The hallway stretched out in front of me, a long, blurry tunnel. The distant party music sounded tinny and mocking, like a joke being played at my expense.

My sacrifice. My noble act. It didn't feel noble. It felt sick.

Riel’s face flashed in my mind. First, the pure, brilliant joy when he’d seen me. And then, the way it shattered. The rage. The dark promise in his eyes. You will regret this.

I was already drowning in it.

I just wanted my room. I wanted to crawl under the blankets and never come out.

I turned the corner into the family wing, the thick carpet swallowing the sound of my footsteps. My body was on autopilot, but my mind was stuck in that garden, replaying the rejection, the sound of his pained groan, over and over.

As I passed Mother's study, the door was open just a crack.

I heard voices. And I stopped dead.

One voice was Mother’s, cold and sharp. The other...

It was Tiana’s.

But... I’d just left her. She was going back to the party.

A cold, uneasy feeling crept up my spine. I leaned closer, my breath held tight in my chest.

"...oh, Mother, you should have seen his face!" Tiana’s voice was nothing like the broken, sobbing girl from moments ago. It was giddy. Triumphant. "It was perfect. She rejected him, flat out. He looked like she’d ripped his heart clean out of his chest."

My blood turned to ice.

Then, Mother's voice, laced with a smug, cold satisfaction. "Of course it worked. She’s always been a sentimental fool. Did she buy the ankle?"

My hand flew to my mouth, a choked gasp trapped in my throat.

Tiana laughed.

It wasn't her soft, gentle laugh. This was a high, thin, ugly sound. A sound I’d never heard her make in my life.

"Completely," Tiana chirped, like she was talking about the weather. "She fell for that old trick again. She saw me on the stairs and her pathetic 'protector' instinct just took over. All it took was a few tears and some empty threat about ending it all. She was practically falling over herself to sacrifice her one chance for me."

Again?

My mind spun, flashing back to a dozen "accidents." Tiana "falling" so I’d get blamed for pushing. Tiana "sick" on the day of a chore I didn't want. It wasn't protection. It was a script. And I was the star idiot.

"Good," Greta said, her voice sharp. "That Alpha heir is a powerful match. He belongs to my daughter. Not to... her."

The pure, venomous disgust in her voice as she said "her" made my stomach heave.

"It's just a shame Father insists on keeping her around," Tiana sighed, her giddy tone replaced by a familiar, bored annoyance. "She's so... embarrassing. The freak of the family. Now she's even gone and tainted Riel with her presence."

"She is not family, Tiana," Greta snapped. "How many times must I tell you?"

The floor felt like it was tilting beneath my feet.

Not... family?

"I know, I know," Tiana said impatiently. "Just his bastard from some cheap fling. But I am so sick of pretending to be her loving older sister. It's exhausting."

"It was a necessary evil," Greta bit out. "When Raymond brought that... thing... back, I had no choice. I had to take it in. For my reputation. All that 'good karma' nonsense. It was the only way to secure my position as the perfect, forgiving Beta wife."

Thing.

His bastard.

My world didn't just crack. It dissolved.

The stone floor under my feet, the walls around me, the sister I adored, the mother I desperately wanted love from, all of it, every single memory, was a lie.

A sick, elaborate lie.

I wasn't their daughter. I wasn't her sister.

I was a thing.

A sound ripped from my throat, a strangled, agonizing wail that didn't sound human.

The voices inside the study stopped instantly.

Dead silence.

My entire body was shaking, tremors so violent I had to grab the doorframe to stay upright.

The door was yanked open.

Tiana stood there, her face white with shock. Behind her, Greta was rising from her desk, her expression pure thunder.

"Yara," Tiana breathed, her eyes wide with panic. "How... how much did you hear?"

"His... bastard?" I whispered. The words felt like broken glass in my mouth. "A... 'thing'?"

Greta's face hardened, the mask of the refined Beta wife melting away to reveal the cold, reptilian monster beneath. "You shouldn't eavesdrop, girl. It's a filthy habit."

"My whole life..." My voice was cracking, tears streaming down my face, hot and blurring. "You hated me. You whipped me... you called me a mistake... and I wasn't even... I wasn't even yours?"

"You were my husband's shame," Greta snarled, stepping forward, all pretense gone. "A living, breathing stain on my house and my honor. You deserved every lash, and ten times more."

The cruelty was so pure, so honest, it knocked the air from my lungs.

I dragged my gaze to Tiana. This was the wound that was killing me. "And you... Your ankle..." I choked on a sob. "You... you love Riel...?"

Tiana looked at Greta, a quick, silent question. Greta gave a tiny, almost invisible nod.

The game was over.

Tiana's entire demeanor shifted. The panic vanished, replaced by a cold, bored arrogance. Her spine straightened.

She scoffed. "Love him? Please."

The word hit me like a physical slap.

"I just didn't want you to have him," Tiana said, crossing her arms and looking me up and down like I was something she'd found on her shoe. "An Alpha heir? Mated to a worthless, wolfless freak? It's insulting. He's a prize, Yara. And you don't get prizes."

"But... you took the whip for me," I whispered, clutching at the last shred of the sister I thought I knew. "You... you protected me."

Tiana rolled her eyes, a gesture of such profound, lazy disdain it made me sick to my stomach.

"A calculated risk," she said, as if explaining something to a very stupid child. "A small price to pay to keep you wrapped around my finger. You're just so easy, Yara. So pathetically desperate for a scrap of love that you'll believe any lie I tell you. You'd do anything for me."

She smiled, a slow, cold smile that didn't touch her eyes. "And you did. You rejected your mate for me. You threw away your one and only chance at a real life. And it was all for nothing."

That was it. The final snap.

The grief was so total, so all-consuming, that it burned itself out in an instant. And in the ashes, something new and terrifying flickered to life.

Rage. White-hot, clean, and absolute.

"You used me," I seethed, the words a low growl that vibrated in my chest.

"Like a tool," Tiana agreed, her smile widening. "And now? You're a broken one. You have nothing. You have no family. You have no mate. You are, and always will be, completely and utterly alone."

A wild, desperate laugh bubbled up from my chest. "I have one thing."

Tiana's smile wavered, just a fraction.

"I have the truth," I said, my voice shaking with a sudden, vicious power.

I locked eyes with her, relishing the first flicker of real panic I saw there.

"I'm going to find Riel," I declared. "I'm going to tell him everything. About your fake ankle. About your lies. About how you never loved him. He may hate me for rejecting him, but he will despise you for using him."

This wasn't part of their plan. Tiana's face went white.

"Mother!" she shrieked.

Greta's face was a mask of murder. "You ungrateful bitche!" she roared. "You will do no such thing! You will not leave this house! GUARDS!"

I didn't wait to hear another word.

I turned and ran.

I burst from the study, my tattered blue dress ripping as I scrambled down the corridor. I heard Greta's voice screaming behind me, echoing with an authority I’d never heard her use.

"Stop her! She cannot be allowed to speak to him! Stop her, I said!"

Footsteps thundered behind me. The pack guards, her guards, were already in the hall, turning toward the sound of her command.

I saw their faces, hard and merciless.

Greta's final, chilling order cut through the air as I reached the foyer doors and clawed them open.

"Kill her if you must!"