Bella's POV

Bella's POV 

My father arrived in Ronan's pack. I rushed towards him, ready to tell him what I had seen.

“Ronan cheated on me, father. He was even with his beta as well! He is a hypocrite!" I complained to him, my voice cracking with disbelief and anger.

A new wave of murmurs began to spread in the pack.

Whispers moved from one person to another as their eyes darted between Ronan and I. Some looked shocked, others curious, but none of them looked surprised enough for my liking. It was as though somewhere deep down, they had always known.

I expected my father to act. To question Ronan and why he wasn't allowing me to leave with our wolves.

Instead, he bowed his head slightly towards him.

“I'm sorry Alpha Ronan, for the scene my daughter is causing,” he said instead.

I stared at him in shock.

For a moment, I thought perhaps I had heard wrongly.

What was he saying?

“Bella, get on your knees and beg him. You can't separate from him. Your mother's treatment, our wolves... you can't separate from him,” he said.

I stared at him, confused.

The words refused to register in my head.

“Father...?” my lips parted weakly.

“We'd hire other healers for mother, we'll find other healers to train our wolves, we'll—”

I didn't get to finish when I saw my father rush towards Ronan again.

“Forgive my daughter, Alpha. I believe I have spoiled her too much and that indulgence is to be blamed for this,” he added, before walking towards me again, trying to get me to renounce my words and take Ronan back.

His eyes were desperate.

“ We depend on him. Our pack isn't what it used to be. Get on your knees and beg him, Bella,” he'd say.

To kneel and beg him to accept me back.

Twisting my words and making me appear like a liar once more before the pack.

My own father.

The same man who once promised he would never allow anyone humiliate me.

The same man who used to carry me on his shoulders as a child and call me the pride of our pack.

Now he could barely even look me in the eyes as he pushed me towards the man who had betrayed me.

“It's alright if sister Bella doesn't want to continue the alliance with Alpha Ronan, father. I can become his mate in her stead,” Jesse stepped forward and said, like a dutiful daughter.

A soft gasp spread through the crowd.

Jesse lowered her head shyly, pretending modesty, pretending innocence, yet there was satisfaction hidden beneath her expression.

Ronan ignored her as he focused his gaze on me.

He did not seem interested in her, but in my expressions.

Watching me carefully.

Studying every crack forming across my face.

Ronan was wise.

Could it be that he had used her affection for him as a shield? Could it be that he had used her to make me dependent on him, and Jesse, believing that she would compete with me, had taken the bait and let him use her?

The thought made my stomach twist violently.

I was snapped out of the haze of my thoughts when she went on speaking, rubbing her belly as she did.

“Ronan and I had been together for four years now and I'm even pregnant with his heirs. Since sister doesn't want to continue the alliance father, why don't I take her place? It works this way, I…”

Her words drifted.

The sounds around me became muffled.

It appeared to me as if I was afloat.

Four years.

My heart stopped.

Jesse was pregnant and for my husband.

She had been having an affair with him for the past four years.

And all along, while I had been blaming myself for being wolfless and not enough for him...

He had another woman warming his bed.

My own sister.

“I kept her as a breeder. I haven't had time to tell you because I was waiting for the pregnancy to manifest. Being wolfless, I didn't want you to exert pressure on yourself,” Ronan went on, explaining when I hadn't even asked.

His tone was calm.As though he wasn't shattering my entire world with every word that left his mouth.

But from the look on his face, he didn't seem happy with the news.

He looked irritated.

As though the situation before him was merely inconvenient.

Jesse rushed towards me.

“Sister Bella, please don't misunderstand. I never wanted to hurt you...” she cried, reaching for my hand.

I stepped back immediately as though her touch burned.

My chest tightened painfully.

I could barely breathe.

Everything around me felt suffocating.

I realized I had absolutely no one on my side.

“You wouldn't mind sister, right? You don't want Ronan after all, surely you wouldn't…” she said loudly.

Her voice was soft and pitiful, carefully crafted for the ears of the pack members watching us.

But then she leaned towards me while pretending to beg and cry, her expression changing instantly the second no one else could properly see her face.

“Ronan had been feeding you with contraceptives all these years. He doesn't want a wolfless mutt like you to have his pups,” she mocked under her breath.

My entire body froze.

For a second, even breathing became difficult.

“ Sister, don't tell me you're too pissed off at me. I honestly didn't mean for you to find out this way. I... I…” she went on pretending, falling to the floor in a theatrical fashion, pleading and begging me to pardon and punish her when I hadn't even said anything.

Tears streamed down her face beautifully.

Convincingly.

The perfect victim.

The crowd immediately erupted again.

“She looks so guilty…”

“Poor Jesse…”

“Bella is being too harsh…”

I laughed inwardly.

A cold laugh.

One devoid of humor.

Ronan had told me not to try for another child after our first miscarriage. He said I should leave it till I had awakened my alpha wolf and was strong enough.

At that time, I had believed him.

Even when the herbs Jesse brought tasted strange, I still drank them because she said they would help my body heal.

Because she claimed she cared about my health.

Hearing Jesse's confession now, perhaps he had made her feed me the contraceptives all along.

The realization made my stomach churn violently.

How many times had they laughed behind my back while I cried over my inability to conceive?

How many times had Ronan comforted me after I blamed myself for losing our child, knowing fully well he never intended for me to carry another one?

I suddenly felt sick.

How ironic, I thought, that she would believe Ronan wanted a pup with her.

It was laughable.

I was alpha blooded, yet he wanted us to wait till I had my wolf.

What made her believe that he would accept her pups when she was an omega?

Even if she had awakened her wolf.

No matter how much he touched her or shared her bed, Ronan was not the kind of man who would foolishly throw away bloodline and status.

Which meant one thing.

Jesse had merely been another tool to him.

A convenient distraction.

And the tragic part was that she still hadn't realized it.

I turned towards my father, expecting him to make the last decision on my behalf.

He had seen how these two were.

How deceptive and vile.

Surely after hearing all this, he would finally stand beside me.

Surely he would finally choose me.

But to my shock, he walked towards me, holding my arm the way he always did whenever he wanted to convince me to do something.

The same gentle grip he used whenever he manipulated me into accepting responsibilities I never wanted.

“Jesse can become Ronan's official breeder, Bella. But you have to take your place back as his Luna. Only this way can you ensure that….”

I didn't let him finish.

The disgust that surged through me was so overwhelming that I immediately snatched my hand away from his.

My chest tightened painfully.

I was expected to calmly share my husband and continue smiling beside him like a proper Luna.

I turned to walk away.

I didn't turn back nor listen.

Not to Ronan's threats about not accepting me when I would come back begging.

Not to Jesse's fake sobs behind me.

Not to my father's shouts about sacrificing for our pack.

“Don't be selfish. I pampered you too much and this is why you're being so unreasonable! What woman in her right senses will throw away her position as Luna? What….”

I ignored him.

Selfish?

The word almost made me laugh again.

I've been putting up with everything for years.

Sacrificing?

I've been doing that since I turned eighteen.

Since the night my father forced me to marry Ronan to secure the alliance even though I wanted to take my time to get to know him.

I remembered crying that night.

Begging him to reconsider.

But he had told me that daughters of Alpha blood did not live for themselves.

They lived for their packs.

And like a fool, I believed him.

For four years, I lived just for Ronan, my family and the packs.

Giving my all to them and forgetting myself.

I abandoned my dreams.

I smiled through loneliness.

Endured humiliation.

Accepted Ronan's coldness towards me.

His dismissive nature.

The way he barely looked at me unless it involved duties concerning the pack.

I kept convincing myself that if I tried harder, he would eventually love me.

That if I endured enough, things would someday change.

All these while, none of that mattered.

The second I got fed up with the humiliation, Ronan's coldness towards me, his dismissive nature, the way he didn't value me, suddenly, I became the villain.

A spoiled child.

Unreasonable.

One who couldn't sacrifice for others.

Funny.

No one ever asked how much I had already sacrificed.

As I shed off the necklace Ronan had given me on the day of our mating ceremony, throwing it to the floor, I made up my mind.

I was rejecting him.

I was going to live for myself onwards.

And most especially, I was going to do things my own way and give myself the opportunity to fly.

I wasn't going to be with a man who saw me as a tool.

A property who was meant to condone every one of his excesses.

A mere alliance bride.

If I remained there any longer, they would destroy every remaining piece of me.

And I refused to let that happen.