Chapter 2 - Their Mate

HAELENA 

At this moment even as the pain in my chest intensified, the physical tremor of my body was so apparent. 

My Nightmares were back, The Triplet fucking Alphas who loathe my existence were back, I was panicking, it felt like a weight is pressed on my stomach. I felt utterly sick. 

It took everything I had to steady my breathing.

With shaking fingers, I reached beneath my uniform and wrapped my hand around the silver pendant resting against my chest.

The last gift my father had ever given me, I squeezed it so tightly the edges dug into my palm.

“My father was no traitor,” I whispered brokenly.

“He wasn’t…”

The words were as much a plea to myself as they were a prayer.

The thought of the triplets returning had ripped open wounds I had spent years trying to bury.

They hated me, not because of anything I had done… But because they believed my father had murdered their mother—the former Supreme Luna.

I knew he hadn’t. My father would never have harmed her.

He had been fiercely loyal to the Supreme Alpha until his very last breath.

When he uncovered Beta Gomer’s plot to assassinate the Supreme Alpha and seize control of the Moon Crest Pack, he had rushed to stop it.

But fate had been merciless, He arrived at the wrong room… At the wrong time.

The Supreme Alpha wasn’t there. 

The Supreme Luna was, She had already been murdered.

My  father was found beside her body before he could even explain what had happened.

And when Beta Gomer realized his plan to kill the Supreme Alpha had failed, he did the only thing that could save himself.

He found another scapegoat. My father.

To bury the truth forever, he joined hands with Lady Aekiera.

He promised her the Luna title if she stood beside him and testified against my father. She accepted, and my father was condemned as a traitor while the real murderer walked free. 

And I… I became the traitor’s daughter. A name the entire pack spat with disgust.

The only person who ever hesitated to believe the lie was the Supreme Alpha.

If there was anyone in the entire Moon Crest Pack who still held even the smallest shred of faith in my father, it was him.

But faith wasn’t proof, Trust wasn’t stronger than evidence, Witnesses had stepped forward, one after another.

They all swore they had seen my father murder the Supreme Luna. What could one man’s doubt possibly do against a room full of certainty? Nothing.

In the end, even the Supreme Alpha couldn’t overturn the verdict. When I was twelve, he took me into the Bloodworth Mansion.

Not as a family. Not even as someone worthy of his protection.

He officially stripped me of my family name, severing the last connection I had to my father, before assigning me a place among the household servants.

That was his mercy. A roof over my head. Food to keep me alive. And endless work from sunrise until long after sunset.

For someone branded as a traitor’s daughter, the pack believed I should have been grateful.

The only reason the Supreme Alpha had shown me even that much kindness was because he had known my father since they were children.

He had stood beside him through countless battles. 

He had attended my naming ceremony when I was born. Perhaps… somewhere deep inside him…

He couldn’t completely believe that the man he had called brother could betray him so completely.

But doubt wasn’t enough to save my father. And it certainly wasn’t enough to save me.

❧❧❧

A few hours later, I got back to the Supreme Alpha’s estate, and I went straight to his residence mansion. 

The delta guards were all in their stations, and I walked into the mansion with a thumping heart… the Triplet Alpha’s residence was just walks away beside the Supreme Alpha’s. 

I calculated that if the triplet alphas were back, they’d only come to visit the supreme Alpha tonight at the soirée, by then I could try as much as possible to avoid seeing them. 

The sophisticated mansion was silent, The supreme Alpha is rarely seen outside anymore, he is terminally ill, and stays mostly in his restricted garden, study and room, only Luna Aekeira controls the mansion and every servant in it and my life was a living hell under her control. 

I walked to her quarter with a thumping heart to beg, grovel anything to make sure she doesn’t skin me alive or stop me from schooling as she had threatened many times.

When I reached her quarter corridor, her guards were marching past me. I knew immediately there were some guests in her quarters. I walked towards the entrance to wait, maybe this was my lucky moment. I’d lie I had been outside her quarters cause she had guests and I hadn’t come back late. 

Then, a deep baritone voice reverberated through the room, laced with barely restrained fury.

“For Goddess’ sake, this makes no sense!” he barked. 

“A fated mate is supposed to decide who inherits the Supreme Crown between the three of us? We all know I’m Father’s rightful heir! Neither of you is fit to contest me for the throne!”

My heart plummeted. Alpha Logan.

I’d recognize that commanding, domineering voice anywhere.

Another deep voice answered almost immediately, calm but edged with mockery. 

“You’ve never been one to make sense, Logan.” He scoffed. “The law is clear. An Alpha heir ascends the throne with his fated Luna. We’re all Bloodworth heirs, which means your claim to the crown is no greater than mine.”

A pause. “So don’t be stupid, brother.”

I recognized that demeanor very well too, That is more of Alpha Cullen. The one whose words are sharper than blade. 

Hearing their voices again made me tremble on my feet, sweat dripped my skin even when I stood under the cold air conditioning. 

Just one door.

One door was all that separated me from the nightmares that had haunted every corner of my life, I hate them, everyone of them.

“My lords…” Luna Aekeira’s composed voice drifted through the thick wooden door. “The Supreme Alpha and the Council have chosen to honor the Moon Goddess’s decree, as delivered by the Moon Saint.”

A heavy silence followed. My pulse quickened.

“The first Alpha to claim his fated mate… shall ascend the Supreme Throne of the Moon Crest Pack.”

The triplet Alphas has to rely on fate, Whoever found and claimed his mate first would become the next Supreme Alpha.

My heart pounded against my ribs, I shouldn’t be hearing this. If anyone caught me eavesdropping on a discussion this confidential— 

“Who gave you the courage to eavesdrop on the Luna Queen?” 

The low, melancholic voice drifted from behind me, My entire body froze. Slowly… Almost fearfully… I turned.

Across the corridor, no more than ten paces away, stood Alpha Samael. Very Tall, with a sleeper build, 

He was devastatingly handsome,  And his ocean eyes staring directly at me, Then all of a sudden his expressionless face shifted to contempt, shock and disbelief. 

His brows knitted together quickly as his breath hitched in his throat and he growled the word.

“Mate !”