Chapter 5

Laurel took me to her room, where there were wardrobes filled with pretty clothes. Standing before the mirror, I looked at myself wearing dirty, old, and ragged clothes, while Laurel was in her pretty moonlight-woven dress like a princess. The contrast was so huge that I looked like an idiot.

While I was lost in my self-mocking, the sound of a splat came into my ear. Then Laurel covered her face and ran out of the room. Before I knew what happened, Zayn rushed in and kicked me heavily in my stomach. Then what came was the words and curses of Mom.

"What good she-wolf could be raised out of a slum?"

"Learnt nothing but to hurt others. If I had known that you were already raised badly, I would never have taken you back!"

Dad furrowed his eyebrows too, eyes filled with despair.

From their seemingly illogical reactions, I figured out what had happened ------ Laurel claimed she was beaten by me, and that I scared her that I would kick her out of the pack.

Laurel put on an evil smirk when she was behind my parents' backs. I realized at that moment that not only my room but also the love of my parents was taken over by her.

I held back tears brimming in my eyes, and explained in a flurry, "No, I did not beat her. It's herself."

At that moment, they looked at me with resentment. "If you did it, just admit it. How dare you frame others? Who taught you this?"

"Hope it's not too late for us to educate you." They locked me in the cellar that night. The first night I came back, I was not in the arms of my parents; I was alone in a cold and bleak cellar.

How ridiculous! Since that day, my life has changed again. Days in the werewolf slum were hardship, but days back in the pack were hell on earth.

No one would choose my side instead of Laurel's. But Laurel did not stop there.

She accused me of bullying her again and again, not just at the pack, but also at the academy. And that she suffered so much that she was depressed.

The hatred of my parents against me became thicker and thicker.

So when Laurel pretended to commit suicide because I beat her in her dreams, my parent hung me from a little tree on the cliff, as a punishment for me and a comfort to her.

Only I knew that all the time she was pretending. Her depression was fake, and so was her suicide.

All she wanted was for me to be discarded by my parents.

She made it.

I imagined that when they saw my corpse, they would regret not caring for me or cry out of grief. But judging by what I witnessed in the passing days, what I imagined was only a wish that would not turn into reality.

They would not be sad, worried, or regretful.

What was good was that I gradually became used to their attitude. I would not be hurt for not being loved by them anymore.

I didn't want to watch what was going on in the pack. So I drifted away a bit when cellphone of Zayn rang. "Zayn, is Petra someone related to you?" A voice came out of his cell phone. "She is… my sister. What's wrong?" "Well, the identity of the corpse was confirmed using DNA technology. Her DNA data is so similar to yours… So you'd better come to the Werewolf Council to make things clear."

Zayn stood by the window, his cell phone falling onto the ground and making a big sound.

His face turns pale and scared. Mom walked to pick the phone up, which was broken already, asking with a frowned eyebrow, "Who called you? What happened?"