ALANNA
Richard rushed to me, yanked my hair, and smacked me hard. I didn't feel it. Pure, unfiltered rage burned within me. I snarled at him unrentedly.
"Shut up!" He hissed, placing the bloody dagger on my neck and pressing it so it drew blood.
As soon as the silver blade slid into my neck, I let out another piercing scream. He plunged the blade into my stomach and tossed me roughly.
And I blacked out again. By the time I woke up I was in a wet room, with foul mouldy smell and I realized I had been locked in the dungeon. I tried to move but I felt a searing pain all over and I couldn't move.
I lay still, wishing death would hurry up with me. I wanted everything to end. The pain was too much to bear.
However, at the same time, Mom's last words kept repeating in my head. 'Alanna, I love you. Stay alive.'
I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to stay alive. I was a disgrace. I let everyone down. Everyone including April.
That's right, April, where was she? Is she alive?
I used up all my strength to crawl to the bars and I began to shake them hard.
"April! I demand to see Chase, where is April? What have you done with her?"
The rogue guards tried to silence me but I needed to know if my last family member was alive.
Then the doors leading to the prison swung open and I saw April. She was dressed in one of my dresses and my ring..... No, Chase's ring glittered on her finger.
She stepped inside, lips curled into a smirk.
"How's your new home?" she asked sweetly, eyes scanning the cell. "A little dark, isn't it? But hey, it suits you now."
I narrowed my eyes. "What are you doing, April? Why are you in my....."
She laughed. "Oh, Alanna. You still don't get it, do you? This was never yours."
"It was mine until you stole it."
She stepped closer, crouching just out of reach beyond the silver chain's limit. "You know, there was a time I liked you. When we were kids. I thought we were sisters."
"Then why?"
"Because even as a child, you had everything." Her tone sharpened. "The looks. The name. The legacy, and then… Chase."
My blood turned to ice.
Her voice lowered. "You never deserved him. He was always too good for you. So I took him. I made sure he looked at me the way he was supposed to look at you. He never wanted you, Alanna. Not really."
"You seduced him?" I breathed.
"Oh, please. He came willingly," she said. "He told me you were too soft, too predictable. You weren't a challenge."
I didn't believe her.
I couldn't. This was a dream, it was all a dream.
Yes, nerves. It was my nerves forming a nightmare just before my day. But the pain I was feeling all over my body told me that it was all real.
The door creaked open again.
Chase stepped inside.
He looked the same, dark hair slightly messy, shirt unbuttoned at the top, that familiar tilt to his mouth. But there was no warmth in his eyes. Only disgust and loathing.
He frowned when he saw April. "You shouldn't be down here. You could endanger the baby."
Baby?
He was cheating with her even while we were dating and now they had a baby?
April turned with a shrug. "Just saying hi."
"She's not worth your time."
Alanna. Not worth his time.
I sat up straighter. "So it's true," I said, voice trembling. "All of it."
Chase didn't deny it.
"You never loved me," I said.
He stepped forward. "You were an obligation. A means to an end. You were going to be Alpha, of course I stuck around. But now?" He glanced at April. "Now I have what I really want."
"You're pathetic," I hissed. "Both of you. You'll never be more than traitors clinging to a stolen throne."
April's eyes narrowed. "Say that again—"
"TRAITORS," I snapped, lunging forward, the chains yanking me back mid-motion. "You won't get away with this! My pack will rise. They'll see you for what you are—"
The slap hit me before I saw it coming.
Chase's hand cracked across my face, the sting exploding through my jaw. I fell back, dazed, tasting blood.
He stood over me, unmoved. "You still don't get it, do you? This was all planned. It was only luck that I was your mate but Richard brought me here for this."
I blinked, tears stinging my eyes, pain and rage roaring through me.
He whispered something into her ear and she nodded slightly, giving me one last look before she left. Then I laughed. A loud delirious laugh, devoid of emotion.
Richard came in and was saying something but I couldn't hear a thing anymore, my head kept ringing. I had lost everyone, everything. I must be so light-headed that my mother's words kept on repeating in my head. Stay alive. Stay alive. Remember the Prophecy.
I wanted to scream, Fuck the Prophecy. But those words kept on ringing in my head.
Richard and Chase had moved away and were arguing about something that I couldn't hear.
Then they began slaughtering some of the elders whom they deemed to be Mom's supporters. They had been in the cell next to me and I hadn't noticed.
I writhed in pain, feeling hot. My throat was parched. Water. I needed water, I thought weakly.
Then, out of nowhere, I felt a brush of cool air against my face. I wanted to ignore it, but the gentle stream of air increased steadily.
I let out a small sigh and craned my neck in its direction. Moonlight streamed in through the window, seemingly beckoning me.
A bitter smile crossed my face. It was a full moon. If things had gone according to plan, I was supposed to be leading my first run as Alpha with the pack…the Irony.
Mom's words came again, and this time they came with so much intensity that I jerked forward.
It felt like I was entranced by the sheer magnificence of the moon, and I didnt know where I got the strength from but I quietly broke the chains restraining me amd stagggered forward with my steps quiet.
At first, I found myself leaning closer to the window for the beautiful air.
Then I realized that the window was open. Do whatever you can to stay alive, Alanna. Mom had once instructed during our many drills.
Slowly and as silently as possible, I crawled to the window. I got to its edge soon enough, but I was too weak to pull myself up. Even breathing was difficult.
"Hey!" Chase said suddenly.
Somehow, a burst of energy rushed through me. I jumped up and threw myself out. As I fell to what felt like freedom, I heard Richard curse and yell.
"Find her. Give the rogues her scent. Hunt her down! Don't come back here until you've either pierced her heart with a silver blade or made the rogues tear her apart!"
A couple of my bones ruptured as soon as I made impact with the ground. But I couldn't sit down to wait, nor think of the pain rippling through me.
I leaped up and hobbled away with one thing on my mind. My survival. I needed to live. I needed to stay alive. It was Mom's last wish. I couldn't let her down.
I tried to run faster than I'd ever done in my entire existence. My several injuries, though, made me clumsy, I fell more times than I could count.
Yet I pushed myself back up.
My newfound energy was a mystery to me, but it didn't matter as much as my will to survive.
In a few minutes, I crossed Ivory Moon's boundary. Behind and all around me, I heard hunting howls, they were gaining on me too quickly.
If they were in their wolf form, I wouldn't stand a chance. I skidded to a stop, crouched low, and shifted.
It was my swiftest transformation and my most painful. I was disoriented for a few minutes before I darted away.
There was one thing I was certain of, no one in Ivory Moon had ever matched my wolf's speed.
Being injured may slow me down, but I would be miles away from them.
I ran blindly, trespassing on the boundaries of allies and enemies. I couldn't care less.
The most frustrating thing was that no matter how hard I tried to shake them off, they were always behind me.
Soon, it became a multipack hunt. I had broken a dozen codes by blindly trespassing.
The worst part was that my energy was waning.
Desperately, I swerved into a part of the forest that I had only heard rumors of. They were supposedly forbidden and were every wolf pup's nightmare.
Soon I noticed that the wolves chasing me had reduced, and just as I thought that I was home free, something lunged at me. Giant jaws sank deeply into my hind legs, effectively paralyzing them.
I let out a howl and tried to hobble away. But I was surrounded.
"You thought you could escape, didn't you?" Chase panted, stepping forward after shifting.
I whimpered and willed myself to shift, too, but my wolf was too weak.
Chase let out a bark of laughter. I staggered backward but stopped when I realized that I was at the edge of a cliff.
Staring at me with malice, he let out a low whistle, and at once the rogues surrounding me lunged at me. Biting and tearing away at my fur.
I was one breath from death when he whistled again. They stopped. He knelt beside me and patted my bloody fur.
"I had always been jealous of your fur." He mused. Then smiling he held up my wolf's head and slit its neck. My wolf whimpered its last.
At once, I shifted back to my human form.
I let out a choked sob at the loss of my wolf.
"Finally," Chase jeered, lifting me and pushing me to the very edge of the cliff. "It's over. Your stupid prophecy can die with you."
He plunged his blade into my chest and pushed me off.
My last thought was a one-word plea to the Moon Goddess. Revenge.
I was already dead. All I needed was to be reincarnated in Ivory Moon.
But it was too late.
If anything, today proved that the Moon Goddess was nonexistent or simply uninterested