Serene
I look down at the woman kneeling in front of me, and I try to find an ounce of pity for her, but I can’t.
Not when she grew up having everything that I deserved.
She grew up having everything that was supposed to be mine.
I wasn’t always the darling of the Moonclaw Pack.
Before my aunt met her untimely death, I was a nobody.
My mother’s mate was nothing more than a rogue on the outskirts of the Moonclaw Pack.
I shudder to even think of his name.
Zane Mark.
He never loved us.
Not the way Alpha Victor does.
No, Zane was a cruel and terrible person.
My mother claimed that he wasn’t always that way, but I don’t remember him ever being kind.
My earliest memories are made of alcohol, gambling, the scent of cheap perfume, and pain that came from the blows that he landed on my mother and me.
He didn’t care that he hurt us, all he cared about was the fact that my mother had belonged to another man before him.
I laugh when I think about it now, because that man is and was Alpha Victor.
When my mother was younger, she and Alpha Victor had a short-lived love affair, but it was one that took her virginity.
That was something that my father could never forgive.
He believed that Victor had stolen something that was rightfully his, and he never let my mother forget that she betrayed the mate bond before she even knew it existed.
I watched from dark corners as he screamed at her and pushed her against the wall.
I watched every strike he landed on her cheek, and when he decided that she had enough, he turned his alcohol filled rage onto me.
I was often covered in cuts and bruises, but no one helped me.
No one came to my rescue, especially not my mother.
My grandparents had warned my mother against mating with a rogue, but she was sure that the mate bond could heal what was broken between them.
She was wrong, but she would never admit the truth.
I am not sure she even admitted it to herself.
Rather than return home and ask for help, she stayed with Zane.
Her pride wouldn’t let her leave. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
I remember begging her one day.
I begged for her to take me away from him, but she rolled her shoulders back and held her head high.
“I would rather rot in the mud than ask my family for help.”
Her fierce pride kept her from admitting that she had chosen the wrong man and had fallen from grace.
She watched her sister fall in love with Victor and create the perfect family together.
I think she grew to resent her sister, though I am not sure she would say it out loud.
I will never forget the day I met Lilith for the first time.
That day is burned into my memories like a brand.
She was wearing a pretty pink dress with ruffles that made her look like a little princess.
Her hair was wild with curls, and she had a shiny clip that kept them from falling in her face.
She twirled in the sun, and the skirt spread out around her, and I swear her skin sparkled.
It was that moment that I realized just how different life could have been if my mother had chosen Alpha Victor.
I might have been barely ten years old, but the heat of jealousy spread beneath my collar.
Lilith bound up to me with a smile on her face, and she reached out to hug me, but I took a step back.
I was dirty.
My clothes were torn and stained, and dirt was caked under my fingernails.
I thought if I touched her, I would tarnish her.
I just knew that my filthy hands would smudge her perfect persona, but Lilith didn’t seem to care.
She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in for a hug.
I remember that hug like it was yesterday.
It was warm and inviting, not like the cold hugs that I received from my mother.
No one had embraced me the way Lilith did.
“Come, cousin,” she squealed.
“Let’s play.”
Lilith dragged me through the Moonclaw Pack house and into a room that my whole house could have fit in. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
My eyes widened with wonder as I took in my surroundings.
It was a room made for a princess.
There was a huge canopy bed in the middle, with pink satin sheets and ruffles.
Pictures of unicorns hung on the walls, and there was a vanity with hair clips and pretend makeup.
Then there were the toys.
Goddess, the amount of toys.
They cluttered every inch of the room, and I felt myself getting more envious by the second.
If Lilith noticed that I was growing to hate her for everything she had, she didn’t let it show.
She shoved dolls in my hands and mimicked their voices, trying to urge me to play with her.
I remember sitting in silence as she played.
Lilith was like a bright little sun, and it seemed it would be impossible to dull her shine.
She skittered around her room, grabbing different things from the shelves to show them to me.
She wasn’t delicate with her toys like I thought she should be.
The more I sat there, the more I was reminded of everything that I didn’t have.
I was reminded of everything I would never have because my mother chose the wrong man.
This could have been my life.
I could have been the darling of the Moonclaw Pack, but instead, I was an outcast in second-hand clothes and knots in her hair.
When it was time to leave, I snuck a small toy in my pocket.
I was sure that she wouldn’t miss it.
After all, she had so many things, and I had nothing.
On the car ride back to rogue territory, my mother was silent.
Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, and I could tell there was something on her mind.
“All of that should have been ours,” she muttered under her breath.
“Victor loved me first.
Not my sister.
Her life should have been mine.”