Chapter 1 The Unseen Value

Lucia POV

As I ran as quickly as my legs could take me,

I couldn't help but feel so exhausted. I turned around in search of Presley, but she was nowhere to be found. I stood still, trying to gain my breath back. I knew for sure that Presley had taken the shorter route just to get there before me. Just to always appease my father. It seems as our daily routine was only to appease my father and nothing else. Even though I had taken the right route, she would still be named the best in this competition.

I decided not to race anymore because I was more than sure that Presley had bypassed me. I walked slowly towards the finish line, and when I got there, Presley was already giving the praises that she always wanted from my father. As he clapped his hands with a proud smile on his face, walking towards her, he couldn't help but embrace her tightly.

I stood there for a while as a few of the park members, who were also there to witness everything, all looked at me. Some of them even seemed angry, while some stared at me in disgust. But I did not care. I took my time before getting to the finish line. Presley turned to me with a disgusted look before mouthing to me, "Good luck being a loser." I did not bother to reply to her and instead just took my seat beside my father's throne.

Feeling so relaxed, I knew that my father would not just take it easy with me. And of course, he would use this moment to tease and make me feel even more disdained about myself. He soon finished his accolades to Presley and turned to me.

"And you, Lucia, what took you so long? From the looks of it, you had already gotten far even by passing Presley. What happened? Why do you just always have to disgrace me? You always have to show me that you are not worthy of my time or even worth the praise to be my daughter. Do you even know what it is to be a child of someone like me? I still try my best to teach you everything. For you, always act weak. Always. Why are you always this way?" he said to me.

But I rolled my eyes without answering. If only he knew that his special Presley had taken a shorter route and that was why she got here before me. He wouldn't be praising her this way. He turned again to Presley and smiled, hugging her again. "You are always the best. Do not worry. I have a reward for you for winning this task," he said to her and then turned back to me. "As for you, if you need to train harder, you keep disappointing me, and I think you need to work on that," he said before sitting on his throne.

As the meeting between the park members soon started, they were making preparations for the arrival of an Alpha from another park very far from us. But I really did not care and did not put my attention to it as I scrolled through my phone, thinking of something else to do. I had gotten so fed up with this. Me and Presley were twin sisters. I would say we were identical, but not as identical as you might think. Because Presley was the agile one according to my father, who always did everything he wanted and always made him proud. While I was just the nobody.

I was the mistake that my mom gave birth to. I was just a replacement in case anything happened, which I was used to. It had been years since my mom's death, but I still missed her so much because she was the only one who valued me. My father did not care about me in any way, and instead, he always found a reason to make me feel like I am not worth anything.

The meeting was soon over, and I walked casually into the palace. I was so fed up with everything, feeling so depressed and even frustrated. But I did not let it get to me. I thought of other things that I could do that would make me feel happier about myself. But I knew that Presley would not just let it go like that.

I could hear her clicking heels on the tiles as she rushed towards me. She tapped me aggressively on the shoulder as I turned to her with a groan. "What do you want now? Do you plan on mocking me?" I questioned her as she laughed loudly.

"I really don't have time to mock you. Everyone already did that for me. I can't believe. Just a simple race you still can't do. What else are you worthy of? You are making Dad so tired of always having to stop wasting his time and give up already. Leave the position to me," she said as I laughed like a maniac.

"Which position do you plan on taking? Do not forget we own nothing here. We are not males; we are females. We would end up having our own mate and leaving," I said to her as she stared at me with a frown.

"You'll be the one living first. That's what I am sure of," she said, and I guess she just recalled something as she looked at me with a sense of realization. "I heard that the Alpha who is coming from far back is quite handsome," she said to me and then bumped shoulders with me as I hissed.

"I don't care. It's not like it's going to change anything. At the end of the day, Father would pick you to be his queen, and I am fine with that. I guess if you leave us for good, I would be able to show Father that I am not just a lazy person that can't do anything," I said to her.

"Well, just watch and see if he is not worth it. I am not going with him, and you might end up being the one following him like a stray cat," she mocked before rushing away. She looked even more elegant than I could ever be because Father always gave her everything special. Even her dresses were tailored specially and differently from mine. Despite the fact that we were twins and were meant to be treated the same way.

Just then, a few members of the park councils were passing by as they stopped in front of me with a frown, shaking their heads sideways; they made a sound with their tongues as a way of saying they disapproved of my laziness. But I did not care and tried to walk away as one of them stopped me.

"You really have no sense of embarrassment in you or resentment. You continue to show your father that you are weak and nothing else. Aren't you tired of always being the weak one?" one of the council members said to me.

"Who knows maybe you would have to be banished from this pack to be ever, you are nothing more than a wolfless omega." The council member uttered, I felt so enraged but held it in. If only they knew the kind of wolf I had.