A Scorned Luna's Revenge

"No, no!" I screamed, fighting the iron grip on my biceps. "No, you have to believe me. I never – Cass, please, you have to believe me!" I screamed, looking at my mate.

I heard a whoosh. My heart went into free fall before my world went still. He didn't believe me. I looked around at all the eyes fixated on me. No one did. No one believed me. The silence in the room rang in my ears. It was loud. Deafening.

"Cass, I – I would never –" The silence still rang in my ears. My voice sounded like it belonged to another woman. It couldn't have been mine. "I would never poison April." The silence shattered with the glass in my mate's palm.

"You dare – How dare you speak her name?" My mate hissed at me. His red eyes glowed in the dimly lit hall. They brimmed with hatred.

"Cass –" I looked around a second time. I did not want to believe it. How could I? How could I believe that everyone turned their backs on me when I needed them the most?

"You will address me as Alpha Cassius Raven." He stepped forward. I moved back but I was met with a wall of warriors blocking me. He took a breath, his chest heaving. Distress, pain, anger, and murderous intent brimmed in his eyes as he gazed down at me.

"For the attempted assassination of my true mate, I, Alpha Cassius Raven, sentence you to death by poison. The same poison you fed my beloved." He spat the words with venom.

The spell of silence in the room broke with an uproar. People spoke all at once, someone laughed, and another clapped. I went weak in the knees but the warriors held me upright.

"Take her away." The words from my mate's lips were directed at the men holding me hostage.

"Cassius Raven, what is the meaning of this?" A voice boomed from the doorway. We all turned to look at the white-haired man walking into the hall.

"F – Father." I sighed in relief. I had never been happier to see my father. He turned to me with a sharp look that made me falter. "Father, I swear, I swear I didn't do it! I am being framed! I would never – I would never –"

"Silence!" Cassius commanded. The sound of a pin dropping would be too loud in the ensuing silence that followed the Alpha's command. "Rufus –" Cassius turned to address my father but he was cut off mid-speech.

"What is this nonsense?" My father's voice boomed, his back and shoulders stiff as he addressed the Alpha. "How dare you accuse my daughter of trying to kill your true mate? What motive does she have to do that?" He demanded.

"Jealousy," someone in the audience shouted.

"Isn't it well known that the Luna is a wicked and jealous woman?"

"Hasn't she been playing all sorts of tricks to chase out April, Alpha Cassius's true mate, from the pack?"

All sorts of questions broke out in the ballroom. It seemed quite obvious but it fully dawned on me then. I was the villain; the wicked woman who could not stand that her mate had found his destiny.

"Why would she be jealous of a mere omega when she is already the Luna?" My father's voice bellowed in the room. "Cassius, you promised before the goddess and this pack to cherish my daughter as long as she is alive to rule by your side. Why would she be jealous of another woman when she has your vow?"

"What importance is a vow between two people when the true mate comes into the picture?"

"How can Alpha Rufus side with his daughter when she has been caught red-handed?"

More murmurs broke out in the hall. They condemned me. They condemned my father for siding with me.

"Father –" I called out for him. I could not bear to see his pride shattered like this because of me. I hated to hear the way people spoke of him as if he were a mere man and not the Alpha of Legends.

"Rufus –" Cassius' voice had a cold edge to it.

"Cassius." My father squared his shoulders and looked the Alpha in the eye. "Tell your warriors to unhand my daughter. She is innocent of this allegation."

"Is this, perhaps, a plot by your family?" The Alpha's voice went low, exuding a weird calmness despite the charged atmosphere. "Did you and your wretched daughter plan to kill my mate to secure her spot as my Luna!?" The crowd gasped at the force behind the allegation. They stepped back as he stepped down from the podium, his eyes fixated on my father.

"Father –" My stomach twisted at the look in my mate's eyes.

"You dare to besmirch my daughter and my family?" My father growled. "Even a fool knows better than to serve a poisoned glass of wine herself in this teeming crowd." The air around my father and my mate charged.

My father was the last person I expected to defend me at such a time. We never had a good relationship and he often scolded me for being a 'silly little girl' yet, he was the only person in this crowd vouching for my innocence.

"Father –" My guts twisted. I did not like the feeling washing over me

"My daughter is innocent of this allegation. Someone here is framing her." My heart shook, stopped for a second, and pounded faster. "Did you plan this with your true mate to humiliate my child?"

"Father!" It happened in the blink of an eye. The sword that was part of Cassius's official accessory whipped at my father and slashed his throat. "Father!" I screamed, starting forward. The warriors holding me did not let me go.

"No, let me go! Father –" I fought against my captors as my father fell to the ground, blood spurting out of his throat. "My father! I – Father !" I screamed. My eyes blurred, my heart pounded, my world tilted on its axis.

"Take her away. Her execution will be in seven days." Cassius wiped his sword of my father's blood and turned. The hall, hitherto silent in the face of death, went into an uproar. People cleared out of Cassius's way, others ran from the hall as I was dragged away, screaming and kicking.

"Let me go!"

The sound of iron doors slamming resounded in the dungeons as the warriors threw me into a dirty cell, stripped of dignity.

"Let me go! I am still your Luna! I command you to let me go!" I raised my head to glare at the warriors manhandling me. "I – Liam? Lucas? Even you two?" I looked at the twin warriors who had served as my guards since I was sixteen. Their shifting gazes fell on everything but me as they walked away.

My laughter escorted them out of the dark dungeons; loud, cold and mirthless.

Loud laughter tore from the depths of my stomach. I leaned forward, bracing myself with my hands on my knees as I shook with laughter. I cannot recall the hour the sound of laughter metamorphosed into violent sobs and cries for help.

~ ~ ~

On the seventh day after the incident; the day of my execution, my head maid came into my cell with her head bowed, a bucket of water in one hand and a lavish dress in another.

"Luna Persephone." She curtsied, her head remaining bowed.

"Raise your head," I called out with what was left of my voice. "The time has come, hasn't it?"

"Luna –" Sylvia trembled as she stepped forward. "I – I –"

"It's okay, Sylvia. You don't have to say anything. I will go peacefully and quietly. I won't be a nuisance to anyone anymore."

"Luna –" Her eyes quivered, tears gathering in them. "I – I am sorry." She bowed again.

"What for, Sylvia? You didn't poison Cassius' princess, did you?" My weak voice maintained a bit of wryness.

"N – No. I am sorry I couldn't protect you." She raised her head as the tears gathered in her eyes spilt. "I promised your mother – I promised to take care of you. I failed."

"You did your best." I forced the muscles on my face to conjure a smile. "It is my fault that I turned out to be a silly little girl, chasing after something that was never mine."

"I – I-" Sylvia lost her voice as she choked on a sob.

"Thank you, Sylvia. I should have thanked you every day for dedicating yourself to me as you did."

"Luna –" She wailed, sinking to her knees. If I had more tears to cry, I would have cried but I was dried up.

I had seven days to reflect on my life and my imminent death. There were a lot of things I could have done better and I never thought of them until death caressed my cheeks.

"Save your tears." I beckoned at the woman who acted as my mother throughout my lifetime. "Come, tell me how the other girls are doing. I hope Hannah didn't cry too much?" I asked, swallowing to moisten my dry throat. Who would give me water when I had poison waiting for me?

"The girls – They – They have turned to April. They serve her now and they – they condemn you with everyone else." My stomach twisted.

Everyone already abandoned me. Why did I think I would be missed? Why did I think they would cry because they served me?

"I see. There is no point in following a dead master." My lips pulled up at the left corner.

"Luna, don't say that! As the closest people to you, they joined in slandering your name! They betrayed you!"

"I would have done the same." My words were cool. The only person to defend me met an early death. I would curse my name if I was in my maid's shoes.

"No, you wouldn't have." Sylvia clutched a fist against her chest. "I – I believe you, Luna! You could never –"

"I am ready to join my parents. Please get me ready." There was no use believing me. I accepted my fate already.

Sylvia silently cleaned my body with the rag in her bucket. I watched the water turn a murky brown with each dip of the rag. The silence stretched as she helped me into my white dress; the one I wore on the day Cassius claimed me as his mate. Sylvia diligently detangled my hair with her fingers, apologizing for the guard's refusal to let her in with a comb. She piled my hair into a ponytail with soft and familiar hands.

"Sylvia, what are you still doing there!" A guard approached with a menacing glower. "Luna April is here." He dragged out Sylvia, slamming the cell shut as April entered.

A petite lady with brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin stared at me as the others left. Her usually friendly face was expressionless as she stared at me. Her rich olive skin had lost colour but other than that, she looked the same as always.

"I have something I must say to you before you leave this world," her soft voice wrapped around me. Her bright and innocent smile had a strange darkness then.

"I am sorry." I bowed my head at her. "I am sorry for all the trouble I caused you. I know you don't believe me but I never tried to poison you."

"I believe you." My heart froze at those words. Coming from her – coming from her, they meant everything.

A glimmer of hope that I had squashed rose its head. If she believed I wasn't the one who poisoned her wine that day, she could vouch for me and I wouldn't have to die! If she put in one word with Cassius, he would listen because he loved her. He trusted her.

"You had no hand in poisoning me." She took the other stool in the dungeon and sat in front of me, grasping my cuffed hands. The cuffs were made with silver and had marked my wrist with deep burning cuts.

"R – Really? You –" My heart leapt. "Have you come to save me? Did you speak to Cassius before coming?" Of course – Of course, she told Cassius before coming here. They were lovers who hid nothing from each other.

"You silly little girl." She smiled brighter as confusion contorted my facial features. "How dumb can you be?" She laughed in my face.

"What? April –" April was twenty, which made me two years older than her. Why would she call me a little girl?

"Everything has been leading up to this moment. Everything." My eyes widened. Could it be – "From the moment I met my true mate and found out he was already shackled to you, I had to take you out."

"April –"

"Shut up! Just shut up! Goddess, you have no idea how long I've waited to say that!" She laughed again, the sound too free, too jovial, to have come from a person I was starting to see in a different light.

"How could I let you continue as Luna while I stayed in the shadows? How dare you mate with Cassius?" She couldn't scream because the guards were near but I knew she wanted to.

"He needed a mate and I – I was his friend –" I said, sounding like a silly little girl.

"You were his friend, indeed. He told me everything. You forced his hand," she hissed. "All this time, I had to pretend to be pitiful. How could I, an unknown omega, compete with you, the daughter of Alpha Rufus, a paragon of beauty and a noble lady? Why did I have to compete with you for my true mate!" She hissed again.

"I knew I could not compete so I had to kill you." My mouth fell open. "Goddess, I am happy you are in pain. I am happy you are miserable. Now you will feel a fraction of what I felt every time someone addressed you as Cassius's Luna while I stood to the side." She glared at me. "I poisoned that wine. I framed you. I wondered how I would deal with Alpha Rufus but he took care of himself, didn't he?" She giggled.

"You – You monster." My eyes widened.

"Oh, don't be dramatic. I merely did what had to be done." She flipped her hair. "I was behind everything. Your wardrobe fails, the rumours, everything that made you lose your temper and throw a tantrum, I orchestrated all of them. Messing with you was boring, considering how little I had to try to get you riled up but watching you lose Cassius's favour satisfied me." She beamed.

"You bitch!" I screamed.

"Guards!" She shouted, jumping away as tears filled her eyes.

"I – Why are you crying!" I yelled, surprised at how fast her countenance changed.

"How could you attack me!" She pretended to stumble as guards rushed to open the cell.

"I didn't! You pretender! You –" Cassius came into the cell behind the guards. "I won't take it! I won't die without a fight after you confessed to framing me!" I screamed when I saw the cup one of the guards held.

"I knew you would not accept retribution nobly," Cassius said in a cold voice. He pulled out a blade and I flinched. "Get out, all of you," he commanded the guards. "You don't have to witness this, April," he spoke softly to his mate while I trembled.

"No – No, I can't leave you here with her. What if she attacks you? She's dangerous." She clutched at Cassius's bicep, her face flushed and wet with tears. "I will stay to protect you." She flashed me a secret smile.

"Cassius –" He sprung over to me and plunged his blade into my chest, his eyes cold. "Cassius –" The blade was laced with poison and silver. The minute it hit my bloodstream, I felt myself slipping away.

"Die, you silly little girl. Die!" Cassius snarled in my face.

No, no! Goddess, no! We were all deceived! I can't die! I don't want to die! I am innocent! Goddess!!

"Goddess, no!" I swatted at the blinding white light filling my vision.

"Miss Persephone, please calm down!" A muffled voice sounded in my ringing ears. Pins pricked all parts of my skin, making me moan in pain. "Miss–" The voice calling out my name faded as darkness embraced me.

"Anastacia," an ethereal voice wrapped around me in the darkness.

Anastacia.

It was my middle name which no one addressed me by except my aunt who died over a decade ago. It was what my mother called me before she died but my father preferred Persephone, a name fitting for a bringer of death to his beloved mate.

"Is she awake?"

"Miss Persephone?" Blinding white light filled my vision again. My eyes opened to see what the afterlife had waiting for me. It was dark, quiet, mournful, and somewhat angst-ridden.

"Where – Where am I?" I looked around me, turning back to the white light. I flinched when I realized the 'white light' was actually Doctor Lorenzo's salty white hair. "Ha, did he get you too?" Light flooded into the room, startling me.

"Lady Persephone, I was so worried," Sylvia wept, her hands shaking as she held her skirt, her head bowed.

"What is happening right now?" My heart started to beat faster. I heard the pounding in my ears, my hands shook on the bed beside me. "Where am I? What is this?" My gaze bounced around, taking in my surroundings.

I was in my room in Cassius's mansion but - but I died. Cassius stabbed me with a blade made of silver and coated in venom. I died after that. Could this be the afterlife? If so, where was the goddess? Why was I in bed? Or did I survive? What – What!?

"You fainted without warning while we walked around the back garden. You fell into a bush. I – Please forgive me. I failed to catch you." Sylvia's shoulders shook as she cried.

"Doctor Lorenzo – How am I still here? I should have died!" My eyes darted around as I sat upright.

It made no sense at all! What sort of cruel afterlife could this be? I didn't want to die in the first place but it didn't mean I wanted to be plagued by the faces of my loved ones in the afterlife!

"Miss Persephone!" Sylvia looked scandalized, her red and teary eyes blew wide.

I stopped being 'Miss Persephone' after the unfortunate day I mated with Cassius. On that day, I went from Miss Persephone to Luna Persephone!

"Only the most unfortunate people die from falling into a rose bush, miss," Doctor Lorenzo said. "You suffered mild scratches but rest assured your injuries will heal before your engagement ceremony next week. As a result of this incident, the Alpha has ordered –" The doctor continued to speak but his words failed to register in my brain.

Engagement ceremony next week. Engagement ceremony next week.

I raised my hands to examine the scratches that the doctor expected me to be worried about. Sylvia and Lorenzo's chatter died down as I raised my hand.

"What happened to your wrists?" Horror rang in Sylvia's voice. She rushed to take my hands in hers. My breath turned ragged when I looked at my hands. "Doctor Lorenzo!" Sylvia turned to the doctor who looked as flustered as her.

"I – I am not quite sure," the doctor stuttered, adjusting the glasses on his face. "It looks like – Ha, these are similar to injuries sustained from silver handcuffs."

"Doctor Lorenzo, don't talk nonsense!" My maid barked. "Silver handcuffs on the missus' wrists!?"

"Ah – Ah, of course, I may be wrong." Lorenzo began to sweat. "Yes, I must be wrong. Only criminals have such injuries. How could it – On the lady –" The doctor blubbered.

I hadn't dreamt it so was this the dream? Ugly white scars covered both my wrists. White scars, not red.

"How can you be the pack doctor when you only know how to talk nonsense!?" Sylvia continued to berate the doctor. My shy maid turned into a fierce wolf when it involved my well-being.

"It – It may be an allergic reaction from falling into the rose bush?" Lorenzo winced after his weak question. Sylvia sucked in a deep breath but I stopped her.

"Can injuries from silver poisoning be healed?" I asked Lorenzo. The room went silent for a split second.

"Ha, no – Such injuries last a lifetime – there are even sayings –" Lorenzo trailed off.

"What sayings?" I pressed.

"They say that people can be reborn with these scars." My blood ran cold. "Ah, but – but that's just nonsensical talk among jobless wolves." Lorenzo let out a burst of shrill laughter.

"I see." I looked at my wrists again. "What is today's date?"

"It is the fifth day of the third month in the thousandth year of the Deimos kingdom," the doctor replied. "Do the scars hurt, miss?"

Two years. Exactly two years and seven days before my death.

I shoved away from the two people sitting around me and dashed to the mirror. The woman who stared back at me had waist-length, silky black hair and bangs. It was my trademark hairstyle until last year when I chopped my hair to shoulder length and coloured it blonde to get Cassius' attention.

Was it possible to go back in time?

Someone knocked on the door and I turned in time to see the Alpha step into my room. Before, his eyes had grown cold as he drifted from me to get closer to April but now, he gazed at me with warmth and concern.

The ground swayed under my feet and I let out an ear-splitting scream.

~~

Persephone Anastacia Adelard. That was me. My mother died an hour after she birthed me, right after she called me Anastacia.

'Bringer of death.'

Sylvia told me that was the first thing my father ever said to me. Thus, my name became Persephone, the only daughter of Alpha Rufus Adelard, the man who led the rogue extermination in our kingdom and earned his title as the Crimson Wolf.

I looked too much like my mother for him to be around me. We stayed in the same mansion but I could go months without seeing my father. I lived without family and friends, locked up in my father's mansion, unable to go out for fear of kidnap. It didn't surprise anyone that I grew to hate my father.

At seven, I met a boy named Cassius. I found him sneaking through our mansion on a dare, his dirty clothes quivering on his thin body as he trespassed into the home of the Crimson Wolf. I served him milk and cookies before pleading with him to visit me often. He did.

At eighteen, I manipulated my father into helping Cassius overthrow his wicked Alpha. I lured my father out of retirement and made him join Cass' pack after years of him being an Alpha to a pack of ten – me and our maids.

'Why don't you love me? Why am I never enough?' Those were frequent words I said to my father, followed by 'If you loved me, you would help Cassius.' When I wanted something and Father didn't oblige me, I held my mother's name as a card over him. I threatened to kill myself, I told him how disappointed my mother would be with how he treated me. One day, I told him my mother watched us from heaven and she hated him for mistreating her only child. He cried that day.

I blackmailed my father into helping my crush.

Two years after Cassius became an Alpha, his pack demanded a Luna and I thought he would choose me. I was stupid to think that. To him, I was his best friend but my heart stuttered in his presence. Cassius didn't see me as a romantic partner. He had no interest in romance, actually.

I made my father propose the idea of linking our families. Cassius revered my father too much to say no to his face, so he came to me. He told me he didn't want to mate with me as he only saw me as a friend. It broke my heart but I was persistent. I sent my father back with an ultimatum. If Cassius did not mate with me, the Adelard family would find another pack to support. He had no choice.

His pack had their reservations. My father's name was the only good thing about me. I had a bad temper. I was vain and rude. How could I lead as the Luna when I behaved like a surly sixteen-year-old even at twenty? No one opposed me to my face because I had Cassius and my father backing me but I heard all the bad things people said about me.

I believed their views would change after I became Luna. Thrust into the limelight after two decades of living in the shadows of my father's mansion, I went loose. I thought I was the beginning and the end while being nobody, a 'silly little girl' as my father used to call me.

I wasn't silly. I lived twenty years in solitude, my head buried in books to pass the time. I could read, write and speak three languages. I read books on business and administration, I read on history, politics, and religion. At sixteen, I took over managing the affairs of my father's estate. At nineteen, I became Cassius's unofficial adviser.

I learnt to embroider, to dance, and conduct myself in a dignified manner. I even learnt to cook and bake. I shifted as early as fifteen into a magnificent alpha wolf and I learnt to control my shift in a few months. With all these skills, I scorned those who said I would not be a good Luna. I was fit to be an Alpha even.

With my father's ultimatum, Cassius had no choice but to be engaged to me. The preparations took six months and even though I knew he was purposely dragging the engagement, I did not change my mind. I loved Cassius and he loved me, albeit as a friend. For me, we were a perfect match.

It was on the day of our engagement that Cassius met his true mate, April Arlington. She had nothing to offer him politically or aesthetically. She was humble, naïve, and plain-looking but everyone loved her. She could not look after herself not to talk of the thousands in our pack, but people said she would be the perfect Luna.

I hated her.

With her arrival, things started to go wrong. High society shunned me, everyone laughed at me, including my maids and strange things began to happen. My jewelry disappeared, strange holes appeared on my new dresses so I had to keep buying more, making me seem wasteful. People showed up to events in the same dresses as me despite my clothes being custom-made. Every time this happened, I confronted and blamed April.

I became the evil witch who not only stole April's mate but constantly bullied her. The more I attacked April, the more distant Cassius became. We were engaged and with my father's influence he was fast climbing up in life so he was forced to choose me rather than his mate and a year after our engagement, with a lot of pressure from my end, we went ahead to hold a Mating Ceremony.

My already bad reputation plummeted to the ground after that but I was happy, especially when I saw the distraught look on April's face when Cassius and I officially became mates. To me, I won but it turned out to be a disaster. Once I mated with Cassius, he pushed me away and made it clear that he hated me.

Still, I tried to hold on to him but a year later, I was exhausted. On the night when we were celebrating Cassius' five years as an Alpha, I decided I could no continue to bully April. I poured her a glass of wine as a sign of goodwill and a minute later, she collapsed, frothing at the mouth.

That was the end for Persephone Adelard, the wicked woman who stole someone else's mate, bullied the innocent woman and then tried to kill her.

**

"Perse, I told you to stop going around without breakfast. Can you now see the reason?" I looked at Cassius as Lorenzo and Sylvia excused themselves. "I can't have you dying just a week before our engagement."

When I looked at Cassius who just entered my room, all I felt was fear. The image of him slicing my father's neck made me shiver and close my eyes.

"I – My father –"

"The Alpha has not come to see you. He may have not heard of the incident." Cassius gave me a pointed look but I looked away with a foreign emotion boiling in my guts.

Lies.

"If – I must go to him then. I'll go to him since he hasn't come to me." I pushed out of bed.

"You shouldn't be pestering the old man at your age, Perse –" Cassius reached out to me but I flinched away from his touch. "Persephone," he called my name in shock as I scrambled out of the bed and put distance between us. "What is it? What's wrong?" He asked but I could only shake my head with a lump in my throat.

"Please, go out," I said to Cassius and he stiffened. He opened his mouth to say something but I shook my head again. "Please."

With one last lingering confused look at me, Cassius left my room and I burst into tears. Tears poured from my eyes like a leaky faucet as I slid down to the ground, my back against the bedframe.

I came back to life. The goddess gave me another chance at life so I must live and this time, I must live differently. I had to change the fate of the Adelards. Now, I knew better than to beg for love. In my past that could still be my future, my father died protecting me. My father who I never had a good relationship with, was the only person to stand beside me. I would not let my foolishness cost him his life this time.

"My lady, miss –" Hannah, one of my maids, rushed into my room with her eyes taking up a large part of her face when she saw me sitting on the ground and crying. "Are you alright?" She hovered beside me.

With a silent nod, I stood, wiping the tears from my face and straightening my face.

"They betrayed you!" Sylvia's voice from the past screamed in my ears. I shook those words out of my head.

"My lady, does your chest hurt?" She clasped my hands which I had unknowingly clutched to my chest.

It hurt.

It hurt that I died so unfairly. It hurt that my father died for nothing. It hurt that everyone turned against me, including the girl holding my hands right now. It hurt that the man I loved and sacrificed everything for had plunged a blade into my heart without remorse. Everything hurt.

But now, I would take a different path.

"Hannah?" I called the red-haired girl clasping my fist in her hands.

"Yes, miss?" She responded, eager to please.

"I will be a master worth serving to you," I vowed.

"Miss! Of course, you are already worth serving," she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with resolve.

This girl could be bought over with a few gold coins so I ignored those false words.

"Help me change. I'll be paying my father a visit."

As she prepared a dress for me, I heard her mutter to herself, 'Do I have to flatter her a bit more?' It made me chuckle.

"Hannah, you will need to work on your tact if you're to continue working for me," I told her. "And you have one chance."

In the past, I ignored all her excesses because I liked that she always tried to please me but while I was turning a blind eye to her faults, she was busy working for April.

"I – I will do my best, my lady." She bowed low.

If I was to survive this life, then I had to be smart. Smarter than April.