Chapter 26
Faith’s Pov
My mate.
Astor had called me his mate in front of everybody, and he defended me at
that moment. The world simply ceased to exist. I was shocked into a silence
so profound that I might have stopped breathing.
It didn’t matter what he had said before that, or what he would say after. It
didn’t matter that he had just openly threatened my father, the Alpha of our pack, and by extension, everyone around us.
The Eclipse Pack was legendary, powerful, known across other territories,
but the Eternal Night Pack was far, far larger, more dominant than ours. My father would have no choice but to yield to Astor’s demands.
But none of that mattered.
All that mattered was the claim.
My mate.
Watching him stand there, so tall, so commanding, a profound warmth began to spread through my chest. It chased away the cold ache that had lodged itself deep within me after years of neglect, of being made to feel invisible. He wasn’t just defending me against a false accusation; he was making me visible. He was valuing me above all else, in front of everyone who had ever dismissed me.
He wasn’t just protecting me from a thief and a liar. He was dismantling the very power structure that had allowed my family to diminish me for so long. He was protecting me from the pain of being unseen, unheard, and utterly invalidated. He was giving me a voice, a presence, a worth I hadn’t known l possessed.
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My head spun with emotions and revelations, and I was drowning in them.
There was nothing more for me to say, because everything I’d ever wanted to
say–everything I hadn’t even known how to say – had just been echoed and
amplified by him.
Overwhelmed, needing air, needing space, I turned and walked away.
The last few days had been a relentless torrent, each moment piling on top
of the last, leaving me no time to process anything. My mind felt like a
tangled knot, and I desperately needed to unravel it.
“You must be happy.”
I didn’t need to turn to know who it was. The venom in her voice was as
familiar as the air I breathed.
I took a deep, steadying breath, bracing myself for the inevitable nastiness.
“Shouldn’t you be packing, or whatever?” I asked, turning slowly to face Alice. She stood there, perfectly coiffed, a picture of effortless beauty, yet her eyes held a calculating glint that marred her perfection.
“I don’t know what he sees in you,” she scoffed, her lip curling. “But you are not going to take him from me.”
Honestly, I often wondered what Astor ever saw in her. Alice was undeniably beautiful, but she was also the most vain, selfish, and manipulative person I had ever encountered.
“I think I’ve already taken him,” I replied, the words tasting bitter even as I spoke them. “And unlike you, I didn’t have to open my legs to do it.”
It stung, saying that out loud. I’d tried so hard to push the image of them together from my mind, to pretend it hadn’t happened. But it had, and I knew I had to make peace with that agonizing truth.
A cruel, knowing smile touched Alice’s lips. “That must hurt, doesn’t it?
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Especially since you spent three years with him and he never touched you. But all I had to do was come back, and he was all over me.”
I pretended it didn’t hurt. I tried to keep my face a blank mask, but it did hurt. Every single word was a deliberate jab, twisting the knife deeper into an already raw wound. I stood there, forced to listen, forced to endure.
A part of me wanted to forgive Astor, to forget the pain. But it wouldn’t go away, not with someone like Alice always there to remind me. Still, there was
a glimmer of relief.
Soon, she would finally be out of my life.
“I really don’t want to argue with you,” I said, trying to step around her. I had left the sitting room precisely to avoid a fight, to avoid her, but she had followed me.
Alice blocked my path. “We’re not arguing. We’re just having a conversation.”
Her eyes flashed, and I felt the subtle ripple of her wolf trying to intimidate me. It wasn’t going to work. Not anymore. Not today.
A strange calm washed over me, a clarity born of years of suppressed emotion.
“You know, Alice,” I began, my voice steady, surprising even myself. I actually feel sorry for you.”
Her sneer faltered. “Sorry for me?”
“Yes. You had everything. The best childhood, loving parents-‘ our parents, I thought, a quiet bitterness, “and for a time, even Astor. Yet somehow, you were never satisfied. That’s why you decided to come after me with everything you had.”
My voice grew stronger, fueled by a truth I had kept buried for too long. “I still don’t understand what I ever did to you. Ever since I came back, all I’ve tried
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to do is be your friend, your sister. But you always treated me like I was less, like you were inherently better.”
I took a step closer, forcing her to hold her ground. “You always made me feel guilty, like I was the reason for all of this. But the truth is, Alice, your biological mother is the real reason we’re in this situation. You and she are
exactly the same.”
My next words came out with the force of a tidal wave. “You would both hurt anyone, destroy anything, just to make yourselves feel great. And your mother was very successful at it. She made my childhood a living hell. And you, Alice, you tried to do the same to my teenage years, and now my adulthood. It wasn’t me who stole everything from you, it was you who stole from me. I am Alpha’s biological daughter. You are not. You always seem to
forget your place.”
“But that cycle ends here. And it ends now.” My eyes locked onto hers, unwavering. “So, if I were you, I would start packing. I would say my final goodbyes. Because if I ever hear that you’re still here after today, trust me, I will make sure you are utterly, completely done.”
The words had been kept inside me for so long, festering, because a part of me had always felt a strange pity for her I was the only person in the world who truly understood how much that moment, years ago, had affected her. The day I arrived with my worn backpack, trying to build a relationship with my biological parents who, to her, were her parents.
–
Our whole lives had changed that day. But that didn’t give her the right to turn
into this monster.
“I hate you!” She spat, her face contorted with rage. “Even if I’m not daddy and mom’s biological daughter, but they love me, and you’re just a b***h without a wolf! They see you as a disgrace.”
I simply smiled. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, and probably wouldn’t be
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the last, though I hoped it would be, given her departure.
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“I don’t feel anything for you, Alice. Hate is too strong an emotion for someone I barely register.” My smile dropped. “But I do wish you luck, wherever you go. Because the world out there will not bow down to you, like
our parents always have.”
I didn’t wait for her to reply. I finally walked past her, and this time, she didn’t stand in my way. I was almost free, almost out of the hallway, when her
voice, chillingly calm, pierced the silence behind me, stopping me dead in my
tracks.
“I’m pregnant. And I don’t think I need to tell you who the father of my baby is,
now do I?”
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#vote#
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