Different

MALIA’S POV
There was nothing as sweet as your own independence and freedom. This I realized in the first few days of being alone in my room without Ryder in my space.
He was sorely mistaken if he felt that giving me space was going to strengthen whatever attraction I had left for him.
The more I stayed away from him, the more the attraction died and my wolf was beside herself with happiness. She was still insisting that I leave the palace and reunite with our mate. But I just didn’t want any man in my space. I was dreading the day Ryder would ask me to return to his chambers. Maybe that was when I was eventually going to decide to leave him, go somewhere else and start afresh.
The first time I heard him sneak out of his chambers, I thought perhaps, that he was going to his study to work overnight. He had done it a couple of times when I was still sleeping in his chambers.
The same thing happened the next day and then the next and I began to get curious. I decided to ask him about it the next time we had dinner together.
On that evening, Aurora was with us. She had just returned from her aunty’s place and was looking even more radiant. The girl could really compete with the sun and perhaps, even win.
She was already an adult and I could tell that she had fallen in love with someone.
I watched her for a moment as she ate her meal so gracefully before speaking.
“So who is he?” I asked her and nearly laughed at the scowl on Ryder’s face. He was the stereotypical older brother. Very overprotective of his sister when it came to her association with the opposite gender.
Her answering blush on her face told me that I had guessed right. There was indeed a man but of course, she denied it. Perhaps, I should have asked her in the absence of her brother. I was going to ask her again when it was just us girls.
“There can not be a man in her life at this moment. She is still too young,” Ryder said.
I rolled my eyes. “Please she’s eighteen already. An adult. What if she finds her mate in the next mating ceremony? Are you going to scare him off?” I queried and he frowned.
I smiled inwardly when he did not reply. I knew he was perfectly capable of doing just that. I just hoped Aurora was bold enough to stand her ground against him when the time came for her to do so.
The table was silent for a moment and only the clinking sounds of silverware hitting the plates could be heard.
“Speaking of mates,” Ryder began, ” let’s just hope that he is a suitable match for you,” he said to his sister.
I rolled my eyes. I already knew where this was going.
Her eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. “I do not understand what you mean. I thought the Moon Goddess always made perfect matches,” she replied in her soft, musical voice.
He set down his fork and steepled his fingers together. “Well, you are a princess, so if your mate turns out to be an omega or even a gamma, you would have to reject him.”
I heard her gasp of surprise at the same I glared at him. He was part of those people who made Omegas feel less of themselves. He had probably forgotten that his Beta’s wife was an Omega and she happened to be my best friend.
I reminded him of this and he scoffed. “Believe me, it is much better if the female is of a lower position than the male. And Damien should be thankful to me for raising his position. Now he has better chances should he ever want to put Penelope aside.
He ignored my and his sister’s identical gasps of shock and continued with his meal. I desperately wanted to hit him hard on the head with something like a baseball bat.
“You are so unbelievable,” I murmured and to my annoyance, he chuckled.
Aurora took a sip of water and gently cleared her throat. “I am going to be with anyone the Moon Goddess has chosen for me. You do not get to tell me who to reject and who to marry. That’s my decision to make. And besides from what I heard, our mother was an Omega whose mate was an Alpha. So please think again when you are about to talk down on them,” she said quietly but firmly.
I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep from laughing when she spoke. Thank the Goddess that she had a spine. Ryder was going to have a hard time controlling this one. She may be reserved but I could sense the fire within her.
“Thank you for the meal,” she said and rose up to leave.
It was then that Ryder recovered from his initial shock at her words.
“Sit back down. You only leave when I ask you to,” he ordered and I saw the flash of anger in her lovely green eyes. She inhaled deeply and sat down.
“Now, look here young lady. You do not talk back at me. Let this be the first and the last. And sorry honey, but I’m your legal guardian and you have to do as I say.”
“But Ryder, she wasn’t talking back at you. She was merely expressing her opinions,” I said.
He turned to give me a look that could melt ice but I stared back at him defiantly with a scowl on my face.
“The last time I checked, I was talking to my sister and not to you.”
Aurora scoffed. “If you ever try to control me, I am going to return to where I came from and no force on Earth is going to make me come back here,” she said, before getting up from her seat and walking out.
Ryder called out to her angrily but she ignored him. I silently applauded her for her courage and independence.
She was a lot stronger than she looked.
My husband got to his feet angrily and pointed a finger at me. “You and your so-called best friend have been misleading her right? Because that’s the only way she could have been so confident to talk back at me and even walk out on me.”
“I beg your pardon,” I said rising from my seat. I was already pissed. This was not how I had wanted the evening to go but Ryder just had a way of spoiling things.
He sneered at me. “Even if you want to mislead someone, at least, let it be your own child and not someone else’s. But you can not have a child right? You are just a barren whore.”
I was filled with an anger so intense, that I didn’t know when I left where I was and pinned him to the floor. I heard scary sounds and I guessed it was me growling with rage.
I think my wolf took control at some point and I was vaguely aware of the guards pulling me off their Alpha.
What happened next was all a blur. I woke up the next day on my bed and with a terrible headache.
I just laid there and made no attempt to get out of bed. I guess I must have slept off again because the next time I opened my eyes, the sun rays were already coming in through the window and they landed on my face. I immediately closed my eyes and faced the opposite direction before I opened them again.
Whoever had brought me to my room had not bothered to close the curtains.
Penelope came into my room just as I stood up to close the curtains.
She gasped. “What the hell happened to your hair?”
My eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. “Nothing happened,” I answered.
She rolled her eyes. ” Are you being serious right now?” she queried.
I sighed. “Penelope, I do not know what you are talking about,” I replied and was about to return to my bed when she pulled me by the arm and led me to the closet.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked in irritation.
“Here. Look in the mirror,” she said.
I took one look at myself in the mirror and gasped in shock. My hair was no longer black but had turned snow-white overnight.
“It is just like the colour of your fur,” she commented. “How did this happen? Did you dye your hair last night? Because I still saw you before dinner and your hair was black. Is there even a white dye?” she queried.
I shook my head, equally as confused as she was.
“I have no idea what happened. All I can remember is Ryder and I getting into a fight. I was so angry that I blacked out.”
“You and Ryder got into a fight? Like you two exchanged fists?” she asked in an amused tone.
I frowned. “I pounced on him and I think I would have killed him but the guards pulled me off him. I didn’t even know the exact moment I was brought to my room. I just woke up and saw myself on my bed,” I replied.
She gave a sigh of disappointment. “I would have loved to watch that.”
I smacked her on the arm.
“Ouch!” she exclaimed. “What did you do that for?”
I rolled my eyes. “Penelope, we are supposed to be focused on why my hair has turned white,” I answered.
She smiled. “I know it is strange but this is hot. You look ten times more beautiful. See how this colour brings out your beautiful blue eyes.”
She was right but I was more concerned about why and how this had happened.
“I think Lucien might have an answer,” I murmured.
She snorted. “Please. I do not think that my father-in-law knows anything more than wars and women,” she said.
“Then you do not know him at all,” I replied.
I took my bath, got dressed and had Penelope follow me to the training field to go see Lucien. I had used a hat to hide my hair. I did not want people to start wondering what the hell had happened to their Luna’s hair overnight. No hair dye could change the colour of the hair so perfectly.
We got to the field and Lucien regarded me with amusement. “Number one, you look very different. Number two, why the hell do you have a hat on? It is so hot. And finally, I thought you were supposed to be taking a break from training, so why are you here?” he queried.
“Oh, hi Penelope,” he added as an afterthought and she scowled at him.
He chuckled. “Has anyone ever told you that you look stunning when you scowl?” he asked.
“No,” he answered his question himself. “Then please stop doing it.”
I doubled over with laughter and she smacked me on the arm. ” This is all your fault. I told you I did not want to come here but you did not listen to me,” she grumbled.
I tried to stop laughing and took a deep breath. “I am so sorry, Penelope. It is not going to happen again.”
She scoffed. “I am sure you are enjoying this,” she murmured.
“Of course not,” I said with an expression of mock hurt.
I fixed my gaze on Lucien who had been watching our exchange with amusement.
“Something strange has happened to my hair and that is why I have a hat on,” I began.
“Please don’t tell me you’ve suddenly become bald,” he said with a chuckle.
Penelope scoffed beside me.
I smiled and shook my head. “It is not that I have become bald, but somehow, my hair turned white overnight and I do not know how it happened.”
His eyes widened in shock. “Can I see it?” he asked.
“I would rather not prefer to show you here but somewhere private,” I replied.
“Then let us go,” he said. “I am done here for today.”
As we made our way to the palace, I asked him if he knew why and how something like that happened to me.
“I am not so sure but did anything happen to you before you went to bed?” he asked.
“Yeah, I got physical with Ryder,” I replied.
“You did? But I didn’t hear any screams of pleasure,” he said and my best friend burst out laughing.
I rolled my eyes. “I did not mean sex. He said something to hurt me and I became so angry that I attacked him. I actually felt like ripping off his head but his guards pulled me off him,” I explained.
He was silent for a while and Penelope nudged him on the ribs with her elbow. “Are you not going to say anything?” she queried.
“Let’s get to your chambers first,” he replied in a rather serious tone and I wondered what the hell was going on.