ALICE
I burst into the pack house, my blood still boiling from the botched attempt at enlisting Collins to help me tear Alex and Hannah apart. As I storm through the halls, I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, their whispers following me like a swarm of buzzing insects. They think I can’t hear them, but they forget we’re werewolves – no amount of hushed gossip can escape our heightened senses.
“She looks like hell,” they murmur, wrinkling their noses at my disheveled appearance and the stench of stale alcohol and cigarette smoke clinging to my skin. “Hasn’t bathed in days from the smell of it.”
They’re not wrong. I’ve been drowning my sorrows in a haze of booze and nicotine, letting myself wallow in the filth of my own misery. But today, I made an effort to clean myself up, to put on a brave face for the world. Too bad my scent gives away the truth of my despair.
I finally reach the sanctuary of my room, slamming the door behind me with a satisfying bang. And then, with no one to witness my breakdown, I let the dam burst. Tears stream down my face as I scream my rage to the heavens, tearing apart everything in my path like a hurricane of fury and pain. I imagine it’s Hannah I’m destroying, that conniving bitch who stole my mate, my future, my very reason for living.
In the midst of my rampage, my door flies open, revealing my parents’ shocked faces.
“Alice, is everything alright?” Mom asks, her voice laced with concern as she rushes to my side, grabbing the lamp I was about to smash against the wall.
“Did you seriously just ask me that?” I snarl, shoving her away from me, my eyes wild with barely contained hysteria. “Of course, everything isn’t alright! That bitch Hannah has my mate, and you think I’m going to be okay with that?”
Mom sighs heavily, her shoulders slumping in defeat, while Dad looks at me with a mixture of pity and exasperation. But neither of them say a word, their silence only fueling the fire of my anger.
And then, a question that’s been haunting me for years bubbles up from the depths of my soul, spilling from my lips like poison. “Why did you send me away and then bring me back?” I demand, my gaze boring into theirs, daring them to lie to me again. “Hannah wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.”
“We’ve told you before, honey,” Mom says, her voice gentle but firm as she takes a step closer to me. “It was a necessary sacrifice for the pack.”
“Really? This bullshit again?” I scoff, my lips twisting into a sneer as I glare at them both. “Why won’t you just tell me the truth about Hannah?”
“It is the truth,” Dad insists, moving to grip my shoulder, his touch meant to be comforting but feeling like a brand against my skin. “It was a necessary sacrifice for the pack.”
“Fine,” I hiss, shrugging off his hand and fixing them with a cold, calculating stare. “And if I told you right now that I wish for Hannah to be killed, you wouldn’t allow it because of the pack, right?”
Mom’s eyes widen in horror, her hand flying to her mouth. “Alice, why would you say such a thing?”
“Because I wish that bitch would just die!” I scream, my voice raw and ragged with the force of my hatred. “I wish she would just fucking die and leave me in peace!”
The crack of my father’s palm against my cheek echoes through the room like a gunshot, stunning me into silence. I stare at him in utter disbelief, my hand coming up to cradle my stinging face. In all my life, he’s never once raised a hand to me… until now. Until Hannah.
“Never wish your sister dead,” he growls, his eyes hard and unyielding. “Do you understand me?”
Hot, angry tears blur my vision as I nod mutely, my heart shattering into a million jagged pieces. This is what it’s come to. My own parents chose that bitch over me. In that moment, my hatred for Hannah burns brighter than the sun, consuming me from the inside out.
I remember the day I paid those rogues to kidnap her, to keep her away while I tried to win Alex back. It was supposed to be a simple plan, but everything went wrong. I got caught up in the mix, and for a while, I even felt bad for what they did to her. But now? Now I wish they’d finished the job. I wish they’d beaten her to death and saved me the trouble.
“I’m so sorry your father did that,” Mom murmurs, pulling me into a hug that feels like a cage, suffocating me with her false comfort. “But you have to understand, Hannah couldn’t die. Otherwise, your brother would never return home.”
“No problem, I understand,” I lie through my teeth, my mind already racing with dark, twisted thoughts of how to rid the world of Hannah once and for all.
A knock at the door interrupts my plotting, and I turn to see my mates standing there, relief etched onto their handsome faces at the sight of me. But I’m in no mood for their concern, not after the way they’ve betrayed me. Dad and Mom step out, leaving me with my mates.
“Leave,” I say coldly, turning my back on them, my arms wrapped around myself like a shield.
“Alice, stop,” Lorenzo pleads, spinning me around to face them. “We’ve already apologized for what transpired.”
“You only apologized because you were worried about losing me,” I spit, my words dripping with venom. “Not because you actually agree with me.”
“No, we do agree with you,” Lorenzo insists, his voice soft and soothing, like he’s trying to calm a wild animal. “You’re right; there’s nothing wrong with wanting Alex back. We shouldn’t have asked you to forget about him.”
I notice Cameron’s unusual silence, the way he seems lost in thought, a frown marring his perfect features. Lorenzo notices, too, nudging his brother with a pointed look. “Isn’t that right, Cameron?”
“No,” Cameron says, his voice quiet but firm, shocking us both.
“What?” I whisper, my heart dropping into my stomach at the look on his face.
“You’re obsessed with Alex,” Cameron continues, his eyes boring into mine with an intensity that steals my breath. “And the more I think about it, the more I wonder… do you even truly love us at all?”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Cameron?” Lorenzo demands, echoing the question on the tip of my tongue.
“Why do you need Alex as your mate again?” Cameron presses, his voice rising with each word, his frustration palpable. “Aren’t the two of us enough to make you happy? To make you whole?”
I stare at him, my mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, no words coming to my aid. Because the truth is, I don’t have an answer. Not one that won’t shatter everything we’ve built together.
“Cameron, is everything alright?” Lorenzo asks concern etched onto his face as he looks between us.
“Yes, everything is fine,” Cameron says, his jaw clenched tight, his eyes never leaving mine. “I just need Alice to answer these questions because I don’t understand this fucking obsession with Alex anymore. And I won’t support it. I can’t.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of me. I know if I tell him the truth if I admit the dark, twisted depths of my fixation on Alex, it will only drive him further away. So I do the only thing I can to end this conversation, to protect the fragile remains of my heart.
“Get out,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the roaring in my ears.
“Alice,” Lorenzo tries, reaching for me, but I flinch away from his touch like it burns.
“Get the fuck out of my room!” I scream, my composure shattering like glass, the jagged edges cutting me to ribbons.
Cameron sighs heavily, shaking his head as he turns to leave, his shoulders slumped in defeat. Lorenzo looks between us, torn and confused, but ultimately follows his brother out the door.
“Cameron, you’re just going to leave like that?” he asks, his voice fading as I slam the door in his face, turning the lock with shaking hands.
I press my forehead against the cool wood, my breath coming in ragged gasps as I fight back the sobs clawing at my throat. “Don’t show your fucking faces here again unless you’re telling me Alex has decided to take me back,” I snarl, my voice raw and broken.
Lorenzo pounds on the door, begging me to let him in, to talk to him. But I can’t. I won’t. They don’t understand. They’ll never understand.
Alex needs to come back to me. I need to have him, to claim what’s rightfully mine. Because Hannah can’t be the one who gets to stand by his side, to bask in the glory of being the Luna of the future Alpha of Sky Pack. That honor belongs to me, and me alone.
Not her. Never her. Not that fucking bastard sister of mine. I’ll die before I let her win before I let her take everything from me.
Even if it means destroying everything and everyone on my path to get what I want.