Lucy’s POV
As I walked away from them, I kept my mouth clamped shut and my jaw clenched so tightly that it almost felt like my teeth would shatter. I hadn’t felt such a level of anger in a very long time, and the feeling almost completely threw me off balance.
But the women behind me weren’t done.
“Why are you running away from the truth, Lucy? Is it too bitter for you to hear?” Annabella’s annoying pitched voice reached my ears from behind, followed by footsteps gently crunching through grass.
I didn’t turn back, and kept going forward, hoping to get back into the palace, find my room, and completely shut out the world until I was ready to face it again. Her words weren’t what upset me, because I had always expected people to keep bringing up the fact that I was a slave who had once been married to the most ruthless Alpha in all the packs. What cut deep was the notion that even though my people were free, and myself by extension, I would never be free to make my own choices.
I would never be free to love who I wanted. People wouldn’t be able to understand that I was more aware of the absurdity of my situation than they were. In my bed at night, I had suffered sleeplessness because I couldn’t understand why the Moon Goddess had thought it proper for me to become mated to the son of a man that I had spent a long time hating. And as though even that wasn’t enough, we ended up falling in love as well.
The entrance to the palace was in sight now. Two guards were stationed outside, staring ahead with straight faces.
Annabella grabbed my shoulder and forced me to turn around. “Why won’t you just answer?”
“Because I have nothing to say to you!” Something snapped inside of me, and I shoved her away without paying much thought to it. Their presence was suffocating, and I needed some space.
Annabella stumbled backwards with a scream, clutching her chest as though I had stabbed her instead. I thought that was going to be all, but she kept screaming and screaming, and even threw herself to the floor
I knew that this was merely a ruse as well. My shove barely possessed any energy behind it. “Stop this. I didn’t hurt you.”
But her wails only became louder as she writhed on the floor, seizing as though she was a woman with demons manifesting inside of her.
Agatha, who had been a little distance behind, rushed to her side, trying to shake her to consciousness.
One of the guards left his post by the entrance and came over to where we were, assessing the situation. “What’s going on here?”
“She just fell and started screaming,” I said immediately, not leaving anything to chance. I knew for a fact that nothing I did could have elicited such a reaction, unless Annabella was simply pretending.
Agatha held Annabella close to her. “She didn’t just fall.” She lifted a finger and pointed at me. “This woman here pushed her to the ground and would have started hitting her if I didn’t intervene.”
“That’s not true!” I stared at the older woman in disbelief. I didn’t think that they would stoop so low as to try framing me for something that wasn’t ecen my fault. “I didn’t push her to the ground. You people were harassing me and I was only defending myself.”
“Defending yourself by putting Annabella in this state? Shame on you, Lucy! I thought you were better than this.”
The guard stood motionless, looking perplexed. It was obvious that he didn’t know how to even approach the situation, but Agatha remained steadfast in her accusation.
“If anything happens to Annabella, you’ll have yourself to blame,” she said. To Annabella, who was still writhing and jerking on the floor, she lowered her voice. “Shhh, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine.”
Annabella’s clothes had gotten dirty from frolicking in the grass and dirt, and her eyes appeared to be rolling back into her head. Her hair, which had been properly packed into a bun, was now scattered all around her, fanning her around her face and on the grass.
Everything looked so real that I almost started to doubt myself, but I was completely certain that I didn’t hurt her.
Agatha’s voice increased in pitch. “Do you even know who she is? This is os the only child of the former Luna! You will face justice for this atrocity you’ve committed!”
“Stop lying! You’re both lying. You know I didn’t do anything to her, Agatha. Why are you doing this?” I clenched my fists, struggling to remain calm even though the feelings inside of me were growing wild. I hated lying with a great passion. “You should both be ashamed of yourself for doing something like this.”
“Ashamed? We should be ashamed? We are not the ones hopping from father to son, selling our bodies for merely a taste of power,” said Agatha, dripping poison with every word. “If there’s anyone that should be ashamed here, it’s you!”
The guard picked up Annabella from the ground ans started taking her inside. Agatha followed, still trading glances with me as she followed them.
The other guard came up to me. I knew that he and his counterpart had heard every word that Agatha had spilled out of her mouth. His eyes viewed me with an unkind light.
“You’re coming with me, miss,” he said in a gruff voice.
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of his request. “Why?”
“You attached a pack member. Things like that are strictly forbidden. You will have to answer to the Luna.”
“But I didn’t do anything to her. You were here, you saw what happened. Why are you doing this?”
“I am only acting according to my duties. Please, comply. The more resistance, the more evidence will be stacked against you.”
Arguing wasn’t going to solve anything. It was obvious that after what they had heard. Just like everyone else, they were going to judge me without trial.
I swallowed up my fury. “Fine,” I said, and followed him inside.