Kamrynn’s POV
The Helion Forest was exactly as I remembered-a place where light dared not linger.
A thick, unnatural fog clung to the ground, curling around the gnarled tree trunks like ghostly fingers. The branches above us twisted into clawed hands, reaching for something unseen, casting eerie shadows over the narrow path we followed. The air was dense, suffocating, as though the very forest rejected our presence.
And in a way, it probably did.
Lorien walked ahead of me, his footsteps silent, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings like a predator on the hunt. He barely made a sound, his posture tense but controlled. Even with his seemingly relaxed stride, I could feel the raw power coiled beneath his every step, waiting for the slightest reason to strike.
I wasn’t afraid.
Not of the forest.
Not of the darkness.
But of what waited for me at the end of this path.
The cabin came into view through the thick mist, small and unassuming, tucked away in the heart of this cursed place. The sight of it sent a violent shiver down my spine. This was it.
This was where it all began.
And this was where it would end.
Lorien stopped just short of the door, his sharp red eyes flickering to mine. “I don’t like this,” he muttered.
“You don’t have to.”
He exhaled through his nose, clearly unimpressed with my stubbornness. “Let me go in with you.”
I shook my head. “No. I have to do this alone.”
His expression darkened. “Bad idea.”
“Probably.” I met his gaze firmly. “But this is something I need to face myself. I need to look her in the eye and finally get the truth.”
Lorien’s jaw tensed. He didn’t like it. I could tell. But after a long pause, he gave a reluctant nod.
“Fine,” he said gruffly. “But I’m staying right here. If she so much as breathes wrong, I’m burning this entire place to the ground.”
I almost smiled.
“Noted.”
Taking a breath to steady my nerves, I knocked once.
Then, without waiting for an answer, I stepped inside.
The first thing I saw was her.
Sherelle.
Seated comfortably in a worn-out armchair, her legs crossed, her fingers absently stroking the sleek fur of a black cat curled in her lap. The fire crackled in the small hearth beside her, casting flickering light over her delicate features.
She looked completely at ease.
Like she’d been expecting me.
Like she had all the time in the world.
Her lips curved into a deceptively warm smile.
“Why are you standing out there, sister dearest?” she cooed. “Come in, come in. This house is as much yours as it is mine, considering we’ve always shared everything.”
My blood turned to ice.
I stepped forward, shutting the door behind me.
“I wouldn’t say share,” I replied evenly. “You’ve never liked sharing, so you always stole from me. And I just let you because I loved you and thought you were my sister. But not anymore. It’s time to return every single thing you stole from me.”
My voice was steady. Unwavering.
But inside, my heart was racing.
Sherelle’s expression didn’t change, but something in her eyes flickered.
Then, she let out a soft, amused chuckle.
“So you finally grew a spine,” she mused, resting her chin against her palm. “Beating someone with no game was becoming boring anyway.”
I clenched my fists.
“I expected you to show up eventually,” she continued, sighing dramatically. “But certainly not so soon. I was just starting to enjoy life in a world where you simply didn’t exist.”
I stared at Sherelle, my heart pounding in my chest, my mind reeling from the venomous words she’d just spoken. I wasn’t going to let her get under my skin. I wasn’t going to let her win. But I had to know, had to understand what drove her, what really made her this way.
I took a seat opposite her, mirroring her posture, meeting her gaze head-on.
The thought of her twisting everything to make my life a living hell… it made my stomach churn, my pulse quicken.
I took a deep breath, my voice steady despite the tremor running through my body. “Sherelle, please tell me honestly…what do you have against me?”
Her eyes flickered with something dark-something I couldn’t quite place-before she sighed, like she had been waiting for this moment, for me to finally ask. She shifted in her chair, her lips curling into a small, satisfied smile.
She didn’t respond right away. Instead, she slowly placed her cat down on the ground beside her. The creature, dark and sleek as a shadow, simply vanished, as if it had never been there in the first place. The room suddenly felt colder, the air thick with the weight of her unspoken words.
Sherelle leaned back in her chair, an air of calm arrogance surrounding her. She crossed her legs with casual grace, staring at me as though I were a puzzle she was about to solve-one she had spent years working on. And as she opened her mouth, I knew this was going to be a moment I’d never forget.
“You really want to know?” she asked, her voice dripping with disdain. “You want to know why I’ve done all of this? Why I’ve ruined your life?”
I nodded, my fists clenching at my sides. I couldn’t stop the anger rising inside me, but I held it back, determined to get answers.
Sherelle’s expression shifted, her eyes narrowing, her voice growing darker. “It’s because of you, Kamrynn. All of it is because of you. Do you have any idea what it’s like to live in your shadow? To watch everyone adore you, to see you excel at everything you do? You shine everywhere you go, effortlessly, like you’ve got some sort of divine light around you, and everyone notices. Everyone loves you. While I’m left here, invisible. Stuck, always in the background. No one looks at me the way they look at you.”
Her words hit harder than I expected, a jab straight to my chest. But there was more-there had to be more. Sherelle wasn’t done.
“I spent years begging for attention,” she continued, her voice cold now, calculated. “Begging for affection. For someone to see me. But it was never enough. No one ever cared. Not like they cared about you.”
She let out a small, bitter laugh, the sound hollow and painful. “And then I realized something. I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I was always going to be second place. Always going to be the one who had to watch you take everything I wanted. And I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t keep begging for what I deserved. So, I made it my mission to take it all. To take your place. To be the one who everyone loved, the one who was admired.”
My blood ran cold as the pieces started to fall into place, but I still couldn’t quite grasp what she was saying. Sherelle’s eyes gleamed with a twisted satisfaction as she leaned forward, locking her gaze with mine.
“I manipulated the mate bond,” she confessed, her voice a low whisper, but the weight of her words crushed me. “You and Calvin were always meant to be together. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t stand to watch you both be happy, so I changed it. I twisted fate itself, Kamrynn. I stole your mate. I stole your position as Luna. And, most importantly, I took the love of your life from you.”
The words echoed in my head, each syllable a painful, devastating blow.
My mind couldn’t process it at first. Calvin… my mate… always destined to be with me…? The thought was so foreign, so utterly impossible to believe, and yet, Sherelle’s smug satisfaction told me that she was telling the truth. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach, my breath shallow as the reality of her words settled in.
For a long moment, I could do nothing but stare at her, the shock of it all consuming me. I had always thought the connection between Calvin and I was just something natural, something real. But if we were always destined to be together, if this had been fate all along… then everything that had happened to me-everything that had torn me apart-was because of her. Because of Sherelle.
Trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over, I could barely choke out the words. “You already got what you wanted. You took my place. You manipulated the mate bond and made me suffer, watching the two of you together, pretending to be what I was supposed to be. So why weren’t you satisfied? Why did you have to go and fake your death? Why?! You put Calvin through so much unnecessary pain, and he ended up taking it all out on me. Everything that’s gone wrong in my life… it was because of you!”
Sherelle didn’t flinch. In fact, her smile widened, a cruel satisfaction lighting up her eyes as though she had been waiting for me to reach this moment of realization. And that, more than anything, made my blood run cold.
She had taken everything from me. Everything.
A slow, smug smile curled across Sherelle’s lips as she leaned forward slightly, as if savoring the moment. Her fingers tapped idly against the armrest of her chair, her nails making a soft, deliberate sound against the wood.
“Do you want to know a secret, little sister?” she murmured, her voice dripping with venom.
I stiffened, every muscle in my body going rigid. Something about the way she said it sent a ripple of unease through me, but I forced myself to hold her gaze.
“Calvin never actually hated you,” she continued, her tone almost teasing, as if she were sharing some amusing inside joke. “Not for a second. Call it… a conflict of emotions.”
My pulse thundered in my ears.
“Even after making him feel the mate pull with me, the idiot was still head over heels for you.” Sherelle scoffed, shaking her head in disgust. “Do you have any idea how utterly infuriating and mortifying it was when he called your name while climaxing during our first night?”
The words hit like a physical blow. My breath caught in my throat, my stomach twisting violently.
Sherelle’s eyes gleamed with cruel satisfaction at my reaction. “I just couldn’t have that,” she said, voice dark with malice. “So I fed him a powerful love potion-one strong enough to rewrite his entire reality, to make him see only me.”
My body went numb.
I blinked, my mind struggling to process what I had just heard.
“You… You fed him a love potion?” I stammered, my voice barely above a whisper.
Sherelle’s lips parted into a wicked grin. “Yes.” She stretched the word out, savoring it. “How else was I supposed to make us look like the perfect couple?”
I felt sick.
The room spun around me, the air suddenly too thick, too heavy. My entire world, every painful memory, every moment of rejection and suffering-had it all been because of this?
Sherelle leaned back, looking utterly pleased with herself. “Calvin was completely under my spell,” she went on smoothly. “And it all worked out in my favor after I faked my death. He saw you as the enemy-the one who stole his happiness, the one who tainted his entire world. And he carried out the perfect revenge.”
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. “He… He was under your spell the entire time?”
Sherelle sighed, feigning boredom. “I was counting on him killing you, you know,” she said offhandedly, inspecting her nails. “That was the whole point. I needed him to end you. But just like a pathetic little mouse, you escaped.”
I gritted my teeth, my hands curling into fists at my sides.
Sherelle tilted her head, watching me closely. Then, in a chillingly sweet voice, she added, “It doesn’t matter. You’re here now, and I can finish what I started.”
Her eyes gleamed with pure, unfiltered hatred.
“For the record,” she murmured, her lips curling in amusement, “I had fun ruining your little love story.” She let the words hang between us, letting them sink into my already shattered mind before she delivered the final blow.
“Because get this, Kamrynn,” she whispered, her smile widening into something purely evil, “as long as I’m alive, I’ll never let you be happy.”