Aleena’s POV
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The moment I opened my eyes and my senses returned, I felt like I had been bathed with a bullet full of perfume.
What the hell, Leia?
‘What did you do last time because of which you pour so much perfume on my clothes and body?’ I hissed at her. I would have questioned more about hiding something or hiding someone’s scent or more, but that’s when my eyes landed on the broken bottle of perfume.
I sighed, realizing I was thinking unnecessarily. She wasn't trying to hide any smell from me. Maybe she accidentally broke the bottle last night. If she had been hiding something from me, then she would have surely changed the clothes or something.
‘Clumsy wolf.’, I muttered. I made a mental note to get this mess clean as soon as possible because my room was filled with so much perfume that it was invading me from smelling something else. I ran into the washroom to freshen up and made up my mind to talk with that Beta to know Daniel’s and Eva’s location before I lost my mind.
I had never felt this clueless in my entire life. Sometimes I wish I would have the power of reading minds. Even if I had any idea that both Daniel and Eva were going to vanish into thin air for two fucking days, then I would have appointed a spy to keep an eye on them.
But never mind, going forward, I would do that because I had learned my lesson from this incident. Talking about mom finding out the location of Daniel from my father’s mouth was next to impossible. When she told him about it, all he said was just two words, ‘I know.’
That was it.
He didn’t say a word more than that.
If he wouldn’t be my dad, I swear I would have killed him. I just hope that mom finds something about that bitch’s mother’s past because she wasn’t here to tell me about her, and I couldn’t wait a day long now.
‘Aleena!’, Mom mind linked me.
‘Tell me, Mom, that you have some good news. Because I really want to know something that I don’t know.’
‘Yes! I’m coming to that part.’
‘Great.’
‘Your father is not her father.’ I gritted my teeth in anger when I heard that. It meant she wasn’t even my half-sister but step sister. Then why the hell, dad loves her so much. I didn’t comment on that part and let her continue. ‘Eva’s mother, Clara, had a boyfriend who was actually a hybrid, Orpheus. Her family kept him as a hostage to make her marry your father and then almost killed her boyfriend.’
‘The same vampire who left his position of the Clan Elder sixteen or seventeen years back just because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his lover?’ I asked to confirm.
Since I was a vampire hunter, I knew about a lot of vampires, and this Orpheus’s story was something quiet and strange. His lover was a human and was not welcomed in the coven, so he left his position and power for his lover by turning into a vampire around sixteen or seventeen years before. And since he had the gift of masking anyone’s scent. No one knew where he did he go after leaving his coven? A few vampires whom he considered as his family disappeared from everywhere after Orpheus converted his lover into a vampire.
When I heard this story, I literally laughed at his love story, thinking about Orpheus. I meant, who leaves his everything for the sake of love? And if he was that desperate, then he could have continued to live his life as an Elder and secretly would have been romancing his lover. I was sure that he was smart to hide her from everyone. In that way, the story might have been a little different, but he would have been in power.
‘Yes, apparently, or maybe not! I don’t know more about vampires. You should know about that part, right?’ Mom’s voice in my mind broke my chain of thoughts. ‘But I think you have told me about his love story. That’s a different thing that I don’t remember much.’
‘Mom, when did Eva’s mom die, and how did she die?’
‘I don’t remember the date and year actually, but it has been sixteen years of her death. And she died just like a human because of cancer.’
‘Did you see her dead body or saw her burning into ashes?’
‘No. She was buried…’,
‘Daniel is here. I will talk to you later.’, I said before closing the mind link, cutting her in the middle of the sentence. I could smell Daniel’s smell, but it was a bit different, maybe because my smelling power was getting invaded because of perfume in my room. I ignored that part and started rubbing my body with the Loofah quickly. Immediately my eyes landed on the mirror in front of us.
I turned around and marked it all over my back again. It looked like someone had hit me with a belt or something more powerful, but I didn’t remember that something like that ever happened to me and my mom confirmed that same.
Mom said that I was born with these marks on my back, but still, sometimes I get a blurry memory of a little girl getting beaten by someone badly. I shook my head, pushing that thought away because it was not but a part of my imagination. I had a lot of things to focus on right now. Especially the fact that I recently discovered Clara was having an affair with Orpheus, who used to be a Vampire-Lycan hybrid until his Lycan sacrificed his life to save Orpheus when he was badly injured by the family of his lover.
My body froze when I dotted both parts of the stories.
I didn’t have any proof right now, but I could tell that Eva was the daughter of Orpheus and Clara. And after realizing everything, one more thing hit my mind, Eva’s real mother was still alive as a vampire and was somewhere with Orpheus.
I cursed myself for not figuring out all these things earlier if I would plot anything against Eva because she was a hybrid, and there was a chance that not just her mate or my father but also her REAL parents would step in to protect her.
What could anything be more worst than this?
I stepped out of the washroom and took my time getting ready. I could also smell the different scents of Eva, and at that moment, I couldn’t help but glare at the broken bottle of perfumes.
It was all happening because of it.
Well, not exactly the bottle, but I should divert my anger toward my wolf because she was the one who broke it.
I stepped out of the room and closed the door beside me, and smelt the scent around me again.
This was not possible. This shouldn’t have happened. With heavy legs, I walked toward the living room, and I started regretting the moment I had asked, ‘What could anything be more worst than this?’
Because the worst news was sitting in front of me.
Daniel and Eva had marked each other. So, all this time, I didn’t have any problem with my smelling power, but their scent had indeed changed.
Moon Goddess! Please wake me up from all this because whatever was happening in front of my eyes was no less than a nightmare.
“Aleena.” Eva gave me a wide smile, and I wanted to snatch her smile from her lips. She ran toward me and hugged me tightly. “I missed you.”
Then why did you leave in the first place, bitch?
“I missed you too.”, I said, wrapping my arms around her. Only I knew how much my hands were inching to wrap around her neck. “Congratulations.”, I wished her, breaking the hug.
“Thank you.”
“So, this was the reason you left, hmm?” I teased her because I knew I couldn’t say a word laced with venom right now.
“Actually, I didn’t know anything about it. Daniel planned everything.”, she responded, and her cheeks turned red.
Why did she always have something that I wanted the most?
Generally, first dad’s love.
Now, Daniel.
God! Not to forget, she wasn’t even the real daughter of dad.
“Really? You had no idea about it?” Daniel asked with a sly smile on his lips, on which Eva glared at him, maybe asking him to shut up. It meant she knew about everything, and she was just pretending in front of me.
“So, when is the Luna ceremony then?”
“Tomorrow evening.”, She replied.
I had now just 36 hours to do something because of which I could become the Luna of this pack?
“Though I’m happy for you both, this looks like a shock, then a surprise. How the hell will we manage everything in just 36 hours?” Chloe scolded them, showing her fake anger.
“Don’t worry about that, Mom. I have handled everything. All you need to do is shopping.”, That Beta said, adding fuel to my anger. He knew. He always knew what was Daniel’s plan and maybe because of his doubt of me, he didn’t disclose this news to anyone in the house.
****
After that breaking news, everyone, literally everyone, held Eva and wanted to know the vivid story of everything that happened between her and Daniel. And in that situation, if I had gone into my room to plan something against her, then they would have thought that I wasn’t happy with my sister’s happiness, and exposing my true face in front of my in-laws was not a good decision.
So, reluctantly I stayed there listening to her so-called adventurous love story without any interest in my heart.
‘Aleena. What am I listening to?’ Mom's mind linked all of a sudden.
‘How shall I know that?’ I questioned back, feeling frustrated.
‘Tomorrow is that bitch’s Luna ceremony.’
‘Yeah! You heard it, right. Not just that, they had marked each other before I could have done anything.’, I grumbled. ‘Now, I can’t wait to discover Eva’s weakness. I have to choose Plan B, which I had planned to use on Daniel earlier.’
‘You mean witch potion?’
‘Yes! I had kept it in my rose water bottle in my room but now that all my thing is in a forensic lab. You need to bring another bottle of a rose water bottle from my room tomorrow.’
‘Are you sure that you’re going to use this?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘By using this, the human part of Daniel will fall in love with you but not his wolf. And in case his wolf overpowers his human, then he will look for his fated mate who is not you.”
‘I will make the human part reject Eva, and then I will see what I can do with his wolf. Moreover, I don’t need to worry about it more because as long as anyone tells him the exact truth to him about the witch potion’s fact, the spell won’t break, and his human will keep loving him. Also, no wolf can go against his human for long because they are two souls and one body. At some point, they will have to agree with one another.’, I pointed out, recalling my wolf.
‘And what if Daniel will want both Eva and you at the same time then?’
‘Till then, I will arrange a perfect place for this bitch. You just don’t forget to bring the potion tomorrow because I can’t do a thing here because of that bloody BETA.’
‘What did he do now?’
‘He still doubts me and secretly keeps an eye on my every movement. Do you know, he also knew about everything that Daniel had planned, but he didn’t inform a word of his family members just because I was here. His presence near me was like a hanging sword on my neck. Though I remain confident about my work, his eyes make me nervous with the thought, what if I ended up leaving some clue for him?’
‘You’re just overthinking all the things just because the Beta is too smart. Anyways, I will bring that potion tomorrow.’
‘Great. And you will also have to make sure to make him drink it because everyone can doubt me here, but they won’t doubt you and your intention because you’re going to be Daniel’s mother-in-law. That would be a completely different story that the Luna will be your real daughter, not the stepdaughter.’
‘All right then, see you tomorrow evening.’
‘Same here, Mom. I’m so excited about tomorrow evening. I can’t wait to make my plan into action.’, I said before closing the min link. The moment I ended the mind link, my eyes landed on Eva, who was smiling at me.
‘Stupid!’ I thought. ‘Because this smile won’t last long.’
******
Next Evening!!
Just like I had expected, I could feel several eyes on me as if that Beta had assigned duty to his pack members to keep an eye on me. But little did they know that I wasn’t going to do a thing tonight. I looked at my mom, who was holding the rose water bowl in her hand to sprinkle it on Daniel, and the excuse she gave about it was that it was a kind of holy rose water that was sprinkled on the newly mated couples individually, to strengthen the bond between them.
She had already sprinkled normal rose water on Eva, and now it was Daniel’s number.
I smiled, thinking that finally, that moment was here, for which I was waiting for long. I observed that Daniel was disconnecting someone’s call again and again.
Who the hell was disturbing him on the day of the ceremony?
Maybe someone would be calling to congratulate him.
The moment mom sprinkled rose water on him, he left from there to receive the call, and those water landed on the face of Stephen, who was standing just behind Daniel.
Holy shit!
Both mom and my eyes widened in shock.
Soon, Daniel returned to his position after finishing the call.
“I’m sorry, Mom. It was the call from Werewolf King. You can sprinkle the holy water on me this time.”, he apologized politely. But his SORRY was not going to undo the things which had already happened.
That was it.
It could be used only once for any person. Mom reluctantly sprinkled rose water on him, but we both knew that it wasn’t going to work on Daniel because it would have already started showing its effect on the Beta.
Now, this was the record-breaking worst thing of my life. I couldn’t even rank it.
‘I should quickly fly from here before that Beta approaches me.’
‘Mom, I’m leaving for our pack.’ My mind linked to her.
‘No, wait!’, She stopped me. ‘Just wait for me near your dad’s car. I will be joining you there soon.’
‘Please hurry up then.’
I left because I now had no reason to stay there. One, Soon, Eva would be the taking the oath, and second, that Beta. Both things were worst for me.
To be honest, my mind had stopped working at this moment. I was thinking of telling the truth to the Beta and breaking the spell, but then that would be more like confessing my crime in front of him, in short, signing a death agreement. And if the spell wouldn’t break then, he would chase me all over the world until he claimed me.
And to be with him is the last thing that I ever wanted in my life.
“Mom!!” I said desperately when I saw her. “I don’t know what to do now?”
“Simple. Just go with the flow.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, sweetheart. Haven’t you read that keep your friends close and your enemies closer? And to attack Eva from inside, you need to be near her.”
“Nope!” I shook my head. I can’t stand a minute with that Beta.”, I said, shaking my head. “Not to forget, I’m an Alpha female. I’m not born to fulfill the responsibility of any beta female. I’m not going to stay under that bitch.”
“Why are you thinking in that way? Better think in another way that even information is first delivered to Beta and then Alpha. You will get a chance to tan the image of Eva by proving to pack members how incapable she is of Luna’s position, and you can also create misunderstanding between Daniel and Eva in this way. And not to forget, by staying near the Beta and Luna, you can kill one and put the blame on the other one. In this way, both the thorn of your life will be out of your life. And I don’t need to tell you the plan that how you’re going to accomplish it because you are smart enough to figure that out on your own..”
“But mom…
“If you want to go the heaven, then at first you have to do some good deeds and then die. In the same way, if you want to be the Luna of this pack, Daniel’s mate, then you will have to play this game. All you have to do is to Deceive the Beta until your work is done. And since he doesn’t have a mate. I doubt that his wolf would have any problem with you.”
“And what about my wolf?”
“What about her?”, She asked, being clueless about the fact that Leia takes control over my body after I sleep. She said more like threatened to keep this deal between us OR she wouldn’t mind disclosing all her secrets to everyone. “Why will she have any problem this time? It was not that you are snatching someone’s else mates.”
Though her idea made sense but still, sharing a few days of my life with the Beta was no less than a nightmare. I so hated him. I hated him from the bottom of my heart.
“What you two are doing here?” I turned around and found dad standing over there, and he was eyeing us suspiciously.
“Nothing, darling. Seeing Eva and Daniel together, she couldn’t help herself from missing her jerk mate who rejected her. That’s why she ran away from there.” Mom covered up for me. Dad reached near me and caressed my cheek softly.
“I’m sure Moon Goddess would have planned something good for my princess.”
“I’m not going to wait for her to do something, dad. Instead, I will choose a perfect mate for me on my own.”, I huffed.
Dad shook his head and smiled before speaking, “Sure. You can try it. But at the same time, you can’t change your fate. No matter how hard you will try to change it, you can’t as long as Moon Goddess wants the same.”, he finished his theory. “Now come on, this is not the place where you should be at this moment.”, Saying this, he kept his hand around my shoulder and started taking me toward the ceremony, and mom followed us. By the time I reached there, I had sawed Stephen standing on the stage with a big smile on his face and holding a mic in his hand.
Oh! This didn’t look good.
I would be lying if I didn’t see how his eyes twinkled when he saw me.
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#TBC