Rejected: Found By Another

LYANNA’S The cool night air swept past my face, and I awoke from my sleep. My head was banging. Only one name came to my mouth. "Kaida, where are you?" I murmured, clasping my head. I found it strange that I was lying in the forest and wasn’t harmed further, apart from the hit I got on my head. A few hours ago, I had gone out to play in the woods with Lucian’s 15-year-old sister, Kaida. Alpha Lucian took me as his mate two months ago after my 18th birthday. I had taken his sister Kaida out with hopes that we could get closer since I was her brother's mate, but something happened in that forest while we were playing. I was hit hard on the head, and I collapsed. Waking up with a blurry vision, I had no idea where Kaida was. "Kaida?" I called out as I sat up. I had no idea where she was, and I had no memory of what happened after I fell and collapsed. Suddenly, I decided to let my eyes wander in search of Kaida, and just as I turned, I saw Kaida's corpse lying beside me covered in blood, and I screamed. "Ahhh!!" "Kaida, no!" I screamed in pain as I grabbed her lifeless face and patted her cheeks, as if trying to wake her up, despite seeing her body covered in blood. The blood from the large wound on her chest soaked my hands, and then I noticed her heart had been pulled out. It was a horrible sight... Tears filled my eyes as I screamed in agony. "No, no, no... Kaida, you can't do this to me, Kaida," I cried, placing my head on her cold forehead. “Kaida!!” I suddenly heard Lucian’s voice call out his sister’s name as he rushed into the forest, drawn to the spot by the sound of my scream. I quickly got up from where I knelt, placing my head on Kaida’s body. Standing at my feet, my entire clothes were already dripping with Kaida’s blood. Lucian froze the moment he looked past me to see his beloved sister lying on the floor covered with blood. His reddened eyes filled with pain slowly moved away from Kaida’s corpse into my eyes, and he then his eyes traced the blood covering my body and my hands. "Lyanna," Lucian whispered with an expression of agony written all over his face. He wanted to speak but it seemed the sight had made him temporarily dumb. Following Lucian were some elders from our pack, and then following them was Zarina, Lucian’s most trusted Beta in the pack. She was in a relationship with Lucian before he broke up with her and fell in love with me. "Alpha, I fear to say that your sister is dead," Zarina declared with grief in her tone. Lucian tightened his jaw, his fists clenched as he threw a fierce look at me. His heart was pounding so fast that I could hear it from where I stood with my wolf senses. "I'm afraid, but the cause of her death is quite agonizing. Her heart was plucked out using an Ereden dagger, which we can't seem to find around here," Elder Walter said. Who would be so heartless to do that to a 15-year-old girl? As the pack members gathered around the scene, their eyes fell on me standing alone beside Kaida's lifeless body. I knew where this was headed; I was the only person there before Kaida died. We were out playing in the forest, which was very close to the packhouse. "Lyanna, what happened here?" Elder Walter, one of the pack's esteemed members, asked, his voice filled with suspicion. I gulped, turning to Lucian, who I knew would trust me to any point. He was supposed to tell the Elders and Zarina to quickly search the woods for the killer, but instead, the look on his face seemed like he had already found the killer. To my shock, I couldn't recognize Lucian anymore; anger and suspicion had already taken over his face too. He glared at me with his reddened eyes, eyes I had never seen before. "Tell me what happened, Lyanna!" He yelled at me and I trembled in fear. "I-I don't know," I stammered, tears welling up in my eyes. "I found her like this. She- she uhh... I- I... W-we were playing and uhh-" I stuttered, tears filling my eyes as I found it hard to say the words at the back of my throat. I was in shock. "Shut up! Shut your mouth, Lyanna," Lucian said, causing me to tremble in fear. Lucian, my mate who had always cared for me, loving me like no one else, walked up to stand before me, his jaw tightening even harder. "You were the only one here, Lyanna! Did you have something to do with this? Tell me, did you kill my sister? How can you be so heartless, Lyanna, you brought her here to murder her in cold blood?!" He asked with a cold tone, as he glanced down to see my hands covered in blood. "I- I," I tried to speak, but my words crumbled back into my mouth when I was met by a thunderous slap from Lucian's strong hand. My face turned with the force of his slap. I was frozen in shock as my hand crept to the side of my cheek where I was slapped. It was so painful I was sure it left a mark. "Alpha!" Elder Elijah intervened, trying to calm Lucian down as he raised his hand one more time at me. My mouth dropped open when I realized that if it hadn’t been for Elder Elijah holding back his hand, he would have hit me again. "We don't know what happened yet," Elder Elijah added, holding back Lucian's arm and pulling it down gently. But Lucian was beyond reason, his emotions were clouding his judgment on the matter. He strongly believed I killed Kaida. "I can't believe this!" he exclaimed, his voice trembled with anger and hurt at the same time. "Kaida's dead, and you're standing here like nothing happened! You killed her, and you have the guts to stand there and try to lie?! Zarina warned me about you, she warned me about this, she told me not to let you take Kaida out to play, but I didn’t listen, I trusted you!" Lucian said, raising his voice. I closed my eyes tightly and shook under the anger in his voice. The sting of his words cut deep into my heart, and it hurt even more than the physical slap he gave me. The fact that he could accuse me of killing his sister hurt the most, and I stood there, speechless, unable to defend myself. It seemed Zarina, his ex-lover, had told a different story before this. "Get over here, you're coming with me," Lucian said, forcefully dragging me out of the forest and into his car, driving us back to Black Creepers Pack in silence. I sat beside him, feeling hurt and confused. I hoped he'd believe it, but his expression remained stern and unforgiving. It was clear I was on my own in proving my innocence. When we arrived, he dragged me inside roughly, holding my arm so tightly that I felt like my bone was crumbling. He dragged me straight to the pack's courtroom. The room was filled with murmurs as pack members whispered among themselves, casting bitterness in my direction. Elder Walter's gaze was particularly piercing. "On your knees, Lyanna," Lucian commanded, his voice so cold and distant as he threw me roughly to the floor of the courtroom in the center. I obeyed silently, remaining on my knees, feeling the judgment pressing down on me from all sides, and I closed my eyes, tears streaming down my cheeks. "What happened out there, Lyanna?" Elder Elijah asked. "I-I don't know," I stuttered, my voice barely above a whisper, clouded with my cry and plea for understanding. "I found Kaida like that, I swear." "But you were the only one there, her blood was all over you, you cold-hearted murderer!" Lucian interjected. "Why should we believe you didn't have anything to do with it?" Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked around the room, searching desperately for someone to believe me. "Please, you have to believe me, Lucian. If no one else would, you should," I pleaded, "I would never hurt Kaida; she was my friend." "Enough!" Lucian's voice cut through again. Just as Lucian was about to utter another word, Zarina rushed into the room, her heart beating fast. "What is it??" Lucian asked, and to my surprise and everyone's shock, Zarina brought out an Ereden dagger covered in blood. "What is this? Where did you find it?" Lucian asked, his focus turning to Zarina. "Alpha, I found this dagger in your mate's purse. It was hidden in Lyanna's purse and I found it laying near Kaida's body, I examined the blood and found it was Kaida's blood. This proves that—" Zarina said, and my eyes widened. "What are you talking about, Zarina, I have never seen that dagger, it couldn't have been from my purse!" I cried, my heart racing. I had no idea how she found that dagger in my purse. I had nothing like such in my purse. Lucian turned to me in disbelief, his eyes redenning with finality. "It was truly you, you killed my sister, Kaida," he said...