THE BEGINNING OF HER REBELLION
1878 Words
∆SERAPHINA∆
"I can't keep repeating myself, Kael… Let’s just get divorced." My voice came out stern and steady, so steady that even I wasn’t sure how I held myself together after everything.
Kael froze mid-motion, fingers still tangled in the string of his shirt.
Slowly… his eyes narrowed.
"Are you crazy?" He asked in a dangerous pitch, "Do you even know what you're saying?"
"I know it better than anyone," I whispered while clutching the blanket hard. "I know you only married me because I begged… because I used my father’s name and influence… because I was a convenient peace offering."
His jaw seemed to be tensed, I can see nerves bubbling up on his neck.
"I have no wolf," I continued while my voice was tightening with the emotions as I spoke the thing I never thought of speaking, "I've no wolf, I can’t give you a child, I can’t give you pride or strength, I was nothing but a burden to you, and you never loved me, Kael...."
His hand slammed into the mattress beside my shoulder.
My breath hitched as he leaned over me, pinning me down with that cold, and huge body.
"So, this is it?" He murmured, his face inches from mine. "This is your new trick? Is this how you want to play?"
My heart clenched painfully, despite me pouring out all my emotions, he still considers it as a drama to win his attention, am I really that cheap in his eyes?
He caught my wrists and pinned them above my head, his strength unbothered by my struggle.
"Trying to get my attention by threatening divorce?" His voice dropped, hot against my ear while his lips touching the bare spots of my body. "Interesting tactic! So tell me what I should do now? Make love? Do you want me to console you?"
"Let go of me!" I snapped, twisting beneath him.
Instead, he pressed closer, caging me completely, his thigh sliding between mine, not tender, not even intimate, but just to stop me from moving.
I could feel the heat of his breath against my cheek.
"Tell me, Seraphina," he whispered with a mocking smirk while nibbling near my neck, "is this what you want? Me hovering over you? Touching you? f*****g you? Is this what you're pretending to run from?"
My stomach twisted in disgust by his touch and closeness, "Get off me, Kael!"
He didn't listen to me, just lowered his head as if to kiss me, it just feels cold, punishing and claiming rather than anything else, I just turned my face away.
His lips brushed my cheekbone instead, from cheek to chin, neck to cleavage, his lips slid down from part to part, while
his hand gripping my waist, and pulling off my top for access to inside.
"Stop...." I hissed painfully as he is so close to rip off my dress.
"Why?" he breathed against my cleavage, "You wanted this always, don't you? Isn't this why you're doing all these in the middle of the night? Why don't I just satisfy you?"
That broke something inside me, he pressed his body against me forcefully, I could feel his weight on me, I decided to fight back rather than giving up.
My teeth sank into his shoulder before I even thought about it.
"Ahhh! You're crazy!" He cursed moving away from me.
And in that moment, I just kicked him with all the left over strength, stumbling back, he lost balance for half a second, and ended up on the floor, while I covered myself with the blanket.
"I said stop!" I shouted, while shaking in rage, "I don’t want your attention, I don’t want your intimacy, I just don't want anything from you!"
His eyes darkened, but this time with something like disbelief.
"All I want," I spat coldly, "is a divorce.... Divorce me and get lost."
For a moment, the room went dead silent.
Then he laughed coldly, and that laugh held a humorless sound.
"Fine," he said, wiping the faint smear of blood from his shoulder where I bit him. "Let's do just as you wanted!"
He moved toward the door, each step echoing.
"But remember this, Seraphina..." He paused, gripping the doorframe. "Don't regret it later."
The door slammed behind him, he didn't look back.... He never did..... I didn't expect either.
It wasn't the first time he had left our room in the middle of the night.
Even on our wedding night, he walked away, claiming an emergency at the border, but I'd known the truth, he just didn't want to be near me.
Back then, I cried until dawn.
Now, I just sat there quietly, staring at the moonlight on the floorboards feeling relieved and relaxed as if all the heaviness on my chest got down.
I exhaled, neither with grief nor with pain, but with a strange, unfamiliar sense of freedom.
For the first time in years… I didn’t cry.
"I'm alive..." I whispered, my fingers brushing over the blanket. "I'm really alive.... I really got a chance to live, this time I'll make sure to get my freedom back."
It still didn't feel real, the memory of suffocating in that coffin lingered in my chest, the sound of dirt hitting wood, Lydia's smirk, every single moment was carved into me like a scar.
But this time, I wasn't going to let history repeat itself.
This time, I wouldn't waste my second life chasing a man who buried me alive, I'll change my future, and live for myself.
If I had been reborn, then fate had made a grave mistake… because this time, I wasn’t the woman who would die quietly.
When dawn came, I still hadn't slept, even a wink of sleep didn't approach me because it's too hard for me to sleep after all the things that happened.
My eyes reddened with a burning sensation, but my thoughts were too loud, Kael hadn't returned, I hadn't expected him to, because strangely it feels peaceful when he isn't around.
I took a deep breath and looked around my room.
Everything was just as I remembered, the flowers I liked, the embroidered curtains, the faint scent of roses, it was like the world had rolled backward in time.
And maybe it had.
But before I could sink deeper into thought, a noise came from outside, hurried footsteps, muffled voices, something being dragged down the corridor.
With a frown, I got up and stepped into the corridor, rubbing the ache in my temples.
Just a few moments of silence, that’s all I wanted, but the sound came once again, despite being annoyed, I just followed the sound.
When I turned the corner, I stopped abruptly.
Two maids were there, struggling with dusty, cobweb-covered boxes, pushing and dragging them across the floor as if the entire mansion wasn’t asleep.
But what struck me wasn’t the noise.
It was Lily.
Her familiar pale and trembling face looked towards me.
She is someone who had served me since childhood, without any hesitation, she came along with me from my pack, just to stay by my side.
I clearly remember her begging me countless times to return home whenever I cried myself to sleep because of the mistreatment I've gone through in this pack.
She is just standing there looking at me as if I had just risen from the grave again.
Her eyes were full of worry as she approached me, "My lady, aren't you asleep?"
Before she could say another word, I felt my chest tighten painfully.
All at once, memories of her bruised body on the cold floor, her blood trailing across the stones while she whispered, 'my lady… forgive me' as they dragged me away to be buried alive....
It hit me so hard I almost forgot how to breathe.
I stepped toward her, no words dared to come out of my throat, without thinking, I just hugged her.
Lily gasped softly, shocked. "M-my lady…? What happened?"
I hugged her tighter, fingers trembling as they clutched her shoulders, as if she was going to disappear, I'm afraid of losing her once again.
"I’m sorry," I whispered, my voice breaking for real this time, "Lily… I’m so sorry… I should have listened to you… I should have protected you… I should have...."
She pulled back with a confused face, but wiping off my tears.
"My lady… you’re scaring me.... What… what happened? Why are you apologising to me? Did anything happen?"
I swallowed hard, pulling myself together.
"Nothing," I said softly, though the ache in my heart is still alive, "everything is… fine now, Lily, with you by my side, I'm okay!"
Her brows knitted in worry, but she didn’t question me further.
Instead, she stepped aside calmly. "We didn’t mean to disturb you, my lady, Miriam and I were just… following your orders."
Miriam.
The older maid stood a few steps behind her, her expression and arms were stiff, while her gaze shifted from me and the boxes on the floor.
Unlike Lily’s warmth, Miriam’s composure held coldness, she is fiercely loyal not to me but to someone else.
It wasn’t hostility, but it wasn’t devotion either, just rigid obedience… to fool me,
"What orders?" I asked with a clueless face as I don't remember anything particularly.
Miriam bowed following the formality, "Luna, you told us to clear out the research laboratory, a month ago, you ordered us to dismantle everything, we weren't able to do it back then, but fortunately we got some time now to do that!"
The words sliced deeper than I expected.
The research lab, it's both my dream and pride, the only place where I ever felt like myself and found solace in experiments.
That is the same place I destroyed with my own hands back in my previous life, as I believed my mother-in-law that those researches and experiments are the reason why I couldn't conceive.
Never again, not in this life, I'm not allowing anyone's words to be the cause of my decision, I took a slow breath. "Stop everything!"
Both of them froze, Lily’s eyes widened in shock.
Miriam’s lips parted slightly to say something but she quickly stopped herself.
I walked past them, touching one of the dusty crates with trembling fingers.
Inside it, I knew, they were the tools of my true talent, the one thing they could never take from me.
"Put everything back," I said firmly. "Every table, every shelf, every vial in its place, restore the laboratory exactly as it was."
Miriam cleared her throat nervously. "But, Luna… the Alpha...."
I turned sharply, letting the coldness in my eyes speak for me.
"That laboratory belongs to me, not to your Alpha.... If he has a problem with it, he can come speak to me himself."
Miriam bowed quickly with a trembling body despite her initial hesitation, "Yes, Luna… as you command."
As she hurried away to follow my order, Lily remained standing, still stunned by my earlier outburst.
When the corridor was silent once again, she looked up gently, almost cautiously.
"My lady…"
I turned, her voice trembled with fear, worry, and the remnants of a memory only I carried. "Are you truly certain about… restoring your laboratory?"
- Writer
