COLD (Twisted Forbidden Tales) Book One

Chapter Fourteen

QUEEN ( Christine's Secret I )

A beautiful name she was given, yet she was wretched to the core. They were sisters. Or, as the Dark Woods would say, the Daughter's Three. The heirs of the first kingdom. Mixed with the witch, fairy, and royal blood. Destined to do great things in the future. Hannah’s and Delia’s fate did not come to pass due to Christine’s jealousy and greed.

Hannah was the eldest of the three. She had fallen in love with the King of the Night Wolves, a rare royal shifter breed on the outskirts of the Dark Woods known as the Sapience Kingdom back then. Their union brought forth the title of nobility and discipline to the otherwise wild animals they were usually labeled as.

Other kingdoms, who were more open to this change, welcomed them. This would definitely bring others to see them in a new light and the wolves another better way of life. How they wound up in Finnigan’s clutches is still unknown, but what I do know is what Christine had done.

Christine, being the youngest, could not get the attention Hannah and The King of the Night Wolves Daxon’s union brought. It meant an amazing change and reform to the kingdom as we knew it. The first step is three daughters to the great things the three daughters would bring forth.

Hannah and Daxon were also true mates. After their marriage and completed mate bond, it was not long before Hannah fell pregnant with twins. The kingdom was overjoyed. A hybrid breed would be born, a sign of even more good things to come. This meant more attention for Hannah that Christine did not want. She had her own plans for their family’s kingdom that naturally did not include her sisters and so she began to plan and execute her desires.

Unknown to Christine, my mother, Delia, had sharp eyes and instincts, and began to notice Christine's odd behavior and warned Hannah to limit her visits and interactions. The new Sapience kingdom will soon be built. Hannah did not take her warning to heart. After all, they were sisters. Having been raised since birth, we cherish one another. Hannah failed to get Delia’s meaning of how close she was too close to her sibling's warning, given that she was now married and with children on the way.

Shifter births were fragile, let alone hybrids, and two months before Hannah was due she went into unexpected labor. Delia had discovered something shocking in Hannah’s blood. Christine had been poisoning Hannah. How Delia knew it was Christine’s doing is unknown, but no matter what, she wanted to make sure justice would be served.

Hannah’s husband, Daxon, had been away at that time. An urgent choice had to be made and, unfortunately, Hannah’s children did not survive. Daxon and Hannah’s grief became an immeasurable weapon for Christine to use. Their marriage began to crumble along with their mate's bond, something that should not have happened given that they were true mates and neither had denied the other.

Delia tried her best to warn her sister and Daxon, but without evidence, they did not believe it. Christine easily worked her plans dirtying Daxon’s mind to where he became a stranger to Hannah. The abuse came later along with the pain in her heart. No one knew that all this was an illusion Christine devised for him to see. Which became Delia’s proof of her many suspicions.

Delia brought her suspicions to the first kingdom and her father. Her accusation led to an out-front confrontation between the council and her parents. The royal ministry was sent out as a sign of compromise. It was on this day that Hannah was broken into pieces. Christine and Daxon were caught in bed together, but Delia knew it was more than what it looked like.

Christine accuses Daxon of r**e, which sets their father aflame. Daxon was imprisoned and constantly tortured. He repeatedly denied the charges and never admitted to sleeping with or r****g Christine. Daxon died mysteriously in his cell two months later. Christine's plan had worked, Hannah was no longer the bright light of attention, making the prophecy a false prediction. Soon after, Hannah disappears, leaving the Sapience Kingdom and the Night Wolves in shambles without a leader.

My mother Delia was enraged and couldn’t let the matter go. She vowed to find her sister Hannah and the truth. Having no longer trusted Christine some time ago after witnessing her reaction to Hannah's happiness.

No one knew at the time that Christine had an even bigger plot. She had already met her fated mate. He was head of the league and not of royal blood, which Christine despised. Though it was considered a noble position by many, Christine could not accept it. Being an earth witch, she stood as a symbol of peace and harmony, yet the jealousy and greed within her filled her soul with darkness.

Daxon was smart in his last days and had left something behind before he died. He had caught on to Christine's plan a bit too late and was drugged with wolfsbane. This set forth the motions Christine had to get rid of him. If Daxon stayed alive he would soon rid the wolf's bane of his system and fight back. So she dealt with him swiftly as she had with Hannah.

In her search for the truth, Delia had found a journal hidden within the wall of Daxon’s cell. The journal recorded his accounts from the day he realized he was being drugged. It was inside the tea Christine would serve him and his wife Hannah. Hannah had become increasingly unstable during this time, so he knew that a different drug had been given to each of them. He had never even once touched or slept with Christine. Everything was an illusion. This made him think of Hannah’s last words to him before he went to prison.

Hannah believed that their children were still alive. She said that she heard their babies cry. Daxon did not know what to believe, but the two tiny corpses' scent did not lie. If Christine was capable of creating illusions and kept this ability from everyone, how much more was she keeping from them? The last entry was about a woman named Marcia. He said to find this person because she was the only person he knew who could create a drug like this that could attach itself to his and Hannah’s genetic makeup. Under the guise of further educational studies in the outer realms, Delia set out to collect irrefutable evidence.