Chapter 5
1041 Words
Aurora’s POV
“Hahaha, Alpha Thorne, you have raised a fine young lady as your daughter," Alpha Luther said with a hearty laugh that echoed across the hall.
“You can commend my wife and Luna, Your Highness." Alpha Thorne replied with a choking but relieved chuckle, forcing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Alpha Luther turned his gaze to me. “Aurora, as the princess and my daughter-in-law, I would love for you to attend Lingard Academy under the Omega Scholarship programme. It would be an honour.”
He took a slow sip from his drink, his eyes never leaving mine, as if he was studying me, weighing me.
I was so happy. This was the first time I had taken a bold step without receiving a bad beating or punishment. My heart swelled with a fragile kind of hope I had never allowed myself to feel before.For the first time in my life, someone powerful was actually listening to me.
“Thank you, Your Highness," I said, taking a deep bow once again, my voice barely hiding tthe tremble of excitement.
His expression suddenly becomes serious. “Princess, I do have conditions." He looked determined now, as if he had just conjured a plan. “Before you can attend Lingard Academy, you first have to survive the next few days as my son’s mate. Finish the mating ceremony tonight and survive as his mate for the days leading to the new session, and then Lingard will be at your feet.”
He sounded like he was trying to motivate me, like he was desperate to have his son’s mate survive, and he was trying to give her a goal to look forward to. But then the last part hit, the part that came with trouble
“But, if you don’t survive, every deal with your father and pack is automatically void and null.”
Now I saw it. He saw a loophole to escape responsibility if I died. Once a politician, always a politician. My father and stepmother became increasingly angry. They made their way to me at a rushed pace, their faces dark with fury.
“Your Highness, please, can you excuse our daughter and us? "My father said quickly. My stepmother practically pushed me out of the hall and towards Father's study.
As soon as the door closed behind us, I received the first slap across my face, the sound echoing loudly in the room.
“After everything we have done for you, you have ensured we get nothing…” my stepmother hissed, her face twisted with rage.
As the second slap was about to land on my face, my father held her hand.
“We can’t beat her up…she has to mate with Lucien and look impeccable," my father said. "They cannot know we beat her up, much more now that she’s Lucien’s mate and wife.”
“But she won't survive it,” my stepmother screamed. "We all know we were sacrificing her for all the political compensations, money and the army to fight attackers, especially ‘The Broken’ army attacks.”
Father looked at me “What were you even think, or is this your revenge? You want to die and take everything with you that could have helped our pack?”
They spoke very sure that I was going to die, it was the first time I could see how badly they had always wanted me dead but just wanted to be able to gain from it. They felt entitled to gain something from my death.
“You are so evil, like your mother; you just take and take," she added, pointing at me with pure hatred in her eyes.
All I could say was “I’m sorry." What else could I possibly say in this situation?
“Shove your sorry up your ass," she spat, eyed me from head to toe and stormed out. Father went in pursuit of her to comfort her.
As I made my way back to the hall, still reeling from the slap, Lucien, for the first time, grabbed my arm and dragged me away to the gardens.
“What were you thinking?” He shouted the moment we were alone. His angry state was a whole lot scarier than I would have anticipated. “I warned you; I was trying to save you!”
His grip on my arm was tight, almost painful. Why did he care? He was losing nothing here; he was getting crowned for being so fierce that his mates could not survive him.
“Do you even realise that no omega has survived the omega training programme?”
“What do you mean? They said…”
“It's a marketing plot, you foolish wolf," he said, cutting me off. “You have dug your own grave?”
“Why would you say such horrific things?”
“How do you think my last mates died? None of them could take the marking,” he screamed in my face. “And now you, this weak powerless thing that I was trying to save, decided you hate your life at my cost?”
I looked up at him, fighting back my tears, my voice shaking but determined.
“Now look at me, Lucien… Not only would I survive the mate marking, but I would also go to Lingard, and I would survive there, too. I would make you all regret looking down on me and treating me like I am nothing, starting from tonight.” I added, fighting tears, "Watch and see."
I pulled my arm from his grip and stormed off to the new room I had been sleeping in these past few days, my heart pounding with a mixture of fear and fierce determination but no plan on how I could do everything.
In that moment for the first time in a long time, I let the tears roll out crying at how difficult my life had to be. Only Lucien actually wanted me to survive despite how he looked down on me and even now, I no longer care.
I will follow through on my plan, I cleaned my tears with determination burning in my soul. Survival is the only option.
- Writer
