Substitute Luna, Runaway With His Quadruplets

16. Past liquidation

Ivy’s POV

Ryder repeats his request more clearly. “You.” he points at Jonathan. “The brother and the Luna, you have disrespected Princess Ivy. I expect a full genuine apologies. Come bow before her and make your amends.”

Jonathan stands and faces Theodore. “Are you going to stand here and do nothing? These are foreigners in your land — our land. They can’t speak to me, a Beta in this pack, with such disrespect. Do something! I will not be ordered around by these foreigners.”

He is searching for any way to pull us away, to make us less than Silver Claw.

Theodore’s eyes glow green, his wolf is near. “How are you speaking to your Alpha? Do you think you can order me around? I’m growing very tired of you Jonathan. Perhaps I will have to teach you some lessons you seem to have not learned.”

“No...of course not. I’m not disrespecting you. I’m just emotional about all of this. Ivy is here to punish us, to make us submit to her. She’s treating the Luna badly. That undermines your power. Despite this spectacle with the ring, I don’t believe her. She’s lying it’s clear,” Jonathan says.

“The ring is real. She is who she says she is.” Theodore has made a statement, a command made by an Alpha. There is no room for dissent. Still Jonathan continues.

“You are hoodwinked because you loved her at one point. She arrived here looking so beautiful and you’re confused. She is the same old manipulative lying Ivy. Can’t you see?” Jonathan is walking into dangerous territory.

Theodore’s wolf appears in its full splendour. He lifts Jonathan with one hand. Jonathan dangles above the earth, his neck held by Theodore’s massive paw. His life is in danger.

“Enough of you! You will bow before Princess Ivy and apologise! You will do it now!”

Theodore throws Jonathan away across the stage. He collapses a distance away from me. I watch Jonathan crawl to me in front of his pack and I smile. This “brother “who turned on me so viciously. He stops in front of me, still on his knees.

“Princess Ivy, I apologise if I have disrespected you in any way. I take back any hurtful words I might have said. Please accept my apology.”

I look at him on his knees. I know he means nothing of what he says, it is only he fears Theodore will kill him right here on the stage if he continues. Still I can play the game too.

“I accept your apology, Jonathan. I will see if you truly mean it by observing what happens next. As we know, actions are the real truth. Of course, Jonathan, you mean little to nothing to me, so I don’t care one way or the other if I’m to be honest.” I push him with my toe to indicate I’m done with him.

Jonathan stands and turns over his shoulder to look at me in a way that neither Ryder nor Theodore can see. The evil in his eyes is a promise that he will make me pay for this humiliation.

I smile at him. Let it come, I welcome the battle which I will win.

Tiffany rushes to her brother and helps him to one of the seats on stage. Then she comes back to stand in front of me.

“You want to blame Silver Claw for whatever happened to you, but this pack cared for you when Ice Moon tossed you away,” Tiffany says. “This grandfather of yours is telling lies. He threw you away and we saved you.”

I stand. I’m inches from her. I could kill her in an instance. How can she speak about my grandfather, the Alpha of Ice Moon, like this? I feel my wolf taking over. She will die today.

Ryder rushes to me. “She is not worth it,” he whispers. “You know the truth. And you know she is a murderous liar.”

I speak loud enough for all to see. “Tiffany, you need to learn your place.”

I put my hand on her head. My strength forces her to her knees. I hold her there. She fights me but can’t stand up. I am too strong.

“Now, follow what your brother has done. Then we can be finished here,” I tell her. “Apologise!”

She looks at me and then spits onto the bottom of my gown. Instinctively, I kick her, unfortunately she falls off the stage. The crowd boos. She is, in the end, their Luna.

The Sterlings rush to their daughter laying on the floor. They try to bring Tiffany onto the stage but Ryder stops them.

“If you think your Luna will enter here without an apology for her disgusting behaviour, you should know that action will be the start of a war between Ice Moon and Silver Claw, a war that you will lose in the most devastating of ways. And your Luna will be the first causality in that war. “

Ryder is serious and Theodore can see that.

“Tiffany, you have committed a serious act, with serious consequences,” Theodore says. “You will bow before Princess Ivy and apologise.”

Tiffany looks at the Alpha. Her nose is bleeding and tears are streaking her face. “No.”

Grace rushes onto the stage and comes to me. “Please, Ivy, she’s your sister. Forgive her. It is a lot for us to take in. Tiffany is confused. You know she’s an emotional person. Please forgive her, my dear daughter. Forgive your sister.”

“I’m now your daughter? Tiffany is now my sister? How very convenient for you!” I say.

“At least, if nothing else, show her mercy. You are a princess, a wise leader. Lead with kindness, show your sister a bit of kindness,” Grace begs.

Her words take me back even though I don’t want them to, back to that terrible day...

***

“Ivy, this girl is the real heiress of our family and of the Beta position. Her name is Tiffany, our daughter is finally home,” Ethan said that day.

I wondered why there was so much anger in his voice as he spoke. Shouldn’t he be happy to have found another daughter?

I was confused. Nicole and I had just arrived at the house. My 18th birthday was a few days before and we were out still celebrating. Nicole was trying to cheer me up because it was clear now I had no wolf. Now we were coming home to this.

“Hello,” I said to the girl who looked about my age. “Welcome.”

“Hello? Hello is all you have to say to Tiffany?” Grace said. “You have been here, getting all of the benefits of being the heiress and now we see it was all a lie!”

“I don’t know what’s going on. I never claimed to be the heiress, you told me I was, Mother,” I said.

“Well you’re not! You’re nobody! And I’m not your mother! You need to get out of our house now!” Grace said.

“Where am I supposed to go?” I started crying. Why was all of this happening?

My father pointed to my bags already packed. “We don’t care where you go, but you need to get out! We can’t live with some nobody! We are a royal family. You don’t belong here!”

Nicole held me in her arms. “How can you do this to her? I thought you were her parents! Can’t you show a bit of kindness?”

“Kindness?” Grace said. “We don’t need to be kind to this person! She’s not our daughter! She must leave now.”

Nicole took me to her house and we lived together until after the wedding. Nicole was the only one who showed me kindness. Grace didn’t even know the definition of the word.

***

I look at Grace and remember her “kindness” to me.

“Kneel before me,” I demand.

“I...will it...I mean if I do …” Grace tried to negotiate with me.

“If you do? I ordered you to kneel before me.” I didn’t like being this way but they were forcing me into a corner.

Grace kneeled.

“Apologise for how you treated me.”

“We were you parents. We loved you and treated you well. I don’t know what you mean.”

“Of course you know what I mean. I asked for kindness and you said I didn’t deserve it, though I did nothing. Now your daughter spits on the sole princess of the Ice Moon wolf pack and you want me to show her kindness.”

Grace remembers the day, I can see it in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ivy. I’m truly sorry.”

I leave her there. I look to Tiffany. “Join your mother.”

Tiffany looks at the Alpha. “Theodore, I’m your Luna. You can’t let her do this to me. Stop her. Protect me.”

Theodore’s eyes are hard, his mouth a slit of anger. “Kneel next to your mother now! Apologise to Princess Ivy! You will do as you are told!”

Tiffany is weeping loudly. She climbs onto the stage. Ryder lets her pass. Her mother helps her go down to her knees. She looks up at me with dead eyes. She is not there.

“Princess Ivy, I apologise for all that I have done wrong to you.”

I’m tired of all of this. None of this matters to me any more. I have my real family, the people who love me. I don’t want the poison of this place to affect them.

“I accept both of your apologies. Leave me now,” I say.

Tiffany stands. She looks at me and her eyes are alive again, alive with her wolf. Those are the eyes I saw in the sports car that day, the eyes of the woman who tried to kill me and my babies.

She will try again, those eyes are making that promise to me.