The Alpha's Villainess

Chapter Twenty-One

“I, Alistair Reynes, eldest son of the Alpha King, heir of the Aeredale Empire, hereby reject...—”

“—STOP THIS AT ONCE.”

Everyone immediately looked up towards the sound of the commanding voice, belonging to the only man capable of challenging Alistair.

“I forbid you from rejecting the matebond with Scarlett,” the Alpha King ordered furiously, marching right up to our group. “How could you be so ungrateful? She saved your life, Alistair.”

“This is my own decision to make. It doesn’t concern you.”

The two squared up against each other, looking as though they were willing to start physically fighting, but Alistair just tensed his jaw. Inside, I didn’t know whether to be more afraid of the power radiating off them both, or mortified by the fact that they were arguing over me. I didn’t even want this. I never cared about rising to power or status. All I wanted was to live out the rest of my life somewhere quietly. To be completely forgotten by Aurora and everyone else from Easthaven.

Yet the king seemed determined to force Alistair into accepting me.

“...Release your order, Father. Now,” Alistair said quietly, though failing to stop the coldness seeped in his words.

“The future of this pack is still my responsibility whilst I live and breathe, boy. You’ll not disrespect the obvious choice of fate the Goddess has bestowed upon you.”

I wanted to interject, to tell him that it was totally fine and I would willingly accept Alistair breaking the bond, but even the thought of speaking up right now while they were like this terrified me. They might not be shifted, but it really was like I was watching two monstrous wolves face-off against each other. And I’d thought Aurora alone was scary enough.

The entire situation made me feel like a completely normal bystander who’d accidentally wandered into a warehouse and discovered the hidden secrets of a bunch of superheroes. I was stuck in the middle of several main characters arguing as they debated what they should do with me, each possessing extraordinary abilities of strength and magic.

I wasn’t meant to be here. I didn’t belong here.

“Father... Alistair is right... Scarlett isn’t a good person,” Victor then added, being the only other person present that had the courage to interrupt them. “You can ask Aurora yourself. She grew up with Scarlett in Easthaven. They made her into a slave, forced her into serving them. But she’s a survivor of the war with Ashburne. Aurora was just telling me this morning about how Scarlett was one of the worst offenders of her abuse.”

“If a survivor of Ashburne does exist and suffered that way, then I am truly sorry for failing them,” the Alpha King spoke, finally looking away from the stalemate he’d been in with Alistair. “But where is the accountability for the adults of Easthaven? Why all this blame on one girl who is around the same age as you all?”

...What?

I was in disbelief that he was actually defending Scarlett. I didn’t think anyone was capable of making excuses for her behaviour. She was written as a sociopath for a reason.

“I’d thought that Easthaven would have learnt its lesson after justice was enacted on their Alpha,” he continued. “I’d entrusted the pack temporarily to the younger brother of Alpha James in the hopes that he would nurture Liam to be better than his father was. Clearly, that was not the case. It was not my intention that the children of that generation would be raised to feel the same hatred and prejudice as their parents.”

“But this isn’t just about upbringing. Scarlett has proven that she is cruel and sadistic by nature. That she is wholeheartedly selfish in her insatiable desire for more power. Both Aurora and Alistair can attest to that from personal experience,” Victor argued back. “She isn’t fit to become the Queen Luna of this Empire. It would be irresponsible to force that choice upon us, leaving a stain upon the legacy you leave behind.”

“How dare you presume that I am incapable of ruling this Empire adequately,” the king snapped, his tone instantly making Victor back down finally. “Insolent boy. Such words would be considered treason if not spoken by my own flesh.”

“And yet he’s correct,” Alister added in calmly, causing another heated look to be exchanged between him and his father.

However, the Alpha King didn’t tell him off this time. He just pointed to the doorway a few feet away and spoke in a manner I was pretty sure no one would be able to refuse. “My decision is final. I want everyone out. Now. Leave us.”

Aurora seemed like she was willing to join in on the argument, her expression clearly angry and frustrated with the King’s decision. But with a gentle touch from Victor, she conceded, allowing him to lead her out of the hall we all stood in. Not before she shot me one final look of hatred though. A look I was quickly becoming well accustomed to seeing from her.

It left only Alistair, the king, and myself in the area, though I remained on the ground still, too scared to move an inch or speak up. I just wanted to leave already. For this nightmare to be over.

“You too, Alistair,” the king added, making me look up at him in surprise. “Leave and reflect on your actions here today. Your behaviour is not how a king should treat their saviour.”

I could see the retort playing on Alistair’s lips, as if he were about to argue against his father’s wishes. Instead, he just wiped a hand across his face and took a breath in. “Fine.”

He didn’t even bother to look at me again before he left the room. Somehow, it made it feel worse that he couldn’t even bare to do that, making the aching inside more painful.

“Are you okay?” the king then asked me gently, holding out his hand to help me up. “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.”

Conflicted, I let him help me to my feet, not sure what to make of this situation. Should I just speak up now and stop him from ruining the relationship he had with his sons? It didn’t seem worthwhile to damage it for my sake. Especially since I agreed it was probably for the best that the bond was broken.

“...Your Majesty... I....”

“Please, call me Thaddeus. We are family now.”

Please, God, no.... why? Why did he have to make this so much more difficult? I was trying to disconnect from the entire situation, not find more ways to associate myself with him.

“...Thaddeus...,” I corrected awkwardly. “I really, um... appreciate the effort you’re putting in to helping me. But I have no argument against Alistair’s wishes. I have no interest in becoming the Queen Luna or forcing any kind of union between us. There really is no need to force him into accepting me.”

He gently brushed away a tear that had fallen down my cheek, one I didn’t even remember shedding. “You are a sweet girl,” he answered, speaking more softly to me than anyone else had in a long time. “I can see it in your eyes. I know you’re not a bad person, as they would have me believe. Whatever your history, whatever your mistakes, I am confident you’ve learnt from those experiences and are a different person now. They are just too young to see it for themselves.”

“I-I...—”

But his words broke something inside me. Like a wave of emotion flooding through me from finally being seen for the very first time. Me. Just me, and not Scarlett. In seconds, he’d alleviated the exhausting weight of feeling like I constantly had to defend myself, to be better than the person I’d been forced to become and to prove that I could be a good person.

...And instead of finding the words to reply with, I just instantly broke down into tears, choking sobs leaving my body as I cried into my hands. All the fear, pain, and insecurities I was trying to push down were now drowning me all at once as they came bubbling to the surface. Even without him realising just how true it was, he’d managed to say the exact words I’d needed to hear from someone since coming here.

That I wasn’t a bad person.

“Oh, you poor girl,” he soothed, patting my shoulder gently. “There, there... you’re going to be okay.”

And for once, I actually wanted to believe that was true.