Chapter 3
1132 Words
Aurelia POV
“You dare replace me with her?” Selena’s voice was shrill, trembling with anger as she pointed at me like I was some dirty stain on the pristine marble floor. “She’s a nobody! A pathetic Omega with no lineage!”
Dominic didn’t flinch. The Alpha King sat tall on his obsidian throne, his face was roughly chiseled, stark, completely hard. When he finally spoke, his voice was as cold as death.
“That’s enough, Selena. Be quiet.”
But of course, the empty can makes the loudest noise. “No!" Selena cried. "I won’t be quiet! I’ve served this pack with everything that I have and I've stood by you through hell. How dare you disgrace me like this?"
“One more word from you to me, and I will cut off your tongue." King Dominic said angrily, glaring at her.
A gasp rippled through the crowd.
Selena staggered back like he’d slapped her. Her fury turned feral, and before I could blink, she lunged toward me.
“I’ll kill you!” she screamed.
But before her claws could reach my throat, I charged towards her with even much more contempt. "I dare you to touch me! Try it and I will make sure you never use that hand again."
“That’s enough!” Elder Rolan, Selena’s father, stepped forward. “This is madness, My king.”
Dominic didn’t even look his way. He only stared at me.
Rolan advanced, and from the color of his eyes, anyone could tell he was ready for war. “You dare cast aside my daughter? For her?” He pointed at me like I was nothing. Like I wasn’t even worth the breath it took to insult me.
“She is an Omega,” he spat. “A nobody. Making her Luna would disgrace every law, every tradition this pack was built upon.”
Dominic finally turned his gaze on him, slow and deliberate. The room seemed to hold its breath.
“My word,” he said. “is law. If I choose to marry a nobody, then so be it.”
Rolan pursed his mouth shut for a moment and then moved forward with so much anger. “When an Alpha begins to stray and make reckless decisions,” he said, stepping closer to the throne, “it becomes the duty of the Elders to correct him. And If no elder will correct you, I will! Over my dead body will I allow this madness to continue."
For a moment, everything stood still. Then Dominic rose to his feet. The air changed. I felt nervous myself.
“Beta Kael,” he said quietly, never taking his eyes off Rolan, “behead him.”
The words struck like lightning.
Screams erupted. Panic spread like wildfire, and everyone in the room was already trembling.
“No!” Selena shrieked, breaking free from one guard and racing toward her father. “Don't you dare!”
Two more guards restrained her again, holding her back as she thrashed and cried.
In one clean, brutal motion, the blade flashed, and there was a thud. Rolan’s head hit the marble floor. And the world just stopped.
Selena collapsed, a banshee’s wail tearing from her throat as she crawled to her father’s body, blood soaking her hands, her dress, the floor beneath her.
“Father! Please… no, no, no!”
All around, the council members stared in shock, frozen. No one dared move. No one dared breathe a sound.
Dominic looked over the silent crowd. “Is there anyone else,” he asked, “who would like to correct me?”
No one answered.
“I didn’t think so.” He turned toward me then, walked the length of the room, and extended his hand.
“Come.”
My legs shook, but I moved.
He led me to the Luna’s ceremonial chair. The cushion was still as red as fresh blood, the crest of the royal line carved into the back. He helped me into the seat with surprising gentleness. Then he faced the room.
“This is Aurelia,” he declared. “And she will be my Luna. Her coronation will take place In the next moon festival.”
*****
Back in his chambers, the silence was thicker than the velvet curtains hanging from the tall windows. I stood near the hearth. My hands were trembling, and I couldn’t hide it. Yes I wanted Selena to pay for every pain she caused me, but her father was innocent in all of this.
“You didn’t have to kill him,” I whispered.
Dominic turned, shrugging off his bloodstained coat. “He disrespected me in front of the entire council. I couldn’t let that stand.”
“He was her father,” I said, voice cracking. “He was trying to protect her.”
He stepped closer, eyes dark and unreadable. “And who protected you when Selena and her father were treating you like dirt beneath their boots? Who stepped in when they called you unworthy? Unfit? Trash?”
I didn’t respond. He gently took my hand.
“I did this for you. To show them all that no one will ever treat you like less again. Not while I breathe.”
Later that night, I couldn’t sleep. The image of Rolan's lifeless body wouldn't leave me.
I slipped out of the chamber. And then I stumbled on Selena. She knelt beside her father’s grave, sobbing.
Quietly, I turned to walk away but it was too late, Selena had already seen me.
“You,” she hissed, standing slowly. “Stupid b***h! I will drain the life out of you, while you beg for my mercy!”
She picked up a rock and threw it at me, and then charged towards me. Before she could do anything else, I had grabbed her hair and was wrenching it roughly. Selena gasped from pain and tried to free herself but she stopped the moment she saw the knife I held an inch from her scalp.
"I will cut it off." I hissed. "You won't be so pretty then, will you? I am the Alpha’s mate and would soon be crowned luna, and you will address me with respect or you will join your father in hell!"
Selena didn't say a word, genuinely frightened. I released her, and she was trembling, knowing I meant every word.
"Good girl." I whispered in her ears.
“Aurelia.”
I turned to see Beta Kael approaching from behind me.
Selena glared at him and turned away, walking as fast as she could until she was gone.
Kael’s voice was low. “I need to speak with you,” he said, glancing toward the palace. “There’s something you need to know.”
- Writer
