Claiming My Luna Queen Again

2

Diane’s POV

“Guards!” Kade called out soon after announcing the sentence as Fiona watched on with a smirk.

Four guards arrived very quickly and stood behind him which made me wonder where they all were when I called out for help not too long ago.

I gazed at Kade with shaky hands, scared that I was about to be sentenced to death but he hesitated. “I won't kill you right now,” he informed me. “I can't. Not when you're carrying my child. Your sentence has been adjourned but you'll get it anyway. I just have to let you give birth first.”

I sighed, relieved that I got to live a bit longer. The thought of being killed with my child inside me terrified me so the announcement was a huge relief to me.

But I also hoped that somehow, he'd find out that I didn't kill his mother. I hoped to make him see that but that plan was quickly tossed aside when he motioned to the guards to grab me.

“Take her to the dungeon and lock her up,” he ordered them and they bowed their heads and quickly walked across to me, grabbing my hands in a hurry. “You'll remain there until you give birth to my child. Then, I'll give you what you truly deserve. Take her away!”

Fiona gave a sinister smile as the guards dragged me out of the room, leading me to the dungeon. When we got there, I was thrown into a cell and the guards locked the door, leaving me to cry my eyes out in pain.

For months, I remained in the dungeon, hoping to one day be set free but I knew that when that day would come, it would probably be the day of my death.

But Kade never showed up. Not to see how I was faring. Not even to find out if his child was in good shape. He refused to come any closer to the dungeon.

“I heard him tell your sister that he cannot get himself to look you in the eyes at this time,” one of the guards revealed to me, breaking my heart even further. “He resents you and never wants anything to do with a murderer like you.”

I lay on the floor when I heard those words with tears streaming down my cheeks. But I had never killed anyone. Why couldn't he see that? How couldn't he see that my sister had framed me?

Twice a day, he instructed the guards to feed me. He even had them bring fruits alongside each meal for the child's well-being.

When I went into labour, one of the guards rushed out of the room to inform Kade. I had hoped that he'd finally come to see me. I thought that he'd be by my side whilst I birthed our child but he wasn't.

The guard only returned with May, the Pack nurse, and as soon as our eyes met, I sighed in frustration. “I tried, but he wouldn't come,” the guard disclosed as I shut my eyes in pain.

The labour lasted for a whole day. I'd never felt that exhausted all my life. But when I finally birthed my beautiful triplets, all that pain went away and all I felt was pure joy as I wrapped my arms around them.

“Congratulations, ma'am,” May, midwife smiled at me. “You're the strongest woman that I've ever seen.”

With a nod, I sat up and leaned on the wall to rest a bit, staring at my pups with eyes full of love, hoping that somehow, Kade would finally show up and let me raise my kids.

He did. He stormed into the cell as soon as he heard that I had given birth to the children but he didn't say a word to me.

He walked straight to me and forcefully grabbed the children from me despite my resistance. “Give them back!” I yelled through my weakness, grabbing one of the kids’ right foot as he turned to leave. “My children need me. Please, let me have them.”

“No. You're not fit to mother anyone,” he voiced coldly. “Tonight, you would be killed in the presence of everyone in this Pack. They'll all bear witness to the death of the woman who killed her mother-in-law who showed her nothing but kindness.”

“No. No. Please, don't do this to me and the children. I didn't kill her. I'm innocent, Kade,” I pleaded but he kicked my hands away from his leg without any show of sympathy. “You know me, Kade. We've been together for many years. You know that I'm not capable of taking the life of someone else. This is all a setup. I didn't do it.”

“No thief has ever agreed to theft despite being caught red-handed,” he said to me. “I don't expect you to tell me that you did it but I saw enough to know that you're a murderer. Say your last prayers to the goddess if she'll listen to you. You only have until midnight to do so and you must know that I will be making your twin my new Luna Queen once you're out of the way.”

With that, he walked out of the dungeon with the guards and Pack nurse following behind while I lay on the floor and wailed.

I was heartbroken. How could he be getting married to my sister; my twin? Of all the ladies to replace me with, he chose Fiona, the sister of the one whom he called a murderer. I couldn't understand it.

But I knew Fiona had always had an eye for him right from when we met him for the first time. She wouldn't stop talking about him and how she loved him. I'd have said the same to her but I didn't see the need. I wasn't much of a talker either.

When he chose me, she almost went mad. She didn't speak to me for days and when she finally did, she denied that it had anything to do with him. “Come on, sis. You don't think that I'll hold a grudge because of a man?” She had asked the first day I asked if she was mad about my situation with Kade. “You're my sister. Nothing can ever come between us. Besides, why should I want to be with a man who has no feelings for me? I'm not crazy.”

But she was crazy; very crazy. She set me up just so she could be with him not minding that I was about to be killed. A part of me wondered if it was her who killed Kade's mother but I shook off the thought as quickly as I could. Fiona was a lot of things but I never thought she was a murderer.

Shortly after, my door creaked open and Fiona walked into the cell with a tall maid by her side. With a wave of the finger, the maid walked back out and shut the door while Fiona made her way to me.

“Hey sister,” she smirked. “How does it feel to know that your end is near?”

Without uttering a word, I stared at my twin whom I thought loved me so much, approaching me with a resentful demeanour and all I could say was “Why?”

She didn't hesitate to reply. As soon as she sat in front of me, she sighed, placing her hands on her lap. “I’ve always hated you since we were little, Diane. Words cannot express just how much I loathe you,” she revealed, sending waves of shock down my spine. “I can't wait to see you dead. I wish I was the one to do it myself. You've always felt like you were superior to me. All the good things always found their way to you, including Kade, whom you thought you could snatch from me just because you knew that I was in love with him…”

“But that's not true,” I said in my defence but she wouldn't have it.

“We both know that it's the truth but don't worry. It's all in the past now, isn't it?” She smiled. “I mean, Kade and I have been seeing each other long before now. It might please you to know that he also got me pregnant.”

“You're pregnant? How?”

She tapped me thrice on the shoulder and let her hand rest on it. “Kade and I have been seeing each other… You're just too ignorant, Sis and that's because you've always thought you deserved everything that came your way even at the expense of others,” she opined. “It's so sad that you're getting to learn these things at a time when you're about to die. As soon as I give birth too, I'll kill all of your children because I can't stand anything that has to do with you. Besides, my child should be the heir and not yours. I hope you can understand.”

“You'll do no such thing! You wouldn't dare lay your filthy hands on my kids!” I yelled, grabbing her hand but I was far too weak. She easily took her away from me and laughed hard, rising to her feet. “I guess I'll be seeing you later when you'll be slaughtered in front of the Pack. Bye, sister. I love you so much.”

I cried my eyes out bereft of any ideas on what I had to do. I couldn't let her kill my children. Yet, my hands were tied since I, too, was going to be killed anyway.

Fiona was exactly what I thought she wasn't. A cold-blooded killer with no sympathy at all. For years, she harboured evil thoughts towards me and now was her time to strike.

I had no doubts that she murdered that woman in cold blood. The lengths a desperate woman could go to had no end. How could I have brought my children into this world just to suffer? I had to find a way to stop her but I didn't know how.

Lying on the floor, I cried so hard, wetting the floor with my tears until I finally fell asleep.

A loud bang on the cell door woke me up. I quickly sprung up to see Kade walking into the cell with one of the children in his hands and a squint on his face.

“Please, Kade,” I begged with tears welled up in my eyes. “Don't let Fiona murder our kids in cold blood. Promise me that you'll always look out for them.”

He scoffed, refusing to listen to a word I said. “Stop being delusional, Diane. Not everyone is a murderer like you. Some people have chosen to be good; something that you cannot boast about, unfortunately.”

I gaped at him as he drew closer thinking he had finally come to drag me off to my death but to my surprise, he handed one of the babies over to me.

“I need you to nurse this child,” he ordered. “He has refused to stop crying and also wouldn't eat since I took him from you. I need you to get him to calm down and probably sleep off. Then I will return to you.”

As I nursed the child, I looked up at Kade and asked. “What of the rest of my children?”

I needed to see them. I had to hold them in my arms and protect them from my evil twin sister who had vowed to destroy them. Seeing that Kade wouldn't believe a word I said, I got even more scared that Fiona would have her way more easily than I'd imagined.

“You’ll never get to see them again, Diane,” he declared in a very calm voice. “You'll be killed tonight once the sick child falls asleep so it's of no use asking after them.”

Silently, I cried, holding onto my son like he was the only thing I got. He was. As I caressed his cheeks, I still couldn't believe that my once-perfect life could morph into a nightmare in the twinkle of an eye.