Their Hunted Princess

001

Ellie's POV:

Blood soaked the front of my shirt. It felt warm and thick, flowing down my slit throat in a river of crimson.

I choked on it, the metallic scent cloying my nostrils and making it hard to breath. My breaths rasping as pain shot across my body, sharp and searing. My eyes blurred with unshed tears as my lips parted and one word came out.

"P-please..."

Mocking laughter shattered the air all around me. High and shrill, like a fork dragged on porcelain. "Please?!" She echoed. "Darling, she's begging for mercy! How disgusting! After all she did!"

I raised my hands and shakily touched my neck. Blood poured out of the deep s***h across my throat and flowed back inside my windpipe, causing me to choke on it. My fingers were going cold. My head was starting to feel heavy.

I wasn't healing.

Standing over me was my twin sister, Elsa. Tall and regal, dressed in pink silk and decked in pearls and diamonds. Standing beside her with his arm around her waist was my mate, James. The first alpha of Stone haven pack.

They stared down at me, their eyes shining with cruelty and wicked smiles on their faces.

"Y-you can call a d-doctor..."

"A doctor?" James scoffed in disgust, his lips sneering as if the word was pure venom. He temporarily let go of Elsa's slim waist and crouched down in front of me. His eyes gleamed with something darker than hatred. "Why would I waste resources, and my precious time, on a filthy, worthless omega such as yourself?"

His words cut deeper than any blade could have. The love I had for him twisted and choked me, squeezing my struggling lungs.

Tears streamed down my face and my lip trembled. I reached out for him with bloody hands. "James please...I..I'm your mate. You can't let me die...please..."

"An omega mated to an alpha? How disgusting." My sister spat. "You were a mistake, Ellie. You were never even suppose to be born! An omega daughter to alpha parents? What a double abomination."

But it wasn't my fault! What did I do to deserve this?!

In this world, status was everything. It determined living conditions and also mating conditions. Only alphas could mate alphas.

But when I got mated to James, everything changed. Everyone saw it as a sign from the moon goddess that it was time to forgo the attachment to status.

Even though my parents were alphas and my twin sister was also an alpha, James didn't mind that I was the odd one out. I thought he didn't. He loved me. He was kind to me.

I stared at James with pleading eyes, hoping to glean some empathy from him. Just last year we had been mated. I was overjoyed to be mated to the alpha's son then, and the one I had a massive crush on for the longest time. He got crowned alpha and I became Luna. Little did I know that he had been in love with my own sister for years. And they were f*****g behind my back.

I shivered as a chill settled deep in bones. I touched my stomach. The secret I had planned to tell James tonight burned in my stomach and I couldn't keep it down any longer.

"I'm p-pregnant, James," I said, the word barely audible above the bubbling of blood in my throat. My voice cracked and trembled and fresh tears gathered in my eyes. I swallowed hard. "Our baby...it's going to die."

He didn't flinch. Those cold eyes showed no warmth or regard for what I had just said.

James rose to his feet and laughed. A cold and wicked sound. "You think I don't know?" He spat. He pulled Elsa closer to him and kissed her. "That runt in your womb can die with you. Elsa is carrying my alpha heir."

I felt like a bucket of ice had been dunked over my head. The air in my lungs thinned and my lips parted in shock.

No...

He knew I was pregnant? For how long...I only found out last week.

"No...James please!" I cried out, choking as I did. My wounds were healing very slowly, thanks to the wolfsbane dagger Elsa had used to cut my throat. "I..I don't care! S-she can have y-y-your baby! Just p-please...don't let me die. I beg you."

"Pathetic." He clicked his tongue, his face disgusted as if he had smelled something bad. "You don't even have any dignity left."

Elsa laughed, her voice cutting my heart like ice cold daggers. "Darling, can this be done already? Her scent is really stinking up the place. "

"Elsa please..." I turned to my sister. We shared the same womb. Surely she must have some sympathy for me. "Talk to him...help me beg him,"

"Guards!" James yelled. The door burst open and six guards rushed inside. "Take this runt to the pack square. It's time for this pack to learn a new lesson."

The next thing I knew, I was being dragged out of the pack house and into the square. My screams attracted the pack members who gathered and began to murmur.

I was thrown into the centre of the square, out for the scrutinizing eyes of the members. I could hear them whispering. My face burned with shame and embarrassment.

"It's that omega..."

"Who knows what she did now."

"I'm sure she stole something."

"Served her right."

"Members of Stone Haven!" James walked up to me, his voice ringing out loud and clear. "We are no stranger to the rules that govern our society."

I crawled towards him and grabbed his leg. "James please..."

Two guards grabbed my arms and pulled me away. James went on speaking as if I hadn't moved.

"Omegas belong at the bottom of our pack. But this one dared to impose upon me, claiming to be my mate. And for that, she will be punished."

Before i knew it, a guard rushed up to James and handed his ceremonial sword over to him. James turned to me, his eyes shining evilly. And behind him was Elsa, grinning.

"James please!" I screamed, choking as I overexerted my voice. "Please I'm sorry! I'll go back! I'll forget everything! I—"

He raised the sword over my head. "In your next life, try to be less naive." His voice was like steel piercing my heart. "There is no world that you will never be a filthy omega runt."

"James! Don't—"

My words caught in my throat. I saw the sword come down on my neck, slicing right through my neck.

I felt my severed head hit the ground and roll on the floor. The crowd gasped. Someone screamed.

Elsa burst out laughing.

James picked my severed head and raised it above his head. "This is the fate of all omegas who forget their place! Never forget that!"

I felt the moment my body stopped shaking. The moment I went still and my eyes closed in surrender. The moment my eyes went shut, and all noise and sensation vanished.

I knew the exact moment I died.