#Chapter 2 Kill her! Do it now!
"Jennifer? Help?" I said weakly. My whole body was shaking, despite being practically drained of life.
Jennifer stood in the doorway, a figure of beauty in her white gown, but unmoved. I wondered if I looked like that, but then I knew I didn't. I knew I should look like her, but six years of my tortuous existence had robbed me of having smooth, soft skin, and lustrous long hair. Her expression was as if she had seen me do something disgusting instead of finding a long-lost sister about to die.
"Don't be fooled. I'm not Jennifer." Jennifer said. "You are. I'm Alissa Clark."
"What? No." I said. The beat of my heart was throbbing in my ears, pumping the blood that was so valuable, the reason I'd been locked away. Slowly, it dawned on me.
"You did this?" I cried out, my voice sounded high and piercing. My heart was breaking.
"Did what, take what was mine?" Jennifer said.
"I'm Alissa. It's my blood." I turned desperately towards the guards that would not meet my eyes. "She's lying! She's not Alissa. It's me. Why else would you take my blood?" I yelled at them, using my last energy. I struggled against the restraints before going limp.
Jennifer said, "Don't listen to her. You know who the Luna is. You saw the games. Everyone did." Her voice was so smooth and calm. It sounded like my voice if I had not spent so many years crying and screaming.
The doctor was leaning over my wounds. He poured warm liquid over them that stung, and I cried again. He wrapped my leg more gently. I hated them all. How could they believe her?
"Was it you?" I cried. "Please, Jennif…"
"Alissa," Jennifer interrupted. "I won't respond to your name, you crazy girl. See, it's good I've kept her down here. Ungrateful, untrustworthy traitor to our Alpha. She should be happy to serve our pack." She spoke to the guards and doctor even though her purple eyes were locked on me.
"Please, Jennifer. Please, we're sisters. We love each other. How could you?" Never in my wildest nightmares would this happen.
She tensed for a moment and laughed. "Yes, we are sisters." She addressed the guards and doctor, "Leave us. I want to speak to this traitor alone."
The guards nodded and left. One looked at me for one second before he cast his eyes down. They clearly worked for her; I'd wasted too many pleas to them over these years.
My whole body shook harder, my shock giving way to the small amount of anger I could muster in my weakened state. She was the traitor that betrayed the Alpha. She'd betrayed her own sister to take my place. She wore my dress.
I thought back to our childhood and how she always wanted the best of everything, and she would take it. No matter if it was my turn. She was always so angry and jealous of new toys or our parents' affection; I had let her win too often because I didn't want to fight with her all the time.
I thought of her jealousy the day I won the games. She'd disappeared. It occurred to me that she must have ventured here to meet the Alpha in my place, and I had gone home to wait for him to come to me.
"Do you know what day it is?" Jennifer said. She stepped further into the room, coming to the bed where they had strapped me down.
"No," I said. "I haven't known what day it is for six years."
"It's our eighteenth birthday today."
Tears clouded my eyes and fell down my face. They stung when they hit PIG burned onto my cheeks.
I thought of my dreams to become Jacob's chosen mate on my eighteenth birthday. I was supposed to be the Luna. The Alpha would pronounce his blood provider, his mate to the whole pack. I'd won the games; it should be me.
My blood was the best he'd ever tasted. I remembered him looking me in the face and telling me that. I could hardly handle all the anger, all the shock, and hurt. How could she do this to me? How could anyone be so jealous to become this evil?
"Isn't this a beautiful dress?" She taunted, the white lace and satin was covered with little shards of crystal that shimmered even in the dim light of the basement. "Jacob gifted it to me."
It was hopeless. She would never let me go. At this point, after so much, I could never expect her to reveal six years of lies to Jacob. "Please, I will provide all my blood, you can keep your lie. Please. Just let me go free..."
I froze suddenly. The sweetest smell hit me. It smelt like vanilla and pine trees. My mate was near. My fated mate. The one blessed by the moon goddess.
Who was he? My sad body melted from the smell. Could he save me from this hell?
Jennifer touched my face, laughing sarcastically,
"Ohh. Poor sister. Guess you just found out your fated mate was in the same building. You know who he is?"
She paused and seemed to enjoy my shocking expression. "It's Alpha Jacob. Your fated mate. But he chose me. "
"No! Our mate bond is there. I can feel it! He must not know I was here! "
Jennifer laughed again, this time like a girlish giggle as if what I'd done was so silly. "Happy birthday, my dear sister. Don't you realize, Jacob can smell you. We've not been so far away. "
"No," I said. "He can't. He didn't reject me! "
"Why did he bother? You've been like a pig for us. He knew you were here. He's known this whole time."
I couldn't believe it. If I thought it was the worst living nightmare, it had just gotten a lot worse. "You're just saying that to hurt me more." I said, more tears falling into the scar so that I flinched.
A guard came back. "The Alpha Jacob is looking for his Luna. It's time."
"My wedding. Isn't it lovely? My mate. I've always loved him, but you knew that." Jennifer said to me, her words like ice.
"Let me see him, please?" I said.
She took out a small mirror from her dress and held it up to my face. "You think he would ever accept such an ugly mate like this pig?"
I hadn't seen myself since I was twelve, vibrant and healthy. I was a child then, and now I looked like a ghost. My face was hollow and pale like a sick person. I saw the scar on my face, it burned and had inflamed my cheek so that it was swollen.
My eyes were red from the tears. My hair was dull and limp over my skull. My purple eyes were the only piece of me that still held some semblance of life. I could see scars even on my neck, and I knew that my body was even more scarred, and even more pathetic. I was so ashamed and horrified; I suddenly did not want Jacob or anyone to see me like this.
I began to sob; I couldn't help it.
"How dare you be so stupid." Jennifer said. "How dare you think the Alpha wants you for more than your blood. Imagine him mating with you, when he could have me."
I wanted to scream at her that she was evil. They took everything from us! Arianna stirred in my body violently. The wolfs bane was wearing off. I would kill her, rip that dress off her body and destroy her.
Jennifer stood back up, closing the mirror. She must've seen the fury burning in my eyes, but she looked unconcerned.
"Guards," she said. Three others appeared.
"Yes, Luna. Do we need to get the doctor?"
"No, not this time. Not anymore." She turned to me. "Well, you still have beautiful eyes. I'll take those as my wedding gift to myself. Guards, dig out her eyes!"
I ripped one arm out of my chains. The wolfs bane had worn off enough, the pure blood in my veins had always let me shift faster and easier than anyone else. I tore at the chains in desperate anger- the betrayal had fed a fire that I hadn't known I still had. I was not twelve anymore, I was not so small.
Jennifer wore her dress. My fangs grazed her arm. I almost had her. But they were upon me. Three guards had shifted to wolves and intercepted my attack.
They grabbed my neck and forced me to the floor. More wolfs bane was shoved into my nose, and the wolf within and I lost the will to fight again.
Jennifer was cradling her bleeding arm. It was a singular cut, pretty deep, only one of my canines had ripped her before they stopped me. There was a rip down the front of her wedding dress where my claws had torn it. I saw an inkling of fear in her eyes for the first time.
"Kill her." She said.
"But, my Luna. The blood." One of the guards said.
Jennifer screamed. "I said Kill her! Do it now!"
"Yes, my Luna." They grabbed my wrist. With his knife he cut through the bandage and the wound, reopening. My blood poured out onto the ground, a pool of crimson.
"Hang her upside down. Collect all the blood you can. My Alpha will feast on his wedding day."
They took the broken chains on my feet, and slung me up to the ceiling. A large golden bowl was put under my wrist. They cut me more, intentionally slicing my neck where it would drain to that golden circle below me.
More wolfs bane into my nose. That would prevent my wound from healing. I looked down as the blood trailed away from me. It was beyond normal pain.
Jennifer whispered into my ear. "Now, I don't have to worry about you anymore. You pathetic waste. Jacob and I will mate tonight, and I will be grateful that you're dead, and gone. I won't have to worry about my secrets being revealed to the pack."
I lost the ability to track where she was. It was like her voice floated around me. My body hung up like a dead pig, the blood flowing from me till I lost consciousness.
Was my miserable life finally coming to an end?