~And the only wrong I ever committed was trusting the wrong people. If ever I'm given a second chance, I'd never be gullible ~ Orla.
DARK MOON PACK.
(ORLA'S POV)
"Luna." A guard at the door bowed, which I acknowledged with a nod.
Meandering my way through the complicated twists of the large castle, I soon arrived at the front of the large brown door. It was my father's office.
A servant had told me he'd be there.
Not bothering to knock, I bounced inside. However, nothing in my wildest imagination would have prepared me for the scene which unfolded before my very eyes.
My throat went dry, as I stared unblinkingly at the two figures who lay huddled on the large couch in the corner of the office.
I wanted to pinch my skin and exert some pressure of some sort to bring me back to reality.
Did I enter the wrong room?
That wasn't the case, however. It was pretty much daytime. And the day I couldn't distinguish between Ryker and any other person, I'd know the world was coming to an end.
In the most intimate position ever, Ryker and the last person I'd have imagined were making love.
Ophelia?
I felt numb. It was almost like my world had turned dark. The tears poured faster than I could imagine.
He was cheating.
They weren't even aware of my presence in the room, lost in their world of ecstasy. I turned to leave as quietly as I came. Their moans and grunts pierced deeply into my heart, making wounds I knew would never heal. The scene I had witnessed today would forever remain fresh in my memories.
I stumbled blindly towards the door, not wanting to spend even a second in the office. But then, I stumbled on the dormant leg of a side table. I stifled a wince, and turned back just in time, to see both of them looking at me.
Surprises were clearly written over their faces. They'd be of course. They weren't expecting the stupid me to catch them in their act.
"Orla?" Ryker whispered, calling my name.
I didn't respond, inwardly wondering if I'd forgive him if he apologized. He'd say sorry, and everything would be fine.
"What are you doing here?" He asked coldly.
I blinked, my gaze locking with his. He hadn't moved an inch from his position. And it might have been my imagination, but I could swear Ophelia had a victorious look on her face.
"I'm your mate, Ryker. Did you even hear the news about my parent's death?" I whispered, crying.
His expression didn't change. If anything, it became colder than before.
"And?"
His words rang through my ears. And?
I gulped, grabbed a fistful of my dress, and made to leave.
"Not so fast, Orla." I heard his rich baritone say, once I turned my back on them. I didn't turn, remaining in my position instead.
"Ryker..." I heard Ophelia's sensual voice say, stabbing straight into my heart. When did it all start?
And against my wish, I whirled around.
"You're a bitch, Ophelia!" I yelled, the tears falling fast. I didn't care about my image at that point.
I watched as she ambled from her position beneath Ryker, and wrapping the sheets around her nude body, she approached me.
"A bitch?" She scoffed, stopping right at my front. "Why do I feel like that's my line?" She added tauntingly.
My eyes burned with unshed tears, as I looked at her, wondering where I had gone wrong. Wondering what was so great a crime that I committed that prompted my mate and sister to punish me the way they were currently doing.
Ignoring my silence, she continued. "You're a very pathetic bitch, it's such a pity you don't know. Ryker belongs to me, and me only. Tell you what? He never loved you, and he never will." She said harshly, making me stagger.
No. I shook my head. She was lying. It was a ploy to make me fall out with Ryker. However, a glance at Ryker made me snap out of my delusion. There he was, with a sneering expression.
He wasn't denying it? Does that mean it's true?
With tears clouding my vision, I hurried out yet again, determined not to stop for any reason.
"Like I said, not so soon."
And that was the last thing I heard before I felt the dull ache on my nape. I doubled forward, the pain so excruciating that I yelled.
Wh... I didn't get to complete my thought when I slipped into oblivion.
...
A sharp pain tore through my waist, and wrist immediately after I came to. I looked around. It was dark.
I had lived long enough in the Dark Moon pack; that was where I had been born after all. However, I couldn't recognize where I was.
The door clicked open, and a tall figure walked in. I recognized him at once. Tailing him was my newly turned enemy, Ophelia.
"You're awake, I see." He gestured towards the strong ropes bounding me to the chair.
"Let me go, Ryker. What games are you playing at?" I hissed.
"I? I want to avenge my father." He spat with disgust written over his face.
"Your father? What do you mean?" I whispered.
"Of course, you're going to pretend not to know. Your father made my mother betray my father. He took her away from her rightful mate, my father. She committed so many atrocities. And for that, they've paid with their lives." He said, with blazing eyes.
"You are the one behind their deaths?" I choked out the words. "They did nothing to you, bastard!" Rage coursed through my body at his words. Rage mixed with something else. Fear. I could tell tenacity when I saw one.
And at that moment, Ryker was looking at me with eyes filled with tenacity. He was going to kill me.
"Say goodbye to father and mother, when you get there," Ophelia said with a scornful laugh.
I shuddered. "Please..." I begged and cried. "Let me go," I added.
"Let me have the honor." Ophelia stepped forward with a jar.
I watched as she poured the contents on the floor, in a clean circle around me. My heart began thudding erratically against my chest. Was this how I'd die?
Once she was done, she lit a match and threw it forward. Flames sprang up at once, making me shudder yet again.
"Goodbye, Orla," Ryker said coldly, and hand in hand with Ophelia, he walked out.
The smoke filled my nose, making me cough violently. A sudden sense of dread was ignited in my being. I was about to die.
In the face of death, adrenaline shot up my body, fueling my energy. "Help!!" I yelled loudly.
I gave up after a few attempts. As I felt life slipping out of my body, the anger I'd never have thought I'd muster filled me.
"I curse you, Ophelia. I curse you, Ryker. Forgive me, dear parents." I choked out the words, the flames searing through my flesh.
Ella's words rang in my ears. 'I hope you don't regret it.'
I heard the door open, and strong arms lifting me. Who was it?
"Orla! Please, wake up!" I heard a desperate voice."
I knew that voice. It sounded so much like Maverick. I tried to open my eyes but the smoke was too much. It didn't let me see anything. Just as I was drifting, his face came into view, and I caught a glimpse of his face. Maverick.
“Orla, please, wake up! You can't die, I ain't let you die, mate.”
Mate?
I thought, then it suddenly made sense to me. Maverick is my mate… He is the one the moon goddess paired me with.
I was too weak, I knew I had barely minutes left to live.
'In my next life, I'd surely be with you.' Life slipped away from my body until I felt.... nothing.
FEBRUARY, 25, 2015.DARK MOON PACK.(ORLA'S POV)Where was I?That was the thought I had in mind, once my eyes fluttered open. I was perhaps in the world beyond. The Moon goddess's world perhaps?I was dead. Killed by the ones I had trusted the most. I forced myself to sit, relaxing my back on the... headboard?Why was there a headboard in the world beyond? And why did the room look so much like mine? At the thought, I took a closer look around and blinked in disbelief. And that was because the room looked so much like mine, back at my father's pack. What was happening?'We've been reborn.' I heard a clear steady voice say in my mind. Startled, I looked around. Was there someone else in the room, aside from me?"Who's there?" I called out.'I'm Eva, your wolf. We've gone back in time.' I heard the clear voice say again.Not dwelling on the thought that my wolf had awakened, I jolted. "I've gone back in time, you say? Does that mean...?" I whispered.'Yes, you aren't dead.' She said ca
ORLAA knock interrupted my delicate sleep. A small, timid voice called out to me from the other side.I got out of bed as though on autopilot, and opened the door.Cecily, the cleaner, froze her hand in midair, a few centimeters away from knocking. She cleared her throat and took a step backward. “Good morning, Miss.”I nodded at her, rubbing my eyes. “Good morning. What is it?”“Someone’s here to see you.”“Tell them to come back later, I’m not ready to see any visitors. Besides,” I looked over at the clock hanging over my bed, “it’s not even up to nine yet.”Cecily’s eyebrows moved closer together, forming a crease in between them. “I told him that you’d still be in bed, but he insisted that he must see you Or else he'd have no choice but to come inside by himself.”Ridiculous. “And who exactly is this man?”“It’s Mr. Adams.”“Ryker?” I rubbed my hand over my face and hissed. “What does he want in this ungodly hour?”Cecily looked like she was about to try and answer that question,
ORLA“This is wild,” Ella said, sipping from a cup of fruit juice. “I’m trying really hard to believe what you’re saying right now, Orla. Please tell me that this isn’t some kind of prank.” She put her cup down and used her straw to chip at the ice cubes sitting inside it. “The Moon Goddess sent you back in time?”“Shh. Lower your voice. You don’t know who might be listening,” I whispered, looking around the little stall we’d chosen.I’d invited her over to the quiet eatery not so far away from home. I was even surprised that she’d obliged to my invitation without needing any explanation at all.She looked at me with an eyebrow raised. In the entire place, she stood out the most. Her shoulder-length hair was a wild two-tone consisting of a vivid, grassy green at the top that melted into a much darker shade of the same color as you went down the locks. Today, she’d pulled her hair into a clean bun and applied a wing of eyeliner at the corner of each eye. As a halfling, she’d grown up w
ORLAI told my driver to take us to the woods at the edge of town. He’d seemed skeptical about it at first, but I told him that everything would be fine. Ella was curious as well.We both got out of the car and descended into the woods. The air smelled so fresh and clean. It beckoned me deeper. I couldn’t recall a time in my life that I’d felt so at home. Every leaf, every tree branch, and even the squirrels moving around felt like a part of me.Was this what it meant to have your wolf awakened?“So, what’s the plan?” Ella’s voice cut into my thoughts, sending me out of the confines of my mind. “I think grass can be fascinating too, but my mother’s been calling me for the past ten minutes now. As much as I really hate to rush you, I need to get going very soon.”“I understand,” I said, already taking a deep breath and calling deep into myself. I could feel Eva’s presence, just waiting to be called upon.“You wish to transform?” Her warm voice flooded my mind.“Yes, please.”“It’s dayt
ORLAI sunk into my bed and tried to welcome sleep, but it didn't come. Restless and tired, I found myself turning and turning until I finally found a little peace.And then, I fell asleep.My dreams were a mess of images that I couldn’t understand. I saw faces that I didn’t know, and I saw things that my mind kept failing to comprehend. At one point, I even felt like someone was hovering above me and urging me to wake up, but I didn't open my eyes until sunlight had started flowing in through the windows of my room, signifying that morning had once again come upon me.I got out of my messy bed and found myself staring at the mirror. It was wide and square with a dark wooden frame. There was a notch at the corner where I'd accidentally broken it on the day of my failed Awakening ceremony. I could remember the day like it was just a few hours before. All of my peers had somehow managed to transform on the full moon after their 14th birthday, but I couldn't. I'd stood there untder the m
MAVERICKI came awake with a terrifying start. I had a dream where someone was killing my parents right before my very eyes, and I was too powerless to stop them. The killer stood over their corpses, and turned to me at last. She had blood red eyes, and a wide smile that made her look like a crazed, deranged lunatic. She came for me with her hands outstretched, claws ready to sink into my flesh and snuff the life out of me.And that was when I'd woken up.Sweat ran down my skin as I tried to catch my breath. "It's just a dream," I told myself. "Just a dream."I'd told myself the same lie for over nineteen years now, and each time I used it, it got weaker and weaker. But I didn’t have any other way to comfort myself.My parents died when I was just a baby . . . Murdered by a witch that I'd been told spared my life—but not before marking my face. Because of her, I had a scar running down a quarter of my face—from eyebrow to cheek.It was already bright outside, so I took it as a sign
ORLAAfter Eva’s revelation concerning why I couldn’t tell people of what I’d been through, I just needed a way to release all the pent up tension that I had. Definitely, I’d have to get on Ella’s good side, because she’d forgotten all about what I’d told her the day before, and still believed that we weren’t talking to one another.Five months . . . was it really that long? I didn’t think that we had stayed apart for that long. Five long months of acting like strangers to one another.I freshened up and put on some clean clothes. I never really liked dressing up in anything that exposed too much of my skin, so I dressed up in a simple t-shirt and a pair of bell-bottom jeans. I moved downstairs, drawn to the sound of voices.When I saw them, I immediately jumped to give both of them hugs. “Mom! Dad!”They returned the gesture, surrounding me with warmth and a whole lot of peace. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed them until that particular moment. My father’s eyes crinkled at the co
ORLANow reconciled with Ella, hopefully for real this time, I found my way back home only to be met with calm music and a couple of strange faces.My parents didn’t strike me as the party type, but of course, they had just returned after being away for a few days. All the people that must have been expecting them back could finally come around.While trying to quietly avoid running into anyone familiar, I ended up bumping into the last person I wanted to see.He smiled and pulled me closer to him. His hand sat firmly on my waist. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”I wriggled out of his grasp and forced a smile that felt too paper thin. “I stepped out for a little while. I didn’t even know that my parents were planning to have a little get together.”“Well, I actually came here to see you. I’d like us to talk about some things.”I didn’t need him to elaborate to know what he meant. He was likely talking about us and our mating ceremony. But I didn’t want to talk about that now. I