[Diana]“Impressive strategy, Janus,” father complimented.Janus bowed slightly, his gaze low. “Thank you, alpha,” he said in a respectable tone.“By the way, the princess showed some craziness in the combat. I want to know what actually to you,” beta Arthur asked with a gentle smile. I was waiting for them to ask this question.“He said he wanted to paralyse me…” I told them everything that had happened on the ground. I didn’t have proof that Willa ordered Mes to hurt me, so I didn’t take her name.Father’s and beta’s expressions darkened as I told them the complete story. They exchanged glances and then looked at me.“So, that is why you screamed that you’d kill him before he killed you?” Beta Arthur asked and nodded.“Yes.”“Interesting, isn’t it, alpha?” Beta looked at the father, whose murderous gaze bore into the air.“Alpha?” Beta nudged father.“He attempted to kill a royal and that too my daughter, so his life will surely be very interesting from here on,” father said in a d

[Diana] (3 years later…) * * * My legs were shaking under the table as the anxiety concentrated in my stomach. Janus placed his hand on my knee, and my legs stopped shaking. Right. No need to be nervous. But how could I not be nervous? I looked at father, then at beta Arthur, then at Willa and then Reese. We were sitting around the dinner table. Father had invited Janus and beta Arthur for tonight’s dinner. Ever since I told father we need his time, we have been having family dinners every night. It was like a mandatory ritual every night where Reese, Willa, father and I sat together around this very dining table. He’d ask how our day went and we’d give him an overview. He knew everything about our life, anyway. His spies were everywhere around us, but still he’d ask. Well, he was trying to be a better father and I could see it, but right now, I had severe doubts about it. “Alpha, she is too young,” Willa said. “I am nineteen, mother. Meanwhile Reese is eighteen. So he is

[Diana]“It’s funny how excited everyone is to see someone die,” Reese said. “Sometimes the rules of this pack make me wonder what exactly our ancestors were trying to hide? The outside world from our pack or our pack from the outside world?”I tensed my brows and looked at him because what he said, for the first time, made sense.“Like do they carry some disease which can affect us or do we carry some deadly virus that could spread to them so we are basically being quarantined in our own pack and we don’t even know,” he said and it got the horses of my brain running.“What is up with you today?” I asked him.He looked at me casually. Over these years, he had turned more into a man from a teenager.I hate to admit it, but he was handsome and no wonder half of the ladies in the academy were trying to hit on him. My past knowledge about him wasn’t helping much in this life, though.Because in the past, Reese would bring a new girl to his bed every day. He was a big playboy until he foun

[Diana]Father came into my room. It was eleven at night.He sat across the table, facing me. He had been silent ever since he entered my room and I had been quiet as well, glancing at him now and then.I cleared my throat. “F-father. Your reports…”He glared at me and I shut my mouth, dropping my gaze to my intertwined fingers on the table.His dark eyes and murderous aura gnawed at me to the core.I had mind-linked Janus and asked him to be with Vera and Lyvia. Willa could use this chaos to either manipulate father’s reports or harm Lyvia.But, I guess I didn’t have to because Janus was already at the hospital with Vera and, according to his words, Lyvia was preparing father’s reports.Father’s finger tapped on the table. In the haunting silence between us, those taps were like gunshots.Father let out a deep breath and gulped hard, rolling his tongue over his inner cheek.“Tell me the truth,” he said, and I flinched.I looked into his eyes, relaxed myself and said, “he is my mate,

[Diana]How long has it been?My body was still limp, yet I had partially regained my consciousness.Tick tock!Tick tock!Tick tock!I could hear the clock. The red light from the setting sun entering through the floor to ceiling glass windows stained the white bedsheets red. My breaths were so loud in the stark silence of the room. I stared blankly at the windows, seeing the red sun slowly being engulfed by the horizon.I lost. Did I really think I could make things work in this life?How can I be so stupid?I felt like I was lying in the pool of my blood. But I wished he’d come even if we lose, even if the sun would set.I didn’t want to stay in that room any longer. I wanted to leave, run as fast as I could.Reese’s silhouette blocked the rays of sun entering my eyes.“You lost, sister,” Reese said as he sat on the chair beside my bed, crossing his legs as he leaned against the back of the chair with a victorious smirk.I lowered my gaze.“He isn’t your mate. Even if he is, you