Chapter 9
I was alone in the room as the Omegas tending to me went out for a while.
They were staring right at my soul, at my off–shoulder dress. Their eyes were oozing with an array of emotions I couldn’t comprehend.
There was shock, admiration, and…and regret in them.
“What are you two doing here?” I didn‘ t soften my tone. I faced them like how a Luna faces two Rogues.
“Louise, are you really getting married?”
I chuckled softly as I crossed my arms.
“Yes. And do you regret choosing Lucille over me now?”
“Yes.”
“No!”
The twins looked at each other for their
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different responses. Xeus‘ gaze softened but Xavier remained hardened.
“Get out. Please,” I ordered.
Xeus‘ voice trembled slightly. “Louise, please answer us.”
It was very much like how his voice was when he confessed to me years ago. Back then, he had said in that same romantic tone, “Louise, my greatest wish in life is to marry you as my mate. I’ll do everything I can to show you my heart, how genuine I am.”
“But you said your career and reputation always comes first,” I once asked him back.
He shook his head as if nothing else mattered to him but me. “No matter how long it takes, I don’t mind waiting for you.”
However, after all these years, I think those words were just hollow. No truth resonated in them.
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Xavier Zane growled, and it pulled me back to the present. “Louise, quit the act. There’s no way you‘ re actually marrying someone else. Look at yourself!” He assessed my curvy body, the plumpness of my lips, and the glint in my eyes. “You are a sickly girl from a broken family. Why would the Crystal Tears Pack want you? You‘ re just playing another trick to get our attention, but I’m not falling for it.” He threw a knowing look at his brother.
“Not anymore.”
Even though he said that, his eyes reddened and sorrow lined his eyes with silver. They both know how stunning I look. How my beauty surpassed those times I was in their walls.
A memory suddenly crossed my mind. When we were children, we once did a role play where I wore a pretty white dress I borrowed from Luna Shea pretending to be the bride, while the twins fought over who got to be the groom. In the end, Xavier lost to his brother and bawled. His red eyes
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were brimming with tears just like he did right now.
It seemed everything had not changed. And yet, everything was entirely different.
It seems Fate likes to mirror memories back into reality.
I lowered my gaze to avoid their tearful eyes. “You two should leave. My uncle has already declared a cold war to your
father’s pack. But for Luna Shea’s sake, I won’t let my guards throw you out.”
Xeus stared at me, shocked at the dismissal. “Our father beat us when he found out Lucille and us beat you. She hasn’t come home since. We still don’t know where she is. She’s not answering our calls or messages.” Xeus tossed a look to Xavier to which the latter quickly
averted. “Most especially me. I was the one punished by my father the most since I’m the eldest and yet I didn’t do anything to keep it from happening.”
Cha
Xavier whispered and yielded one step towards me. I stepped back. “How’s your injury?” He swallowed, “How are you?”
Xeus rushed to me and shook my shoulders. “Louise, stop this nonsense. Marriage isn’t a game. Have you really thought this through?” His voice softened, almost pleading. “We have been together for twenty years but you’ve never agreed to marry me. So, why are you suddenly marrying a complete stranger?”
“He’s not a stranger!” I hissed. “Alpha Xaden Reid is my second chance mate.”
“Second chance?” Xavier gaped.
“You both rejected me, remember? You both shattered the mating bond that binds us–along with the friendship we had for two decades!” Without changing the calmness in my voice, I continued, “I didn’t do all of these on a whim. Every choice I made, I had thought it through and through–including leaving you.” I wiped. the tears that I didn’t know already fell
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from my face. “My doctor also told me if I don’t marry soon, I might never have children.”
I can’t deny the feelings I once felt for them resurfaced. Seeing their pitiful faces now, it seems my revenge has worked. They finally saw me for who I am and what
I was.
“We…we’ve waited to marry you for twenty years!” Xavier shrieked.
“And I didn‘ t?”
They both blinked. Looking back, they thought they were the only ones who had been waiting for twenty years. However, had I not been waiting for them for the same amount of time?
For years, I had really believed that the three of us were inseparable. That I would one day marry one of the Zane brothers and our packs would become reunited.
However, with Lucille‘ s arrival, it just made the gap between the Dark Tide Pack
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Chapter 9
and the Blood Ruby Pack wider and worse. My uncle was still keen to punish the twins. before me.
“Go,” I said again. “My uncle will have your heads if they found out you two are here.”
But they didn’t turn around. And I finally understood that not all childhood promises would withstand the arrival of someone new. First love never dies–but it can fade, like how winter melts away with the arrival of spring.
“My love for you is gone so there’s nothing to hold on to.” The twins knew to whom I directed those words.
Xeus stomped his foot and looked at me with his defeated, wounded eyes.
“Why…why does it have to be him?! If you wanted to get married, if you wanted to have a child, you could’ve come to me!”
“And for what?!” I bared my teeth at him. “You’ll choose Lucille anyway.
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Chapter 9
I turned around and I met my own gaze in the mirror. The wedding dress was adorned with radiant diamonds and crystals. It looked exactly as I had once imagined as a child that I would die to wear.
I turned my gaze to the Zane brothers and gave them a small smile. “Why not him? He is the only one who chose me without hesitation. He’s the only one who saw me for who and what I am–not for my beauty or because I’m an Alpha‘ s niece. But because I am Louise Black. I am who I am.”
Xavier kneeled down before me and reached for my hand. “Please. Don’t leave us, Louise.”
Xeus kneeled down beside his brother too.
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