Chapter 1
Regan POV
Smack. My head careened backwards as my stepsister Isabelle, slapped me, with all the force that she could muster. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to look at her, knowing that if I was retaliate it would only bring more punishment on myself. She examined her perfectly manicured fingernails and gave me wide smile as she gloated.
“I don’t know why my mother and your father insist on keeping you around like this, but when I am Luna, you will be kicked out of the pack so fast that your head will spin” she declared, narrowing her eyes at me and looking at me with
contempt.
I bit my tongue. It was pointless to argue with Isabelle. Ever since my father, Johnathon, the Beta of the Blood Moon Pack, had entered negotiations with Alpha Jackson, to make Isabelle the chosen mate of Xander and Xavier Dominion, the Alpha’s sons, she had been impossible to live with. Not that she had been easy to live with before that, but now it was even worse than before.
Isabelle was the most popular girl in the pack and the meanest. Now that she was almost guaranteed to become the Luna of the Blood Moon Pack when the twins turned eighteen in several days‘ time, she had become filled with her own self–inflated
ego.
“I want my clothes properly ironed and there had better not be a single crinkle in them, do you understand” she hissed, “When the twins have their eighteenth birthday party in a few days, I intend to be the best–looking girl there. As Luna, I will need to show off to everyone in the pack, just how beautiful I look.”
She glared at me. I rubbed my cheek, unable to help myself. “You’re not Luna yet. They might still find their mate” 1 mumbled, staring down at the ground.
After all, every shifter had a fated mate, although in the twin’s case, they would share one between the two of them. Isabelle’s eyes were flashing. They have already agreed to reject their fated mate, for the good of the pack” she snarled, as I stepped slightly backwards. “Unless she is of Alpha blood, she is of no real help to them anyway. I am of Beta blood” she purred, looking smug, “and a good friend of Alpha Jackson and Luna Jennifer.”
Of course, she was. Ever since my father had married her mother, and his second chance mate, Heather Ramona, Isabelle had been doted on for as long as I could remember, while I had been shoved unceremoniously to the side. I had become almost invisible inside my own home. The child that nobody wanted, the child that everybody blamed for her mother’s death in a rogue attack when she was still young. I sighed. Alpha Jackson and Luna Jennifer were enamored with Isabelle finding her light blonde hair and big blue eyes positively ‘enchanting
1, on the other hand, stuck out like a sore thumb, my dark raven black hair, and emerald green eyes, the direct opposite of what Isabelle and my stepmother looked like, further ostracising me. While Isabelle was tall, I was short, her figure slender, while mine was more curvaceous and generous. Every time I stood next to her, she towered over me, making me feel more like a dwarf in comparison. It was something that she found amusing, using it to her advantage as another way to intimidate
me
“Listen here, you, ugly, pathetic mutt Isabelle drew her shoulders back and stared straight at me, her lip curled back in derision. “Nobody and I mean nobody is going to mess this up for me. No fated mate of the Alphas is going to stand between me and my becoming Luna. Besides she looked me over, her eyes glinting as she gave a sarcastic laugh. “It’s not as though you are going to be their mate, are you Regan?” she said calmly “It’s not as if they would accept you, nobody in this pack would” she sneered “Or do you seriously think that you have a chance of being the Luna?” she prompted with a twisted smile, “A murderer for a Luna, wouldn’t that be something she bughed as I stared dumbly at the ground.
1 flinched. Murderer. That’s what everybody saw me as. I slowly shook my head in denial, feeling my mouth go dry. “No Isabelle, that’s not what I think I whispered, and saw her eyes light up in triumph.
“Excellent, then what are you waiting for?” she smirked, as I stared at her dumbly. “Go and get my laundry done” she made an impatient gesture “and stop standing there like a bloody idiot she snorted, “Sometimes I think your brains are missing as well as your commonsense.”
1/3
Chapter 1
I ducked my head and rushed from the room, feeling on the verge of tears. I was in such a hurry, that I collided directly into my stepmother who was just coming home from her shopping op.
“Regan” she scolded, as I halted in my footsteps, my heart hammering in my chest. “Slow down, this isn’t the place to be running, and it would have been very rude of you to have run lujo one of our guests” she continued, lowering her voice and continuing to look at me in admonishment.
Guests? I felt apprehensive as I slowly raised my head, only to be met with two identical and amused expressions. I felt a jolt run through me as I looked at them both, with their matching hazel eyes, dark brown hair that was both similarly mussed and spiked, and their large and broad–shouldered bodies as they moved beside my stepmother. Whoosh. For a moment I lost my breath and my ability to speak or form words. My mouth opened and closed as I gaped. My stepmother ignored me, turning to smile at the two twins, Xavier and Xander Dominion
“Please forgive my stepdaughter” she hastily apologized on my behalf as my cheeks began to burn, “It looks as though she’s forgotten her manners today” she added, turning to glower at m
“I um” I stammered, feeling foolish and like an idiot.
Why was I always tongue–tied when it came to these two? Was it because they were either rude to me or because they tended to ignore me whenever I came across them? I heard Isabelle come into the room.
“Xander, Xavier” she squealed, moving past me, practically shoving me out of the way, as she flung her arms around Xander first, hugging him enthusiastically. “What a pleasant surprise. What brings you two here?” she asked.
I sensed Xavier’s eyes on me, even as his brother answered, his expression slightly guarded.
“We thought that we would come and visit with our chosen mate for a little bit, seeing as our eighteenth is approaching and it won’t be long until Mother and Father organize our Alpha and Luna ceremony
Isabelle moved to hug Xavier, but he looked deliberately at me, his eyes glittering. “Are you still here?” he asked crudely.
co and do your chores my stepmother quickly interjected, sensing the tension
she added. “Yes, Regan, in the air as Isabelle turned her head to regard me, while the twins smirked. “You have a lot to get done before dinner” s
I quietly moved past the twins, feeling as though something was burning into me from behind, and began to make my way towards the stairs. As I began to ascend them, I could hear Isabelle’s voice from behind me as her mother left the kitchen area, no doubt wanting to give her daughter privacy.
“She’s so weak” she giggled, “what a loser.”
“She’s your sister though I heard Xander murmur.
“So” Isabelle’s voice was cold, “Half–sister” she snapped “and only because my mother happers to be her father’s mate. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even acknowledge her existence. I don’t want to be associated with a murderer” she spat out.
“Don’t feel sorry for her Xander” Xavier’s voice as I made it to the first floor “She killed her mother remember,” he reminded his brother “Nobody in the pack likes her” he added with a growl.
Tears flooded my eyes as I turned and walked away, unable to bring myself to hear anymore. Everybody would believe what they wanted to, and I no longer had the motivation or the energy to try and convince them that I was innocent or that as a child, 1 should never have been blamed for forces outside of my control. When I turned eighteen, I was leaving this pack, for good, come heaven or hell and nobody was going to stop me. Unless I was kicked out of the pack first, a small voice in my mind told me and I shuddered, knowing the likelihood of that happening was very, very high.
