Betrayal (3)

"You should confess your crimes, Rose. They won't hurt you anymore after you confess. You know it, right... I hate seeing you get hurt." Serena's small, dainty voice echoed within the cell. She sniffed emotionally, eyes looking heartbroken as she reached her hand out and smoothed Rosaline's damp hair.

The figure lying on the floor curled her fingers into a tight fist. Something seemed to burn deep within her that made her fisted hand tremble.

Serena's slim, elegant fingers slid a sheet of paper on the cold floor towards her.

"All you have to do is sign this and the pain and torture will stop. The alpha and I can't protect you if you don't confess." Serena, still patting and smoothing her hair like a woman petting a cat, leaned down, her voice lowering as she added, "Sign this and confess to everyone that you killed the alpha."

Bang!

Serena was pushed to the floor suddenly. Her sister, who'd been lying weak and vulnerable on the cold floor, had moved.

She was standing now, her bloodied white dress making her look like a ghost returning from hell, seeking to destroy and hurt. The usual meekness in her deep blue eyes was far gone.

Rosaline couldn't control herself. She'd felt rage travel through her like thunder waves immediately after Serena had spoken next to her ear.

"Since when... did you start to hate me this much?" This one question was forced out of her throat, leaving a burning feeling in its wake. Her throat was unbearably parched, so much so that the mere act of speaking hurt like thorns being poured down her throat.

"What are you saying, Rose? I... I would never hate you," Serena's eyes, wide and innocent like a bird wronged by the world, said as she gazed at her stepsister, tears brimming in her eyes. If only the bitch knew how much she had hated her. Hate was an understatement for the feelings she had for Rosaline.

"Stop with the act, Serena. It makes me want to strip away every layer you hide to reveal who you are beneath," came Rosaline's quiet but hoarse voice. She had never suspected that the sister she had loved with all her heart could be cruel enough to betray her.

Serena's head suddenly tilted to the side at her sister's words, giving an eerie feeling of an innocent dove transforming into a devious-looking owl.

The innocence slowly shed from her face like a snake shedding its skin. "I've only despised you right from the moment you took what was mine. I loved you, Rosaline, like a sister, really, but you just had to go ahead and step on the sharp thorn."

This kind of expression seemed to come naturally to Serena's face, like the awakening of her true self—long kept hidden for years.

It was true, Serena had always loved her sister—or so she thought—until she stole her spotlight.

She had been the thoughtful and most loved by all the pack members, wherever she went, people would smile and shower praises at her, she had all the attention, except for Lucan's whom she'd secretly harbored a crush on for the longest time. She had been fine with him not looking her way, he would at the right time, she had a full plan to slowly enchant him till he wouldn't be able to think of anything else but her.

However it all changed when Rosaline stole his attention, her chance to enamor him slowly had been taken away. She'd loved her sister and would give anything to her, but her love...That much, she couldn't give to a stepsister.

Rosaline stared at the sister she had loved in disbelief. Though she'd known it, right from that fateful moment at the mating soiree, seeing such dark hatred in Serena's eyes made Rosaline's heart clench tightly.

Serena helped herself up, her aura transforming instantly. She gazed at her tender nails, speaking with a voice that dripped with confidence.

"You should have remained in the shadows, Rose. The hated, bullied, wolfless wretch. If you hadn't stepped into the spotlight, pushing me aside, none of this would have ever happened to you. At most, you'd still be experiencing hate from the pack, but that isn't something you can't handle. Am I right?"

Rosaline's eyes were shadowed by astonishment.

She hated her... because she thinks she took something from her?

Though Rosaline heard the words, she couldn't believe her ears.

'Rose, share the cake with your sister.' A memory flashed into Rosaline's mind.

Young Rosaline looked at her sister's eyes gleaming towards the small slice of cake. She knew how much her sister loved sweet treats. Though her mouth watered at the sight of the delicious-looking pastry, she pushed it towards Serena instead.

'You can have it, I'm full.'

The memory changed into another—they were older this time. Fifteen-year-old Serena had wanted a dress so badly. She would stop by the shop windows and stare at the dress on the mannequin's body obsessively, but it had been too expensive for them to purchase.

Rosaline could remember the experience like a scar in her memory that would never fade.

Alaine, laughing at the top of her lungs as she looked at her with a twisted smirk after she was sent out of the coffee shop that rejected her application for a part-time job, "You need a job? Be my personal servant for a day and I'll pay you, but you have to do every single thing I tell you to."

At that time, no restaurant or store had wanted to hire her part-time. She was just a wolfless teenage girl in the pack who might taint their reputation if she was seen working for them. Alaine had always treated her like scum anyway—what could she possibly do to her that would hurt more than she already was?

"Alright." She had agreed, and even after she went through that day's suffering, she never regretted it at all. Because she only did it to make her sister happy.

Her life had been dark. Loneliness was a constant companion seeping into her. Whether it was her mother or the outside world, everyone's gazes made her feel like an unimportant, unlucky omen of evil around them.

But Serena was different. She was always bright and cheerful. Whenever she saw Serena smiling, no matter how dark or dreary her day had been, Rosaline would smile too.

She would endure any hardship if she could do something to make her little sister smile. That was how much she adored her.

She could remember how Alaine pressed her feet against the back of her neck, making her kneel face down to the floor in the courtyard of the beta's villa.

"This place has been dirty for a while. Make sure it's spotless. And I'll need you to do it all on your knees."

Humiliation burned through Rosaline's body.

Alaine's eyes staring at her were filled with mockery, but it wasn't a feeling she was unfamiliar with. She covered the painful feeling of humiliation with the thought of how happy Serena would be once she received the dress. The thought fueled her to carry out Alaine's instructions without a second thought.

Alaine withheld the broom and cleaning supplies, watching with her friends as Rosaline crawled around to clean the courtyard, picking up every fallen leaf, every discarded piece of dirt on the floor.

Glass shattering next to Alaine's feet had turned her in that direction.

"Oops, clean that up too." Alaine's eyes thrilled with pleasure, enjoying every moment of pushing Rosaline around, mockingly pretending she hadn't been the one to deliberately break the bottle just now.

Rosaline crawled to the spot, low on the floor. She had truly become lower than a servant. She picked up every shard of glass until the last one, but when her hand hovered over it, a force suddenly pressed down on her hand, making the glass sink painfully into her flesh.

She sucked in a pained breath, sweat forming on her brows and dripping to the floor where her blood was seeping out below her flattened palm, but she didn't make a sound of pain. She clenched her teeth until she tasted copper on her tongue, but Alaine's ruthless feet pressed her palm to the glass until she was satisfied, and then let go.

Rosaline had distracted her mind from noticing the horrific-looking gash on her palm. She pulled out the last piece of glass buried in her hand and threw it into the trash basket she was wheeling around the courtyard, aiming to ignore the pain and continue the work assigned to her—when a stinging pain shot through her scalp, her hair bunched among Alaine's fingers.

"Not so fast, you've got blood on my shoes... lick it clean."

The memory faded along with the echo of laughter from Alaine's friends. Those voices of laughter were like a distant nightmare now, little compared to the horror of what she was experiencing within the damp walls of the Redthorn dungeon.

That night, she'd torn her dress and bandaged her bleeding palm, buying the beautiful red dress Serena loved so much and taking it home to secretly give her sister. Seeing the bright red dress, Serena had screamed and jumped happily.

That joy was Rosaline's reward.

But that fifteen-year-old girl had faded from her memory to be replaced by this woman in front of her—this woman whose brown eyes lacked the warmth she'd always known, whose lips were twisted in a mocking scowl. This woman was the shadow hidden right beneath the sweet exterior of her little sister.

"I took something from you?" Rosaline repeated.

If Serena didn't have enough of something, Rosaline would scour the entire pack grounds to get it for her. Rosaline never did anything without thinking of her sister's wants and needs first. It could be said that her whole life had revolved around Serena. She would panic if Serena so much as caught a cold.

This little sister whom she pampered now accused her of stealing something from her.

"You would watch me die because you think I took something from you?" Her voice trembled, quaking painfully like a knife cutting through stone futilely.

Serena's gaze raised to meet hers. Those brown eyes strictly fixed onto her blue ones. They held something uncaring, something twisted, as she walked forward—slow steps until she was standing in front of Rosaline. She tilted her head to the side, then raised her hand and dropped it with harsh force.

Pa!

Rosaline's head jerked to the side at the impact that stung her face furiously.

This slap was nothing compared to the agony that had surfaced in her chest a few nights ago during the mating soiree, when Serena had looked at her—eyes wide in fear as if facing a murderer—pointing a shaky finger at her as she yelled.

'It was her... I saw her... she killed the alpha!'

"No, you're wrong, sister. I'm not the one who wants you dead... Yes, I want you gone for ever loving my mate, for being the one to spend all those special moments with him, for being Mom's favorite daughter even though she pretends to hate you... but I'm not your enemy, Rose. I'm not the one you should be afraid of... we both know who truly wants you dead." Serena added the last words, her red-painted lips curling upwards in a smile.

Rosaline felt her heartbeat stop.

Footsteps began to approach at this very moment—they sounded strong, confident, and sure... These footsteps were familiarly burned into Rosaline's mind. When they stopped, she raised her head to meet the face of the first and only man her heart had ever beat for.

The handsome prince charming, with the most beautiful silver eyes and warmest smile. That warmth was still in his gaze, but the gaze wasn't directed to her. It was fixed on the woman in front of her.

Lucan Axler, the love of her life, now looked at her sister with a passionate longing that burned her heart into a melted pool of bitterness.