Offered to the Triplet Alphas

[Xanthea]

"You threw away all the food just because I ate a freaking blueberry. As though I was contaminated, untouchable. You punished me just because I entered this dining hall. Favorite food? I have hated pancakes and blueberries ever since! I don't even know why! They feel like shards of glass in my mouth," I spoke through the gasps.

I bit down on my quivering lips to hold back my tears, but there was no use. I failed. I failed the game. I couldn't be heartless because I had a heart that had been crushed way too many times. And now all it wanted to do was bleed. "W-what are you saying, sweety-"

"Filth! Just call me what you have been calling me ever since I was born, luna!" I yelled at Meesa.

She widened her eyes, sneaking glances at Ezra and Alpha King. Panic-stricken, she tried to reason.

"Thea... I can never-"

"Oh, shut up!" I cried annoyingly.

I swept my hand across the table. One by one, the glass plates, bowls and goblets shattered on the marble, scattering the food all over the floor. Several maids flinched away, gasping and covering their mouths with their hands in shock. "You are going to throw all this away, anyway! So stop pretending. Stop pretending that you love me, that you care for me, that you know me in front of others. It's suffocating!" I grunted.

I picked up a ladle. Getting up from the chair, I handed it to Meesa.

"You are burning with rage, aren't you, mom?" I said, in a spiteful tone. "Take this and hit me like you always do. Hit me until I pass out! Then call a fucking doctor and keep me locked in my room until I heal so that no one sees my wounds. Come on, mom! Hit me all you want! And don't worry, demon lords will not interfere. They will not say a word. This has been how you have 'loved' me all my life. Show it to my husband, show it to the Alpha King! Go on! HIT ME!" "Stop it!" Meesa shut her eyes, clenching her jaws.

"Why should I?" My voice cracked. "Did you stop when I said I was hurting? Did you stop when I begged you to? No, you didn't. You, Nikolai, Nathalia, kept breaking me again and again and again as though I were an inanimate object! Twenty- three years! Twenty-three years..." my voice faltered. "But even that wasn't enough for you people. You burnt down my everything. All that was left of my mother's is gone now."

I held my head. It felt as if it was about to burst with all the veins throbbing violently in my body.

A prolonged silence hung in the dining room, charged with unease and eerie stillness.

"How dare you?" Nathalia grunted. "How dare you play the victim's card on us? You have no fucking idea what I have been through because of you. You are not the only one who has suffered. In fact, everyone, my whole family, has suffered because of you!"

"Nathalia! Shut up!" Nikolai warned, stealing a nervous glance at Ezra.

"No! No, I won't! She has always stolen everything from me!" Nathalia approached me.

I stood facing her, looking into her eyes.

"I hate you; I have hated you, and I'll keep hating you. And I am not afraid to say it in front of the world because you deserve to be hated. Even though I am the official princess of this pack, I have always been in the shadow of your beauty. Always compared to how exquisite and glamorous you look, even in rugs, and no matter what jewel I put on or how expensive clothes I wear, I'll never be enough! I can never be you!"

She said in one breath, glaring right into my eyes as she took off her mask. Blinking, I widened my eyes and looked away.

Her disfigured and charred face shook me to my core, tremors shuddering through my soul. A sudden ache rose in my chest, hurting like a gunshot wound.

"Look at me!" Nathalia said, tears trailing down her eyes and scarred face. "You came here today to mock me, right? This dress, these jewels, this makeup, this hair."

She touched my hair and then my dress and then the accessories I had on.

"Everything you have, from your clothes to your beauty, they all belong to me! I should have been the one to marry the demon lords! Me! Not you! You don't deserve all this attention. I do! But now... I can't even show my face to anyone! You've destroyed my life. You stole my life from me!" she snarled at me, grabbing my upper arms in a bruising grip.

Clenching my jaws, I wrenched myself out of her grip.

A swift wind gushed past me, followed by Nathalia's shrill scream that pierced through the roof.

"MOM!"

Meesa widened her eyes. "No, Lia! Let go of her! Mercy, my lord. Mercy! Please!" she said, falling to her knees. "She doesn't know what she is saying. Please forgive her! She is just a kid."

"My wife... was just a kid too," Ezra growled calmly. "Did you show her mercy!?"

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Meesa's voice quivered as tears streamed down her face incessantly.

"I was wrong! I was... wrong!" she gasped between sobs, choking on her desperate words. "Please let... my daughter go! Spare her! It was all my fault! Please! I beg you!"

I turned my head towards Ezra, who had lifted Nathalia in the mid-air, grabbing her by her throat. Nathalia's desperate struggles were futile as her eyes bulged in terror, her gasps for air drowned by Ezra's crushing grip around her windpipe. With a haunting calmness, Ezra had his free hand casually tucked in his pocket.

"I am not the one you should be begging for mercy," Ezra said.

Meesa didn't even think twice before crawling towards me.

"Please Thea, I am sorry. I am sorry, please. It was all my fault. Not theirs. I made them hurt you. I poisoned their minds with hatred for you. I am the one to blame. Kill me!" With a trembling body, she bowed before me, her head touching my feet. "Please spare my daughter! She is innocent! Please, please. I am begging you, please."Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

Knitting my brows, I stepped back from Meesa.

"Just a word, wife, and I'll burn this chapter of your life forever," Ezra said, Nathalia's limbs going limp.

As much as I hated to admit it, if Ezra burnt down these chapters of my life, there wouldn't be much left. Despite being smeared with nothing but pain, I needed these chapters of my life so that I knew exactly how I didn't want my life to turn out from here on.

Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled through the pain stabbing in my chest with every beat.

I roughly scrubbed away my tears.

Squatting before Meesa, I lifted her teary, terrorized, and trembling face from the bow.

"I always had two options. I could become like you people or I could preserve my sanity, my peace, myself. And I always chose the other option. And today, even though I am so tempted to choose what you would have chosen had I been in Nathalia's place, I will still choose to be myself. This is not some mercy I show you, or some forgiveness, because you deserve neither. None of you. But I can't become like you. That's not what my mother has taught me." I rose to my feet and looked at Ezra.

"Let her go, love," I said in a determined voice. "They are my battle. This is my battle and I wish to fight it alone. With all gratitude, you have made me capable enough of doing that."

Ezra opened his grip, and Nathalia's body dropped to the floor.

Slipping and falling, Meesa scrambled to Nathalia, shaking her body until Nathalia's lifeless body reacted with breaking gasps. Nikolai limped to them, hyperventilating, as he looked at me and Nathalia alternatively. Ezra peered at me with an arcane expression on his face. I couldn't tell if he was angry, disappointed, or proud.

"I need some time with them, alone," I said, holding Ezra's gaze.

"Everyone except the Virgo family, leave." Ezra's command resonated deeply in the room.

All the maids and butlers left the dining hall at once, followed by Alpha King.

Ezra strutted to me. He took the napkin from the table and cleaned off the scattered food and wine from my face, neck, and chest.

"I'll be by your side even when you can't see me, angel," he said and in the tightness torturing my chest... flared up a warm flutter. "I'll be right here. Just a call away."

He took a deep breath and smiled at me.

"From the very start, you were bound to fight this battle all by yourself. I was merely a spectator. You already won the moment you decided to fight it alone. I am proud of you." Tears welled in my eyes as I smiled at him.

Cleaning the last bits of food from my dress, he placed the napkin on the edge of the dining table.

Ezra leaned in and kissed my lips. Our tongues entangled as I kissed him back. Parting from the kiss, he nodded reassuringly.

"I'll be right outside the door, waiting to take you home," he said before leaving.

My heart pounded against my ribs as I watched him exit the dining hall. The sound of the door shutting behind him echoed throughout the room.