Diana felt the pain of betrayal more than the stab wound that pierced through her womb as she stared at the person before her with tearful eyes.
"Why?" Diana coughed more blood. "Why did you do this? I... I thought "
"You thought what? That I will forever remain as your shadow? Ha! Tough chance, Luna Diana." A cruel grin curved from the person's red lips as she stared down at the Luna of the Crescent Pack below her. "Everything you have. Everything that you will have. All of them belong to me! Mine and mine alone! I, Anastasia Lerin, am the rightful Luna of this pack and never a pathetic woman like you! Had it not been from your lineage that belongs to the Beta Family, you will never have had the chance to be with Alpha Axel!"
Diana's chest tightened as she gazed up at the woman whom she once treated as her soul sister ever since she could remember. "I trusted you. My family treated you as if you belong to the Beta Family. H-How? How could you betray them like this?"
Anastasia kicked Diana's bleeding stomach once more, ensuring the death of the unborn heir - eliciting a painful gasp from Diana. "Ha! The Ritchell Family of the Beta lineage is nothing but a stepping stone for me, Diana. I never see any of you as family. When the Ritchell Clan became useless for me, what more choice do I have to do?" Anastasia grabbed Diana's short blonde hair. "I had to eliminate them or else they will remain a backing pillar for you. With them now reduced to a mere treacherous family, you will have no one."
Diana's eyes widened. The news of her family being executed right after she was framed for allegedly poisoning the alpha, her husband, was a big blow for her that she had spent three days and three nights mourning for her father and her brother.
A glint of light sparked beneath the hardened hazel eyes of the beaten luna as she stared at the grinning Anastasia. "You! You collaborated with the real culprit." Diana needed not to ask. She already knew after she heard Anastasia's confession.
"Bingo! I did give them an idea or two." The grin painted on Anastasia's beautiful face grew bigger as she hovered over the curled form of the woman who once stood side by side with the man she coveted ever since she learned what the word 'power' meant.
Diana could only clench her fists until her knuckles turned white as her lips trembled from pain and anger. "Axel will not let you go. You killed his heir. That is enough to make your head roll at the pack's square."
There was still hope for Diana, or so she thought. The small curve of the corners of her lips dwindled when she watched Anastasia laughing like a banshee in front of her. The latter hugged her abdomen as she practically cried from laughing her lungs out.
"Hahahaha!" Anastasia's laughter shook the stale air of the pack's prison halls.
Diana's smile vanished, replaced by the pounding of her heart as she watched Anastasia mock her. Not minding the heavy breathing she produced neither the continuous flow of her blood to the chains around her ankles, Diana focused on the whimpering of her wolf at the back of her mind as if her wolf knew something that she did not.
'What is happening?' Diana asked her wolf in the back of her mind, but her beast only answered her with a whimper.
A thread of suspicion bloom in Diana's tightening heart, suffocating her by the mere thought of a certain possibility - more betrayal.
"Sweetheart, you don't have to hide your presence anymore. It's your time to send this bitch off," said Anastasia after laughing. She was now looking at the metal door of the prison cell Diana was in.
On cue, the resounding footsteps drew Diana's attention away from the smirking Anastasia. The moment a familiar scent wracked Diana's sense of smell, her wolf howled at the back of her mind. For Diana, her body went numb as her mind went into static.
Hot tears continued to fall from Diana's unblinking eyes as she watched the silhouette of a man become clearer and clearer as he stood side by side with Anastasia.
One word echoed inside Diana's mind. "Why?" Diana asked the man before her in a whisper. So many questions she wanted to ask but only one word prevailed which represented all her thoughts.
A pair of cold electric blue eyes, which once gleamed with warmth for Diana, glared at her. "Because you never deserve me. I hated the Moon Goddess for giving me someone like you as a mate. I cursed fate for your existence, forcing me away from the one whom I love. So please, Diana. If you truly love me like you always said every night for the past nine years, please die for me."
Anastasia let go of her linked hand from Axel's before she crouched before Diana. With their faces now inches apart from each other, Anastasia grasped Diana's neck tightly until Diana's veins started to protrude around the latter's neck and forehead. "Die, Diana. Your role in this world is done after you give me and Axel the happy ever after we all deserve."
Diana could not even speak when Anastasia's sharp claws pierced right through her chest before the latter took her beating heart away.
With a loud thud, Diana fell to the bloody floor. Her chest was now empty and her womb had seized emitting the faint heartbeat of an innocent child.
With open eyes, until she drew her last breath, Diana's tears continued to fall from them as the shadow of Anastasia and Axel left the dingy prison cell to announce the formation of the second chance bond with the new luna of the Crescent Pack.
The grievances of the former Luna, Diana Ritchell, lingered around the four-corner cell.
Despair. Anger. Sadness. Regret.
Diana's soul lingered instead of being one by nature right after her death. Her grievances chained Diana from being pulled to the natural circle of life.
Instead, Diana's soul, which was tinged with a dark hue of red, flew to the moon. And in the arms of a woman, whose beauty could not be bound with any earthly word. The raven-haired woman cradled the soul in her arms with her glittering lashes cast down.
"Why are you holding a soul, Selene?" A gruff voice spoke behind the woman. He strode towards the unmoving deity before he encircled her waist with his inked arm. Upon taking a closer look at the swirling essence, he frowned. "A vengeful soul? Why is it here? The Demon Lord should have taken it."
The woman shook her head. "Look, Remus. A faint glimmer of light in the center of the blackened soul."
"So? Most of this soul's essence is already corrupted with grievances."
"No. That single glimmer of light means that this soul can still be saved. This poor child only wanted to be loved, but the pain is too much to bear for her."
Remus, God of Time, stared at his wife before he spoke again. "Then I will gift this soul a chance; a single chance to rewrite her cruel destiny. If she still pursues the life given by fate, then she will still become a vengeful soul with no chance for reincarnation."
Selene opened her left palm. On cue, a beaten red string appeared. The red string was worn out with snapped sides as if someone-or something-tore its other half on purpose; it was a red string that belonged to someone whose other half had long died.
"Selene, what are you doing? You know that we cannot do this. It will be against the laws of the Heavens." Remus reached out for Selene's hand but stopped midway upon seeing the tear-stricken silver eyes of his wife.
"I made a mistake when I gave this child a fate that is much crueler than a sinful one. Remus, we may be gods, but we too make mistakes. But unlike the others, we can rectify them. And this is what I am doing." Selene tied the glimmer of light to the beaten red string.
"And you are saving the vengeful soul by tying her second fate to him? Have you forgotten who he is?"
Selene, the Moon Goddess, gave her husband a meaningful smile before she released the vengeful soul. "Sometimes, two broken pieces make a perfect match. I am merely giving the poor child a second choice-a path bound with endless heartaches that will cleanse her soul back. Now, it is up to them to save each other."
Remus could only kiss Selene's forehead, for he also received the second chance that Selene was talking about.
With one wave of his hand, Remus sent the soul back to the realm of the living.
