Alpha's Little Princess Wants Revenge

Elsie's POV

My tears poured out of my eyes relentlessly but I wiped them off as soon as they left their loose cage.

“Then why didn't he tell me about that? How come he willed all his assets to me and left his own daughter with just one house?” I asked, genuinely hurt but curious. Then I saw it. The slip in her perfect composure.

The fresh anger that soared in her eyes before it was quickly replaced with a proud scoff.

“He was not in his right mind when he made that will, Elsie. He did it to make me feel bad about crossing him, he did it to make me apologize but who knew he would fucking die before he made a new one?”

“No? Maybe he just loved an adopted stray more than he ever did his own daughter” I taunted, not knowing where the sudden boldness came from.

“What?!” She exclaimed, a deadly glare crossing her face as a second slap slammed me straight into the cold ground.

“There is no place for you here, Elsie. No matter what you think, no matter what you say. This entire pack? The man you think is still your mate? Are all mine. Just as this pack was always mine, Finn had always been mine as well. Right… from the very beginning, sweetie. Your bond was merely a means to kill two birds with one stone” she muttered, a slow poisonous smile curling up her lips as she trailed a nearly manicured finger through my jawline.

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked, tone hoarse with desperation. She stood her full height, pacing the room in all elegance.

“Finn came here for me. We were lovers for years before you ever met him and we made a vow to perform the chosen mate rituals for compatibility as soon as he arrived. But then he sensed the real mate bond with you! I stopped him from rejecting you and told him to go with the flow. It was all my plan, Elsie. Him meeting you, courting and seducing you when you were hesitant to be claimed… all that was my plan too. When Kiera died, I was elated. I have always wanted to do something to make you learn your place but I eventually didn't need to” she said with a chuckle of amusement like everything she did was something to be proud of.

“Why… why would you do that to me?” I whimpered, my heart twisting hard in my chest like I'm being pathetically stabbed several times more than once. Even my wolf who'd been withdrawn from all the torture from prison recoiled deeper into her depths, never to be heard of again.

“Isn't that so obvious, Elsie? You deserved it after taking everything that belonged to me, right down to the rare attention of my father!” She barked, twisting my hair in a strong grip as she forced me to look into her eyes.

“It’s all your fault, Elsie. Father's death. Kiera's death. This hatred I have for you. Everything is your fault. You deserve to spend more years in that prison paying for killing your own best friend!” She spat, her grip tightening with every spiteful word while I trembled helplessly at her mercy, revelling in everything she'd just said and thinking of how they all pointed at me.

“I… I didn't kill Kiera. I would never hurt my best friend” I defended, voice cracking pitifully, just like they all wanted.

To see me break.

And I did.

Today, I broke. I faced betrayals that made me doubt the reason for my existence in the first place. I faced the bitter truth that no one ever cared for me. Not my mate, and definitely not the people I called family.

When she finally let go of my hair, dusting her hands like I was nothing but a piece of shit, I looked up at Finn with the very last piece of my self worth before asking.

I knew I shouldn't ask. His answers might do more bad than good but I ask anyway.

“Finn… tell me that the three years we spent together wasn't just because Margot wanted you to do it. Tell me you didn't just profess your love and take all I had to offer because you wanted to see me break. Please, tell me that somewhere along the line, you began to develop genuine feelings for me beyond all those scheming lies” I cried, holding onto the last strand of hope even though it was all pointless.

The silence hung thick in the air until he spoke the words that left my heart shattering to the last bits.

“I didn't… I've never had any genuine feelings for you, Elsie. You have always only being a target of my mate's wrath”

For three good years. No… eight. God, I can't believe I wasted five years of my life in prison for an asshole like Finn.

“Mate” I mouthed, holding onto that one word from his confession.

He never saw me as his mate. I was never his mate. Margot was.

“Reject me.” the words came out before I could even rethink it.

“What?!” He exclaimed, like I just said something extremely ridiculous.

“Reject me, Finn Hartley. The bond was only ever a joke anyway. Why don't you reject me now and get it over with?”