Beauty and the Cursed Troll

Adrianna’s welcome party is a hell disguised as a paradise.

“Thank you for coming here, Farrah.” As Heather smiled and thanked me, I couldn’t find that trace of wicked laugh or cruel sentiments towards me yesterday. Nothing. It just disappeared, or perhaps it all retreated behind this mask he’s currently wearing. “Thank you for changing your mind,” he added.

“Well, I guess no is not an acceptable answer,” I jokingly said, but in reality, it really felt like it: I’ve got no choice but to attend.

Perhaps this is my punishment for running away from an almost dying pack and leaving all of it behind to my older brother Jacob. I don’t even know if he’s the Alpha now or if the Dark Moon Pack has been dissolved to be one with the Black Sun Pack.

“Smile, babe.” Alpha Heather’s purr tickled my ears. His hand rested on my back, just above my ass as we entered the hotel Adrianna had prepared for us.

His touch, that used to be affectionate and romantic, felt like a touch of malice and ruin.

It bore deep in my soul, burning my eyes. But I stopped the tears.

“Do I really need to, Heather?” I whispered, my glazed eyes peering up at him. “These are your friends. I don’t know any of them.”

He scoffed. “You don’t need to know them to smile at them.”

Right. He’d already exposed himself now. How he now treats me like a pawn and a doll.

He kissed my cheek as soon as we both saw Adrianna across the room.

Her red dress is like a beacon of war, though her flushed cheeks made the scowl on my face deeper. Heather nudged my elbow softly and I dropped it in a heartbeat. A wry grin replaced it instead.

“Hi, handsome,” Adrianna purred like a cat in-heat.

“Hello, beautiful,” Heather replied.

I don’t know how to react to their casual flirting. But all I know, I need a desperate moment alone. “Excuse me.”

I didn’t wait for their response to walk away.

***

I just finished fixing myself when the restroom’s door pried open.

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal Alpha’s daughter…” Adrianna sliced the silence with her sweet, high-pitched voice that clearly sounds like coming from a rotten soul.

Adrianna is just another rotten soul, I guess.

“At least I’m not the fiancee who broke up with her fiance, only to return seven years later and flirt back with her ex-fiance.”

Adrianna squinted her eyes. Well, at least I won this fucking round.

“I heard your brother had a hard time with the Black Sun Pack until now.” She clicked her tongue before she sipped from her champagne glass. “How selfish of you to just leave him all alone like that.”

My lips curled into a sneer. “How did you know about Jacob?”

“All of the packs knew about his fate,” was all she said.

I shook my head. She’s lying. If all the packs knew, then how come the Blue Star Pack doesn’t?

Alpha Heather doesn’t really know what happened to him. Or perhaps he’s lying with that information too?

“Both of you are liars,” I bared my teeth at her. “You and Heather.”

“That isn’t a nice thing to say to your boyfriend.” She tilted her head. “Wait, you’re his fiancee already aren’t you?”

I pressed my back against the wall, willing myself not to cry. “At least I won’t leave him for seven years, only to come back after.”

I regretted telling Alpha Heather everything. I regretted pouring all my emotions out to him: my regret of leaving Jacob, my father’s punches and beatings that still haunted me, and the memory of leaving the Dark Moon Pack in flames.

Everything I laid before my Alpha, he sharpened it into a weapon to use against me.

She cleared her throat, and that drifted me back to the present. “Whatever you say, sweetheart, I don’t care. Your time is up. I’m taking him back.” When I didn’t reply, she pressed on. “He had always been mine. From the beginning, his heart only sings my name. You were nothing but a whore whose final shift had been delayed for seven years.”

Whore? Now I’m the whore?

“Perhaps you forgot, Adrianna. You’re not the only Alpha’s daughter in the room. And clearly not the only whore too.”

The rotten of my soul stared at this demoness’ eyes. And for once, I imagined Adrianna as my father as the Black Sun Pack beheaded her. Beheaded him.

Or perhaps I don’t need others to exact my vengeance like what I did to my father. Perhaps I can kill Adrianna myself.

But even with my taunting, her red-painted lips curved into a snake’s smile. “We fucked on your bed, darling. Why do you think he came home past midnight last night?” she gripped my chin, her dainty fingers felt heavy. “The fear of you getting us caught made it so much hotter, you know.”

I swallowed, because I know—I can feel that Adrianna is that type of woman who’s more proud that she snatched away another boyfriend.