Beauty and the Cursed Troll

Seven years of love with Alpha Heather misted away like the smoke of a dying fire.

I stood outside their private room, the one where he and his friends are catching up. Apparently, it wasn’t just a simple catch up. When it was supposed to be me to surprise him that I managed to finish early at my job at the pack’s hospital, it was me who was surprised instead.

“Isn’t Farrah a burden to you? You’ve kept her far longer than a rebound girl should be.” I knew that voice. It was Beta Samson’s voice, the son of the richest Beta in the pack and a close friend of Heather.

I don’t like him that much. I never know why. Now...I know why.

I stepped in closer to the door. I learned eavesdropping ever since I was young. Being an Alpha’s only daughter compels you to learn that particular skill.

“Adrianna just returned here since her father finally allows her to leave their pack to reunite with you,” Samson clicked his tongue. “Don’t tell us you’re going to let that opportunity go to waste?!”

“What do you think Jacob will do to you, Alpha? Once he finds out.”

Jacob. My brother’s name pierced through my already betrayed heart.

Heather claimed they’re bestfriends. Well, Jacob once mentioned Heather when we were young so I know he’s not lying.

But of all the things I’ve heard, of all the lies, I think that is the only truth he told me.

Heather laughed at Samson’s question, a laugh that’s between nervous and serious. “If he ever finds out his sister is my rebound girl, he’ll kill me.”

Silence. And then, “Will you allow him?” Beta Samson pushed.

“I won’t let him know,” my boyfriend chuckled. “Farrah is...something to me. But not as something like what was between us and Adrianna.”

I swallowed that emotion, those tears, that threatened to escape from my rotten soul. Perhaps Jacob was right: the moment I left the Dark Moon Pack and let the Black Sun Pack just attack us in the midst of the night even when I knew they would attack already made my soul rotten. Even when I regretted leaving my brother and pack in flames and chaos, I know it wouldn’t make my rotten soul any less than what it already is.

“Farrah made it easy to fool her with her pack and family problems,” Heather’s words brought me back to my present dilemma. Cruel delight lacing his tone.

I never thought, not even for once, that Heather is a two-timing, pathological liar. And an absolute bastard.

Yeah, I was fooled. But that fooling ends now.

As I turned around, as I walked away, I left behind Alpha Heather and his friends—along with his seven years of love built from lies.

***

I woke up drenched in my sweat and tears. I don’t know which is which anymore.

As soon as I left that place where Alpha Heather and his friends met, I rushed straight into the packhouse he and I shared.

Perhaps if I doze myself to sleep, this will all be over. All of my problems will turn out to be just a fragment of my wild imagination.

But deep down, my rotten soul knew it wasn’t.

The darkness of my room, along with the moonless night, utterly matched the hollowness in my chest. I don’t think I even hear my heart beating. Maybe it only beats for Heather.

Every happy memory, every passionate kiss, every sweet promise Alpha Heather had made played through my mind like a cruel reminder of what I’ve been doing all these years compared to what—who—I left behind in the Dark Moon Pack.

I’m not even sure if Jacob is still alive.

“Farrah?” Then there was Heather’s voice again, the ever-loving and ever-gentle Alpha boyfriend. The one I’ve fallen for and had long been trapped in.

“How’s your dinner with friends?” I casually asked as if my heart hadn't been torn apart hours ago.

“Oh, it was the finest dinner I’ve ever had! Even better than the drinking sessions I had with Beta Samson!” His chuckle somehow brought my slumbering blood flowing again.

We’ve been quiet for a time as he undressed and changed to his night pajamas. When he crawled beside me and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead, he spoke. “We’ve been invited to a welcome party by Adrianna tomorrow.”

I blinked. Adrianna.

Her name burned through my soul even with the rottenness it became.

“Your...old friend?”

He cleared his throat. “Yes, she's been an old friend since childhood. All of my friends will be there too, the ones I just dined with.”

“Oh.” It was all my reaction, as if I'd anticipated this.

Like how I anticipated the attack of the Black Sun Pack but still kept my mouth shut and sent the Dark Moon Pack straight to death’s gate.

But I know Jacob. It takes a lot more than the Black Sun Pack to kill him.

It takes more than Heather’s betrayal and this certain Adrianna’s sudden appearance to break my heart.

“You’ll be coming right?” He suddenly asked.

I sat properly and faced him. “No, I don’t think I will. And I don’t have the heart to.”