AURORA'S POV

I was dead.

A sharp buzz drew my attention and my eyes landed on my discarded phone by the side of my body.

The screen lighted up and a message came in with my brother's name on it.

It read:

“You selfish brat. You can’t even show up to your own sister's wedding? Is it really that hard for you to be happy for her?

There are countless men out there that you can always go for. Why spoil your relationship with your sister over one man? You always ruin everything in the family, you bitch.”

A bitter laugh formed in the back of my mind. How ironic that, even in death, I couldn’t escape their scorn. I wish I could see Jackson now and tell him to his face that Clara was not my sister, and would never be anymore.

To them, she was the perfect little sister and daughter. But to me, she was my enemy, the girl who had made life hell for me, the girl that had stolen my mate as hers. She and my mother had made up lies against me and taken away my mate, the person I was supposed to spend the end of my life with.

I remembered the day I first introduced Alpha Brent to my family. I had been so happy back then, so sure that we were fated for one another. Brent was everything I’d ever dreamed of—strong, confident, and, for a time, mine. He was the man that I thought would save me from the hell I was living in, the one who would take me to my happily ever after.

But then Clara came into the picture. My perfect sister. My mother’s pride, even though she wasn't Clara's real mother.

My mother had only married her father, Alex, when my dad died but despite this, she always picked Clara over me.

“You have to leave Brent for me, Aurora,” she had said to me one evening. “I want him. Someone like you doesn't deserve him.”

“No!” I had spat at her with great fury. “How dare you say something like that to me?! He is my mate and I would never leave him for you! Never!”

I knew she had expected me to yield to her request like I always did but not now. Not with the man I loved. I had always been forced to submit to her request by my mother who would punish me severely if I didn't, but this time was different. I was standing my ground. Brent was mine.

Clara's face colored in fury. “I warned you now, Aurora. You won't like what will happen next. Brent will be mine, whether you like it or not.”

I had ignored her words, believing them to be idle threats but I was wrong. She and my mother plotted against me and told Brent lies about me.

“You could do better than Aurora,” I’d overheard my mom and Clara speaking to Brent in the garden, their voices hushed.

They had told lies against me and succeeded in taking Brent away from me. Later, I had tried to convince my mate that all of their words wasn't true but he didn't believe me.

“So you want to tell me that your mother is a liar, uh, Aurora?!” He had said, his eyes cold and detached. “Why would they lie against you when they have nothing to gain?!”

They had told him that I was a bully who always picked on Clara and other weak wolves around me. They also said I used to be a sex slave of top ranked warriors and had carried out abortions severally.

“Please, Brent, you have to believe me. I swear to you that I've never done any of those things they said!” I wept. “You know me more than this. You have to believe me!”

“Are you calling your sister and your mother a liar?!”

“Listen, Brent, I—”

“Even your brother confirmed it, Aurora, so you can cut it out and stop pretending!”

“But I'm not lying!” I screamed, desperately hoping and wishing that he could see past the lies, desperately hoping that there was a part of him that would believe me. “I'm telling the truth, Brent. I'm innocent,” I said, tears gushing out of my eyes.

“No,” He said, shaking his head. “I can't do this anymore. It's over between us.”

“Brent, no!”

But he had refused.

The betrayal still stung as I remembered the moment Brent broke the mate bond. I had begged, pleaded with him to see the truth, but the lies had wrapped around his heart like a noose, choking any affection he had left for me.

“It’s over, Adeline,” he’d said, his eyes cold, no trace of the man I had once loved. “I’m rejecting you.”

I had fought back tears, refusing to accept it. How could he throw away everything we had because of her? Because of Clara, who would never love him like I did?

“Brent, pl—”

“Get out of my house now, Aurora!” He had roar at me, pushing me out and ignoring the fact that it was snowing heavily and I had no jacket with me.

That was the last straw.

“You know what, Brent? You can have her. If you can be easily swayed by people's opinion about me then I don't want you either. I wish you both the best of luck.”

I immediately saw confusion marring his face. “Wait, did th—”

But I didn't wait to hear the rest of his questions as I turned away from him and made my way home.

Now, standing over my own body, the sting of betrayal was like a dull distant ache. There was nothing I could do about it anymore.

They hadn't cared about me when I was alive. They wouldn't care about me now.

AURORA'S POV

Suddenly, my soul floated into the air and flurried away. Before I knew it, I found myself in the venue of Clara and Brent's wedding.

The atmosphere was filled with joy and celebration — a celebration that I would never be a part of.

I continued flowing through the air and soon found myself in one of the hotel rooms.

Inside, I found my mom and Clara. Clara was having her make-up and her hair done. Beside her, my mother stood, cooing over her.

“Oh, aren't you the prettiest bride anyone has ever seen? You are just perfect, my darling girl.”

Clara smiled up at her. “Thank you, mother.”

I watched her hesitate before she began speaking again, “Mother, do you think Aurora will still come to the wedding?”

I'm right here, you bitch, I screamed into the air, furious that I couldn't be heard by them.

She continued speaking, “I don't know why she would refuse to attend or why she would do this to me. It wasn't my fault that Brent chose her over me at the end.”

“Hush, now, baby,” admonished my mother, “Don't you dare think about that good for nothing selfish thing. It's her bad luck that made Brent abandon her. Besides, you're prettier and smarter than she is.”

“But I want her to be here. She's my sister, afterall, and she's supposed to be by my side as a bridesmaid.”

“I have to be truthful with you, Clara, ” said my mother. “I called her several times and made her promise me she would be here, but you know how Aurora is, she is always so stubborn. Jackson even sent her a text message but he got no reply. It's better if we forget about her.”

The door opened and Jackson came in.

“Oh, Jackson, have you seen Aurora?” Clara wailed to him, and immediately, a cold look descended on my brother's face.

“You shouldn't taint your big day with her filthy name, Clara. She doesn't care for this family. You should forget about her and focus on your new life with your husband.”

“Exactly what I've told her,” chipped in my mother. “Now come on and let's go. The people are waiting for you.”

I watched the grand hall from the back, unseen and unnoticed, just as I had been in life. Clara beamed, her white gown glittering under the chandeliers, and Brent looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. People clapped, cheered, and celebrated, but I couldn’t feel a thing. No joy. No sorrow. Just emptiness.

I hovered near my mother, Melissa. She sat with my stepfather, Alex, and my brother, Jackson, at the head table. All smiles, all praise for Clara. “She’s so beautiful, isn’t she?” my mother gushed to the guests around her. “My perfect daughter. I’m so proud of her.”

They all nodded with smiles, agreeing.

Some pack members asked about me. The question pierced through the noise like a sharp blade.

“Where’s your other daughter? Isn’t Aurora attending?”

My mother’s expression didn’t change, but I could see the subtle shift in her eyes, the way she twisted the truth like she always did. “Aurora... refused to come,” she sighed, shaking her head dramatically. “Jealousy, I suppose. Always been so greedy, never satisfied with what she has. No matter how hard I tried to make her see reason, she just wouldn’t.”

The guest, some pack member I didn’t recognize, tutted in sympathy. “Such a shame. What sort of person would do that to her own sister on her wedding day?”

Others joined in, their voices blending into a chorus of disapproval.

“Ungrateful.”

“Selfish.”

“After everything you’ve done for her. She really needs to be disciplined, or else she'll think she can do whatever she pleases and get away with it.”

My mother soaked it all in, nodding along as if she were the perfect mother, burdened by such a terrible daughter.

It was always like this. Ever since I could remember, my mother painted me as the problem, the disappointment. She turned the entire pack against me with her lies, making them believe I was the ungrateful one, the bad seed.

But I wasn’t born bad. I remembered how things were before, when my father was alive. He loved me. He loved all of us, really. When he was around, the house was full of warmth, and my mother... well, she was different then, or maybe she just hid it better.

But everything changed after he died.

I could still see it, clear as day, the fire that took him from us. I was nine. Jackson and I had been playing in the living room. We were kids, messing around, and Jackson accidentally knocked over a candle. At first, it was just a small flame, something that could’ve been easily put out. But panic set in, and before we knew it, the fire spread.

Dad rushed in, trying to save us, to save the house. But the flames were too much. He died from the burns sustained in the fire.

Melissa, my mother, blamed me. “If you hadn’t been playing, if you hadn’t distracted Jackson, this wouldn’t have happened,” she spat at me, the words searing into my heart like the fire itself. Not only that, she made sure she told the pack members that I was the cause of the fire, the one that had killed their beloved Alpha, further cementing their hatred for me.

I was the evil child that had started the fire — the evil child that had killed her own father.

One day, I had caught her crying after my father's death. Like a good daughter, I had rushed to hug her but she had shoved me away so hard that I had slammed my head against a table, almost passing out. Even with that, she still beat me with a belt, calling me the badluck of the family who had kill her father and now her husband.

I shut the memory away and watched the wedding, the smiles and the laughter. Clara had it all now. She was the golden child, the one who could do no wrong in Melissa’s eyes. I was just a ghost, a shadow of the past, forgotten by everyone except for the lies they told about me.

It hurt, even now, in this strange, detached state. I thought spirits weren’t supposed to feel pain, but every word against me stung like a fresh wound. My mother could lie to them, could make them believe whatever she wanted, but I knew the truth. I had lived it. I had suffered it.

I wasn’t the villain of this story, but in their eyes, I always would be.

My mother raised her glass, a toast to the happy couple. “To my daughter Clara,” she said, her voice ringing out clear and sweet. “May she have all the happiness she deserves.”

They cheered, clinking glasses.

AURORA'S POV

I watched as the car pulled out of the driveway, leaving the wedding venue behind. The decorations were still hanging in the fading light, the echoes of laughter and congratulations disappearing into the quiet evening. My sister, Clara, was married now—happy, surrounded by family. Everyone was there except for me.

Sitting in the back seat of the car, Clara glanced out the window, her eyes a little distant. She looked at Brent and Melissa, and I could almost hear her thoughts.

“I wish Aurora could've been there,” she said softly.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small necklace, holding it up for everyone to see. "I even picked out a gift for her."

The necklace was cheap—tarnished silver with a faded pendant. I recognized it immediately. It was Brent’s sister's old necklace, the one he’d found under his bed the day before the wedding. He had shown it to Clara, and she thought it would be a nice gesture to give it to me.

A laugh almost escaped me. That necklace had nothing to do with me, and yet it was what she had thought would make up for everything.

Brent just took her hand and squeezed it, not saying a word.

My mom on the other hand, scoffed from the front seat. "Oh, Clara, don't start crying over that ungrateful, selfish girl."

Jackson, who was driving, chimed in. "She's right. Aurora doesn't care about this family. She didn't even bother to show up for her own sister’s wedding. Why should we waste our energy on her?"

Alex, my stepfather, gave a slow nod. “It’s not like Clara did anything wrong. It’s not her fault Brent fell out of love with Aurora.”

I clenched my fists as I listened.

Alex ’s words stung the most. He was always his daughter's defender, making excuses for her behavior. It wasn’t Clara’s fault, he said. As if that excused anything. As if it was easy to forget how Clara had always taken what wasn’t hers, how she had always found a way to blame me.

"Why does Aurora always have to ruin everything?" Jackson muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

Mom sighed dramatically, leaning back in her seat. "I don’t know where I went wrong with that girl. I raised her well, gave her everything she needed, but she just—she just doesn’t care." Alex put his arm around her, pulling her close as if to comfort her.

"You tried your best, Melissa," he said. "You can’t blame yourself for the way Aurora turned out."

I pushed down the urge to keep from screaming because I knew it wouldn't do anything.

I wanted to yell at them, to remind them all the times I’d been blamed for things I didn’t do.

Like the time Clara had knocked over a vase when we were kids. It had shattered into a hundred pieces, but it was me who got the punishment, even though my mom had clearly seen Clara push down the vase.

“Don't feel bad, Clara,” she had said to the girl. “It was Aurora's fault for not moving out of the way for you.”

After that, Clara knew she could do anything and pin it on me.

Clara spoke again, breaking the silence in the car. “Maybe we should try calling her one more time.”

Jackson’s knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. “She’s not going to answer, Clara. Let’s just leave her alone. If she wants to disappear, let her. For all I care, she can go and die.”

I didn’t flinch at his words. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard something like that from Jackson. He’d always been quick to say the harshest things. They all had, in their own way.

As they continued down the road, I wondered how things could have been different. I had thought about leaving, about cutting all ties with this family that had never truly been mine. I had almost done it, had almost gotten my house, before I was murdered.

I had continued living with them even when opportunities came for me to leave because I thought they would change and see me for who I was.

But I had been wrong, and now, it was way too late.

When Clara and Brent returned from their honeymoon, I watched them enter Melissa's house. The smell of food filled the air—a feast prepared in celebration. They sat down at the table, talking and laughing as if nothing had happened. As if I didn’t exist.

Clara smiled as she took a bite of shrimp. “I wish Aurora were here. Shrimp was always her favorite.”

I almost laughed.

Shrimp? I hated shrimp.

Jackson knew that better than anyone. He used to force his portion onto my plate when we were kids because he hated it, too. If I didn't do as he said, it meant trouble.

But Clara, like always, was living in her own world—believing her version of things was the truth.

Mom opened her mouth to say something, probably another complaint about me, but her phone rang, cutting her off. She glanced at the screen, her expression shifting from annoyance to concern.

She answered. “Hello, who's this?”

The voice from the other end of the phone began speaking and Mom listened attentively. Then she suddenly blurted,

“What?! A body?!”