Elsie's POV

It wasn't a journey filled with a bed of roses, but I got home eventually. Barely anyone recognized me, their once beloved princess, adored for many years. All they saw was a battered, unkempt looking stray who escaped prison by chance.

My shoes were worn out, my feet had scraped the stone-filled road tirelessly until they almost felt numb. The sole of my feet burned, every joint in my body ached, my entire legs burned but I barely felt any of it.

I was going to see my mate after so long, and even if I felt mad at him, I couldn't wait to rush into his wide open arms and find the solace I've been deprived of for too long. That was all that mattered right now. Later, I would sulk about the pain and Finn would take care of me… or at least that was what I told myself until the conversation between the guards and I.

There were new faces… ones I knew nothing about, and they wouldn't let me in, so I asked for a familiar face. My late father's most trusted guard, Midas. He came immediately, but not just as a random guard. He had become the head guard, one of the generals. I felt relieved to my bones but it only lasted for a millisecond until I saw the slight look of displeasure when his eyes met mine.

“Princess Elsie…” he trailed off.

He had stopped calling me Elsie the moment my father died— He always called me Luna but right now…

It doesn't matter anyway. Princess or Luna. I'm right here, back home to my mate.

“It has been a long time, Midas. You look… good and well” I muttered amidst the discomfort that raked through my entire body.

He smiled awkwardly… the smile not even reaching his lashes. “It has.” He added, tone almost dismissive… or was it just me?

“The guards won't let me in, probably because they don't know me. But I know you would, so I called for you” I explained and he sighed, almost like my presence alone was a thorn in his side.

“I wouldn't” his response came. Sharp. Unrestrained.

“What?!” I exclaimed, feeling utterly confused and betrayed at his response.

“You don't really mean you're going to keep me locked out of my own house, do you?” I asked, hoping he laughed it off and say ‘Of course not, I was just pulling your legs’

“No one is allowed into the pack house without the Alpha's permission” he added and I scoffed, a full blown laugh almost erupting from my lips but I held back.

“I am no stranger in this palace, Midas. This is my house, this is where I grew up with the man that brought you into this palace! Is five years really enough to forget all that?” I half yelled, deeply sad that even after five years of extreme tribulation, things still aren't working in my favor the one day I needed them to work desperately.

I saw guilt flash in his eyes for a millisecond before he faced me again and repeated “I cannot let you in. It's the Alpha's order”

“That you should lock his mate out?” I pressed, confused about the entire scenario unfolding in front of me.

“Everyone… including you” he affirmed and my stomach sank but I held onto the sliver of hope.

He probably forgot that he bailed me out before giving such orders to keep strangers away… my theory didn't make sense to me but I still held onto it anyway. Finn wouldn't give a direct order to keep his mate out of the palace, out of her own home. Midas took his order the wrong way. I kept telling myself even though doubt crept onto the surface.

My defiant gaze flickered between the new guards as Midas turned to leave. I silently calculated my escape with the distance Midas would have gone if I were to execute my plan. I could outsmart these ones quite easily but it wouldn't be so easy with Midas lurking around. Especially not without my wolf.

He had always known my tricks of getting what I wanted even before I executed them in the past. Once he reached a safe distance, I took a long escape route, diverting the guards attention to blocking the path and once I succeeded in stealing their attention, I bolted back to the original path I had in mind.

With sore shaky feet and burning throat, I raced through the steps till I missed the guards. They might be stronger… but no one knew the palace and its walls as much as I do. No one except Margot, my sister.

Smiling at the small victory, I wandered through every entrance, my smile faltering with every artwork I saw on the walls of the palace.

They had been replaced.

My father's favorite paintings, which were also my favorite, had been replaced by Margot's terrible taste in artwork.

I felt a lump grow in my chest at the indescribable feeling of betrayal at the little change in all the artworks. However, my hope remained, unwavering, but it only lasted until I incessantly walked in on Finn and Margot in an extremely compromising position with Finn’s hand invisibly deep in Margot's skirt as she grind her hips against him sensually, her legs parting easily for his wandering hands.

I blinked back hot tears, my heart clogging with a pang of pain that threatened to consume me.

That was it?

The reason why Finn never showed up for five years?

The thought of Margot being the reason my mate hadn't come to see me pushed bile to my throat, forcing the hard restrained tears out of my eyes.

“Finn…” I trailed off, my voice a broken whisper. One that was clear enough to have his wide eyes rounding on me.

Elsie's POV

Margot turned to face me too. Her gaze filled with shock, in a bad way and then zero amusement. She simply kept grinding on my mate's obvious hard-on, her glare fixed on me without the tiniest hint of remorse.

This… this was my sister. The one person I thought I could trust right after my mate. But the two were right in front of me, in the middle of a growing passionate make out.

They looked shocked to see me… too shocked. If I hadn't known better, I'd think Finn had nothing to do with my bail.

I watch his eyes slowly dim with lust as Margot angled her hips on him, her ass grazing his erection, hard. But with a tiny decency he had compared to Margot, he stopped her with his hand on her hips, urging her to stand up as he stood to face me.

“Why are you here, Elsie? Did you break out of prison?” His question threw me off guard and I badly wanted to ask if he had forgotten bailing me out but I wasn't that dumb.

He obviously hadn't done the bailing if he's asking me this ridiculous question.

“You don't seem very happy, Finn. Your mate escaped the prison she tolerated for you, but you seem rather agitated, annoyed even. You look like you'd have loved to see me rot in that hell” I muttered, my eyes heavy with unshed tears as I anticipated his response.

There was hesitation, long enough to give me the silent answer to my question even before he replied. “Don't be so dramatic, Elsie” he muttered sternly, his agitation filling the air like the slash of a whip to my gut.

Elsie…

Finn had rarely called me that. For the three years that we dated, he would call me babe, or his Luna but right now, the man I thought I knew was gone.

In front of me stood a lying, cheating scumbag that I wish nothing but a relentless torture for the rest of his pathetic life.

“It doesn't matter if you're happy or not about my return, Finn. What matters is I'm back and I'll take back everything that's mine” I muttered with strangled confidence, wiping my tears with the back of my hand but his mocking laugh filled the air.

“You sound just like the princess I met eight years ago but too bad, it's too late to play that card. You're nothing but an ex-convict right now. No one would accept an ex-convict as Luna, Elsie. Don't delude yourself” Finn muttered cautiously, his words bashing what I thought was left of my self worth.

“You don't get to be the judge of that!” I told him with all the calmness I could muster and that was Margot's cue to speak.

“Just save yourself the disgrace, Elsie. You don't have a place here. Not in this palace and definitely not in this Pack. But if you leave now, we might consider letting you stay in the Pack.” Margot muttered dismissively, her sharp glare holding a weight of hatred my heart couldn't bear.

She wasn't the sister I knew for the past twenty five years of my existence. This is the real Margot. And I failed to see this side of her for so long. I failed to see this side of her that hated my very existence. Masking my hurt with a defiant glare, I spoke again.

“This is my home, Margot. My father made me the rightful successor to his throne! You have no rights to tell me to leave” I retorted sharply, heart racing with perspiration.

“You're not the successor of MY father's throne, Elsie. You're just a stray my father took in many years ago. A stray that refused to know her place. A stray that dug her greedy claws deep into my father's eyes and refused to let him see who truly deserved his throne!” Margot said calmly, choosing her every word with utter arrogance of a queen bee.

The next minute, a documented file was thrown in my face. Instinctively, I caught it before it hit the ground.

“What is this?” I asked with a lump in my throat.

They both ignored my question and I proceeded to pull out the papers. On the papers was a legal report that I wasn't related to the man I called Father literally all my life.

“This isn't true. Alpha Parker is my father. And I'm his daughter. You fabricated this just to spite me. It can't be true… it can't be…” I muttered shakily, my defiance cracking with each word I muttered in my defense.

“You're doing this just because you hate me, Margot!” I yelled again, tears stinging my eyes as I squeezed the papers and threw them to the ground.

My head whipped to the side as a loud smack resounded in the air. Margot… just slapped me. And it fucking stung. My body wasn't prepared for the hit that it nearly pummeled me to the ground.

“Yes, I hate you, Elsie. God, I hate you with every fiber of my soul but I'm not desperate enough to have you evicted with some DNA test. You. Were. Never. A. Member. Of. This. Family! You were never my father's daughter and you will never be, Elsie. The faster you get that registered into your skull the better.

No… that can't be possible. Father would never do that to me. He would never have left me in the dark about my roots. He was always so good to me… like I was his own flesh and blood. This just doesn't make any sense.

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?”