The Moon Goddess' Chosen

298 Treason

Bree and Ginger were taken aback by the girl’s statement. To them, that had been a moment of realisation that the royal was indeed beneath them...

And who better to prove it than the strongest of all the females their age? Crysta had completely shamed Lina in front of all their peers.

With Liam and Wyatt’s backing, they had put Lina in her place, “Stop lying to yourself, Crysta. You were ecstatic that day. The girl that had always gotten the special treatment just because of the colour of her eyes was getting what she deserved.”

“Enough, Bree. That’s not what was supposed to happen that day. Liam and Wyatt staged all of it. If they had shamed Lina themselves with the risk of me standing up against them, it wouldn’t have gone well and they knew it.

They would have looked like the bad guys. After all, Lina already didn’t like them. So they set me up... No, I was too much of a coward. I hid behind the fact that Lina was not physically strong like the rest of us and I continued to hide my guilt, trying to make myself feel better... That was until someone else showed up and showed... no, reminded me of the power of a royal.”

To herself, the girl thought, ‘Those blue eyes don’t grace anyone by mistake.’

“Katie Sirius is not here anymore. You know...”

“Katie is not the reason I switched sides. Katie was just the one who made me realise I was being a fool. That girl doesn’t even care about the battles we have with each other.

The rankings of royals, betas and deltas... she doesn’t care about any of it. She could talk to about anyone and treat everyone the same. While the royals demand respect, she still shows those weaker than her the same respect if the situation requires it,” Crysta said to them.

.....

“She looked like a brute to me,” Ginger huffed.

“Oh, she definitely is a brute. She will use her fists against the law itself if the situation called for it,” the girl chuckled, “But all that showed me one other thing, she wasn’t the kind of person that could betray Lina.

Even when we thought she could do nothing to Liam and Wyatt, she went ahead and stripped them of their right to succeed their fathers as alphas of their packs. I was already inspired far before she even did that,” the girl continued, “I wanted to fix what I had broken all those years ago. I had to become Lina’s friend again no matter what.”

“What does that make us then?” Bree asked her, this time in a quieter tone.

“That makes you the friends that wouldn’t support me when it mattered,” Crysta replied.

“No way. Lina doesn’t deserve that kind of respect and you know it. She’ll only have us demoted like the others. We can’t trust...”

“Do you even hear what you’re saying, Ginger? What do you even know about Lina Sirius? She’s done nothing to any of us. When we chose to abandon her and she did nothing. We stabbed her in the back and made her life hell every chance we got... But not even once did she even think about revenge. I was honestly jealous of someone with a heart that full,” Crysta chuckled.

“If her heart was really that full, why hasn’t she accepted you back as a friend?” Ginger spat, “Don’t go and start thinking that now that she’s back in the den, she’ll just forget everything you did to her.”

“You have it wrong, Ginger. I will never forget what I have done. Each time I said something against her or raised my hand against her, the moment was engraved into my memory. Each time I looked at her scornfully, I felt worse than any of you had the chance to notice.”

Thinking about the princess, Crysta overlooked her headache subsiding. The horror retreated to the back of her mind, allowing her to think more.

Everything she’d been holding back from her friends was finally coming out. She hadn’t told anyone about why she was doing what she had done. This was the first time she was telling anyone. While the two ‘friends’ she’d kept at her side were not the kind to get sentimental, they had stuck with her for years... That had to count for something, didn’t it?

“So what? It’s not like the past is going to change just because you had a slumber party,” Ginger shrieked, rage pouring out of her voice. Crysta’s eyes shot open for the first time since she’d sat up and her blood went cold.

The ground was made of loose moist loam. The remnants of the scents of rain were rich in the cave they were in. Her eyes easily adjusted to the dim lighting in the cave.

She looked up and came face to face with a raging Ginger. The girl was standing in front of her with her hands crossed over her chest. To her right, Bree was tied up the same way as Crysta was, but had a blindfold over her eyes, “Ginger...” the rest of her words wouldn’t leave her mouth once she had seen her friend staring at her with scorn.

‘H... how did she know about the slumber party?’ the question reverberated through the girl’s mind, rousing the headache that had only recently simmered down.

“You were once the cool one, you know,” the girl said to her, “But now look at you, bowing to someone you’ve scorned for the bigger half of your life. You’re pathetic, do you know that?”

“Ginger, what is the meaning of this?” the girl asked.

“No, you don’t get to say anything, Crysta. You don’t get to judge me. You only get to watch as I kill the precious girl you’ve been working so hard to become friends with.”

“Huh, but she’s a member of the royal family. Why would you do such...”

“Royal my foot, Crysta. You of all people should be able to understand me. You said it yourself all those years ago and for years that followed. She’s an abomination that’s not worthy of her place in the royal family. I’m only doing you a favour,” the girl replied with a sly smile.

The logic itself sounded so far-fetched... as though Ginger was channelling someone else entirely. ‘Is that what I sounded like?’

“Crysta, what’s happening? What are you guys talking about? I lost track of the conversation,” Bree asked from her place on the ground, sounding panicked.

“Relax, Bree. Nothing that concerns you anyway. I’m only trying to get our friend back from that witch’s spell. Yeah, that’s what it must be. The girl compelled you to grovel at her feet, didn’t she?” Ginger smiled as she figured out the reasons for her Crysta’s erratic behaviour.

“No, Ginger. That’s not what happened. Haven’t you been listening to everything I have told you?” Crysta yelled, the strain had her head reeling with another dizzy spell and one hell of a pounding headache.

“Oh, you shouldn’t exert yourself too much. That wolfsbane really hits hard,” Ginger cooed, crouching down next to Crysta’s weakened form.

Cuts were littered all over her forearms, glistening with the familiar purplish toxin. Ginger lifted Crysta’s head by the chin so they would look each other in the eye, “You know, I’ve always envied your green eyes. They are beautiful... You would waste all your power in service to an abomination like that.”

“She’s not an abomination,” Crysta argued through gritted teeth.

“Oh my... Her mind control must really be powerful. Just what limits do the royals have when it comes to compelling others? Perhaps they can even turn your memories completely different to fuel their ambitions.

How did you let that weakling get the jump on you? Oh, don’t answer that. It’s obvious. You’ve been growing soft. After all, how would a rogue be able to get the jump on you that easily?”

Crysta’s eyes opened wide in shock as she heard the girl speak of a rogue, “What rogue?”

“Oh, did you really think I had brought you here all on my own? I had some help,” the girl laughed, whipping her hair back in pride, “Come in... Amanda.”

Just then, a woman walked in from the small sign of daylight up ahead. From what Crysta could tell, they were in a cave that dipped below the ground, completely blocking out the light of day.

“Is there something you would like me to do for you? Anyone else you know that could follow us this far?”

“Oh no... We agreed to come this far so that the only ones that could be able to hear her cries for help were the royals. They will come after her... the fastest will be Lina and she will make it here first. That will be your chance to bring her down,” Ginger laughed out loud as she spoke of her brilliant plan.

“Had you really planned to tell her your entire plan? I thought you wanted to lead her on until the moment I killed her friend,” the woman asked her.

The scariest part wasn’t that the woman was a rogue, however. It was the colour of her eyes. They shone a searing red. Crysta had never heard of a rogue cooperating with a werewolf so comfortably.

The oddity made her question just how dangerous the woman actually was. Crysta tried to remember how she’d been captured, but there was nothing there. Everything went black before she had the chance to acknowledge the intruder... ‘This woman is a professional killer...’

“That was the initial plan, but it proved far more boring than I could have imagined. The thought of having to sit on the ground in chains, lying to her. No, that was no fun. I want her to know it all and watch it happen while she sits by. I want to remind her of who is strong between her and the sorry excuse of a royal she worships,” the girl explained, spilling all her hate into her words.

“Ginger, how long?”

“I have wanted to see that brat dead since the day she sat on the throne in the Den. The nerve on that dead girl for walking in and thinking she could take over everything. Katie didn’t know what grave she was digging and now I have my chance to show her how the werewolf world truly works,” the girl answered with a crazed look on her face.

“You’ve gone insane, Ginger. Teaming up with a rogue of all people. Have you even realised what could happen to you if the royals find out about this?”

“Who’s going to tell them?” the girl said with a look of delusion on her face, “Oh, I heard you say all this stuff about being confident now. That you’re not a coward anymore. I know it was all because that girl compelled you. She must have finally snapped and decided to compel you to...” Just then, the whistling sound of a knife ringing through the air...

a sharp knife from the sound it made, filled Crysta’s ears, followed by the tearing of the fabric.

The girl looked ahead of her to the eyes of the girl that was talking to her. She had stopped talking and now coughed a large amount of blood. Her hands flew to the blade going through her torso before she collapsed on the ground.

“You’re right, Crysta. The royals would not be happy about what this girl has to say,” Amanda said, standing over the body of her friend.

However, what filled Crysta with dread was the colour of her eyes. Instead of the bright red that she’d seen earlier, this woman stared at the wolf at her feet with a bright azure stare.