Chapter 3: The Better Sister
FIA
The silence stretched like a taut wire ready to snap. Every face in the hall turned toward , their expressions shifting from celebration to confusion to sothing darker. I stood there with my face exposed, the wedding veil crumpled in Cian’s hands, feeling like a deer caught in headlights.
"You are not my bride."
Those five words hit
like a physical blow. Cian’s voice carried across the entire hall, cold and sharp as a blade. His eyes, which had been warm monts before, now looked at
like I was sothing dirty he’d found on the bottom of his shoe.
Then the voices started.
"Wait, that’s Fia, isn’t it?"
"Where’s Hazel? What happened to Hazel?"
"Is this so kind of joke?"
"What the hell is going on here?"
The whispers grew louder, multiplying and spreading through the crowd like wildfire. I heard my na repeated over and over, each ti sounding more accusatory than the last.
Cian stepped closer to , his presence suddenly threatening instead of comforting. The mate bond I’d felt forming between us twisted into sothing painful, like a rope being pulled too tight.
"Again, I ask, what is this deception?" he demanded, loud enough for everyone to hear.
I opened my mouth but no words ca out. My throat felt like sandpaper. What could I possibly say? That my sister ran away with my fated mate and left
to clean up the ss? That this whole thing was my stepmother’s idea? That I was trying to save our pack from destruction?
"Answer !" Cian’s voice bood through the hall. "Is this a declaration of war against my pack?"
War. The word hit
like ice water. I looked frantically around the open space and saw the Skollrend wolves rising from their seats, their faces dark with anger. So had their hands on their weapons. This was exactly what I’d been trying to prevent, and sohow I’d made it worse.
"I... I can explain..." I stamred.
"You will explain." Cian’s eyes blazed with fury. "Where is my actual bride? Where is Hazel?"
Before I could answer, my stepmother pushed through the crowd. Isobel’s face was white as bone, her eyes wild with what looked like genuine shock and horror. She walked straight up to
and slapped
across the face so hard my ears rang.
The sound echoed through the silent hall like a gunshot.
"What the fuck, Fia?" she scread. "What is going on? Where is your sister?"
I stared at her in complete bewildernt. My cheek burned from the slap, and my head spun from the force of it. This was the sa woman who had dressed
in this gown. The sa woman who had told
to save our pack.
"Mother, what is going on?" I said, my voice barely a whisper.
She slapped
again, even harder this ti. Stars burst across my vision.
"You have always been like this but this is too far!" Isobel shrieked. Her voice carried a hysteria that made my blood run cold. "I will only ask this once. Where is Hazel?"
The world tilted on its axis. She was acting like she had no idea what was happening. Like she hadn’t been the one to co up with this plan in the first place.
"Mother, you’re scaring ," I said, my voice shaking. "Did Hazel not run away and this is why I had to..."
I couldn’t finish the sentence. The words died in my throat when I saw the look on her face. Pure, convincing confusion mixed with rage.
She raised her hand to slap
again, but suddenly Cian’s fingers wrapped around her wrist, stopping her mid-swing.
"You had no idea," he said slowly, his eyes fixed on Isobel’s face, "that the girl you walked here with was not your daughter Hazel?"
Isobel dropped to her knees like her strings had been cut. Tears stread down her face as she looked up at Cian with desperate pleading eyes.
"I apologize, Alpha Cian," she sobbed. "This is a happy day for . My daughter is marrying into a pack with honor and valor like yours. I had no idea when and how this happened."
My mouth fell open. She was lying. She was lying to his face and making it sound so believable that even I started to doubt my own mory.
"After you ca to the anteroom, and I made up my daughter, it was still Hazel in that room," Isobel continued, her voice breaking with emotion. "I just stepped out for maybe a minute because of sothing important we missed, and when I got back, she was veiled and ready to go. I had no idea that Fia here, in jealousy of her sister, had made the most insulting move to you of all."
Jealousy. She was saying I’d done this out of jealousy.
"Spare our pack," Isobel begged, still on her knees. "We had nothing to do with this girl’s madness."
Cian studied her face for a long mont. When he spoke, his voice was deadly quiet.
"The thing is, I don’t believe you."
Isobel’s face crumpled. "Alpha, please..."
That’s when the door burst open.
Hazel stumbled into the hall, and I gasped at the sight of her. Her face was bruised, with a dark purple mark spreading across her left cheek. Her lip was split and bleeding. Her dress was torn at the sleeve, and she walked like she was in pain.
"My mother is not lying," Hazel said, her voice carrying clearly through the silent hall.
Every head turned toward her. She looked like she’d been in a fight and lost badly.
"Fia ca into my room," Hazel continued, limping forward. "She violently attacked
and attempted to take my place."
The words hit
like a sledgehamr to the chest. I stared at my half-sister in complete shock, trying to process what she was saying.
"That’s not..." I started, but my voice ca out as barely a whisper.
"She knocked
unconscious," Hazel said, touching her bruised face gingerly. "When I woke up, I was locked in the storage closet. I’ve been trying to get out for the past thirty minutes."
The hall erupted in angry voices. People were shouting, so calling for my blood, others demanding answers. The sound crashed over
like a wave, but I couldn’t focus on any individual words. Everything blurred together into a roar of accusation and rage.
My head spun like I was on a carousel going too fast. Nothing made sense anymore. I rembered Milo calling
and rejecting our mate bond. I rembered the letter in Hazel’s handwriting. I rembered Isobel putting the wedding dress on
and telling
to save the pack.
But looking at Hazel now, bruised and beaten, and hearing her story, I started to doubt everything I thought I knew.
Had I attacked her? Had I sohow blocked out doing sothing so horrible? The mate bond rejection had been agony. Maybe the pain had driven
temporarily insane. Maybe I’d done sothing I couldn’t rember.
"I would never..." I tried to speak, but the words ca out weak and unconvincing even to my own ears.
"Look at her," Hazel said, pointing at . "Look at the guilt on her face. She knows what she did."
Did I? I touched my own face, wondering what expression I was wearing. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely control them.
Cian stepped closer to , and the mate bond between us pulsed with his anger and disgust.
"Is this true?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. "Did you attack your own sister to steal her place at the altar?"
"I... I don’t..." My voice failed
completely.
The crowd pressed closer, their faces twisted with outrage. I saw my father pushing through the crowd, his face gray with horror and sha. When our eyes t, he looked at
like he’d never seen
before.
"Fia," he said, his voice breaking. "Please tell
this isn’t true."
But I couldn’t tell him anything. My mind felt like it was fracturing into pieces. Everything I thought I rembered was being rewritten before my eyes.
Hazel moved to stand beside Isobel, who wrapped protective arms around her injured daughter.
"She always resented ," Hazel said quietly, just loud enough for the crowd to hear. "She couldn’t stand that I was chosen to marry an Alpha while she was stuck with a sentinel."
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