Chapter 68

Alyson's POV

I wasn't sure how the Luna could have escape imprisonment when Jacob was taking all the punishment for their crimes. I was surprised to see her in the crowd the day Ryan was crowned.

Ryan had moved into the Alpha's Lair, and I was still staying at my apartment for a few more days before our wedding. So many dress makers, and stylist had dropped by to honor me with fittings and dresses, but I had selected one of my liking.

Another knock at my door interrupted my thoughts. Michelle was in the next room, so I called to her, "I'll answer this time." I was expecting another congratulations or someone offering their business to the future Alpha and Luna's wedding.

Instead, chills swept through my body. I opened the door, and it was Jennifer in the same silk black dress that she had worn at the coronation. I knew this moment would happen, but I had not expected it at my apartment.

"Jennifer," I said, realizing my mistake at once for I had never called her by her real name before.

Her eyes narrowed, there was a rage boiling inside her. "That's not my name. Why do you call me that? How can you face me when you're such a liar?" She held something in her hands, and I wondered if it might be a knife.

"Come in," I invited her, feeling like without her status, she could not easily harm me. She had no guards to support her, and as a Clan Clark she-wolf, she had never learned to fight like I had. "We do need to talk."

Michelle peaked from the back room, but I waved to her to stay back there. I did not care if she heard everything, I fully trusted her at this point, and knowing someone else on my side was in the room at this moment gave me comfort.

"Would you sit? We can talk." I gestured towards the couch, wondering if at the end of this conversation we would shift and fight to the death. There had been so many moments when I dreamed of confessing my identity to her before killing her.

I reminded my nerves that she was in far more danger than I was.

"No, I will not sit with a liar. Why did you lie to me? How many times did you claim you were no relation to Clan Clark? I knew better every time." She said. "You tricked me and my mate, and for this you should die."

I stood proud, and unphased. "I lied because I know who you truly are, Jennifer Clark. I know what you did to your sister."

If she had expected any reason, it was not that. She winced slightly, the rage simmering made way for a wave of shock. "I don't know what you're talking about. You call me Jennifer, and that was my twin's name, but I'm Alissa Clark Alexander, the Luna."

"Not anymore. It's over. You did so many wrongs for nothing." I said. "To meet this end, and fall from grace and status. And I will take the place of Luna that is rightfully mine."

She stared at me dumbfounded. Our identical eyes were burrowing into each other's souls, except I saw my sister, and she did not see hers.

"What did your mother think of what you did to your sister?" I asked. "Where are you keeping her?"

"Mother is safe with me, don't worry about her." That same suspicious stare that had cause so much alarm the other day took over her expression. "Who are you really? And why do you care so much about my mother?"

"You do not recognize me?" I circled her, allowing Ariana to boil up to the surface without shifting. Her consciousness was urging me to strike her down, and rip her face off like we almost did the day she killed us.

"How should I?" She spat at me. "You've been a terrible pain in my side since the day you showed up here, but you were nothing to me prior to that."

"I was the one you locked away for six years, and bled for Jacob. I was the one that you killed on our eighteenth birthday as you wore your wedding dress. I hope I didn't ruin it, but then again, I hope that I did."

Her lips tightened; eyes were wide to match her stunned silence.

I continued, "You truly did kill me that day, but when I met the Moon Goddess, she sent me back, and now here I am, still taking the place that I was supposed to have. And I will have my revenge."

She was backing away towards the door. Her furious red face had flushed to ghostly white. "How is this possible? Alissa?"

"You know it's me? Do you see me now, sister?"

She was looking at me in sheer horror. The fear covering her face was satisfying. I never thought that Jennifer would look terrified in this moment.

"Please," she said. "I beg you to not kill me."

All my new life, I had thought that in this moment, I would kill Jennifer. I could not even understand how she still wanted to live after her loss of status. I hated the very ground that she walked on.

"Does mother know about you? What did you tell her?" I asked.

"She doesn't know. She's been grieving, thinking you disappeared one day and never returned. Please, don't kill me."

I was at the point of shifting, but something stirred inside me. A wave of strange emotions as I remembered the day that my sister killed me. Would I be any better than her if I turned around and avenged myself with the same action? I had pleaded for mercy, and she had killed me anyway. My heart changed in that moment, knowing that I had been wrong about the nature of my revenge.

"I will not kill you, because I am not like you. But I never want to see you again. And I want to know where mother is."

Jennifer was crying now. I wasn't sure if it were fear, shame, shock, anger, or anything else. But large tears were falling from her wide eyes. "She's staying with me."

"You will leave her here, and you will leave alone. I don't want you anywhere near Crowalt Pack ever again. I never want to see you face."

"You can't…"

"Shut up," I said. "I'm talking. I will be Luna tomorrow, and you will be gone forever."

"Why don't you just kill me instead?" She said quietly.

"I wanted to kill you, but I think it's better that you know what you did to me and to yourself. I became the Luna anyway. I suppose in a strange twist of fate, you saved me from a life of misery with Jacob. So what I feel for you is hatred, but also pity for the life you chose was miserable. The love you stole from me was poison, you trapped yourself in an evil life, and I almost feel sorry for you. This is why I will banish you from Crowalt for the rest of your miserable life. You will know what you did, and you will know this pain forever."

She had backed all the way up against the door, looking utterly mortified by me. It was the nightmare she deserved.

"I found my second chance mate, and perhaps I never would have if you hadn't killed me." I said. "I will marry a good man, unlike you, who sold your soul to the devil the day you tricked me, and were taken in by Jacob to be used for his purposes, and never loved. Jacob could never love, and neither could you. Your life is empty and sad. Now leave, and be haunted forever by this."

I shifted to Ariana and lunged for her. My fangs ripped the hems of her skirt as she frantically opened the door, and ran for her pathetic life.