[Xanthea]


    "Doctor! Call the doctor!" Meesa howled. "My baby! My Lia! Lia! Sweety! Respond to mamma! Baby!"


    Taking a knife from the table, I walked closer to Nathalia.


    "What do you want?" Meesa looked at the knife in my hand, hugging Nathalia protectively.


    Nathalia was partially unconscious, her breaths faint and faltering.


    "My revenge," I said, my voice low and detached as I knelt beside Nathalia and reached out to check her throat.


    "What are you doing? Keep your filthy hands away from my daughter!" Meesa shoved away my hand. "Don''t touch her, you wench-"


    With stalled breaths, Meesa withdrew her hand as I pointed the knife at her.


    "Mom! That''s not what you call your daughter. I guess we need to set new ground rules to be a family again, Meesa," I said, coldly peering into her soul through her eyes. "And number one, keep your hands to yourself or I will break them." I smiled. "Don''t worry, I will heal themter. This has been our lovenguage, right? Hurting and healing each other? Pretending nothing''s wrong."


    Petrified, Meesa looked at the knife and then at me. I wasn''t joking or ying around and maybe she felt it, too.


    Checking Nathalia''s breaths and pulse, I made Nathalia lie t on her back and tilted her head upwards so she could breathe better. Using the knife, I cut off her clothes across her torso. "Nathalia! Can you hear me?" I patted her cheek.


    She tried to breathe through her mouth, but couldn''t.


    Putting the knife aside, I ced my hand on her chest, starting the CPR. Locking my mouth with hers, I gave her breaths after every thirty chestpressions.


    After a while, Nathalia''s eyes widened as she gasped and broke into wheezes. She frantically held her neck, taking in deep breaths.


    "Lia!" Niki and Meesa called out to her together.


    I checked her pulses and breaths again. They were returning to normal. It took her a while to regainplete consciousness and when she did-


    "Mom! Mom!" Shivering and frenzied, she sat up on her own and crawled away from me to her mother.


    "It looks like she doesn''t have any neck injuries, but it''ll be better to take her to the hospital and have her checked thoroughly," I said.


    I got up, breathing heavily as I trudged towards the dining table.


    Sitting on the chair, I put aside the knife and clenched my hands together, trying to ignore Meesa''s and Nathalia''s united sobs and Niki''s panicked voice as he checked on his sister.


    I let out a heavy sigh. Leaning forward on the table, I held my head in my mmy, icy hands.


    I am so... exhausted. I just wanna go back home. But where exactly is it?


    As I wondered about my home, I came across Meesa''s voice, dripping with poison.


    "Apple doesn''t fall far from the tree. You are just like your mother - an ungrateful, characterless bitch!"


    Shutting my eyes, I shook my head.


    People don''t change easily, do they?


    I was a little tipsy because of the wine.


    "Mom, let it be," Niki said, keeping his re fixed at me.


    "No, Niki. She wanted to talk to us. So let her!"


    Leaving Nathalia in Niki''s care, Meesa faced me.


    "You wanted to know why I treated you the way I did? Because you are the living proof of my husband''s betrayal and your mother''s conceit and decisiveness. Kid?" she chuckled. "Don''t make meugh! You were the kid who reminded me every day of how my husband cheated on me with an omega. How he made me feel insufficient andcking just because I couldn''t give him children."


    My back faced them. I crushed the blueberries between my fingers and tossed them aside. I really hate this fruit so much. God, this is so irritating. I turned the fruit basket upside down.


    Meesa paused for a while, probably peering at the fruits rolling across the dining table, then she continued.


    "Your mother started this tradition of hurting and healing. On one hand, she had an affair with my husband and on the other she helped me bear children with her unusual medicines. Pain and happiness, it was all started by your mother. Your mother stripped me of my rights, my pride. And thenpensated it by helping me be a mother," Meesa said and had my attention almost in an instant.


    "My mother helped you-" Getting up from the chair, I turned my head to look at her.


    Meesa nodded.


    "That''s how she entered our life. To help me with my barrenness. She gained my trust only to break it into millions of pieces. So, I couldn''t bear to let ''you'' take away the rights of my children." Niki and Nathalia looked at Meesa just as shocked as I was. We didn''t know anything about it.


    "Belonging? Huh! You don''t even deserve to stand in front of us, you filth! You deserved what you got. And if you want to me someone, me your mother!" Her voice shook with rage and pain. "me her for giving you birth. me her for dying after that, leaving your burden on me! And what did my husband say? Raise my Thea as your own! The child of a fucking mistress was raised by the luna of the pack. You are a fucking insult, Xanthea th." She took a deep breath and stood right in front of me.


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    I nodded, licking my dry lips. I looked into her eyes.Property of N?)(velDr(a)ma.Org.


    "What my mother did was not my fault. I understand your anger and I understand where your paines from, but I didn''t deserve to be an outlet for your emotions. I understand your hatred, but..." I shut my eyes, trying my best to control the disaster inside me.


    "Being born was not my choice, so it''s not my mistake and to be punished for something I didn''t do all my life. It was unjust, unfair to me. I just wanted a little love, a little eptance. I just wanted to be seen and epted and celebrated like Niki and Nathalia were. I just wanted to feel like a normal kid. Loved, cared for, heard. J-just a little of your and my father''s affection was all I craved. Was it too much to ask?"


    "YES! Yes, it was!" Meesa howled. Holding her chest, she crumpled to the ground in raw anguish.


    I kept peering into her eyes nkly, feeling a numbing tremble crawl up my legs.


    "I always treated you the best, not because I was scared, but because that was the right thing to do. So I regret nothing. What you did to me was wrong. Your emotional baggage is not mine to carry. It''s yours and I havee to return it to you and I have done what I came here for."


    "You ungrateful wench!" Meesa yelled.


    "Mom! Enough!" Niki intervened.


    I chuckled, swallowing the tightness building in my throat.


    "If you think you have hurt me, you are wrong. You just broke my body and not my spirit and now I am going to fulfill my mother''s dream. I am going to be a healer and I am going to continue my studies and I am going to make my mother proud. And this time you cannot stop me," I said in one go.


    "You and your mother chant!" Meesa smirked. "You don''t even know what she was like and you worship that wench of a witch like some goddess! You call me delusional, Thea? Seriously? What is your mother''s name, Thea?" she asked, wiping off her tears.


    Knitting my brows, I grimaced at her.


    "Freya th," I said.


    "Really? Is that her real name? Are you sure?" she asked.


    I looked at her, confused.


    "That''s the name of the person whose identity your mother stole. Freya th is not your mother. And identity theft is the worst of the worst crimes. Where does your mother stand on your moralpass now? No one knows where she came from. No one knows her name. No one knows what she was or did before she came here. Not even Valdimir. But my dear, I can tell you one thing for sure: your mother was a horrible woman."


    "Stop lying! My mother!" I raised my voice, clenching my fist. "My mother was a wonderful, beautiful woman. She was capable and confident and maybe that is why father chose her over you! He loved her more than you-" "SHUT UP!" Meesa cried.


    "Mom!" Niki looked at her and then his terror-filled eyes darted to the door.


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    I red into Meesa''s bleary eyes.


    "Ezra won''te. Don''t worry. I told you, didn''t I? Demon lords won''t interfere. This time, Ezra won''t kill you. But I can''t promise the same for the next time, that is, if there is a next time. I really hope you make it to heaven, because if youe to hell, I''ll be there, waiting."


    I strutted towards the door and was about to open it when I felt Niki''s mindlink. My fingers paused a few inches away from the doorknob.


    ''Devil. God. I will sell my soul to anyone I have to, to bring you back to your original hell, sis. To bring you back to me, and when I do, I will turn every second of your life into pure, raw suffering,'' Niki''s voice echoed in my mind through the mindlink.


    I turned around to face him. I put on a sarcastic smile as I addressed him.


    "You still don''t get it, do you? You still can''t see, can you? You have lost all the power you once had over me. After the things I have been through in this pack and in the Infernal realm, you can''t make me suffer," I said calmly. Nathalia and Meesa looked at me, and then at Niki, confused.


    I scoffed.


    "And if you really had to threaten me. Then you should have had the guts to threaten me out loud, not through some sneaky mindlink. I can''t believe I ever feared a coward like you," I mocked.


    ''There is a difference between cowardice and mindfulness. I will soon chop off the wings these demon lords gave you, sister. Your demon husbands are going down very soon, and I''ll make sure it happens faster. So just wait and watch, sister. If you belong to hell, then I''ll be your celestial punishment and drag you out of it.'' He used the mindlink again.


    Coward!


    Waste of time!


    I turned my back towards him to open the door, but I stopped.


    I walked across the room to Niki and pped him across his face.


    Widening his eyes, Niki held his cheek. With a gulp, he looked at me, bbergasted.


    "Say that again. Out loud. I am a wolfless omega. I can''t hear mindlinks properly," I said, holding his gaze. "I dare you... say that again!" I growled.


    He narrowed his eyes; the paleness cracking across his face with tension. I smiled with a scoff.


    "This is how a threat works, Niki. There''s a difference between a threat and a bluff. And you, my dear pathetic brother, are incapable of doing either of them. You don''t evene close to the dirt they walk on. Ezra. Asher. Raven. They are my husbands. They are my demon lords! And they are never going down!"


    Turning on my heels, I strutted to the door, opened it, and walked out.