Chapter 5. Live for Revenge

Diana stared at the wall of her room.

Papers pinned on the wall were connected by a red string with numbers allocated carefully. Pictures of all she was yet to know in this second life and the people she held dear from both lifetimes were also scattered onto the wall before her. This was the timeline of the future she knew for the next ten years.

Diana’s misfortune was set in stone the moment Axel returned to the Crescent Pack which would be two months from now. But her bad luck began way before that—it was the Tribute Ceremony that started it all.

Her gaze flickered to the picture of a smiling Anastasia. Diana’s gaze darkened as she caressed Anastasia’s picture which was scratched by the knife many times already. “I want to see if you can still smile brightly after I exact my revenge on you. Losing everything you hold dear, realizing what you have is nothing but a mere sand castle. I want to see you crumble, my dearest best friend.”

The feeling of blood trickling down her thighs, Diana would never forget the moment she realized she was losing her unborn child.

Diana’s gaze shifted to the open window of the attic where the bustling noise came from. She glanced at the woman beside Alpha Dylan’s photograph. “Today. I will snatch your fate right under your nose… and I am not sorry for it.”

One by one, Diana took down the map of the future from the wall. With the burner by her side, she stood near the open window and burned the papers as her gaze remained fixated beyond the windowpanes.

There she saw Anastasia holding a basket filled with biscuits. The latter was welcomed by Lorraine, Diana’s mother.

Holding the knife in her right hand, she scratched the window glass. A bland smile appeared on her face as she watched Anastasia’s bright smile. “I cannot wait to show the world your true colors, to show the people how rotten you are inside. Compared to you, I am not your match in my first life. But this time… this time, I will be fighting fire with fire. Even if it means I will have to become the devil himself, I will gladly do so just to bury you all with me.”

Diana looked down at the photograph of the young gamma who was destined to be selected by Alpha Dylan Clain today. She was meant to continue the bloodline of the Blood Claws Pack alpha genes. Diana tore the picture into pieces as she threw them to the burner, forever vanishing into ashes. “The first step is mine.”

A knock on the attic’s door pulled Diana from her trance.

“Diana, let us go. The Tribute Ceremony is about to start.”  Beta Mason chirped from the other side of the door.

A sweet voice answered. “Coming, Dad!”

Diana erased all traces of malediction from her face as soon as she opened the door.

THE FLAGSHIPS OF THE CRESCENT PACK, WHICH was a howling white wolf that formed a crescent half-moon, littered the tents that were set up for the Tribute Ceremony. While white tents were cramped together in front of the foggy forest, delta-ranked werewolves were posted everywhere while epsilon-ranked ones were stationed at the high towers as lookouts.

At the center of the tents, the alphas invited to the Tribute Ceremony were seated. They were the men who once lost their mates or those who were not lucky enough to find their mates yet. And as an alpha, the leader of their respective packs, it was important to secure an age—lest an incident would take their lives.

The mated alphas and betas were seated in the next biggest tent.

Alpha Nathan stood upon the end of the trumpet’s sound. Raising his goblet, he started his welcome speech as the host of the Tribute Ceremony. “Welcome, distinguished guests!” He raised his goblet as a sign of toast. “It is my great honor to live and tell the tale of hosting the prestigious Tribute Ceremony of this generation, providing hope and connecting with the grace of the Moon Goddess once more.”

On cue, howls of gratitude toward the Moon Goddess rang within the misty forest.

As the sun started to come down, the moon started to peek.

“I will not make this long. Seeing our candidates ready, I will end this by saying… bless the Moon Goddess!”

Alpha Nathan’s words were echoed by the listeners. “Bless the Moon Goddess!”

There was only one person who did not utter such words—Diana Ritchell.

Standing with her head hanging down, she was able to hide the insanity within her eyes. She wanted to laugh at the alpha, Axel’s father.

‘Bless the Moon Goddess? I want to see if you can still smile after you witness the end of this ceremony. After all, this is not called the Bloody Tribute Ceremony without a reason. This day will go down in the history as the most brutal event like what happened in my first life. I remembered how I trembled after seeing a parade of body bags…. All because of one person.’ Diana thought before she looked beside her where a woman also looked at her and gave her a smile.

Luna Riza stepped forward to the podium. “The rules of the old will be applied to the ceremony right now. The alphas will shift to their wolves and hide inside the forest. Then, the ladies will enter the forest without shifting.”

On cue, the alphas who were participating in the event shifted into their wolf forms. But one black-furred wolf, the biggest among the flock of beasts, looked at the group of young ladies.

For a moment, Diana met his gaze.

With a clammy hand, she remembered how she won the gamble. Now, it would depend on how she would take him to her side. She remembered his words when she claimed to know of his past: “Many have tried to fool me by this useless claim. You are not the first one, woman. People like you… disgust me.”

Diana’s smile came to halt when Luna Riza’s next words pulled her from her trance.

She showed a red flag. “If this flag will be taken by the lady to the innermost part of the forest, she will have the right to choose an alpha—even if the alpha has been claimed by the other females. There will be only one flag identical to the one I am holding. Keep an open eye and do everything you can. Bless the Moon Goddess.”

Before, Diana did not get the nuance of the Luna’s words ‘Keep an open eye and do everything you can’ not until the first drop of bloodshed was made right in front of her. This time, Diana, who knew where the flag was hidden and what the tricks were with the last obstacle were, smiled at Amber.

“Let us do everything we can, Amber,” said Diana in a shy tone. It was only a friendly mimicry, but the hidden meaning beneath such words was not left unnoticed by those who listened to the beta’s daughter.

As soon as they neared the misty forest and were deemed safe from hearing, Tiffany, the pack doctor’s daughter, finally showed her true colors. “Why are you here, anyway? You neither lost your mate nor got rejected.”

“Just because you are the beta’s daughter, you are already abusing the authority,” said another lady who recently lost her mate from a rogue attack.

Diana, who was walking side by side with Amber, merely smiled at the latter as if she was telling Amber to not mind them. “I don’t want to wait for my mate, a predestined being who will shape my future.” She looked back at the girls who were criticizing her. With a stoic face, she continued. “I want to be the one to shape my future. So when the end draws near, I won’t have any regrets.”

Her words silenced the women, giving Diana a look filled with puzzlement, including Amber.

Diana immediately smiled like a silly woman. “Just read that quote from my father’s book. Oh! Look, we are about to enter the forest.” She turned in the right direction as soon as she entered the forest.

Following her, the other ladies also set out in their own directions.

Diana, who was about to vanish into the mist, stopped in her tracks and looked back at Amber who was taking the left direction. Diana screamed with her nonchalant girly tone. “I hope you will get the red flag, Amber! Fighting!”

Amber smiled brightly. “I will try too! You be careful with those girls and the forest predators.”

Nodding her head vehemently, Diana finally turned around. As she vanished into the mist, her smiling façade slipped, revealing a grim expression filled with malice and mockery.

‘Me? Be careful? You are the most dangerous one here. Your obsession with Alpha Dylan will lead you to the massacre of all the girls. Yes, Amber. Get the red flag. Kill them all. And when you are down, I will kill you myself before you kill me. Hurry up. I am… waiting.’

Diana grinned as she vanished into the darkness.