BELLA’S POV.
Today is the day.
I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, my graduation cap hung up on my head. The smile was a reflection of everything I’ve been through for the past years, my strength and vitality. I sniffed in as tears started to burn in the back of my head, forming in my large black orbs.
I took some steps back, pushing back all the bad thoughts away from my head to focus on myself. It was me today. Everything was all about me. I was the Bella that survived all the thick and hard times, and I am now the Bella that needs to start living.
I stared at the blue gown I was wearing inside my graduation gown, one that my mother, or adoptive mother has given to me. Another set of fresh hot tears pooled my eyes as I thought about it. I would give anything for her to see me in it, for her to witness that everything she has poured in me and I have in her was now here to see, that I performed well and fulfilled everything.
My name is Bella Montagu, adoptive daughter of Alpha Grey and Luna Cora of the Darkmouth pack. According to them, I was found in their pack, lying unconscious in a bush when I was seven. When they asked me who I was and where I came from, I had not been able to answer because I could not remember anything. And it has been like that ever since then, my memories from before I met them or they found me has been blank, leading to me not knowing where I really originated from.
And because of that, everyone saw me as an outcast, as a curse in the pack. I was the girl whom they all took pity on and bullied as if it was the last day on earth and they needed to take it out on someone.
“Your parents never wanted you, Bella . Maybe that’s why they threw you off.”
“Maybe they wanted you dead.”
“Maybe? You think maybe? I’m sure she was such a burden and useless girl, and that’s why they threw her away. Look at her, does she look like someone that has any use in life?”
Those were words I grew up hearing from the members of the pack, including my own adoptive father, Alpha Grey. With him it was more like a hatred that I didn’t know where it came from. He looked at me like I was vomit, a disgusting thing that he didn’t want to have anything to do with. At dinners, he avoided me like a plague, he would not be seen with me or even have anything to do with me.
And on the days where our parts mistakenly crossed, he punished me for it. He would ask his guards to lock me up in the dungeon with nothing, or sometimes during one winter, stripped me bare of my clothings and asked me to stay outside in the cold till the next morning.
“Next time you’ll think well before calling me your ‘father’ you bastard!” He growled out as he slammed the door on me.
I had stayed outside for more than five hours before the door opened and Luna Cora rushed out, her eyes pooled with tears as she threw a blanket over me, covering me and ushering me outside. Maybe I should have died that night. Maybe I should have let the cold kill me and reject Luna Cora’s help. At least I wouldn’t have to face the cruel nature of everyone again. I wouldn’t have to be labelled the girl no one wants, the one that her parents wanted to kill, the one that swarmed her way through deceits and lies into the kindhearted Luna.
While her husband was a total jerk to me, Luna Cora warmed up to me in every possible way. She fed me. She nurtured me. I could still remember her voice when I was nine, reading me a bedtime story and us laughing together. Everything was good as long as she was around. Even Alpha Grey never dared to touch me whenever she was around. She cared for me. She reassured me that none of the words of every other member mattered and I mattered greatly to her.
But everything came crashing down after that night in the cold. I was woken up bitterly and harshly by Alpha Grey, dragged by my hair into a room to find Luna Cora unconscious in her room. Alpha Grey slapped me instantly, his eyes darkening red and dangerous in a way I have never seen it before,
“Look at what you’ve done, you bitch! Look at this! Why!” He slapped me again, pointing to Luna Cora.
“Your highness…I…I…” I stuttered, tears rolling down my eyes.
He approached me, dragging me again with my hair and pulling me closer to Luna Cora. She was fine when she pulled me out of the cold. She was doing all okay. What happened? Why was she not waking up? Why was her lips blue?