Dahlia looked up with hope, only to be met with a face she had not expected to see. “Sandra? Are you really here? You’re alive?!”
I enquired: “Why? Would you have preferred me to be dead?”
Dahlia grabbed my legs rather than rising to her feet. “Why didn’t you come back, then?! Come on! Come back with me! Zayden almost killed me because of you!”
I kicked her hand away, mirroring her previous action when I asked for my necklace back.
“This is karma. You wanted to be Zayden’s mate, didn’t you? So go ahead! I have already left.”
Dahlia trembled, as if I had evoked a haunting memory. “No! I do not want to be his mate! He’s insane! All he does is drown himself in alcohol and abuse me when he’s drunk!”
She grabbed my shirt. “Sandra, please! I’m sorry for what I did in the past! I’ll give him back to you! You can have him back! Please, just save me!”
Seeing how pitiful she looked, the last of my hatred for her vanished. What goes around comes around, and this was the result of her decisions.
However, I was not a saint. “You can keep that man for yourself. I haven’t forgotten how you treated me before. I can’t help you.” With that, my guards led her away, and I ignored her pleas.
Dahlia ran after us for a long time before collapsing from exhaustion.
Her body was too weak to stand, and her clothes were caked with mud.
She suddenly remembered how Sandra had fallen in a similar manner back then, and all she had done was further embarrass me.
Dahlia’s eyes filled with tears of remorse.
Dahlia managed to crawl back into the castle around midnight. She couldn’t leave yet.
Her parents committed suicide a few months ago, amidst gossip and contempt from their packmates. Their shameless daughter had become the talk of the group.
Dahlia’s pup was the only family she had left, and he was in the castle, where Zayden could harm him.
Dahlia understood that if she left, Zayden would harm her pup, so she had to stay. Despite her selfish tendencies, Dahlia was selfless when it came to her puppy.
The sight before her chilled her to the core. Zayden, who was drunk, was violently shaking the cot while her young puppy cried out in terror. “I said shut up! Stop crying!” Zayden became irritated.
Dahlia dashed over to protect him just as he was about to muffle the pup.
“What are you doing?! Stay away from my pup!”
“What took you so long? And where’s the alcohol I asked you to get?! You made me lose my beloved! How dare you raise your voice at me now?!”
“If you hadn’t enticed me first, I would never have harmed Sandra like that! And she would have come back to me!”
Dahlia sneered. “She must’ve severed her bond with you long ago! Or she would’ve died of agony after the things you’ve done these six months!”
Indeed. Zayden claimed to miss Sandra and despise Dahlia, but that didn’t stop him from taking Dahlia when he was down.
Zayden was infuriated. “Shut up! Without my consent, the only way she can sever our bond is through the Alpha King! And Sandra is just an orphan! How could she get in contact with the Alpha King? You must’ve killed her back then! I’ll kill you all to avenge her!”
Dahlia lifted her puppy and moved it out of harm’s way. “You’re crazy! Sandra’s alive! I saw her today!”
Zayden was elated. “You did? Where is she?”
