I didn’t want to believe it but Vanessa turned out to be the worst kind of person in Pembroke. She teamed up with Aric Stormheart to attack Pembroke. They wanted to attack us, but their plan failed.
“Luke, where have you been? Someone told me he saw you leaving Pembroke!” I told him.
“I led my men to take over Lancaster,” he informed me without filtering his words, regardless if Aric was listening to us.

“Take over Lancaster? How? Why?”
“It’s a long story, Isabella, but I should have done this before,” Luke replied.
“Luke, I don’t understand,” I said and when I glanced at Aric, he was also bewildered. “Why would you take over Lancaster?”
“Because it originally belongs to me,” he claimed, and Aric groaned after hearing that. “Aric’s father used to be the Beta of Lancaster, and when my Dad died, he became the leader of the pack. They allowed the traitor to rule without investigating the truth to my family’s death!”
I furrowed my brows upon hearing that because it wasn’t the first time I heard about the rise of the Beta and how he became the Alpha of Lancaster. I heard from Dad that the family who ruled Lancaster before met with an accident and everyone died…except for the Alpha’s brother who became a rogue.
“It’s not true!” Aric claimed and without warning, he moved swiftly to attack Luke.

I screamed in shock but then my eyes caught Vanessa while she was trying to leave in the middle of the commotion. In one swift motion, I blocked her path and her eyes widened to see me in front of her.
“Getting away?” I asked and she paled.
“Try to stop me if you can, Isabella. Do you think you are strong enough to block my way?” Vanessa challenged me, and I smirked.
For the first time, I saw her true colors, and she didn’t even hesitate to show it to me now. However, I was still disappointed that she chose to betray me despite my kindness to her. She still chose to become a traitor to the pack of Pembroke, and I’m sure that Mom would be devastated.

“I couldn’t believe you planned this with Aric, Vanessa. Why? You should tell me!”
“Because I hate you, and I hate Pembroke! Lancaster just had to take over this goddamn pack, and then Aric would make me his Luna!”
“And you believed him? Seriously, Vanessa? I didn’t expect you to be this dense when it comes to Aric Stormheart. He doesn’t care about you! He is only using you!”
“Shut up, Isabella! You are just angry because I took him away from you!” she yelled at me.
“No, that’s not the case. I knew he was trash so I gave up on him. Just look at him now, Vanessa. He was trying to fight so hard for a pack that didn’t belong to him,” I teased Vanessa even more and her eyes were glaring at me.
“You may have a way out tonight, Isabella, but I will never stop ruining this pack!”
“You know what, I don’t know why you hate Pembroke so much, but for the sake of our friendship, I will let you live in one piece, Vanessa. Just go,” I told her. “Leave Pembroke and don’t ever come back.”
“Oh well, now that we have come to this, you should know the truth about your loving Dad and doting Mom, Isabella,” she said and I frowned.
“Then, feel free to tell me everything!” I challenged her.
“Not here,” she said, and before I could react, Vanessa took me to a place in a blink of an eye.
“Who are you?” I asked her when I remembered being in the garden and the next moment, I was in front of Dad’s room.
Vanessa pushed the door open and my eyes widened to see Dad and Mom lying on the floor! Their hands were tied with silver, and their mouths were gagged as well. I snapped my brows when I turned to face Vanessa, but as I was about to grab her throat, she made a swift move, and I was at a disadvantage.
“Did you really think that those training would make you stronger than me, Isabella? You are funny. Indeed, you really are,” she said while squeezing the life out of my neck.
And as I struggled to get away from her hold, I realized that she was telling the truth. Those days and months of training didn’t make me stronger against her. She was indeed strong, and I wondered where the hell did she get her strength!
“Just like your parents, you will die after I set this house on fire!” she told me while her eyes were blazing with anger.
And then, I saw tears rolling down her cheeks as her hands tightened around my throat. Between gasps for air, she began to speak and her voice was trembling with emotion. For a moment, I felt pity for my enemy.
"Isabella, you don't understand," she choked out, her grip loosening slightly. "After your dad killed my mom, my life became a living nightmare. Of course you don’t know any of that because you are the only daughter of Pembroke’s Alpha and you lived like a princess.”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. I had never known the full extent of Vanessa's suffering, and hearing her story made me wonder if Dad was really capable of killing a woman.
She recounted the horrors she had endured after her mother's death – the abuse, the torture, the unimaginable pain inflicted upon her by the warriors of Pembroke. My heart ached as she described the atrocities she had endured, and her voice broke with each word.
Her voice trembled as she recounted the nightmares she faced after her mother’s death - the abuse, the torture, and the unbearable pain inflicted upon her by the warriors of Pembroke.
She described how, after her mother’s tragic demise, she was left alone and vulnerable at the mercy of those who saw her as nothing more than prey. The warriors, driven by cruelty and malice, had subjected her to unspeakable acts of violence, and as I listened to her story, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling guilty.
Vanessa spoke of endless nights spent in terror, of being dragged into dark corners and abandoned houses, where her screams went unheard and her pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. I felt bad for her as she shared her story but I couldn’t ask her to stop. I couldn’t even talk as her hands were around my throat.
Her voice faltered as she recounted the details of the torture she endured - the beatings, the burns, the cuts that sliced through her flesh like knives. She spoke of pain so intense that it felt like a coursing through my veins as well, and it also consumed me. I felt her pain. I felt everything!
And the most chilling part of her story was the isolation she felt, the knowledge that she was completely alone in her suffering. She had no one to turn to, no one to comfort and no one to protect her. Throughout the years that we lived under the same roof, I had no idea that she was trapped in a nightmare of her past, and I realized that her pain ran deeper than I could ever imagine.
As her tears kept rolling down her cheeks, I cried with her. I wanted to apologize but how could I? I could only stare into her eyes but they were no longer soulful. Her eyes had become cold and indifferent toward me, and all I could see was the hatred she had toward my family.
"But then... then your dad found me," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "He took me in, let me live in your house. But the memories... they never left me. Every single day, I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill you, too. But then your Mom was nice to me. As if! The wench tried so hard to be nice to me when it was all her fault why my mother was killed!”
When she bad mouthed my Mom, I gathered all of my strength to push her away. Luckily, I succeeded,and she staggered while trying to stand up straight before me. Despite the anger and fear coursing through me, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of compassion for her. No one deserved to suffer the way she had!
“Don’t you dare call my Mom a wench, Vanessa. We will settle everything between ourselves,” I told her.
“Why not, Isabella? Because of her, your Dad killed my mother because that wench asked your Dad to do it!” Vanessa claimed.
As much as I didn’t want to believe Vanessa’s words, there was something that tugged inside my heart to confront my parents about the past. I turned to face them and Mom shook her head to deny Vanessa’s claims.
I moved toward them and freed their mouths to speak. Mommy grasped for air as soon as her mouth was free from the gag. “Mom, is it true? Did you ask Dad to kill Isabella’s mother?”
“William..,” she mumbled Dad’s name, and they stared into each other for a long time.
Was Vanessa’s claims all true? Did my mother ask Dad to kill her mom? Shit! I didn’t want to believe it! I have known Mom as the kindest person in the pack, and I couldn’t imagine her to utter such cruelty or even ask Dad to kill a person.
“How did your mother die, Vanessa?” Dad spoke, and I waited for Vanessa’s response.