Chapter 38
1044words
Dragging her by her hair, she forced Moon back into a kneeling position. 'What did you just say!?" Her eyes were stern and direct.
'I – I…"
'Speak!" Steve thundered, his eyes were narrowed and dark.
'I know where… it is. I will go bring… it." Moon drew in the air with difficulty, her shoulder slumped; she was having a panic attack.
Joana's right hand extended. Knowing what was coming, Moon closed her eyes in anticipation and as expected, it landed on her left cheek, making her feel a stinging pain and the metallic taste of blood in her lips.
Gasps of shock followed.
'You unfilial daughter!" Joana yelled, her pointed index fingers shaking at Moon's face.
'Would you ever do one thing right without having to drag our name through the mud?" came her father's gruff voice.
Moon looked up at him, wanting to explain, but he wasn't even looking at her; his eyes had this faraway look in them; they looked like regret.
Biting back her tears, the thought of her parents regretting giving birth to her twisted her insides. Was she a curse? Someone incapable of receiving love?
'Do to her whatever you deem fit," Steve said to the Alpha, before giving a bow and grabbing his wife's hand.
'It's of no use, let's leave." She looked down at Moon one final time before huffing and giving into her mate's pull.
'Mum, Dad! Don't leave!" Moon's eyes went from her dad's disappointed face to her Mum's angry face. She groveled to take hold of their feet, but her mum kicked her feet away.
'Face your punishment." Was the last thing she said before walking out with her mate leaving Moon in agony.
'We have no time to waste, where is it?" Beta Stone interrupted the tense atmosphere.
With unsteady movements, Moon reached her wardrobe, opening it, she brought out the ointment.
'Here?" She thrust it forward to anyone who wanted to take it but they all stared back at her like she was a fool or something even more stupid.
Diana and Lilian exchanged confusing looks before looking back at the shaky Moon, whose face was a wreck, with little scratches here and there.
'Don't tell us you stole that too." Amira gave a stiff laugh, but no one joined in, so she kept shut.
'I saw this by my door, along with a huge piece of meat."
'It came with a note, I didn't steal. Whoever kept it there wanted to set me up, I am sorry, I only used a bit of it. I was in so much pain that I had to use it." Moon hurriedly explained, showing off parts of the dark bruises on her body, not knowing that she was revealing far more than she should; some of her scars became visible to the eyes.
'Enough!" The Alpha ordered.
'Let's leave." He said.
'But you haven't searched her bathroom!" Amira, who got pinched by Lilian, yelled, shifting back in discomfort; it wasn't her will to go against the Alpha.
'Run a quick check before we leave." Beta Stone, who caught Diana's eyes, ordered.
Not quite long after they began scattering things, one of the guards ran back into the room holding the diamond pendant in his hand, raising it above his eye level.
'I think we have found it."
'Aha!" Lilian exclaimed clicking her hands at it.
The eyes of everyone widened, looking at Moon, who stared back in confusion, wondering why they found a diamond pendant in her bathroom.
'I don't think I understand what is going on here." Moon's voice was almost inaudible as she looked from one person's face to the other.
'Drop the pretense." Amira shunned.
'So all this trash was for show, wasn't it? What were you thinking stealing my properties!? What were you thinking going through my stuff!" She yelled and made to run at Moon, but witnessing her crazy strength from earlier, the guards were quick to run in holding her in place.
Moon's frown grew deeper, her knees buckled, giving way to the pressure she felt running through her marrow. She felt dizzy this time, words fading in and out of her ears; she waved her hands around in hopes of touching something, anything at all, to keep her afloat. She was sinking into the dark pit of oblivion.
'I swear, I don't know anything about that..." She tried to say, her trembling hand pointing at the pendant now in Diana's possession.
'Do you really not?" Diana hissed, wanting to have physical contact with the fainting Moon.
'I swear by my life! I swear by the Moon goddess." Moon cried out helplessly as she struggled to see the fading faces of those staring down at her.
'How, then, did it get there?" That was Lilian's voice.
Moon could no longer see who it was but she could identify them by their voices. They had become faceless in her head.
'I don't know! I don't know…" She responded desperately before she busted into tears, her shoulder shaking from the impact, and her chest felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand.
She felt herself falling this time with a loud thump; the voices in her head were just too much to bear, and the murmurs from the mouths of those gathered around didn't help matters.
Soon, she began to feel herself fade into nothingness as a few hands hoisted her up.
‘Was this was Diana meant by me watching my back?' Moon questioned herself as she tried to filter the real voices around her from those in her head, those from her unhappy memories.
'Who knows she would be a thief too?"
'I think I would do the same if I get bullied all over again by the same set of people, but is she stupid keeping it in her room when she could just use it to set one of them up."
'What if this, too, is a setup?" Someone among the little crowd asked, and Moon held on to that, refusing to hear something else as she completely gave way to the overwhelming darkness.
