"You're right!" Olivia snapped.... "I used the herbs to steal your identity! Why don't you tell the Alpha to banish me as a punishment for my crime?!"
The silence that followed was heavier than any roar. Olivia just admitted to stealing the scent and asking to be banished? The same omega who was always on her knees pleading for mercy before and a pitiful runt?
All her life she'd been mistreated by this people. Treated less than a person and worse, always being dragged to the mud whenever her late mother's name was brought up.
Even if she didn't steal the scent, it was still obvious in their faces that they were hell bent on believing that she was responsible for being fated to the triplet Alphas.
It wouldn't make any difference if she were to claim being guilty. After all, it was all they wanted to hear.
The Alpha narrowed his eyes. That was a plausible explanation because there was no way the divine would choose someone unworthy as the breaker of traditions. An omega, a Luna? And not just for one, all three of his sons?.
He cleared his throat, his voice like frost.
"Take her to the dungeons. She will await punishment for what she has done."
Olivia didn't bat an eye in his direction but as she was being dragged away by the guards, she smirked at Sheryl. This wasn't what she had expected. Yes, she wouldn't be the same girl always at her feet pleading with her anymore! Times have changed!
***
The dungeons had been dark and smelled of damp, but Olivia had endured far worse for it to take a huge toil on her.
What she hadn't expected was to be released the next morning and given laundry duty.
Not execution or the banishment she wanted, but scrubbing the clothes and undergarments of royals.
It was insulting.
She had confessed and admitted to the crime that they were so desperate to pin on her. She'd hoped her so-called guilt would grant her one thing she wanted which was freedom.
But no, they couldn't risk letting her leave the palace grounds. Why? Because she was now tied to the Alpha Princes—three of them? Because they didn't want her away from them for fear of the mate bond? For fear of pain coming to her as fated mates always felt each other's pains?
Even punishment had become a prison.
As the day dragged on, her hands grew sore from washing and wringing fabrics that didn't belong to her. She'd scrubbed through silk and bloodstained tunics, through perfume-soaked cloaks and ceremonial robes. The royals, of course, didn't bother hiding their disdain. She could feel their eyes like needles in her skin whenever she went to each of their doors to take the laundry.
By evening, there was only two doors left to knock on.
Sheryl's and Zenon's.
Olivia exhaled, knuckles rapping against the Beta's daughter's ornate door.
No answer came.
By the third time she knocked and got no response, she opened it anyway.
The room reeked of floral oils and bitterness. And the floor—strewn with dozens of garments, some clearly clean and intentionally dirtied.
Too many clothes for just a day. Too many even if they were for a week.
Olivia's brow furrowed.
"What is this?" she asked. Again no response came to her question even though Sheryl was in the room and had noticed her come in.
"These clothes are clean Sheryl. Look at some of them, I remember doing the laundry for you yesterday before your birthday party, how can all these clothes be dirty?" She complained.
Sheryl turned from her vanity mirror slowly, a cruel glint in her eye. Her lips curled, and before Olivia could react, a sharp slap cracked across her cheek.
"You're not here to ask questions Olivia ! You're here to serve," Sheryl said, then stomped her dirty heel onto one of the dresses she'd flung on the floor earlier. "And since you want to play Luna so much, why don't you start by rewashing that."
Olivia's jaw tensed and her face burned.
Sheryl tilted her head mockingly. "You should've stayed in your place, mutt. Dreams don't suit you. You'll never be Luna. Not now. Not ever. Whether you steal my scent or not, you'll always be nothing. You'll always remain my slave!"
For a second, silence fell again.
But this time, Olivia didn't shrink. Sheryl carefully planned this to irk her, why give her what she wanted when she was no longer a servant of the beta's household?
She scuffed, a bitter laugh leaving her lips. "Still trying to convince yourself, huh?"
Sheryl's brow twitched.
Olivia met her confused gaze, her voice low but laced with venom. "You were never fated to them. Not even one. You've been rejected by fate itself, and the only reason you can't accept it is because I'm the proof."
"Lies!" Sheryl shrieked and struck her again.
But this time Olivia caught her wrist mid-air.
So the slap never landed.
Sheryl's eyes widened.
"You can't take it, can you?" Olivia said, stepping closer. Her voice was quiet and dangerous. "You keep screaming that I stole something. But if I did, why didn't even one of your supposed mates recognize you? Not Knox. Not Kade. Not even Zenon. And if they were really yours, do you think a scent trick would be enough to pull fate apart?"
"You shut your mouth!" Sheryl seethed, trying to yank her hand back.
But Olivia didn't let go.
She leaned in, her words like a dagger. "You didn't lose to me because I cheated. You lost because fate never chose you. I am their mate. And deep down, even you know it."
Sheryl's face twisted into rage, but she couldn't move.
For the first time in her life, Olivia saw something flicker in her enemy's eyes.....fear.
The same she'd always felt whenever she received her text messages in the tiny phone al servants of her father owned. What she always felt whenever she heard the sounds of heels passing.
"You think I'll let this happen?" Sheryl spat.
"I think it's already happening," Olivia replied, unbothered about whatever she would try to do further.
So far she knew, the Alpha and his Luna, whether or not their hatred for her ran deep like the pacific ocean can't punish her physically. Not when their precious princes would feel any and every pain inflicted on her.
So they'd resort to giving her menial tasks to make her feel sad and tired. But never enough to inflict physical injuries on her.
She dropped Sheryl's wrist and stepped back.
Sheryl stared, trembling with fury.
"I'll see to it you never set foot near them again," she growled. "I'll make the Alpha reject you in front of the entire court. I'll ruin whatever illusion this is."
Olivia, despite the sting on her cheek and the ache in her bones, smiled.
"You'll try," she said, picking up the clothes. "But try as you might, you can't change what's already written in the stars."
Sheryl's face was laced with malice and disgust as she watched her lean to the floor to pick up the dirty clothes.
"What's going on here?" A deep voice snarled. It did not carry any tinge of kindness and immediately the two girls turned their heads towards the direction it came from.