Chapter 1 – Betrayal

Anastasia.

“Princess, do you want the diamond necklace or the pearl one? Both match your dress quite well.” The maid addressed me with a smile lifting up two boxes of jewelry in her hand, showing me.

I looked at the two boxes and picked out the diamond one with a smile.

“This. Nothing better suits a princess than a diamond. Don’t you think so?”

The maids nodded in unison. “Yes.”

As I went out of my room the maids followed me behind.

“Make sure to fix my hair from time to time so that I won’t look unpresentable in any way,” I commanded, glaring at Lucy, the clumsy one among the rest of the maids.

She fixed her posture and nodded becoming alarmed. “Y-yes, Princess.”

I went down the stairs, looking at the crowd that had gathered to attend my engagement ceremony.

I could feel satisfied with my dress up when I heard one among the crowd point at me saying how pretty I looked whispering to her friend next to her.

Why won’t I look pretty? I’m the princess after all.

When I went downstairs I saw Ryan sitting with two servants at his side.

His dad wasn’t as present as I thought he would be.

“Ryan,” I called, grabbing onto my dress, and lifting it up a bit.

He heard my voice and stood up on his feet right away.

“Ana,” he murmured as he walked over to my side in a hurry.

He puts on a smiling face the next second.

“You look beautiful, Ana.”

“I’m flattered,” I respond sweetly. “Where is your father? Uncle doesn’t seem to be present.”

He seemed to look a bit nervous when I asked him that.

“Uh…he said he didn’t feel well. He’ll come later he said.” He replied, putting on a forced smile.

“I see….”.

I saw my mom coming up to us along with my younger sister.

“Get the ceremony started then,” Mom said, turning to me.

“But, where’s Father?” I asked out of curiosity. I swear I hadn’t seen him coming out of his room all day.

Where is he at?

“He’s not coming.” My sister Freya replied right away.

“He had hurt his leg yesterday so he’s on bed rest.”

“What?”.

“Why wasn’t I aware of that?”.

“Cause he told you not to worry,” Mom replied, patting my shoulder.

“Go on with the ceremony.”

I thought over it for a second and looked at Ryan’s face.

Well…I can see him after this. It had been my childhood dream to get engaged with Ryan. There’s no way I can interrupt it just because Father won’t be attending it as I thought he would.

“Yes,” I heaved a sigh and stood in front of Ryan.

The maids brought the rings and held them in front of us.

I picked up the ring and turned to Ryan.

He held out his hand and I placed it in his finger.

Then he took the ring and I held out my hand to him.

My heart was throbbing in excitement at the thought of marrying my childhood crush and boyfriend.

But, right before he was able to put the ring inside my finger we heard a loud yelling coming from behind, “The King’s dead!”.

Being startled, Ryan dropped the ring out of shock and it went away somewhere we weren’t able to see.

“What do you mean the king’s dead?” Mom asked, glaring at the servant who was yelling.

“Is this a joke or something?”.

The servant came downstairs and ran up to Mom’s side.

“Yes, I’m telling the truth, The king is dead!” she stated with a cleared throat.

Everyone started whispering around us hearing the news.

“Or rather he was killed,” the servant said, giving me a glare.

I became puzzled.

“Killed by whom?” Freya asked.

“By none other than Princess Anastasia!” the servant pointed at me in front of everyone.

I was dumbfounded by her accusations.

Why would I kill my own father?

“You are accusing a princess in broad daylight. Do you have any evidence behind it?” Ryan grunted, stepping forward.

She nodded, holding something in her hands.

“The earrings of Princess Anastasia that she usually wears, I found them on the floor in Lord’s bedroom.”

Hearing that I rushed up to her side and picked it up from her hand to identify it.

“It is my earring, the one that my father had given me for my birthday. What was it doing in his room?” I mumbled.

Everyone gasped in shock.

“You killed him?” Mom asked out loud drawing everyone’s attention.

I look at her in shock.

“N-no, why would I- and most importantly we haven’t seen his body yet. How can you accuse me of killing him?” I retorted.

“Let’s go and see before you accuse me.”

I rushed towards Father’s room. Anxiety filled my brain. How did father die?

Mom said she had hurt his knees, then how?

What the heck is happening today?

I arrived in front of his room for a minute, and the door was wide open so I stepped inside right away.

“Father! Where are you?” I yelled. “Fath-“

I saw his lifeless body lying in bed with his eyes open.

His face had become blue, along with his limbs.

My legs froze at the spot of seeing him like that.

He was….he was dead... for real….

“Let me see!” Mom rushed past me and went to check up on him.

Freya went as well. Ryan came and checked on Dad also.

“The rumors I heard downstairs were right after all,” I heard a voice behind me.

I turned around to see Uncle Russ, Ryan’s dad standing.

“Uncle?” I called out to him out of shock.

He looked at me with his dead cold eyes.

“Princess Anastasia, You are under arrest for killing our Pack’s Alpha Alfred Ravens.”

“And your title of Princess shall be taken away from you, and will be exiled from the pack shortly.”

“This shall be absolute punishment for a cold-blooded killer like you who can kill her own father in order to inherit the wealth and properties.”

I couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth.

Me? A killer? For real?

“Killer!” Mom screamed out in tears.

“You killed my husband!”.

I look at her and she’s looking at me with her teary eyes.

“We shouldn’t have adopted you in the first place!”.

Freya was also crying, but she didn’t seem to be too affected by anything.

“No, I didn’t do this! Believe me!” I yelled out loud.

“Ryan, you believe that I didn’t do any of this, right?”.

I held out for hope. If you don’t trust me, I’ll have nowhere to go.

Ryan glanced at my father and looked at me with a face of disbelief.

“I’m breaking off my engagement with you, Anastasia.” He stated.

“I can’t get married to a killer.”

“Sorry.”

I felt my heart breaking into millions of pieces with his single statement.

Breaking off our engagement?

Like this….

“You have to come with us!” Ross said, looking at me.

Guards entered the room and held me by both arms.

“We can’t keep a killer on the loose.”

“No, you can’t!”.

“Mom, I’m not a killer!” I pleaded hard.

“I didn’t kill Dad. Believe me!”.

“Liar!” Freya yelled, glaring at me. “Your earring was right here. Yet, you are lying.”

“Take her away, Uncle.”

“We don’t need a fake princess.”

Fake Princess? What was this all about anyway?

“Mom-“

“Don’t call me your mom!” she retorted, wiping away her tears.

“I didn’t give birth to you.”

“We adopted you when you were a newborn.”

“The only princess in this room is, Freya.” She placed her arms around her shoulders protectively.

“She’s my daughter.”

“We’ll take her out of here right away,” Ross said, glancing at the guards.

“Let’s go.”

They were dragging me out of the room forcefully.

“No, I’m not going. Don’t take me away! I’m not a killer!”

Believe me! Why did no one believe in me?

I didn’t kill anyone. I was the real princess.

Why did no one believe in me?

***

I was held prisoner in a room downstairs with two guards standing next to me while they chained my hands with locks.

There was one more guard at the door so that I wouldn’t run away.

After 30 minutes, I heard footsteps approaching the room.

I looked up to see who it was and turned out to be Uncle Ross.

He came and stood right in front of me, bringing a paper in his hands.

“Anastasia,” he called, glaring at me.

“Your father is confirmed to be dead by poisoning, the doctor said. And after considering all the evidence found in the room which are your belongings, we have confirmed you to be the murderer.”

“And your mother stated that she doesn’t consider you to be her daughter as you don’t have Alpha’s blood in you. so, along with your fake princess title, you are to be exiled from the pack. This is the decision of the pack members who are present at the castle.”

“These papers have your statements written where you accept that you have killed the King, sign them and the guards will accompany you out of the borders safely.”

“Farewell, Princess,” he added with a smirk