\[Rosalie’s POV\]
“Rosalie, sweetie, this is your father,” my mother cooes, urging me from behind her. “Come out and say hello.”
In the beginning, life wasn't so bad. I lived a modest life with a loving mother who worked hard to give me the things that I needed. It wasn't bad and we had each other, but even that wasn't enough and eventually led to the start of a dark spiral into despair, lies, deceit, and a struggle for power.
I was born to a maid who lived in the countryside. This particular maid fell in love with a handsome warrior who just so happened to have a secret identity that he never revealed to her. And because of that, I didn’t meet my father until I was five years old. All I knew of him were the stories that my mother told, and although I hoped one day he would return and save us, I knew deep down that he wouldn't, and I had in the end convinced myself that he was a liar who tricked my gullible mother.
Slowly, I began to move while clutching my mother’s skirt so that I had a sense of security. Peeking around her body, I see a man with raven black hair and piercing green eyes—the very same eyes that I possessed and that the villagers considered cursed.
“Hello,” the man chuckles, kneeling down so that his gaze is able to meet my own. “Don’t be afraid, little one.”
As he reaches out, I dart behind my mother once more and hide.
“Sorry,” my mother sighs. “Rosalie is a bit shy.”
“Rosalie,” the man repeats. “That’s a beautiful name. It’s perfect for such a beautiful girl.” As he speaks, he continues to take me in with those eyes, which seem to almost see into my soul. “I won’t hurt you, little one.”
Won’t hurt me? How was I supposed to believe such a thing when all I knew was suffering due to the way I looked? Of course, my mother didn’t know about the tauntings and beatings I suffered because I didn’t want her to be sad, but I felt she had an idea. Maybe that was why this man was here now, staring at me and seeming to truly be interested in me.
“Rosalie,” my mother murmurs, turning and kneeling in front of me. “I know that you’re afraid, but Gusto is here to help you.”
For the first time since this meeting began, I noticed that my mother’s eyes were filled with tears, and a look of despair rested in them.
“Mommy,” I whisper, reaching out and wiping a tear from her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
For a moment, she didn’t speak as she continued to take me in, and when a sad smile crossed her beautiful features, I knew I wasn’t going to like what I heard next.
“Mommy is unable to protect you,” she murmurs, taking both my hands. “And because of that, you must go with your father, understand?”
These words were the ones that changed everything, and no amount of kicking and screaming changed the outcome. On that beautiful day where the weather was perfect and the sky was bright blue, my hell began, and it was all because I wasn’t strong enough to protect not only myself but my mother.
After that, I was taken back to Silver Moon, where my father was the alpha. Of course, I wasn’t accepted since I was an illegitimate child with a poor bloodline flowing through my veins. Just like in the village with my mother, I was tortured and treated like a pariah, especially by my father’s luna and their daughter.
At first, the abuse was simply verbal, but after my father grew sick from an unknown illness, it progressed to physical, and when he died, everything went downhill. I was thrown into a cell and kept as a slave until my stepmother and sister decided what to do with me. Day in and day out, I was starved and left for dead until the day the ambassador from Blood Moon came, demanding the daughter of Silver Moon as his bride.
The alpha of Blood Moon was a cruel man with a horrible reputation that consisted of murdering those who disobeyed him, sharing the women of his pack, and using his brides as baby-making machines; if they didn’t birth a male heir, he killed them.
Of course, my stepmother didn’t want my stepsister wed to that man, but she couldn’t deny his request as Silver Moon was struggling financially after my father’s death thanks to my stepmother and sister’s insatiable spending habits. So in place of my stepsister, I was promised to the alpha and released from my prison.
Although you would think things would get better after that, you’re wrong. Even if I was released, I was still treated like a prisoner and still beaten and bloodied on a regular basis, but I was at least fed and given an actual bed to sleep in, and when I turned eighteen, I was sent off to Blood Moon, where my fiance waited for me.
On that very day, we were wed in a small chapel with only his ambassador and mother present, and after that, I became his toy.
Day in and day out, I was used as a means for pleasure and the release of frustration. My existence became worse than death, and when he finished with me and left me bloodied on the bed, I prayed to the goddess to die, but I never did.
For three years, this continued until the day that he decided to share me with his beta and delta.
I would never forget their disgusting grins and their hungry eyes as they swarmed me and then held me down while one by one they took me again and again while my husband watched on as one of his mistresses pleasured him.
It was during all of this that something in me snapped, and when I was released, all I could think of was killing those that hurt me. It was this need that led me to that mirror and urged me to break it so I could grab a piece of it and then attack.
It was also during all of this that I let the darkness that tormented me day in and day out loose so that she could bloody her hands while I watched on in both shock and happiness.
I did try to escape after murdering every fucking one of them, but it didn’t take long for me to be captured and then sent to prison, where I awaited my fate. Little did I know that I still wouldn’t be given the death that I longed for; instead, I was sent away to the auctions and then sold to the ruthless Diego so that an all-new hell would begin.