Behind The Luna’s Mask

1. SMOOTH SET-UP

LIORA’s POV

I bit down on my lower lip in ecstasy as my fiance's hand glided beneath my nightgown and cupped one of my breasts. My fiance, Dorian went on a two-day business trip but I knew he would be back tonight.

Goodness, I miss him so much. My body ache for his touch and my soul yearn for it. So when I heard the door click open after I just tucked myself into bed, I did not bother to open my eyes because I knew it was him. He was the only one who dared to come into my room without knocking.

Alpha Dorian and I have been engaged for six months and we are set to be married in a week. I never believed I could love someone as much as I love him. However, It all started with a lingering crush four years ago.

He was the Beta's son and I was the Alpha's daughter. When I first started crushing on Dorian, he never noticed me for once. I'd quietly join my father and Brother for Pack events just to see his face. I knew my crush on him was pointless because my eighteenth birthday was in a couple of days and if I happened to find my mate and Dorian found his, we would never be together. Fortunately, I never did.

Meanwhile, Dorian found his mate but she died mysteriously three months later. So five months after his mate's death, he professed his love for me.

My joy knew no bounds.

If Dorian had not confessed his love for me three years back when I was nineteen, then perhaps I would have remained single and unloved in my entire twenty-two years of existence.

My father, the previous Alpha of the Shadow Vane Pack, despised my gut because he believed my birth was the reason why he had to lose his wife, while my older brother felt indifferent about it. All my life, I learned to stay away from people. I chose to be the invisible one because my presence according to my father always warrants disaster. But ever since Dorian came into my life, I found peace. I finally found someone who understood me without judgment.

"Hmmm," I pressed my lips tighter as the hand sneaking between my thighs made me release a slow guttural moan.

I love the way Dorian pleasures me. The way his gentle touch sets my skin on fire. I was about to part my legs further when his scent filled my nostrils.

At that minute, my heart skipped a beat.

Every urge and sense of desire I felt vanished completely into thin air. This was not Dorian's scent. I have been with him for far too long not to be able to distinguish it.

Almost at once, I flung my eyes open, feeling a wave of dread wash through me.

"Who are you?" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I tried to scoot away from my assailant but he immediately threw himself on top of me, suppressing me with his weight.

My stomach knotted in disgust as his face hovered a few inches above mine. "Don't scream, sweetheart."

I suddenly felt a wave of nausea. Hearing his voice made me feel like puking but I suppressed that feeling and tried to shove him off me.

Just then, the door to my room burst open and my fiance, Dorian alongside some of the Pack Elders stormed into the room.

"I said it!" Dorian bellowed. "I told you all she was cheating on me!"

"No no no no!" I countered frustratedly while trying to fight off my assailant, who then dragged himself away from me without further tussle. "This is not what you think, Dorian."

Dorian immediately let out a wry chuckle while I jumped out of bed and readjusted my nightgown. My heart was pounding against my chest and my mind was starting to run amok.

"Tell me, Liora... what am I supposed to think?" His tone was filled with disdain. I have never had Dorian talk to me with so much hatred in his voice.

Struggling to bottle up my emotions, I told him. "I don't know this man. I have never seen him before."

His darkened eyes pierced into my soul, making me wish the ground could open up and swallow me. "What do you mean you have never seen him before?" He barked. "Explain how a man could come into your room, what is meant to be your private quarters to have s*x with you and yet you claim you have never seen him before?" He spat disgustfully.

"I swear to you, Dorian. I don't understand too. I do not know him, I swear to the Moon goddess."

I ran to him and tried to hold his right hand but he yanked it out of my grip. "Don't touch me."

Those words cut through my soul and made me feel empty.

"Dorian, please listen to me," I said. My eyes were starting to burn with tears and then I dropped on my knees in front of him. "I would never do this to you. I thought it was you when he climbed on top of me, it was the minute I perceived his scent, that I realized you weren't the one."

"Lies!" Dorian's voice split across the room. He ignored me then went over to my assailant and threw a punch on his face. "How dare you, huh? How dare you come into my fiancee's room? Just how long have you been sleeping with her?"

"Three months." my assailant answered and my eyes widened in horror.

The elders in the room gasped following his response and one of them echoed after him. "Three months?"

I have never seen this man before in my entire life yet he claimed to have been sleeping with me for three months. Me?

"No no. That's a lie! That's a very big lie!" I shrieked, scrambling over to Dorian, who was still holding my assailant. With so much anger in me, I pulled my assailant’s hair. “Tell them the truth! I have never seen you before. Why don't you reveal who sent you?”

Dorian pushed my assailant away from my grasp, then he slapped me across my right cheek. Although my cheek was burning excruciatingly it did not compare to the pain in my heart. The pain of being accused wrongly.

"How could you do this to me, Liora? After everything I have done for you? I supported you when your father and Brother died, I promised to be there for you every step of the way but this is how you choose to repay me?"

I shook my head, tears shamelessly pouring down my cheeks. "No, Dorian. Pl-please" My voice cracked with tears. "Believe me, I don't know that man."

Dorian scowled. "If you say that one more time, I'm going to strangle you here!"

"I can't believe Liora could do something like this." I heard one of the Elders mutter behind me.

"And she grew up to be a fine young lady, I wonder what changed." followed another.

Ignoring them, I focused on the only person that mattered to me in this room. The only man I would lay down my life for if need be.

"Dorian." His name left my lips in a breathless whisper. "I love you with every fiber of my being. I'd never do this to you."

His face contorted with anger and I could swear his eyes changed color. "Stop lying to my face, you w***e!" He raised his fist attempting to hit me and I impulsively cowered in fear, but I never felt the impact.

When I opened my eyes, one of the Elders held his hand mid-air. "Alpha Dorian... I know you are pissed, but hitting her won't sort out this issue. Let's settle it in court."

Dorian hardened his jaw and then he threw me one dirty look. "Let go of my hand, Elder Philip."

Elder Philip obeyed without further questions.

Still glaring at me, Dorian kissed his teeth, walked towards the bedside table, and picked up my cell phone then over to my assailant and dragged him outside my room. Two of the Elders followed right after him while the last one said to me.

"Liora—"

"I swear I didn't do anything, Elder Timothy. I have never met him before." I pleaded, hoping he would believe me since he was my father's most trusted friend.

He shook his head in disbelief. " I want to believe you, Liora. But the compromising situation we met you in, is far too evident. Dress up properly and join us in the courtroom please." he said before walking out of the room and closing the door quietly behind him.

As soon as he left, I slumped to the ground in tears. How did my life turn upside down in just one night? Why would someone come into my room to set me up?

My assailant's face was not familiar. He had thick brows embedded almost at his forehead. His flat nose made a worse job of his already ugly face.

Thinking about him on me made my skin crawl.

"Moon goddess, please save me from this situation." I prayed silently. "I do not want to lose the love of my life."

Gently wiping off my tear-stained cheeks, I slouched over to my wardrobe, pulled out of my nightgown then threw a purple dress on. Thereafter, I joined them in the courtroom.

When I got there, the Elders were already assembled. My assailant was kneeling in the middle of the courtroom with Dorian towering above him. All eyes fell on me as I trudged in.

I have never felt so embarrassed, so humiliated in twenty-two years as much as I did in this moment. My fingers were starting to tremble and my throat kept getting dry.

With my heart thumping loudly, I swallowed hard and stood in the middle of the courtroom.

"How long have you been sleeping with him?" One of the Elders demanded without letting me regain my composure.

"Your wedding is in a week and you couldn't wait to ruin it?" Another chimed in.

"This is very low of you. How do we explain our Luna was caught cheating with a low life for some minute pleasure?"

"I did not do it!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I swear on my father and Brother, I have never seen that man before!"

"Really?" Dorian retorted in a harsh tone. "If you claim you have never seen him before, then explain this." He dialled a number on one phone and my own cellphone in his other hand started ringing. "This is her lover's phone and the other is hers. And from her call logs, she has been receiving calls from him for a very long time."

A loud gasp erupted in the courtroom, while I stumbled backward in shock.

"No no, Dorian. Let me see, this is a mistake." I said to him as I demanded my phone. When he showed it to me, I realized it was the unknown number that had been calling me for quite a while now. Whenever I picked up, the person would refuse to say a word so I ended the call. At some point, I stopped picking.

"Is this also a lie?" Dorian queried disdainfully. "You know what? I'm sick and tired of you lying to my face. The wedding is cancelled and you will be locked up in the royal cell tonight until I decide what to do with you tomorrow."

And there, my whole world crumbled right before my very eyes.

Tears poured shamelessly down my face. "Dorian, please. Please don't do this. I beg of you. I didn't do it. You have to trust me. You have to–"

"My trust ended the minute I saw you with another man!" he sniggered. "Guards! Seize her!"

"Dorian, please, please don't do this! Please, I love you so much. Please remember how far we've come together."

"You should have thought of that before jumping in bed with another man!"

As I continued to beg as if my life depended on it, because it literally did, guards roughly whisked me away from the courtroom and threw me in the royal cell.

Curling in a fetal position, I let my tears flow freely. At this point, I prefer to die than to be faced with this volume of humiliation, this agony, this pain.

The walls were starting to close in on me and I felt suffocated. Who have I offended? How did things get this bad? Why is this happening to me just on the verge of attaining happiness?

"Hey, Liora." I heard Dorian's voice which prompted me to quickly pull myself from the ground and rush to the iron gated door.

"Dorian." I sniffed back tears. "I know you are hurt. I know how this looks but trust me I would never do something this grave to hurt you. I don't know who is doing this to punish me.”

"I am."

My breath hitched.

Wondering if I heard him correctly, I latched my fingers around the iron bars, leaning in then I asked. "What did you just say?"

Dorian crouched in front of me. He looked at me dead straight in the eye with a devilish smirk creeping upon the corner of his lips as he admitted. "I am the one that set you up, Liora."