Reborn As Queen Luna

CHAPTER FOUR: PINK, RED, WHITE

It was hard pretending to be fine when everything came crashing down for Theia as a memory returned. Right in the middle of the dinner table with Ace seated beside her on her right, trying hard not to make his fascination too obvious.

Payback was a b***h, wasn’t that they said?

Picking up her glass of water, she raised the liquid to her lips and could have killed herself when she felt her hands trembling. Damn, girl! Get a grip. But what had started like a brief souvenir transformed into a full moment inside her mind, engulfing her.

It was about someone called Bluebell Kelley, someone she’d never met before, but whom she could feel inside her body. The flashback began as detailed as it had happened yesterday.   

“Blue, why don’t you focus, damn it!!!” someone cried in sheer frustration. “How can you be bad at everything?” Theia could feel Bluebell Kelley’s frustration and anger as she instantly snapped back to attention to where her sister Shana was barring her teeth at her in repressed annoyance. It wasn’t something Bluebell hadn’t heard before. In fact, if she recalled correctly, those words were repeated to her at least thrice a day like a dose of antibiotics.

She grimaced. “Alright, I am trying!” she responded, jumping backward and forward to avoid the blows that her sister was throwing her way. Shana was the fittest among her siblings, and her father seemed to have espoused the brilliant idea of making Blue lose some weight and train at the same time.

Kill two birds with one stone, her parents had both informed. Although Blue knew they thought they were doing her a favor instead. Make their youngest daughter socially acceptable in the least.

Except that Blue knew better. She was very much aware of how disappointed her mother was in her. Nothing she did seemed enough. She had the silliest notion that if she were to pluck the stars from the sky, her mother would still find a way to make her feel inadequate.

Why did it have to be her? She had three gorgeous sisters Fawn was the eldest, married to an Alpha of another pack, proud mother of two Alpha blooded pups, a formidable Luna, as her father would reflect as his bedtime stories.

Shana was part of the hunters’ team and was exceptionally skilled to hunt down preys and make sure that the pack had an abundance of food. Another achievement as female huntress was rare in their pack, but a twenty-year-old huntress was another original accomplishment.

Last but not least was Ezra, a delta werewolf training to be the next replacement beta. A first for a female, as her mother would frequently remind her.

Then, there was her. Bluebell. Even her name was something ludicrous unlike the glamorous ones which had been given to her sisters. Bad at hunting. Worse at fighting. And worst at having a chance to meet the love of her life. Well, she’d already met him. He certainly didn’t share the same viewpoint as her. Instead, he considered her to be a freak.

No wonder. Ace Lucky Stone would never fall for a loser like her. N.E.V.E.R. And she would never give up on her feelings for him. N.E.V.E.R.

Two ‘nevers’ which would never cross paths. So, she didn’t harbor any hope in that department either. It might as well serve her a better purpose to wish for the moon, but the heart wants what the heart wants. She sighed in a beleaguered exhalation.

“Bluuuuuuuuuuue!!!” Shana shrieked in sheer fury, when she only retreated from the blows instead of trying to dodge and fight back. Besides, her head was already on cloud nine when thoughts of Ace invaded her mind. “You’re useless!”

A few snickers sounded to her right, and Blue did her best not to flinch at what would most obviously follow. She’d only agreed to that farce because her father had promised her that they would have maximum privacy. That was why they were practicing at the hangar where her father worked.

How the mean girls managed to sneak in there was an enigma for her – they always managed to infiltrate in her life like she was some kind of celebrity which they followed everywhere. Was she that worth pursuing?

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she turned her head towards the group of girls who had recently entered the gym area which had been occupied only by her and her sister only one minute ago. The secluded place felt corrupted with their presence, the heavy drift of perfume polluting the fresh air.

Chelsea Reddington was the leader of the group; her blonde perfect willowy figure would be the dream of any man. She was the most favorable for the next Luna – Ace’s mate. Sophia and Kate were next in line, although personally Blue couldn’t find much difference between all three. Tall blondes with similar blue eyes – they seemed to have been manufactured from the same factory.

Their ’types’ were what men seemed to prefer though, even if they were all empty-headed and selfish. A good heart hardly mattered. Blue was well aware of that, but she couldn’t help feeling resentment against the whole male population. Can they think with their brains instead of their ahem ahem?

Another perfume drifted in the air, and the hackles on her skin raised in alarm, and she straightened her curled position immediately. It would be mortifying for Ace to catch her all sweaty and a complete failure. A.G.A.I.N.

A quick glance at Shana made her sigh in envy as her sister looked even sexier with sweat gleaming over her body, her flat tummy obvious from her tank top, with her toned arms falling at her side when she realized that Blue was no longer fighting.

“Blue. Can you focus? Please? Goddess only knows what goes on in that crazy head of yours, girl!” Shana shook her head at her in disappointment, and when she didn’t respond, her sister just walked out of the room.

No wait! Blue wanted to shout, gathering her things quickly to follow her sister quickly. She so didn’t want to be left alone in the company of the mean girls, or Ace. He would be accompanied by his Beta Trevor and his Gamma Noah – he rarely went anywhere without them trailing after him like two loyal dogs.

Her backpack thrown over her shoulders, she was about to make a clean exit, when her vision blurred, and a pair of shiny Gucci shoes appeared in her line of sight.

That catchy song of Capone came into her mind right at that instant.

Oh no, Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no. Oh no, Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no.

“Pink!” a familiar rumble greeted with obvious glee. “Fancy seeing you here,” he drawled sardonically, rolling the words inside his mouth like he was appreciating an expensive wine. There was no mistake of the sadistic relish that he exceptionally took while bullying her. If she didn’t know better, she would bet that he enjoyed being mean to her.

“Blue,” she corrected between gritted teeth. Did he do that on purpose? Mess up her name with every other color except the right one. “My name’s Blue.” Really, how hard it was for him to remember a simple color?

As usual, he blatantly ignored her correction, and turned towards his two stooges Trevor and Noah. “Trev, is that her new hobby?”

Trevor and Noah scoffed in response as it was expected of them. Whatever mean comment Ace would come up with, they would always react like he’d cracked the funniest joke. Blue pursed her lips in displeasure, but she knew better than to respond with an answer.

It would only serve as fuel for more ragging. Ace’s grin widened with a devilish streak, and Blue ordered her heart not to melt. He was not someone admirable, it was just a stupid crush that she harbored for him. Something superficial which will eventually fade away.

“I propose she comes with us on the next hunt? What do you guys think? She will make a great huntress, wouldn’t she?”

There was a loud guffaw from the group of the mean girls, and Blue resisted the urge to growl fiercely towards the assembly. The only thing retaining her was that the more she showed them how affected she was, the more malevolent they would become. It seemed that they got the kick out of the baiting only when it rattled her.

Both Trevor’s and Noah’s large shoulders shook uncontrollably as he tried to check his laughter, and Blue just stood clenching her jaw until it ached. She refused to look at him. It would cause her even more anguish to catch that unmistakable and omnipresent disdain she would always perceive in her regard.

“Wouldn’t she end up as our prey instead?” Noah suggested in his nice teasing tone and a dead-pan face, which only made the others chuckle gleefully, giving complete freedom to their mirth.

“She might,” Ace added provocatively with a predatory gleam in his green eyes. “Red would make a hefty meal for us three,” he inferred nastily, referring to her fat form in deliberate goading.

“Blue,” she amended once again, relaxing her tight grip on the strap of her bag, and shifting from one foot to another. The idea was to make them believe that she was bored out of her mind, and maybe, just maybe they would leave her alone. Tears of maudlin self-pity started to well up in her eyes, and she blinked them back furiously.

It would appall her to cry in front of anyone – she never shredded tears in front of an audience. At nights though, it was a different matter altogether.

You don’t matter, his eyes and stance seemed to shout. Blue, pink, red or white, what difference would it make?

Debilitated, she looked away and was shocked to find a finger under her chin, applying enough pressure to lift her face. Green feline eyes inadvertently clashed with hers. Her fiery amber lit with a defiant fire as she stared back at him rebelliously. Enough was enough!

Mock all you want, she conveyed with her eyes what she couldn’t pronounce in words. I don’t give a damn about what you think of me.

His pupils dilated, a clear indication that he received the message, a muscle tic moved in his jaw as only reaction. It showed that he was annoyed, and Blue didn’t know whether to feel thrilled to have extracted a reaction from him. Ace Stone was famous for being unfazed and stoic about everything around him. Nothing and no one unnerved him.

The unflappable Alpha was disturbed with her mutinous stance – it was a first. She’d always tolerated their ragging with a certain amount of demureness and had never retaliated before. Not even with her eyes. That fact that Ace seemed to be reading her so well should have spooked her.

His next words however whooshed the breath out of her body, piercing directly at her heart which constricted in pain. Words which were meant to knock her out of the arena ring without mercy.

“White, why don’t you show us some of your skills?” he urged offensively, while knowing that she would only end up making a fool of herself. Blue swallowed through the bile rising at her throat, a fake smile plastered over her face as she frantically looked for an escape route.