Chapter 2 Expelled

Albert's POV:

"Oh, my poor daughter..."

I sat on my desk, holding Camille's photo and stroking her face with my trembling fingers. Until now, I still hadn't avenged her, and I was ridden with absolute guilt.

While I was wallowing in pain, my wife Andrea walked into my study.

"Albert, Celine has left already. I told her that as long as she successfully takes revenge, you will accept her again." Andrea looked down at the floor and sighed. "I was just thinking... Are you maybe being too cruel to Celine? I mean, you're asking her to kill her own biological parents... Maybe it's too much..."

"What? No way!" I put Camille's photo back in my drawer and immediately refused.

"Albert, I know Camille's death was a big blow to you, but it's been eighteen years. We need to move on." Andrea looked down at my drawer and sighed.

"No, Andrea. Those murderers must pay their price!" I glared back at Andrea.

"But... it was Camille's fault, wasn't it? She shouldn't have--"

I interrupted Andrea and pounded my fist onto my desk. "No! My daughter did nothing wrong. It was all the Red Maple Pack's doing! Their Alpha and Luna must pay. A life for a life! Even worse, I want them to die in the hands of their very own daughter!"

Celine was not my real granddaughter. She was just a tool for my revenge. A mere instrument to have my revenge on the Alpha and the Luna of Red Maple Pack -- her own biological parents!

Eighteen years had passed ever since I received that horrible news. My daughter had been killed by Alpha Peter and Luna Serena of the Red Maple Pack. Poor Camille! Just the very thought of imagining her breathing her last breath alone, in a foreign land and without any family around her, was enough to make me break down every time.

I couldn't believe that my sweet, sensible daughter had been killed. Worst of all, her corpse was also nowhere to be found.

As a father, I was overcome with guilt that I couldn't protect my own daughter, nor could I even give her body a proper burial. My hatred for her murderers had grown out of control. I spent the rest of the year, racking my brains for ways to avenge my daughter.

But it seemed that simple thinking was not enough. The Red Maple Pack was one of the most powerful packs. Their Luna Serena was also a very powerful hybrid. Alone, I would never be able to match them in a fight at all. If I wanted to have my revenge, I had to come up with another way.

After years of careful plotting, I finally offered a werewolf in the Red Maple Pack a large sum of money to kidnap the Alpha and Luna's precious daughter. I then asked a witch to even conceal her scent to avoid getting discovered.

I named the child Celine.

For seventeen years now, I kept Celine under my roof and raised her while telling her that her parents had been brutally murdered by the Alpha and Luna of the Red Maple Pack.

There was nothing crueler than a family that wanted to kill each other. When the time came, Peter and Serena would meet their daughter again, only to find out that she was raised to kill them. Oh, the pain that they would feel! I looked forward to the day they would battle each other.

But Celine turned out to be a disappointment. Not only did she fail to inherit her mother's powers, but her wolf hadn't even shown after she turned eighteen. She was always hiding somewhere in the pack, claiming that she was doing some training. But I never saw her planning her revenge. What was the use of wasting so much time staying in the pack, doing nothing at all?

As my patience was running thin, I came to know our Alpha's decision of expelling Celine. I accepted the arrangement, happily almost. At the same time, I used this vulnerable time of hers to fuel her desire for revenge, hoping that she would eventually run into her own parents and kill them for me.

"Celine, my dear, don't let me down."

Celine's POV:

The next day, I safely arrived at the Full Moon Pack.

Because I had a letter of recommendation from my grandma, the Alpha let me meet him in person.

I walked down a long corridor and could hear my heart beating in my chest. The Alpha of the Full Moon Pack was also powerful. If he found out that I still didn't have a wolf, I was afraid he would throw me out too. Then I would truly be a rogue.

I arrived at the door of Alpha Liam's office and took a deep breath to calm myself down. I brought my hand up and knocked a couple of times.

"Come in," I heard Alpha Liam say from the inside.

His cold, low voice frightened me. With my trembling hands, I pushed the door open. What if he found out that I didn't have a wolf?

When I saw Alpha Liam, I guessed that he was probably in his thirties. His deep set eyes matched the coldness in his voice, and seemed to see right through my soul.

"Come, take a seat." He nodded his head toward the chair that was opposite him.

I lowered my head and walked in, not daring to look into his eyes. I meekly slipped my recommendation letter onto his desk. He took a minute to read the letter. But then he sharply turned to me.

"Why is your wolf scent so light?"

"I was told I also had vampire blood in me. I'm a hybrid." I recited to him the answer I had prepared on the way here.

"Why were you driven out by your old pack?"

"A group of she-wolves ganged up on me and got me expelled..."

My voice trailed off when I saw Alpha Liam stand up and look down at me. He was like the personification of the word 'threat'.

"Since you have been expelled from your old pack, if I don't take you in, you're going to become a rogue. Listen, the Full Moon Pack will not tolerate useless people. If you want to earn your keep, you must prove yourself."

"I will do anything, Alpha." I was relieved to hear that Alpha Liam didn't probe further into my identity. He just seemed to be asking me to work for him.

"I'm assigning you to take care of my brother Lucas. You are to report to me his every move. All the maids I hired for him had been driven away. If you can show me that you can stay by his side and help me take care of him, then I will let you stay. Do you understand?"

Was he asking me to just keep an eye on his brother Lucas? I thought it would be a simple job. All I needed to do was to look after an ill-tempered man. Instead, I began to realize that I was being forced into a situation full of tension between two brothers, which would just complicate my plans even more.

For now, I had no choice.

"Yes, Alpha. Don't worry. I will give it my best," I promised him while wondering their relationship.