Mated to A Rival Alpha-Chapter 369: A Mother’s Greatest Pain

[CEZAEVI] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"You all have been thinking that the prince’s twin died. She didn’t die, and the king didn’t give her away like you all were thinking. Jeon Junghwa is alive, and she has always been so close to you, always. You have all met her when interacting with Rania.

"Though I doubt Rania even knows that the person she would protect with her life without even thinking twice, is the twin of the prince, or even the daughter of the very people who hurt her the most," Yanna said and they all looked at each other.

"No way," Luna Park and Queen Eunbi said at the same time.

The realization was one that they had never thought possible and while it was a possibility that this was all crazed up, the werewolf queen had seen how the former Incayon Luna had acted about her kid.

She had seen for herself the way that Luna Kim had taunted her, like the woman knew where her daughter was and was never ever going to tell her.

Sadly enough, that is what had happened because no matter what they had been through, the Incayon Luna couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth, one so forbidden, especially in the Incayon hallways.

It was the kind that no one would ever wish even for their worst enemy and yet as the prisoners stood in the house they were built for in the Cezaevi, they couldn’t deny that this was easily the cruelest thing that could have happened.

The fact that Yanna was confirming it all, was just wild. A child whose existence they didn’t know of had been the one to come to them with the news of what they had never expected. It was almost like fate was working overtime, but was it?

"Lim Dalrae is Jeon Junghwa," Queen Eunbi said, though her tone wasn’t the kind of tone she always used on people she despised and hated.

It was the soft tone to a mother who had lost her children, a mother whose reality was slowly losing balance, and more than anything, a mother who had given up a lot for the children she hadn’t found.

For years, Eunbi had blamed herself for the loss of her children. She had hated who she had to become and she had been forced into a shell of who she was once supposed to be.

Instead of being the ultimate queen, the woman had been reduced to a mother who never got to see any of her children grow up. She had been reduced to the most powerful woman unable to save her own kids, or even fend for them.

She had the power, the ability and yet as the years went by, the universe had denied her the chance to be a mother to her children.

All she had ever wished for, was to be the mother her kids needed and be proud of, yet here they were two decades later with her children around her. Some had been her enemies, yet some had no idea they belonged to her.

She was the most unfortunate of mothers and nothing could ever make her change that.

"What?" Jungwoo asked as he looked at Yanna. He hadn’t known much about the sister he had been determined to save, but hearing that the woman he had been best friends with, his former best friend, was his twin sister was just something else.

He had broken the bonds to save Yanna. He had ruined everything because he had wanted to find justice for his sister. Funny how the fates had him condemning one sister for the other. What the hell did that even make him?

An inconsistent bastard? But then was he, when he had been so clear with Dalrae and Rani? They had known what would happen and yet they were back to the same loop. The people they had been had long faded with time.

The people they had strived to be had long disappeared and right now, as they watched each other in shock, and the cruel realization, Jungwoo couldn’t help but wonder if there was a curse on their family.

No family had this many problems at once. No family had this many secrets and more than anything, no family was supposed to lose so much at the same time.

"Impossible," the werewolf king, Seojoon, whispered as the thoughts of what he had done over the years came rushing to him.

Now that he thought about it, when Dalrae had come to save Rania at the lunar trial, she had been a little too strong for a regular wolf. She was too powerful because only someone born of royal blood would have managed to swing Jungwoo against the wall that hard.

There had been anger in her eyes, and a sign of danger. She had made them remember that she would burn them all if they so much as raised a hand on her sister. And they hadn’t listened, hence the phase that Calindra was stuck in.

Dalrae had been so overprotective despite being younger. She had always had Rania’s and Incayon’s back. She was the girl that everyone knew Rania would go to war for, and even in this room, they knew the sisters couldn’t be separated.

Hell, Rania had threatened everyone in the realm to never try and raise a finger against her sister and she has proven it time and again with the endless bodies she had left in her wake. She had been clear with everyone.

No one was allowed to hurt her sister.

The same applied to Dalrae too.

How the fuck were the royals going to handle the situation this time? And more than anything, how the fuck was Lim Dalrae supposed to accept that she was their daughter? Would Rania even believe that?

"I found it out by accident. I heard Brent talking to some of the warlocks when I had come from Drawn. They talked about the grand kidnap that had left the crown crippled for years and the queen jumbled up to date.

"I hadn’t expected it and wanted to use it against Rania. But I knew she would kill me if I said anything about Dalrae, good, bad, or even the truth. No one in the realm talks about Dalrae without the shadow of Rania’s dangerous aura hovering over them.

"I didn’t know who to tell and that was the first secret that I kept from the world. Funny yet sad at the same time, what we have been reduced to anyway," Yanna said defeatedly. She could see that her mother, the werewolf queen was slowly giving up.

Each time she was learning about things that were supposed to be impossible. She was able to embrace the children around her. Hell, she hadn’t even hugged her son who had been with her in the dungeon.

She hadn’t even said hello to Yanna and talked to her like a mother would, and now, she was being told that her missing child, the one she had been made to believe had died, was on the side of their enemy and ready to bring down the world for their enemy.

Then again, was Rania really an enemy for making sure to protect Lim Dalrae from anything and everything? Was she the foe, for always being protective of the only girl she considered a sister?

"Fate has got to be a cruel son of a bitch at this point," Nate sighed as he plopped on the cold floor.

They had been here and listening to everything come out, though honestly, it was scaring them with every second.

It was wild as fuck and no matter how anyone would have wanted to put it, there was no denying that whatever they were all going through had to be the worst of it all.

"My Junghwa is alive?" Eunbi whispered defeatedly, as she looked at her husband with hope.

She had always blamed herself for the death of her daughter. She had always wanted to make things better. She wanted to wish that she could trade her life for her daughter, because she trusted that her husband could take good care of their children.

Oh, but there were so many things that the queen had wished for in the past three decades.

She had so many regrets, so many things that she wished she could fix, but as she listened and tried to understand what Yanna had said, she couldn’t help but wonder if this was her punishment for being mated to a powerful man.

She wondered if this was her curse for having the highest seat a woman could in the entire realm. She wondered if this was her curse for being loved by two men who had been friends and went their own ways because of her.

There were a lot of things to process and no time to think.

"Well, she is with Rania; and she is literally the one person that Kim Rania cares about more than anything in the world, even herself. So yeah, Dalrae is alive and easily the most protected woman in all realms right now," Jihoon said with a simple shrug.

He knew there was no hugging they could do, but then as someone who had seen the two women turn lives upside down for each other, he could be a key witness to the sisters who had been there for each other regardless of the chaos.

They had lived long lives; happier lives and they had been what fate would call the best of all bonds. Theirs was a pure bond, one that didn’t have betrayal and perhaps that is why they had been together for so many years.

"My Junghwa is Rania’s greatest treasure," the queen said as she sat on the ground with her head between her knees.

She needed to think.