Her three mates, already born with
disadvantages and now suffering from her
abuse, could never compete with the other
shifters.
They often failed to bring back any prey.
Kiera never missed a chance to berate them for
their weakness.
When she finally gathered enough power to
shift, her malnourishment resulted in a squat,
dark–skinned human form. Next to my pale,
slender figure, she looked like an ape.
She was filled with regret. But the tribe’s law
was absolute: you could only choose new mates
if your current ones died, or if you became the
Alpha King yourself.
So, when a rival tribe attacked their Clearwater
Tribe, she used herself as bait to lure her three
mates into a trap set by the enemy.
After they were killed, Kiera immediately started
trying to seduce other males.
She set her sights on a slithery, handsome
snake–shifter and an ape–shifter, whose clan
was the most human–like.
But she was a fool. The snake–shifters were
notoriously promiscuous and cruel, and the
ape–shifters… their females were shared by the
entire clan.
She had chosen the two most despised clans
on the continent. What awaited her was a
torment worse than death.
It wasn’t until the new Alpha King was crowned
that all shifters gathered for the sacred
ceremony in the heart of the forest.
There, Kiera saw me, surrounded by my
handsome mates, who treated me like a
goddess, catering to my every whim.
I was crowned the Alpha Queen, a position of
immense honor.
She went mad with jealousy.
She tricked me, luring me to a poison bog deep
in the jungle, and shoved me in.
My tendons had already been cut. I was
<
helpless to fight back.
“Elara,” she hissed, her face twisted with rage.
“You stole my identity in the real world. You
lived my life for twenty years. Why do you get
to have everything I ever wanted here, too?”
“You’re a thief! Go to hell!”
As the poison consumed me, my mind drifted
back to our past life.
Kiera was the long–lost heiress, the true
daughter of the wealthy family that had
adopted me.
When they finally found her and brought her
home, my adoptive parents, who had grown to
love me, begged me to stay.
I agreed, partly out of gratitude for the life
they’d given me, and partly out of a deep-
seated guilt towards Kiera.
It was the most foolish decision I ever made.
There are a million ways to show gratitude, and
I chose the one that would destroy me.
Over time, my family’s affection shifted entirely
to Kiera.
When her grades weren’t good enough, they
forced me to give her my full–ride scholarship
to our dream university. Kiera even had them
change my declared major to something
useless.
When she decided she liked my fiancé, they
broke my engagement and handed my
happiness to her on a silver platter.
Even my brother, who had always doted on me,
began to see me as a thief who had stolen his
real sister’s life. He stood by and watched every
time Kiera framed me for something she’d
done.
