Zuri pressed her lips tightly. She just told her father that her mate, the very man he had chosen for her, had cheated on her. He kissed another woman right before her eyes, but her father wouldn't even give a shit about it?
Roland was not a good father and Zuri knew that, so there was no surprise here.
However, it still shocked her the same and her brain must not be working properly, because Zuri started cackling, which made Roland look even angrier.
"You didn't drink your medicine," he stated darkly. He was about to approach her, but Karina held his arm to stop him, which he brushed off and the woman stood there with a blank expression because she knew what was going to happen next.
This was not the first time and even though Zuri had been mated to alpha Xaden, it didn't mean this would be the last. Women would always be in the clutches of men and at their mercy in this world.
"Why are you so angry father?" Zuri was still cackling. She thought her life was a tragedy, but as it turned out, it was a complete joke. "You always believed that I was crazy. There is nothing new here."
A harsh slap landed on Zuri's face again, but instead of stopping, she laughed even harder, until her whole body was shaking. She looked crazy. Zuri felt crazy.
When the world tortured you too much and you were done trying to survive, all you could do was; laugh it off.
"You took a side, father." Zuri finally calmed down enough to talk coherently, while her father was standing there as if he was going to throttle her neck. His face was so dark, his pupils turned charcoal black and his gray hair made him look so old.
At fifty-five, he had long passed his prime, and now, Zuri had the strength and skill to challenge him. She could at least slap him, but there was something about him that stopped her from even trying, or even thinking about it.
She realized that when you were raised and trained to fear something, the fear would never fully dissipate. It would cling to you, persistent and familiar, regardless of the changing circumstances.
"Why did you take his side instead of your own daughter?" Zuri felt stupid when she asked this question, but then she already felt crazy, so turning stupid wouldn't hurt her much. "You talk about not tarnishing our family's name, but don't you think what he has done would drag our family's name through the mud?"
Zuri got off the bed and faced her father. She was a head shorter than him, but she squared her shoulders and straightened her back.
Her mother trained her to be a perfect luna and that was how she would act right now.
"Even if you don't care about me, you should care about the pack's image. What would people say if they hear the daughter of the Alpha of the Silver Creek pack has been cheated on by an omega?" Zuri lifted her chin. "If you couldn't care less about my feelings, at the very least you should consider how people will perceive the news when they hear it."
Zuri balled her fists, the mate bond had been severed, and the pain from it and her miscarriage was close to unbearable, but she endured it, because that was her only way to survive this.
"The other woman is an omega, can't you see how bad it is?" Zuri counted on this fact. The look in her eyes when she kissed Xaden, as if she was mocking her, taunting her with her victory because she could get her mate. That sight would forever be engraved in the back of her mind.
However, Zuri wouldn't allow her to walk all over her. She was an omega and she was the luna, she was way above her and she would show her that much.
"An alpha has an affair with an omega, the lowest rank shifter." Zuri looked her father straight in his eyes. "That's very cheap. The man you chose for me has cheap taste." Zuri leaned over and lowered her voice. "Just like you."
Zuri would be foolish if she were not aware of her father's affair with every woman that he could stick his dick into, but she was not sure whether or not her mother knew all of this.
Her mother… she had always been the perfect luna. She ruled alongside her father and took her role seriously. The image of the pack was everything. She adopted the same beliefs as her mate.
"That must be the reason why you sided with him, because you're both the same," Zuri said. She knew her father well enough to know that what she said would get on his nerves. His hand was shaking. "You can slap me again, but both of us know it won't change anything. Especially the truth."
A slap landed on her face again, this time the harsh blow knocked her to the floor, since she was standing and her back hit the table.
The pain brought tears to her eyes, as she gritted her teeth not to make even a peep.
For a while, Alpha Roland just stood like that, he didn't move, nor did he say anything, but his whole body was trembling now. Zuri knew how much he tried not to lose control over his emotions and she kept pushing him to his limit.
If only her face was not hurting so much, she would have laughed in his face again. But, the last blow was very harsh, she couldn't even speak, it seemed her father had dislocated her jaw with that slap.
"Karina," Alpha Roland called for his mate in a cold voice. "Give her medicine."
Karina immediately fished out something out of her pocket, she always kept it with her. It was a bottle of white pills. She put two pills in Roland's open palm and watched him shove them down Zuri's throat.
Zuri coughed and curled her body inward, but her father forced the pills down her throat anyway.