Nothing I said was a lie, but since Alpha Teho wasn't ready to take accountability for how his actions of bringing his mate into the house while still married to me might have been a wrong move, he would keep pointing fingers. I was, in the end, the enemy.

Slap!

Slap!

My vision went blank, and I fell, hitting my forehead on the bedroom floor and almost blacking out. For the first seconds that passed, my ear rang loudly, and though I knew Alpha Teho was yelling, I couldn't hear a thing he said. My left eye shut, and for those few seconds, my brain lost control of my body. My face felt heavy to control the blood-filled drool running down my mouth.

He gripped my hair once again and hauled my body from the floor. My hair was pulled from its root, and despite the pain that shot to every part of my body, causing my legs to curl and twitch. I couldn't even fight it this time, I was tired at this point.

He was going to kill me; I was certain of this at this point.

"You think you are going to keep me from being with my mate?" he demanded, grabbing my numb face in his hand. His tight grip on my face would have caused much pain if it was not already numb from the slap it had already collected. "I will kill you if that's what it will take to be with her."

"Then kill me," the words came as a fight back. Again, it was Ina speaking because I was too battered to make a coherent speech. "Kill me and be done with it, Teho!"

"Fine!" He released my face, grabbed my neck, and did not let go until he succeeded in snuffing the air out.

My eyes snapped open, and I found myself on the floor in the same room I had been in this past week. I did not die, and for the first time in my life, that did not make me happy. For the longest time, the thought of being alive made me happy and feel lucky, but now it grieved my heart. I have lost everything, and there is nothing to lose anymore.

My body's regenerating ability was doing its best to heal me, but since an Alpha inflicted the assault, it would take longer than usual to match up and heal me.

I wasn't dead-yet, but it was coming. I could feel it now more than ever.

My sense picked up the smell I knew too well, and my light head turned to find Phoebe in the room. She was in grey trousers and a white button-up shirt. Her curly brunette was in a loose bun, making firm her oval-shaped face. Her full lips stood out even more with the red lipstick, and the blue-black mascara heightened her perfect wide-set eyes. She has always looked beautiful, and she knew it and wielded it as an advantage.

"She looks great for a witch!" Ina bit out from within.

"Shut it!" I growled back, not wanting any more assault, and that is what I would get if Ina took control again.

How long had she been here watching my unconscious body? What did she want? All these questions ran through my head, and I could not answer them.

I knew one thing, though; if she was here to gloat, she could save it. There was no use gloating over a dead body.

"I was beginning to worry you weren't going to wake." She stepped towards me, and then I noticed she had a brown mug in her hand. She reached where I stood and squatted before handing me the mug.

I tried to run up, but my entire body responded with pain. I swallowed the whimper that almost left my mouth and wore the bravest face.

She was the last person that needed to see me in pain.

"It's herbs. It will heal the pain," she added as though that would make me stupid enough to take and drink it.

As if reading my thoughts, she rolled her eyes and sipped the drink before handing it over to me, "If I wanted to kill you, it wouldn't be by poison. You are in pain, I can tell, and this will help speed up the healing."

This time, I took the mug and sipped the bitter drink in it. She was right; after the third sip, I felt better.

This might have been the only good thing she had ever done for me.

I gulped the last drop of the drink and handed the mug back to her.

She took and smiled before rising to her feet. "We are not enemies. We love the same man, and none of us is to blame. You are not happy, and as long as you are here, we cannot truly be happy. How about we find a way to make sure everyone is happy in the end?"

"Since when did this witch care about anyone's happiness but her own?" Ina asked, but I pressed my lips together and listened to what Phoebe had to say.

Ina was right. Running away with the fund entrusted to our father ran him into depression for three months. It was what landed me in this loveless marriage to Alpha Teho of the Hilltop pack. Alpha Teho laid hands on me last week, and that was the first time ever because of Phoebe, and his outburst today was probably instigated by her.

She couldn't have suddenly had a change of heart when she had been evil all her life. There was an end goal; there had to be, but I couldn't see it, and I didn't want to be a part of it.

"Teho wanted to kill you," Phoebe continued, pulling me out of my train of thought, "but that would be cruel since your only offence was marrying and loving him. We have had our differences forever, and you might hate that I am with Teho now, but it is fate, and if there is anything we know, it is that we can't fight fate. The only way we can have true joy is to accept it," she kept on talking.

"What do you want?" I asked, not because I wanted to hear it, though. I was tired of her nonstop talking. She might have healed my healing journey with her herbal drink, but her voice was giving me headaches.

She walked over to me and stooped so she could look into my eyes. "I want to prove to you that we are the same and want the same thing." She stretched her hand to take mine, but I quickly drew it back on instinct.

A pained smile crossed her face, but she didn't look offended, she just nodded, "It's fine to not trust me after everything I've done to you, I wouldn't trust me either, but one thing is true, I want to be your friend." She said, holding on to her smile.

I knew Phoebe was evil and that she hated me. I was just about to find out just how much.