“You must be proud of your daughter.”

Count Hansen Von Drachenzahn smiled for the umpteenth time at those word. The happiness he should feel was nowhere to be found. The world was doomed. There was nothing to be proud of. His daughter, the one who was predicted to save the galaxy had squandered her future. She destroyed it all for a man she stole from her own sister.

His face didn't show his inner turmoil though. He knew better. If what she did came to be known, his whole family would be destroyed.

“Father.” Serena called to him.

He flinched away when she tried to touch him. Her face betrayed the pain she felt at her father's rejection. He wanted to believe that the emotion she displayed was real but when he remembered all the lies she told him before, a tear fell from his eyes and he looked away in shame.

“Father. Please. I want to talk to you. In private.”

A sob caught in his throat. He nodded, still not looking at her. They went into a private room.

He didn't say anything. He waited for her to say what she needed.

“Father, please. You have to help us save the galaxy.”

“How? It's too late.”

“No, it's not. If Kivar mates Valeria again, we'll save the future.”

“Stop it. You broke your sister's mating.” He didn't say anything else. He remembered the only broken mating he ever saw. He remembered the cries of pain as their soul broke into pieces, their eyes devoid of all life. He broke into sobs as he thought of his step-daughter going through all this on her own.

It was his fault. He knew it. He had always favored his daughter more than what was fair. Every time, he took her side disregarding the truth that lied in front of him. And now, the galaxy would pay for it.

“Father, we have to bring her back here.”

“No.” He shook his head in denial. He didn't want to see her corpse. The guilt would kill him. “Let her rest in peace.”

“Father. She's not dead. Valeria is alive. The oracle said so. The mating was imbalanced. Kivar had mated her but she hadn't mated him. The broken bond hadn't killed her. We have to go get her back here to reestablish the future that had been lost.”

He stared in shock at his daughter. His worse fears had been confirmed. He had thought it was weird that Kivar had no after effects after the break of his mate bond. They had claimed that it was because Valeria had tricked him into a false mating. He knew different now. They were the one who tricked Valeria.

Even though she couldn't shift, Valeria was still a Drachen. She wouldn't leave her mate unmarked unless he was the one who convinced her. She hadn't suspected anything. Kivar was a wolf shifter. Normally, they were hard-wired to protect and claim their mate as soon as they saw them. It was unthinkable that one of them would betray his true mate.

“If she's alive, leave her alone. She had suffered enough because of you.”

“Father...” He shrugged off her touch and left the room.

Serena  felt abandoned and heartbroken. The only man she had ever loved was lost to her and her own family was looking at her like she was a monster. It wasn't like it was supposed to be.

“So he refused.” a feminine voice concluded. Serena looked in surprise at the person talking. She hadn't seen her slipped into the room.

“No, he blamed me for what happened.” She felt a tear ran down her cheek. She wiped it away refusing to show any weakness.

“Don't worry. Everything will be back as it should when Kivar mates with Valeria. It had been a slight miscalculation on our part but we'll put everything to order.” She had a fanatical light in her eyes.

Serena wasn't sure if she should trust her again. She was the one who convinced her that Kivar was hers to begin with. She said that Fate made a mistake when she chose Valeria as Kivar's mate. She said that Serena was the one truly destined to be Princess of Selisa, wife of Crown Prince Kivar. All had been a lie.

Fate didn't make a mistake. Valeria was supposed to be the princess and when that future didn't happen it disrupted the course of everyone's fate. People who should be alive were dead. People who should be dead were alive. Powers that Serena should have acquired never came to be.

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The enemies menacing the galaxy that she should have been able to beat were out off her reach in strength.

“What are we going to do?”

“If your father refuse to move then we will have to do ask her real father?”

“The Emperor? He never even recognized her as his daughter.”

Emperor Elian Von Drachenfel was Valeria's real father. He raped her mother Countess Lou Ann Von Drachenzahn when he sent her husband on a diplomatic mission. The relationship between the Drachenzahns and the Drachenfels deteriorated even further when Countess Lou Ann discovered that she was pregnant. She wanted to abort the baby but with threats hanging over her family's heads, she was forced to keep and raise the child with her other children.

The Emperor refused to recognize the child as his, branding Countess Lou Ann as a slut whose cuckold husband had to bear the sight of the living memory of what happened to his wife. No one held it against Valeria as she didn't ask to have him for a father. But the relationship between the two families was at an all time low.

If the future hadn't been changed Serena would have taken over the Draconian Galaxy.

After, defeating the evil that threaten the galaxy, she would have gain tremendous support among the population, led the rebellion against the Emperor and won, thus becoming the first Empress of the Draconian Galaxy. But nothing of these happened and, now, she had to ask the despised Emperor for help.

She gritted her teeth as a week later, she knelt in front of him. Elian Von Drachenfel sat on the throne holding court. She had asked for a private audience but he refused on the pretext that anything she had to say should be known by everyone.  

Of all the days he held court, the Emperor chose the one where the Court proceedings were broadcast to the whole galaxy. It wasn't an oversight. He clearly wanted to show that he still had the upper hand over her. He knew what she was going to ask. He wanted to make them witness her lack of power.

“Rise.” He ordered after a long while. He wanted the image of her kneeling in front of him to be engraved on everyone's mind.

“Lady Serena Von Drachenzahn has a request for his majesty the Emperor.” His main adviser announced loudly. He nodded in her direction for her to expose her request.

“My sister has been missing for 10 years. I request a search party to be held to found her whereabouts.”

“Why should I help you?” He asked with a smirk.

Serena gritted her teeth and said: “Because she's your daughter.”  

The story of Valeria's birth was a well known secret. However, no one in Serena's family ever talked about it because saying it was like recognizing what happened to her mother, the fact that her father couldn't protect her, the fact that they had to raise the bastard child of another man.

Loud gasps echoed through the throne room. The Emperor laughed out loud. The Drachenzahns had always been trying to overthrow him. With Serena's admission of her half sister's parentage, she had finally brought a blemish to the honor of the whole clan.

For Drachens, honor was everything. With their impeccable honor and famous lineage, the Drachenzahns were a menace to his rule. With their honor tarnished, they would lose part of  their supporters.

Even if it all came from the Emperor's  misdeeds, it didn't change anything. They were the one who hadn't been able to protect the Countess and they didn't have any proof of what he did. It was his word against them. Valeria's existence only proved that he had slept with her not that he raped her.

“My daughter is of no concern to you.” The Emperor said, dismissing her.

Serena wanted to shout her frustration but she kept it all in. Out of the throne room, the oracle waited for her.

“Good job. He will get her I saw it.”

Relief replaced the frustration and a smile blossomed on her face.