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Jasmine POV
Alpha Rhys slammed the door, and my eyes shut down, my heart skipped. Lila, my wolf, panicked, urging me to go after him, stop him on his way out and ask what I did wrong that made him flip the way he did, but I didn't. His agonizing words unnerved me, leaving me crippled on the bed. Three months ago, I boldly met Alpha Rhys in a coffee shop and asked him to sign a contract with me. I sounded stupid, but other ladies made the same request and succeeded. I did, too. The contract provided my mom's hospital bills, my main reason for going into the contract with Alpha Rhys.
Tears wouldn't have steeped my face if I'd ended the contract after the first month it terminated. I allowed my feelings for him and the fact he was my mate to get in the way, permitting him to extend the duration of the contract. I thought he'd started to love me due to the bond, but I was wrong. So wrong.
Six minutes ago, Alpha Rhys had come to the stealthy mansion we spent time together in, like he used to, but this time was different. He had a scowl on his face, his aura threatening to choke me to death. When I managed to ask him what the problem was, he became interested in knowing about my family, who they were, and how prestigious they were.
His sudden interest in knowing about my family after three months of being in the contract with him made me tongue-tied. As if that weren't enough, he went on to call me a curse from the goddess. My heart still ached as I remembered how he listed names of alphas whose mates came from notable, wealthy families.
I took a deep sigh and crawled out of the ruffled bed, sitting on the vanity chair. My glistening turquoise eyes stared at the reflection of the door in the vanity mirror, hoping he would walk through the door and make up for his wrong.
"Pull yourself back together, Jasmine," I scolded myself under my breath for thinking an alpha would apologize to me, someone whom he recently tagged as… I paused my thoughts to concentrate on the sound that came from the living room.
The door on the porch clicked, meaning—I sprung up from my seat, almost knocking the chair over—Alpha Rhys was back. I was certain Alpha Rhys was the one who just walked into the living room, he and I were the only ones who had the combinations of the mansion. My feet and hands became cold and sweaty. The reasons he came back within a short period of leaving set me on edge. I paced the room, biting on my nails as I tried to organize the words to say to him, how to approach him when he walked through that door.
His footsteps echoed loudly in my ears, and I stiffened, attempting to affect a plastic smile. I didn't want him to see me looking sad. For all I knew, he could be going through a lot and unconsciously unleashed his anger at me. I patted my face dried and scurried towards the door, my fingers fumbling the belt of my fluffy white robe.
Taking a deep breath to calm my trembling nerves, I reached out to the door handle to let him in but frozen at the strange sound of his feet. It wasn't just his feet—their feet. I could tell from the sound outside the door that two shifters were coming towards the door. Maybe the other person was his beta, so I thought.
I opened the door and gasped. Wasting no time after seeing the unfamiliar faces, I jammed the door, but they moved in too fast, pushing back the door before it could lap on its frame. The next second, they were in the room, a place meant for just me and alpha Rhys, staring daggers at me.
"What do you want from me?" I managed to ask, slowly stepping back to keep a reasonable distance in the middle.
In the blink of an eye, as if they disappeared and appeared on my sides, they grabbed my hands, dragging me out of the room. My heart skipped countless times as I wondered who they could be.
Struggling to slip away from their painful grips, I said, groaning, "What are you doing?"
They chose to remain quiet and continue with the pain they kept causing to my arms, while I chose to talk them out of what they were doing. If only my words would have a little impact on them.
"Let me go, now."
I was forced out of the room like I weighed nothing whatsoever. Then they headed downstairs, dragging me along as if I weren't fighting to free myself. It got to a point where I thought my words and struggles were all in my head, but the weakness I began to feel made the scary moment a reality.
"Alpha Rhys will have your hands if he learns about this." I began panting. Perspiration soaked my skin, damping my rope.
"Did Alpha Rhys put you up to this?" I could barely hear my words, but I knew their listening abilities were high enough to hear me.
They tossed me like trash, only that I hit the polished-marbled floor, not a trashcan. Picking up the rich feminist scent—rose and moonflower, I began struggling to get off the cold floor.
"Let me see the face of the woman sharing a bed with my son?" Luna ordered.
Her authoritative tone got me scrambling to my knees—that was the best I could do. The urge to see what she looked like itched at me, but my neck became too stiff to move. It wasn't just her foreboding aura that planted fear in me, but her sudden visit. It was my first time having a visit from alpha Rhys's mother. Besides that, he never said anything about his mother, not that we talked that deeply.
I gasped when one of the shifters suddenly cupped my chin and tipped my head back so that Luna could see what I looked like. I took the chance to take in her look as well. She looked nothing like the lethal aura she exuded; her small, round, innocent face got me reconsidering the hard things I thought she would do to me.
"Not even a woman yet." She leisurely circled me, my peripheral view trying to catch up with her.
A sudden yelp escaped my lips as the shifter forcefully withdrew their hands from my face, my neck almost snapped from the tensity of their withdrawal.
"How do you feel sleeping with the alpha?" She asked behind me. "Your Alpha."
Silence overwhelmed the living room as if she were waiting for me to answer her rhetorical question.
"Are you even aware he's getting engaged this month?"
"What?" I blurted out, turning to face the Luna, whose impassive face gave nothing away.
Tears filled my eyes, and I bit down on my lower lip to hold it back. My heart became so heavy by the heart-failing news. Just after I labored out a breath, streams of tears streaked my face. I knew I shouldn't react this way, but I couldn't just help it. Even though what we shared was a contract, he was my mate, and the bond deeply meant something to me, maybe not to him.
"You should be ashamed of yourself right now," she said, and I didn't blame her, knowing she was clueless about the bond I shared with her son. "All whores will be ashamed to see one of theirs shed crocodile tears."
"I'm not a whore," I cried out. Only a whore would feel indifferent after hearing such traumatizing news.
"That's what they all say."
"I'm not they. I am not—" The feverish pain I felt across my cheek twisted my words into a shriek.
She slapped me hard enough I felt the feverish effect vibrating all over my body.
"Jail her," she yelled, causing an explosion of emotions in my heart.
"No," I mouthed, afraid I would spend eternity in jail if I raised my voice again.
The shifters who dragged me out of the room continued what they started, dragging me towards the foyer.
"I want you to watch the wedding on the TV in your cell room. Consider that a wedding present from his lovely mother." She laughed, sounding like a prestigious witch. Her ominous words echoed from behind. They might be a joke to her, but not to me. They sounded more like a revelation that I could already picture in my mind.
"I'm sorry for sleeping with your son," I implored, twisting my neck to regard her face that looked nothing like her cruel heart.
"While you're in prison, pray your able alpha gets married sooner than later because the more he delays, the longer you stay in prison."
"No, no, no, please, please." Since we were already outside, I bellowed with all my might, saying, "I did nothing wrong, please."
The Luna's menacing words registered in my mind, quickening my heartbeat to an uncontrollable rate I couldn't catch. I began struggling so hard that I never did. The police were already waiting for me, with their scary black-and-white car parked beside them.
While one of the officers cuffed me with silver cuffs that started burning my wrist, I kept explaining my innocence to the two police officers, hoping they would change their minds. But they watched as the shifters forced me into their car. I began hyperventilating as the car drove away from the mansion. Tears flooded my eyes as I restlessly searched for any sign of alpha Rhys through all the glasses of the car.
My mom, the thought of her made me sob, bringing more tears to my eyes. What would happen to my mom when she didn't see me for goddess knew how long? And how long would I be staying in prison?