Get Ready For It

As soon as I reach Jae, he wraps an arm around my waist.

"Darling, these are my future fellow council members," Jae begins in a pleasant tone, "Isaiah Wayber, Austin Reed, Christian Monroe and Thomas Dandy. Guys, this is my wife Anya Kyung. My love and the owner of my whole life from now on.”

What the fuck?

"I never expected you to be such a romantic," one of them laughs and shakes his head, then takes my hand to place a soft respectful kiss in there... then the rest all do the same.

Having a bunch of Alphas respectfully kiss my hand is a little surreal, but I force myself to look normal and even make conversation while smiling like a pageant queen, happy to show Jae how good I am at this.

And I don’t even know why, but I’ve always been like this, social interactions are my thing. It’s definitely coming in handy now.

We chat with the Alphas for a couple of minutes until my aunt and uncle come to my rescue, so I excuse myself and almost run to them.

"It's late, we're leaving now," my aunt tells me with a sad little smile on her face. "I loved watching you get married, sweetheart. Despite the circumstances."

"Yes, it's been fun," I lie, hugging her and then my uncle, "Thank you for coming. And for helping so much these past few months. Now that I have money of my own, I will definitely repay you for giving us your help when we needed it the most. I’ll never forget that.”

"No way..." my uncle starts to say.

"Shush, you," I interrupt him gently, "I'll just do it and that's it. I'm so glad to have you both in my life, I want to make sure you're comfortable from now on. What's money for, if not to help your people?”

“Exactly. And we never expected anything in return, but you are free to do whatever you want. I wouldn’t mind going on a cruise somewhere," my aunt says with a chuckle and then gives me one last hug, almost breaking my ribs, "Don’t be a stranger, okay? Your mother will be very busy, but I’m always available. Call me often, every day if possible. I’m going to miss having you in the house.”

And even if my mom wasn't busy, she’s not a reliable person and we all know it.

“Of course, nothing will change,” I say even though I’m not exactly sure of that, but my aunt smiles.

Once they leave, I walk straight to the same waiter from earlier. He gives me a tired look.

"Go take a breather, I'll take care of this," I tell him with a smile and take the tray full of champagne glasses without waiting for his response. The poor waiter has no choice but to give it to me, so I walk away with it, straight to the circle where my friends are.

They all celebrate when they see me arrive with alcohol and then we all have a drink to cheer for my marriage. No one seems to realize how I really feel, but I guess that’s a good thing.

By the time the party is coming to an end and most of the guests are leaving I'm already drunk as hell, but instead of being relaxed, my drunken state is stressing me out more.

I can't stop thinking about what lies ahead. And, call me a pessimist, but I don't think it's anything good.

"Thanks for coming," I say and hug Remy as tight as I can when he says goodbye. He starts to say something else, but before he can, my husband appears out of nowhere, walking next to another man almost as tall as he is.

"Well, well, well," Jae starts and he squints his eyes while looking at us, "You're already cheating on me, little Anya? I wa…”

"Jae," the guy next to him says in a warning tone and, just like that, Jae shuts his mouth, keeping what he was going to say to himself. He just rolls his eyes and I think he's drunk too, "Sorry, that was his attempt at being funny... umh, hi, Anya. I'm Rogan. I'm Jae's bff."

I saw him and Jae together the whole party with his other friends, but I didn't think any of them would come to introduce themselves. They seem mean and snobby, just like my husband. But Rogan actually sounds nice right now and his eyes seem warm.

"Hi, nice to meet you," I say and shake his hand before returning my eyes to Remy. He’s looking at Jae and Rogan with worried eyes, "This is my best friend, Remington Wallace. He's about to leave."

"Yeah... we have school tomorrow," he mumbles, but then he forces himself to shake both Rogan and Jae's hands. I can tell Jae squeezes his hand a little too hard because Remy winces and Jae smiles with evil delight, "Nice to meet you, Sir."

"You can be casual, just call me Jae. We're all family now, aren't we?" he says, finally letting go of his poor hand.

"Of course we are," Remy gives him a fake smile, then he continues in the most sarcastic voice ever: "And... congratulations, by the way. I'm so glad Anya found such a good man, I'm sure you'll take care of her as she deserves."

"Oh, believe me, she'll get exactly what she deserves," Jae replies in a dark tone, making us all get uncomfortable, including Rogan, who shoots me an apologetic look. Does he even know how mean his best friend forever is? Does he know he slapped me the other day?

"Well, the whole pack will be watching you closely, Jae," Remy adds, that finally makes Jae stop smiling so much, "I mean, we all love Anya so much, we want to make sure she'll be okay."

"You have nothing to worry about, little one. I love her with my life, I'll always make sure she's as happy as possible," Jae lies with ease, "Anyway, thank you so much for coming. Get home safely, okay?"

"I'll try," Remy murmurs and shoots me one last look before walking away. Jae grabs my arm at that moment and pulls me until I collide with his body. Rogan calls his name again as a warning.

"Watch your fucking mouth from now on. Whatever I do to you, it stays between us or you can kiss your pay and your pretty face goodbye," he threatens in a very, very low voice as he squeezes my arm. But then he wraps his other hand almost gently around my waist and I'm sure it looks like he's hugging me to everyone around us, "You knew what you were getting into when you agreed to this deal, so now don't go around playing victim. Understood?"

"I understand, sir," I reply looking at Rogan out of the corner of my eye. He looks concerned, "I won't let anyone know if you keep hitting me. Like I said, I'll be the perfect wife for you."

"Good. That's all I expect from you," he blurts out, then he finally lets me go and gives me a huge smile, "Let's go meet my friends. They're very excited to meet you, honey."

"I'm even more excited," I lie, with a smile as big as his, before I have to follow him to meet the rest of his friends.