Chapter 2

2.

It’s almost eleven pm but I haven’t slept.

Many things keep me awake. A lot of it is excitement and glee.

But something else keeps nagging at me; the warning step-father gave me. Well, it was more of a threat. He’d grabbed my arm as I was hurrying to my room, nails digging into my flesh and snarled that if I ran away it would be the Lycan prince that would be coming after me.

For a moment, I felt like he’d poured a bucket of water on my head. My heart stuttered in its beating. Goddess! How did he know?

But he didn’t know. He releases my arm, leaving behind crescent-shaped gorges and doesn't look back as he leaves. My heart calmed when I realized it wasn’t far-fetched to assume I’d want to run away, especially because I was running away.

I didn’t go to tell Ethan. I didn’t want to worry him even more because I know my boyfriend still won’t change his mind. Besides, we'll have a head start.

And we’ll have an even bigger one if we leave now.

Yes, I sit up in bed, we should leave now. I have no friends, nobody that will miss me, people that I would need to say goodbye to. He might not be done with preparations but we’ll make do. I toss the threadbare blanket off me and slip out, humming to myself.

His door is not locked which means he’s not in bed yet. He’s probably still putting things together. That’s a good thing because in my haste I forgot my key and I wouldn’t have liked to make noise by knocking. I dust the sand off my bare feet before going in.

I walk through the living room, grinning but quiet. He likes when I pop up on him.

I’m in the hallway when I start hearing a raunchy TV scene. Or that's what it would be if I didn’t just pass the blank TV in the living room. Must be from his laptop then.

I turn the corner and step on a shirt. It’s a dainty blue thing with a small ruffle on the sleeves, one I’ve seen before. I picked it up.

That’s all the warning I get.

I was right, I had seen that shirt before. It’s Elsa’s. No mortal can keep track of Elsa’s clothes except maybe Elsa herself but I had just seen that shirt today. Elsa was wearing it when she came into my space this morning.

But she’s not wearing it now as she rides Ethan’s cock.

His books are all over the floor, tossed from the desk carelessly as well as the rest of the clothes. And they’re sitting on his plush work chair. Well, Ethan is sitting and she’s straddling him.

I stand there for maybe a whole minute, hearing his low groans as Elsa moans deeply until her eyes pop open. A gross feeling zips through me as I meet her green eyes.

They widen as she sees me standing there, her shirt in my hand. But only for a moment, then she smirks and still looking at me, she tangles her fingers in his hair and pushes herself down on him. They both groan intensely.

I can’t, I can't. No. I toss the shirt down and make my way outside, and away from those disgusting sounds Elsa’s making, straight into my bed.

Wow, what a night. What a wild ride, and that’s something my step sister can also say.

Well, she’s not really my stepsister. I’m actually an orphan and for some reason, her parents adopted me, only to value a filthy piece of cloth more than they do me. I didn’t ask for this. Matter of fact, I might have chosen to stay in the orphanage all things considered.

Ethan is my everything . . . Why? Why would he do that? I just don’t understand. A tear rolls down my cheek. It's quickly followed by another, until I’m fully sobbing.

Maybe I could still pretend like I didn’t see him? I don’t have to ruin what we have, maybe we could still be happy. . .

Or maybe I could do something horrible that the Lycan Prince will reject the betrothal? That wouldn't be hard.

Because I can’t leave. I have nothing planned. I’ve never had a job so I have no money, nothing, not even enough to purchase a pencil. What would I do with one anyway when I can barely write?

If I leave now, I wouldn’t know which way to go, which areas contain rogues or what plants are safe to eat. I wouldn’t survive.

Maybe it’s the fresh hurt talking but between the ruthless Lycan king and staying here to continue being treated like the smelly, decaying carcass of a deer, especially by Elsa, I know what I’m picking. They say better the rogue you know than the Alpha you don’t but I’m taking the Lycan, three times over.

They would treat me even worse, after I lost the chance for them to be related to royalty. Even though I don’t see how they could step up their game, I don’t want to find out. I can’t stay here.

Besides, I’d have to see Elsa and Ethan gallivant through the pack together. Yesterday, I noticed their names start with the same letter and it still deeply irks me.

So when my step-mother bursts into the shed, with so much determination in her stride, that tells me she’s ready to yank me out of there by the hair, kicking and screaming if she has to, I almost smile. She won’t need to. ‘Good morning, ma’am.’

I’ve brushed both my teeth and my hair, bathed and put on the dress she gave me. There’s nothing I can do about the bags under my swollen eyes though, I didn’t sleep.

I stand as she comes to a stop, eyes screwed in distrust. ‘Good morning,’ she replies slowly.

Again she shouldn’t worry, I have neither the energy nor the desire to do anything otherwise to what they’ll tell me.

“Outside. They're here.”

"Yes, ma'am."

I leave the shed but the sight of Elsa sitting pretty in a pink dress, on a picnic cloth on the lawn stops me in my tracks.

She looks like she usually does, if a little tired. But that’s reasonable, expected even, for the bitch who was fucking my boyfriend late last night and who knows, maybe into the early hours of this morning.

And when she looks at me, a tiny smirk playing at the edge of her lips, the miniscule voice protesting my decision to go with Lycan King shuts up.

Before I lunge and drag my claws down her stupid face, I turn on my heels and walk into the woods.

‘Lena!’

And walk right into Ethan, in the bushes past the perimeter of the house. My heart drops. Moon Goddess, fucking help me.