7 - You f*cking whore

Danielle’s POV:

Everything that happened afterwards slipped by in a haze. We were both drinking, and I don’t remember half of the Arcane movie he made me watch before I passed out. It was something about family members who’ve lost their way before they found each other again, and that’s when he lost me.

Hmm. Strange, I remember talking to Dex about Alpha Kaden and my father’s plans on marrying me off to him for some alliance. 

When I came to, it was dark outside, and I was already in Dex’s car’s passenger seat. 

“Wakey wakey sissy,” I hear Dex whisper into my ear. The smell of his perfume brought me back to my senses.

“Will you stop calling me that?” I snap at a surprised-looking Dexter leaning his arm on the wheel. He was in the same white fit shirt and shorts when I came to his apartment.

“God, I’m sorry, what time is it?” I groan, touching my temple and rubbing small circles to soothe it. I close my eyes. I have this worst headache ever. My head is pounding and for some reason, my body is aching all over. 

“Time must have slipped you by, it’s only midnight,” he shrugs.

I could feel his gaze on me as I rubbed my temple and pinched my brows when my eyes widened in realization.

“Midnight?!” Oh, my fuck.

Dad is going to kill me. 

Dex nods. “I didn’t want to wake you, you looked too peaceful in your sleep,” he winks.

I roll my eyes at him. “Just drive.”

He chuckles, turning on the ignition as he starts up his flashy pick-up truck. 

“Are you feeling ok?” he asks.

“I think I’m going to have the flu,” I say and shake my head. Feeling like I still haven’t woken up fully, I pat my cheeks.

*******

“Where the fuck were you?” My father booms the moment I walk into the house. 

He was up, his hair disheveled and big circles formed under his eyes. 

My eyes flitted to the lamp beside his chair where he was sitting. Realizing he’s been up waiting up all night, I felt my blood run cold. 

“To Dexter’s.” I reply, my voice coming out weak.

My father closed his eyes, taking in a slow, deep breath before he opens them and looks at me deadly.

“Do you know what time it is?” his voice was low, yet no less menacing.

I look at the clock.

Shit, it was already past 3 in the early morning.

“I’m sorry,” I drop my eyes to the floor, only to look back up to meet his murderous eyes as his fists slam down the table at an alarming speed. My father’s aura bursts out of him in his rage, and the sound of his fist colliding with the rough surface reverberated through the entire house before the air fell into a deafening silence.

“You are my fucking daughter,” he growls, breathing heavily. 

I bite my lip, unable to look away.

“You are not to be found fooling around with that man again, do you understand?” 

I gasp, then a growl tore from my lips. “No!” 

My father rises from his chair, his muscles flexing abnormally. His eyes flickered gold, letting me know he’s fighting back his Alpha wolf. I step back.

I hadn’t planned on talking back at him in his enraged state. Yet, those words has me clenching my fists as I looked at him in utter defiance.

“He’s my friend, Dad,” I say calmly in an attempt to appease some of his anger. 

My father’s wolf growls lethally, and I shut my eyes in fear he would give in and attack me, but I knew he’d fight his animal back. He always did. The latter is proven true as I peel my eyes open, and see my father standing an arm’s distance across me. The gold has dissolved from his eyes, and his gaze as I looked up at him softened.

“Elle,” he sighs. “I have already made the announcement to the pack. You’re going to Alpha Kaden’s pack in the next full moon,” he says. 

“What?” I barely heard my voice speak as my eyes brimmed with tears.

My father steps forward, then he cups my cheek.

“I know, baby,” he whispers softly, but I just looked at him as if watching my world crash all around me.

“I need you to do this. The pack is in trouble,”

I knit my brows.

“But this is my life,” I whisper back, blinking before I remove my gaze off his to wipe away the tears streaking down my face when he stops me. He starts wiping the tears on my cheeks with his thumb, and I look away. 

“This is for the pack, your reputation, the family’s reputation,” he says.

I grit my teeth, choosing not to say a word as I clenched my fists by my sides.

Of course, reputation is everything to him. 

Suddenly, my father tilts my head, making me look at him and the serious expression he wore so proudly.

“You are strong, Danielle.”

“We won’t need to worry about anything since he’s your mate. Remember how I taught you mates protect one another?” he quirks a brow, and I actually smile.

He tells me every damn day I’ve grown sick of it. 

My father then pulls me forward, and I groan, feeling like a daddy’s little girl.

“You’re never too old to be my little girl,” he says as if he could read my mind. 

“Dad!” I smack his back lightly as I jutted my lower lip into a pout. He chuckles. The next thing you know, all the tension literally a second after I stepped into the room is thrown out the window.

“One day, you’ll understand,” he whispers into my ear, and I find myself nodding my head before he pulls away. 

“And as for Dexter, promise me never to see him again.” He utters, that deadly look in his eyes returning. 

“I do not like the look in his eyes,” he mutters under his breath.

I purse my lips and finally nod, knowing he’d leave me with no other choice anyway. 

ONE WEEK LATER

Dad and I were watching TV while my Mom cooked us dinner. We watched a new drama series and now we’re debating on whether the lead character was getting a comeback. I thought otherwise. I was just about to throw in my argument when the news flash turned on. 

I wasn’t interested and was ready for my rebuttal.

“So, I was thinking—” My father points his finger and shushes me.

“Be quiet, Elle. It’s about our pack,” he mumbles without even looking at me and his eyes plastered on the screen.

I roll my eyes and get up, about to move towards the kitchen to help my Mom when I hear my name called out from the same news my dad was watching.

Slowly, I moved back towards the living room. My body tenses as I feel the intense, deathly aura oozing off from no other than my alpha father. I gulp, finally stepping back into the living room where I see him now standing watching the news. His wolf’s fur was jutting out of his skin, his eyes flickering bright gold as he fought the urge to shift.

My eyes go to the screen, only for my hand to wrap around my mouth as I gasped in shock and disbelief.

My body…

I feel my knees go weak and teeth chatter, looking back at the screen displaying my naked body as I was being stroked by another man. A man whose face is blurred and covered entirely except mine. 

I suddenly feel dizzy, nauseous even. Bile rising to my throat as I watch a few seconds more of the video clip.

When I turned, Dad was already looking at me. His face has gone red and he’s already halfway to shifting as his whole body trembled in his wrath.

“You fucking whore,” he spat, and my face paled.

“Dad, I—" 

I try to explain but his fists connected with my face.