006.

Hailey’s POV

“I didn’t invite you because there’s no party.” Hades answered, fixating his firm gaze on his brother, Chad, who grunted as soon as the words left his lips. “Moreover, my woman here isn’t very comfortable around the both of you… yet.”

“You forget that the ‘woman’ is also ours too.” Chad spat and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.

At this point, I wanted to throw my hands into the air, wave it in their faces and remind them that I was a person not an object, and that I was right in front of them just in case they had forgotten but I decided against it. I couldn’t because I was nothing but a slave to them, a slave looking for means to escape this hell and if I must, then I had to ensure that I did nothing to spark their interest or attention.

While Hades and Chad argued about claiming ownership of me, my eyes trailed to the quiet one at the back, Trent. Trent’s burly arms were folded across his chest and he had a lazy expression on his face as he watched his brothers argue. It was true that they all looked the same but now, looking closely at them, I realized that they were different after all. Trent was hot, hot hot, and when I say so, I mean, drippy panties kind of hot. He had this sleekness about him, this lazy aura that only flirty artisans possessed. I gulped when my eyes trailed down his arms, one of which was covered in tattoos and both of which had massive beautiful veins lining them.

As if noticing my stare, he turned to me and winked, smirking when I jumped in shock before turning my head away.

Now that I had managed to shake myself out of Trent’s haze, I glanced up at the other two brothers and to my utmost surprise, they were both staring at me with strange expressions on their faces. They were no longer arguing and the room was now in a state of absolute silence. A blush crept up my cheek from all the attention they were throwing at me and in shyness, I stepped back, crossed my arms over my chest and snapped;

“What?”

Chad smiled then, revealing his perfect dentitions. He cocked his head to the side, as if accessing me then muttered; “I was telling my brother here about how we all own you.”

“You don’t own me!” I snapped back, momentarily forgetting the vow I made to myself to not talk back to any of them. As soon as I remembered, I snapped my mouth shut and dropped my head, not in fear nor in shame but in a bid to escape this uncomfortable stare down.

Whatever plans I had to get out of this as quickly as I could failed the moment Chad walked up to me. He placed one cold finger under my chin, and using it to propel my head upward until I was looking into his eerily beautiful eyes, he drawled; “Then who do you belong to?”

My eyes snapped to Hades’ for a nanosecond. I knew that I was supposed to say that I belonged to him because frankly speaking, he was the one who had bought me from the auction house, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I couldn’t bring myself to willingly give myself up to a man who has been nothing but a beast to me ever since we met. So I looked away and shook my head.

“I belong to no one.”

I knew that my words infuriated Hades. Hell, it was glaring for everyone to see because then he growled. His eyes flashed with a kind of malice that I’ve never seen before and I swear, it made me extremely scared but I chose to ignore it knowing fully well that he wouldn’t be able to do anything to me with his brothers present.

He stared at me for the longest of minutes and just when I was beginning to get squirmish, he turned away, ignoring me and spoke to Chad; “You still haven’t told me why you came back. You and you.” He snapped, pointing to both Chad and Trent.

I noticed the shared gazes between them, the wordless conversation they were having and another blush stained my cheeks while I thought about how uncomfortable this was for me. It was obvious that I wasn’t supposed to be witnessing this conversation but they were in my space and there was nowhere else I could go.

I turned away from the three of them and got into the bed to get away from them and while I expected that they would take the cue and leave the room, they didn’t. I needed to change, wanted to change into something comfortable but I couldn’t with the three intrusive pairs of eyes that were on me.

I heard someone clear their throat and again, Hades’ voice came boomeranging around the once empty space; “Why are you both here?”

“We came to surprise you. It’s our birthday and you always complained about how we never came over for it.” Trent said, uttering his first sentence since they all stepped into my room.

Hades rolled his eyes and Chad, having caught that action, raised his eyebrows. He bit out; “exactly, you’ve always wanted us to come over, brother. What has changed now?”

“The woman.” Trent drawled lazily.

“The woman?” Chad spat, sounding almost shocked to hear something like that. “You want her all to yourself? Is that what this is about?”

I wanted to snap at them this time, to remind them that I was still here since they kept forgetting but before I could even form the words, Hades snapped. I had almost forgotten that he was an Alpha until he took up that authoritative tone of voice while he yelled at his brothers. He growled;

“NO!” Then when the room went deathly silent, he continued; “I only just bought her some hours prior to when you both came visiting so I assure you, it has nothing to do with the woman, but everything to do with the fact that you both abandoned your pack, this pack, for the past two years and somehow you expect me to welcome you both back with wide arms? Come on! I am not the prodigal son’s father!”

I snorted as a chuckle nearly escaped my lips but I held it back. The sound I made made all the brothers turn to me with amused eyes -Scrap that, Hades looked like he was about to murder me- before they turned away to continue with their conversation.

“We didn’t abandon the pack.” This time, it was Trent who spoke up and Hades regarded him for a long minute before he asked;

“And what do you call what you and Chad here have been doing for the past 2 years?”

“We’ve been living away from each other,” Chad answered. “We’ve been trying to experience individual growth and I am sorry that you perceived it as abandonment.”

All the brothers went quiet after that and for the next few minutes, no one said a word. Just when I was beginning to think that nothing else would be said, Hades nodded and looked away. “I understand.” He said.

His voice had dropped significantly and I couldn’t help but sense the hurtful undertone of his voice. He stepped away from Chad and Trent, obviously done with the conversation and was just about to leave the time when Chad’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

Chad asked; “what about the girl?”

“What girl?” Hades questioned and even though I had no idea where this conversation was headed, I immediately became uncomfortable. I had a faint idea what I wouldn’t like what I would hear next and true to what I thought, Chad added;

“This girl… who is she?”

The tingling sensation I felt trailing up my face was enough to let me know that I was blushing fiercely. I had no idea why he was so head bent on knowing who I was. I didn’t even have enough time to ponder over it because Hades turned around then. He took just one glance at me before he shook his head and looked away.

“She’s Hailey, a slave I bought earlier today… and the enemy’s daughter.”

“But she’s our mate.” Trent added, looking at me.

“Yes, she is… and I do not know why.”

With that, the room fell silent and a tremor ran up my spine.

What the hell does he mean by that?