HANNAHThe tension in the room was so palpable it felt like it could be cut with a knife. The only sounds were the nervous shuffling of my mother's feet, my laboured breathing and maybe the pounding of my heart. I was pretty sure it was beating so loud that everyone could hear it. I glanced at my wristwatch again, was surprised to see that barely five minutes had passed. Only five minutes? It felt already like five hours. Where were Jace, Cade and Chase? Seeing them here would make me feel so much better.I heard a footfall. I quickly turned towards the door but saw it was just one of the Alpha's guards coming to have a few words with Asher. Asher didn't seem to be paying attention to what the guard was saying. He was glaring concentratedly glaring at me. He had been doing so ever since I walked into the room. I looked away at once, stared at the floor. Somewhere on my right sat the Alpha. I didn't need to look at him to feel the full force of his displeasure. I refused to even look
HANNAHThe first thing I noticed the moment I stepped out of the vehicle was the absence of people. For some reason, the guards that had been stationed around my house for as long as I could remember, were not there. Frowning, I wondered why. Had the Wallace's called them off? I honestly doubted that. My mates took my security very seriously."Did you want to go somewhere else?" said the driver from behind me.I turned, found I was still grasping the car door handle."No. No. I'm good," I said.I stepped away from the car and the driver drove off. I reshouldered my backpack, half of mind on the amount of homework I had to do. As I stepped over the threshold, I froze. I opened my mouth to scream.The man standing opposite me with a wicked looking dagger at my mother's throat put a finger to his lips, motioning for me to be quiet. He was tall, built like a barrel. There was evil etched on every line of his scarred face. My head spun. I was in danger. My mother was in more danger. What
Before I could respond, he grabbed my hair, forced it to bob up and down. I shuddered at the thought of the picture they had painted. I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep the sobs in, but the tears ran down my cheeks.What did these men want? What was going on and most importantly, where were the guards who were supposed to be protecting us?The other man laughed. "I think she's gotten it now. Look at her shake like a frightened little mouse."I heard the scarfaced man's joints pop as he squatted in front of me. "In two days, at the meeting with the Alpha- Ah. Yes. You have finally figured what this is about, haven't you?" I felt my eyes widening, bugging with horror at the realization of what was happening. Asher had sent these people here. My mother had been right. The meeting really was a ploy to manipulate this situation to their advantage. Only the goddess knew what horrors Alpfay Dawson had in store for me and my mother now.I was brought back to the present by a stinging sla
HANNAHThis was it then. Today was the day I got to ruin my life with my own mouth. I was helpless to stop my fingers which were twisting and knotting and shredding the already frayed hem of my blouse. Never had I ever wished for a day never to come as I had done for today. And yet, the day I dreaded the most had come. There was no way out now and though my mother who sat beside me and kept shaking her head whenever she met my eyes, I was aware that even she knew there was no way out for me. There was no way I could stand by any let her get killed because of something I refused to do.I bit my tongue hard to keep back an agonized groan. How I wished something, anything would happen that would postpone this moment. For what I knew was the last time, I thought hard of a way out of this situation while the silence of the room settled on me like a heavy blanket. The more I thought, the more a sense of hopelessness crept in.Asher's harsh voice cut through the silence like a whip. "Are w
"I'm sure you heard her all right," Alpha Dawson said dismissively. "She just chose my son."He was trying so hard not to look gleeful and succeeding mostly, but Asher was a different study. He was grinning from ear to ear at the Wallace's discomfiture."What the hell has come over you, Hannah?" Cade bellowed, finally finding his voice. "How could you choose him?"My lips trembled. Why were they making this so hard? Rejecting them once was bad enough. Reaffirming my decision was pure agony. But I had to make this convincing."I'm sorry but I have made my choice," I said. "I'm sorry if I- if I led you on."Chase, muttering angrily to himself, kicked his seat. Jace was the only one who hadn't moved. His eyes were fixed on my face. The hurt I saw there broke my heart all the more.Asher pushed to his feet, looked haughtily around the room."I think we have had enough of the drama for today," he said. "This meeting has come to an end. Hannah, my mate..." He paused to savour the words when
CADE"Master Cade." The servant curtsied and held out a glass in which was some cold liquid. "Before you left, you wanted-"The blood roared in my ears. Damnit! Couldn't she read the room?"Get the hell out of my way!" I bellowed.She flinched and scurried away with the glass, half spilling it's contents on the floor in her haste to get away. It was a good thing she was a woman. If she were a man...I shut my eyes briefly and imagined it was Asher I was in such close proximity with. I would rip him limb from limb. I supposed it was a good thing for him that my father and his had been in at the meeting. I would have given an arm to have wiped the smirk of the son of a bitches' face.I strode angrily in the house, a bundle of rage.'I choose Asher as my mate,' she had said.Those words kept reverberating in my head. I stopped, whirled around and slammed my fist into the wall. My arm muscles trembled with the effort it took to clench my fists to keep from pummeling the wall over and over
My brothers and I, mumbling imprecations under our breaths, stomped away with me in front. I headed to my room. My brothers probably thought it was as good a place as any to talk so they followed me inside.Then followed a bitter discourse over what had just happened, but no matter how many times Chase and I asked ourselves why Hannah had changed her mind, we couldn't make head or tail of it. While Chase and I talked, I noticed Jace sat in a corner quietly and appeared to be deep in thought."Jace," I said, finally getting exasperated over his continued silence. "Are you going to say anything at all about what just happened or do you plan on sitting there and sulking all day?"Jace roused himself with an effort."It doesn't make sense," he said half to himself.Chase and I exchanged a look."What doesn't make sense?" I asked him. "What are you talking about?""I have been thinking-""Obviously," Chase said dryly.Jace shot him an impatient look. "In my head, I've been going through e
HANNAHThe room was spacious, but mostly bare. It still had some of the trappings of luxury that could be seen in every corner of the pack house, but most of it had been removed, no doubt on Asher's orders. He wouldn't want me to have anything too good.And though the room was comfortable, I hated it with a passion. I hated these four walls. I hated Asher and his father and most of all, I hated myself for being too weak and too helpless to get myself out of this situation."But what was I supposed to do?" I groaned as the tears slipped down my cheeks to mingle with the others already there.My mother's life had been on the line. But the even the fact that none of what was happening was my fault didn't make me feel the least bit better.With a sob, I buried my face in my hands and wondered why the moon goddess has condemned me, of all people to such a cruel fate. Hadn't I suffered enough with my father being banished and all? Why did Asher have to be my mate and most importantly, why h
HANNAH I paced my breathing and counted my steps under my breath to distract myself from what was going on. I just wanted to be in my head all the time, if that was possible. I wanted my mind to dissociated from what my body was being forced to do. But it was hard to find my happy place when Asher stopped walking and turned to growl at me. "Hey, walk faster, will you? What the hell is wrong with you anyway?" He eyed the pile of books I was carrying. "You had better not let any of those books touch the floor or you'll be picking them up with your teeth." I nodded, taking great care that my eyes remained downcast. That seemed to please him. He was always pleased whenever I didn't put up a protest to whatever outrageous demands he made. He kept walking. I followed. Things were now back to the way they used to be before the triplets had showed up. I was back to lugging Asher's books and things around the school, escorting him to glass and being his general dogsbody, or to put it more
HANNAHA loud knock on the door made me start violently. In a second, I had rolled off the bed and was on my feet.With a racing heart, I called out, "Wh-who is it?""Me," replied a voice, the voice of a maid.I clutched my chest in relief and weakly called for her to come in. Anyone who wasn't Asher or his father were welcome. I should have even known Asher wasn't the one in the first place as he would never knock."Hi," I said to the girl.She merely acknowledged me with a toss of her head. To the maids in this house, I was more or less one of them, was Asher's mate only in name."Master Asher wants you to do his laundry." the girl said and when I merely nodded, she added, "Now. His clothes are in his room."She couldn't have said anything worse. Doing his laundry, I didn't mind that, but going to his room was a whole different matter. I could only wish that he would not be there when I went to get the clothes.But of course he was. Fate wasn't giving me a brief these days. Asher ha
HANNAHI paced my breathing and counted my steps under my breath to distract myself from what was going on. I just wanted to be in my head all the time, if that was possible. I wanted my mind to dissociated from what my body was being forced to do.But it was hard to find my happy place when Asher stopped walking and turned to growl at me. "Hey, walk faster, will you? What the hell is wrong with you anyway?" He eyed the pile of books I was carrying. "You had better not let any of those books touch the floor or you'll be picking them up with your teeth."I nodded, taking great care that my eyes remained downcast. That seemed to please him. He was always pleased whenever I didn't put up a protest to whatever outrageous demands he made. He kept walking. I followed.Things were now back to the way they used to be before the triplets had showed up. I was back to lugging Asher's books and things around the school, escorting him to glass and being his general dogsbody, or to put it more acc
ASHER"You!" I pointed at the guard who was holding Matt's head back. "Dump some more water on him."As he poured the bucket of water over the choking, spluttering man, I kept punching him the face. The sound of my brass studded knuckles making contact with his wet skin made a rather pleasant squelching sound. My face split into a grin as I realized I could actually get used to this. The feeling of ultimate power and control was a heady one.Punching the shit out of this asshole certainly beat hitting inanimate punching bags at the gym. I adjusted the brass knuckles over my fingers, gave him one more punch below the eye before taking a step back to survey my handiwork.His face was satisfyingly bruised and covered in blood. The skin was split in several places. It wasn't a bad result for about thirty minutes work, I had to admit. Not even the pack's guards could have done it better. One of his eyes was swollen shut but I had been careful not to hit anywhere close to the other function
ASHERI could tell my old man was pissed from the moment I walked into his study. I wondered what was biting him. No doubt it was something or the other to do with the pack's administration. I was more concerned about his bad timing. Why he hadn't waited a few minutes more until after was done with Hannah? That bitch was asking for it."Where have you been?" my father barked, breaking into my thoughts."Huh?""I looked for you all over the house and in your room. You weren't there.""I was in Hannah's room. Before the guard interrupted, I was you know..." I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "...trying to fuck the bitch.""You were what?"I raised an eyebrow. Why did he sound so disapproving? It was surprising because my father was many things, but not a prude."I said I was about to fu-""Yes I heard you the first time, Asher but this is not the time to have sex!""Why?" I grumbled. "She's now my mate, isn't she? She's going to get screwed now or later, so what's the problem?""The pro
HANNAHJace took Willa and I to go get lunch and I was still dumbfounded by what he had done back at the shopping mall. As we sat down, I was beside myself with embarrassment. I couldn't believe I had all of Julia make a fool of me and the video was probably circulating about now. “I'm so sorry for the embarrassment I caused you both at the mall”. There was no coming back from this. “It's alright, Hannah”. The way he said my name only reminded me of how he had called me babe earlier. My cheeks flamed at the way the word had rolled off his tongue without him even noticing. “I think that girl that came earlier was responsible for it. She most likely framed you”. I knew Willa was talking about Julia and I was glad that I wasn't the only one who noticed that. “And thank you for paying too. I'm going to work hard to pay you back”. There's no way I was going to allow him spend that much on me without paying him back. He hadn't even planned on spending that money and stupid Julia had to
HANNAHChase had come to take to take me for a completely unnecessary reason. He took me to meet the other guys because they “missed me”. They just wanted to talk and confirm if I was okay but I assured them I was okay and they let me go back to Willa. “I'm getting bored. You know what we should do? Shop!”. She barely gave me the chance to get back into her room before she jumped at me. She started to pull out outfits to wear, insisting that the dress she had on already wasn't good enough for shopping especially if it was going to take a lot of time. I wanted to protest since I didn't have any money but she waved that off and told me it was her treat. She quickly changed into jeans and a gorgeous top and we headed for one of the huge malls in town. She asked the driver to prepare a car for us and warned him in advance that we were going shopping. The driver laughed and I knew he had to be used to her impulsive shopping. It just showed how they treated their staff with respect. Ash
HANNAHI was seated in the presence of the Alpha of Ice Stone pack in less than an hour. The triplets dad was an extremely formidable person who gave out an aura that dominated the entire room. Their mom was also there, looking extremely ethereal beside her husband. Neither of them have talked to me since I came even though they were the ones who asked Jace to come and fetch the guys and I. They barely glanced at me. For them to have asked that I came, it meant that they knew who I was and I was afraid that they thought I wasn't good enough for their son since they hadn't even acknowledged my presence. The circumstances in which we were meeting wasn't helping matter too. Jace had mentioned on the ride over that their dad had received a message that involved me and I had an idea of who might have sent the message. The Alpha brought out a sheet of paper that he must have read and handed it to Cade without even looking in his direction. He seemed to be communicating with his wife thr
HANNAHI was panicking when I picked up the phone to call Cade. If not for the guards who had been with us, alongside the ones they had called who had come swiftly, I would have been taken away to the pack house. According to the pack guards who came to pick up me up, Alpha Dawson wanted to see me. I know it has something to do with what had happened in school earlier with Asher. The guards from ice stone pack had made it impossible for them to get to me, making sure mom and I were safe inside. There was no way they were going to back down just like that. Asher wouldn't give up after just one attempt which meant that they would be coming back soon. As soon as the call connected, I started rambling to Cade who told me to calm down and explain what happened. “I was with mom when we heard chaos outside. When we went to check, pack guards were outside and demanding that I go with them to the pack house. The guards you sent with me beat them up and sent them away but I know they'll be