CHAPTER 3

KRISTINA'S POV

 

"I, Laurence Gabriel Alfaro, accept you, Aliyah Jane Montereal, as my mate. You can rest easy whenever you're with me; I swear to the Moon Goddess' name that I would never fail to make you ecstatic,'' Laurence genuinely mumbled to Lady Montereal while tenderly cupping her cheeks.

 

I have been inattentive to everyone else who was trying to get my attention, as I was focused on nothing else other than watching Laurence and Lady Montereal get clingy with each other.

 

"How the hell can he be that touchy with someone he just met? So what if they're mates? I've known Laurence much longer than she does. If there's anyone out there suited to be Laurence's mate, it would obviously be me," I muttered, letting my thoughts escape through my mouth, thinking that no one would bother listening to my rants.

 

We just had s*x a few hours ago, and now he's entertaining someone else.

 

Aliyah Jane Montereal was the only one capable of handling the entire Black Fangs pack. She has such great manipulative and seductive charms that it is feasible for her to lure strong wolves into her pack. She probably has nice leadership skills as well, since they won't opt to stay with someone unreliable.

 

Laurence suddenly glanced my way as if he knew that I was staring at them, which made my chest feel suffocated. If he wasn't with her, then I would have smiled at him. But no, I rolled my eyes instead before I walked away.

 

"Kristina!" He called me, stopping me in my tracks.

 

Despite wanting to get away, I still followed my heart and chose to face him. "Is there anything I can help you with, Alpha Alfaro?" I asked, mocking him with his current title.

 

He grabbed Lady Montereal's waist, sticking her close to him. "I'm sure you haven't met her in person yet, so…"

 

I raised one of my hands to gesture to him not to continue what he was about to say. "I know who she is," I coldly said. "Care to have one last talk with me?"

 

Laurence slightly tilted his head sideways, wondering about my random invitation. "You can wait here for a while. This won't take too long," he said to his mate, then gave me the signal to follow him back to his bedroom.

 

Maybe I wasn't too observant earlier. I just noticed that Laurence's room was spacious. The walls were painted cream, while the ground was filled with marble and stones. There wasn't much furniture inside. He may not seem like it, but he's actually neat.

 

"What's with the formality back there?" Laurence closed the door after letting me in.

 

"Are you sure that Lady Montereal is your mate? Amongst all of the people here, you should be the one who knows best what type of person she is. She would do whatever it takes just to obtain what she wants." I crossed my arms below my chest, completely ignoring his query.

 

Laurence looked at me with disappointment in his eyes. "And here I was, hoping that you'd be the happiest to see me finally finding my mate," he murmured, not giving me a chance to rebut. "Aliyah may look like a slut in your eyes, but she's the one who came to me, and she's the one my wolf is looking for. If you can't wish us the best, then I wonder why I even thought of you as my closest friend," he grunted.

 

For some unknown reasons, I felt like this wouldn't end well. Laurence always starts to lose his temper whenever he's pushed to his limits. Compared to his wolf, who's ruthless down to the core most of the time, he has fully tamed his wolf.

 

"I understand where you're coming from, Laurence. But how are you going to take responsibility for me if I end up pregnant after what happened between us?"

 

He simply shrugged his shoulders, as if to tell me that it was already none of his business. My eyes got teary, realizing that I'd be taking care of my child by myself.

 

The scene where I imagined that he would take me as his Luna after successfully giving birth collapsed like how a glass shatters into fragmented pieces when dropped to the floor.

 

"Laurence, please…" I whispered as I bowed my head to face the ground while advancing to his spot to hold the hem of his shirt, unable to continuously meet his gaze. "This isn't how we're supposed to end our relationship," I added, preventing myself from stuttering.

 

He held me with those rough palms of his, just to let himself free from me. "Relationship? We weren't lovers in the first place, not even for a second. What made you think that you'd actually stand a chance against Aliyah?"

 

I almost lost my balance when he pushed me. Fortunately, I was able to hold onto a nearby chair. "You've changed this much after a few minutes of interacting with her; you're even treating me like trash already." I seriously have no idea what to do anymore.

 

My gut was telling me to let him decide what he wanted to do with his life. But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn't let him go and be with her.

 

However, it seems like his mate could no longer wait for us to finish. Lady Montereal consecutively knocked on the door where he was. "Laurence? Is everything alright over there?" she asked.

 

"Yeah. We're already done," he replied, giving me one last glance, which I perceived as his last farewell.

 

I hurriedly blocked his path to his mate as I stepped in the middle. My back was on Laurence, and I faced the lady with a stern expression.

 

"I don't know what's running through your mind right now, but I'm sure that time will reveal your ulterior motives for showing up now after all these years that Alpha Alfaro was searching for his mate," I confidently said with my arms spread apart to serve as a hurdle for them to have any physical contact.

 

"You… You're the one who came from the orphanage, aren't you?" Lady Montereal asked, but I didn't give any sort of response, which only proves to her that she wasn't mistaken. "You're braver than what I heard from the rumors. I like that attitude." She reached for the top of my head, expecting that she'd hurt me, but she only gave me a pat. "You don't have to worry too much. I'll properly do my job as Laurence's mate; I'll marry him and have lots of children with him, so that the bloodline of the Alfaros won't end in this generation." She grinned.

 

I clicked my tongue in irritation at how arrogant she was. "I almost forgot that you were trained by your father to be offensive rather than defensive…" I smirked, then glared at her intently. "Ah, right. Your father has been missing in action for years until now. I wonder what happened to him—is he still alive or just barely breathing as he struggles to survive each passing day?"

 

I only attempted to provoke her a little, which seemed to work out pretty well. I saw how her eyes twitched and her ears turned slightly reddish.

 

"Laurence, get her out of my sight while I'm still able to hold myself back," she ordered him without blinking once.

 

I partly covered my mouth with one of my hands. "What do you mean that you're restraining yourself? Just go on and straight-up admit that you're afraid to be humiliated if you choose to fight me right now, in front of your mate, then lose like a pup."

 

Laurence tightly gripped my left forearm, making me shriek in pain. "Stop, Kristina." It was only two words, but it was enough to make me obey him.

 

The shorter his statements were, the scarier he got.

 

"You don't have any authority to continue residing inside the Crimson Snow Pack," he mumbled while the two of us were getting further away from Lady Montereal.

 

"W-what? Are you… Is this your way of punishing me?" I questioned him in disbelief.

 

He nodded his head. "From this day onwards, I am totally removing all your rights to step foot in my territories; you're banished from the Crimson Snow Pack, Kristina Ysabelle Cruz," he formally announced.

 

My body automatically lost its strength the moment he declared I was no longer under his pack. I removed his grip on me, kneeling with my head touching the ground. "D-don't do this to me, Alpha Alfaro, please… I'm begging you! I don't want to go back to that orphanage; I can't return there yet. Please, forgive me for talking back to Lady Montereal; I won't do it ever again, I swear!" My voice cracked as I asked for another chance. "Take me in as one of your Omegas or whatever; just don't throw me away like I'm unworthy of being by your side. I promise I won't say anything to your mate about what we did, so—"

 

"Enough, Kristina. Don't force me to hurt you," Laurence said with such sincerity in his tone and concern in his eyes before he kicked me out of his pack house.

 

All the passageways that I could have possibly used to sneak in were blocked by his guards. I'm running out of any other options...

 

The only solution that I can think of right now is to go astray—be one of the rogues who has less than a fifty percent chance of surviving out in the woods.