AUTUMN:Beta Maddox.When we were children, he and the alpha were already fond of asking questions. If they were curious about something, they will make sure to know why it happened or why it worked like that. Until now, he was carrying that attitude. Lifting my chin, I asked back, "Why are you curious?" Which reminded me that I had not asked him about the dress. Who gave the dress if it was not the alpha?He gave me a half-shrug. "The people were whispering. They believed you would be his next whore given the past that the three of us had." Whore. "Why would I whore myself to him?""What do you think, Autumn? What else? So that you will start brand new. If you becomes the alpha's woman, you will never be branded as the cursed one of the pack. Everything would be to your advantage.""I would rather die than fuck the alpha." I would rather die than give myself to a man who did not even see my worth as a woman. I would rather give myself to someone who sees me as a woman. He looke
AUTUMN:If looks could kill, Sabrina would kill us right now. She was glaring at us and it looked like she would pounce any minute. The worst thing that this woman could do was create a scandal and pull my hair in front of the public.It was because of the beta. Him approaching me would only attract a lot of chaos from this woman. “It’s time for you to run away, Beta Maddox. Your mate will kill me. See how her nostrils flared?” Sabrina clenched her fist as if she was promising herself that she would punish me if she ever reached us.I was not scared of her. At all. What I was worried about was Trisha— my wolf and what she would do. “She’s not my mate,” he corrected, as if there was a need to do so. Which he did not have to. “What's going on between us is complicated,” he continued. There's no need for you to explain! You really did not have to! Don't you dare confuse me as if you’re going to accept me if Sabrina is out of the equation. “She is your mate,” I corrected. “You had cho
AUTUMN:Beta Maddox personally chose the dress for me. Those words had been ringing non stop in my mind for a couple of minutes until I was able to give him a reply. Yes. It took me longer than that. “But you did not give it to me? I mean…you did not buy it for me? You did not spend your money on this dress?”It was only a dress, Autumn. Why can’t you let it go?It might only be a dress, but it meant a lot if that person had given it out of good will. That he had given it because he wanted to. And that no one was forcing him, too. After my family's death, I had been living alone, trying to survive even if I did not deserve to live. And this dress…I was already getting emotional. Damn it. Beta Maddox averted his gaze for a couple of minutes, before he said, “The owner said that I could not divulge the identity of him. He wanted it to remain that way.”Cannot? Or he did not want to?“Whatever. Save it to yourself. I don't care about it, anyway. I only wanted to know if it was real
AUTUMN:Like a child, Sabrina stomped her foot and held her ground, refusing to listen to the beta. “She’s the one who started it! She wants to take you away from me! This bitch. I don't know how she remained alive after what she did to her family. She does not deserve to live!”My inside shook upon hearing my family on his lips. I clenched my fist and tried to stop myself from slapping her. How dare she mention my family with her mouth. Although she was also right. I did not deserve to live after everything. “Sabrina. That's not something that you would say in public,” the beta warned.The woman slapped his hands away. Now, we finally grabbed almost everyone’s attention. I just wanted to disappear. A slave fighting with a free she-wolf, especially the woman of the second most powerful person in the pack, was not something that would be taken lightly. I could be punished for this or may attract a lot of enemies.Damn it. Talking about my family was not something I took lightly.
AUTUMN:“It was the beta who wanted this party,” Alpha Hugh insisted. A lie.There was no way he was telling the truth. Why would he when he was facing an omega? An omega who was his mate?Men were full of lies and I hated how I was seeing one. They lie just to get what they want. And right now, even if I could not explain it, I could feel that the alpha was lying straight at my face.“Oh, please, Alpha Hugh. You don’t have to tell me that shit. I also don’t care if you were the one behind this party or not. That’s not what I wanted from you. I want your rejection. I wanted to be free from you and from any man that ever existed.” “I’m not lying to you, Autumn. It was the beta.”“Oh, please. What a load of crap. You enjoyed your time with that woman. You went out with her.”“I did, but I….” He stopped, and after realizing something, shook his head. “Never mind. Your face tells me you will not believe anything I said. Jealousy is written all over your face, Autumn.” He smirked.“I’m
AUTUMN:The difference between the beta and the alpha? They were both clear on what they wanted. The alpha was clear that he wanted me for whatever purposes he had. The beta made sure that I was not the one he needed since he was already betrothed to someone else. What if I told them that both of them were my mates and that the Moon Goddess played a sick prank on the three of us?But one thing was for sure. In the end, Alpha Hugh would only keep me in the pack. Never rejecting me. At least not for now. He would only hide the fact that we were mates to his pack.The beta and both the alpha did not want everyone to know about me. “Are we clear, Autumn?” he growled, when all I did was stare at him. “If I saw you with any man, I would kill you both. I don’t share what’s mine.”His breath fanned against my cheeks, inhaling the smell of the cigarettes on his mouth. His voice seemed like he meant it.“And why would you do that, Alpha Hugh? Why would you kill someone? You did not even lov
AUTUMN:It seemed like the devil was after my life.The incessant knocking on the door was enough to awaken the whole neighborhood. Groaning, I turned to my side while grabbing a pillow and used it to cover my ears. But my sensitive healing was not helping at all. The loud banging continued. It did not help to make my headache disappear. It felt like my head was going to split open.Images of what happened last night resurfaced. The alpha. “You looked gorgeous tonight and the dress fits you well.”Did he think he could sway me with those words? He could not. I wished he would just reject me. At least the beta did. “Open up!”Someone was shouting outside the door, telling me to open it.Forcing my eyes to open once again, the dirty ceiling of my room glared at me. Which reminded me that my room needed some cleaning too. “Open up!” he shouted for the nth time. “You will be punished for not responding!”Punish. Ah, right. They did not know that I was their future Luna. If they did
AUTUMN:Beta Maddox glared at me and if looks could kill, I would be dead by now. It seemed like he was not used to this kind of treatment coming from his subordinates. Too bad. After rejecting me, all my respect towards him was all thrown out the window. Respect begets respect. Lifting my hands, I said, “Okay, okay. I’m just teasing you. You will never feel any envy. You don’t have any feelings for me, that’s why you rejected me right away, Beta Maddox. No hard feelings. Of course you will always choose someone who would benefit you and that’s Sabrina. I got that.”I did not. He was an asshole. “You never tease an alpha or a beta,” he responded with a cold voice. “Know your place, slave.”Slave. What a nice endearment. “Geez. Fine. I was only trying to lighten the mood after what you did to the poor guard. You scared me right there. Imagine if you happened to kill him right in front of my room. Then his soul would keep on lingering here scaring the heck out of me.”I pretended
AUTUMN:I could feel Alpha Hugh's on me and Eric. He had a lot of questions. I could see it in his eyes, but he did not blurt them out loud. We were not doing anything wrong, but why did my heart keep on beating wildly against my ribcage? Why did I feel as if I was scared that he would say something like he was disappointed that I was accepting Eric even if it was still my work. "No, Alpha Hugh," Eric responded. He never bothered to step back so that Alpha Hugh would stop giving us weird looks. I shifted my weight from foot to foot. How do I deal with situations like this? I did not know how. When I was serving as the slave of the pack, all I cared about was on how to do my assigned work. Who would have thought that there would be an upgrade and that I would also be thinking about me? When Alpha Hugh continued staring at us, I put a safe space between Eric and me. Alpha Hugh did not answer for a few minutes and only stared at us. Damn it. What did he want? I already put some
AUTUMN:ALPHA HUGH was about to say something, but chose to close his mouth. Then he said, “I will call you later, dad.”I sighed in relief. I did not wahg to see any member of his family and put myself in a miserable situation. I was not ready to see the disappointed look on their faces. “Hugh. Is it true that you found your mate? We need to celebrate. You should inform the pack about it.” This was the first time I heard the former alpha this happy. Normally, he was always serious and his voice felt like thunder echoing from all over the pack house. But now…all I heard was a dad who was genuinely happy for his son. Would he be happy like that if he found out that it was me? Remembering my childhood, the alpha's family were hospitable and treated me kindly when my dad was still alive. They let me play with Alpha Hugh. Everything only changed when I became an orphan. “I will, Dad,” he said and added, “I will tell the rest of the details when I visit the house again with my son.”He
AUTUMN:“WHAT DO you want me to do for you, Autumn?” Alpha Hugh asked, sounding hopeful. I pretended to think for a moment, even if I already knew what I wanted from the beginning. My freedom. From him. From being the slave of the pack. I just wanted to be free where I could finally be happy. Did I deserve to be happy? After what happens to my family? “You know what I want in the beginning. Reject me,” I asked instead. “If you do that, then I will know that you're being serious about it.”His face hardened. “I cannot do that. I want to keep you, Autumn. Rejecting you is the last thing that I will do.”“Really? If that's the case, you will introduce me to your family.”Of course he was not able to do that. He could not do that. This was the alpha we were talking about. His eyes widened. I was already expecting that reaction and he would say no. Think of all the alibis he could say. He will disappoint me again. Just as I was about to open my mouth, he said, “Is that what you want?
AUTUMN:THE REST OF THE DAYS flew smoothly. Beta Maddox and I would occasionally meet in any of the corners of the house, but I was the one who would look away and pretend that I did not see him at all. The beta had not given me his decision whether he was going to pay for my talent fee or not. Yes. He should be paying me for my talent since I was the one who would face Sabrina whom I was certain would only mock me or even bully me there. When they wed, I will no longer bring any gifts for them. My presence was already enough. Let us see if Sabrina could still fathom seeing me. One time, when our path crossed when we were in the stairs, the beta would open his mouth, and was about to say something. I waited until words would come out from his mouth…that he would call my name, but he would go on and pretend as if he did not see me too.Coward or what? I guessed he was not willing to spend some fortune for his beloved Sabrina. If the beta was acting nonchalant, the alpha was the o
AUTUMN:Cedric’s eyes shifted from the alpha, the beta, and me. And shook his head. “Something must be really wrong with you three,” Cedric stated. “I don’t understand this kind of set-up. How come it’s fine with the three of you to be paired with somebody else? You don’t know how painful it is when your mate will marry someone else. To the point that you wanted to die,” he explained. “You three should fix this one.”“There is nothing to fix since this connection was already destroyed before it will start.”Was I in pain? I was still. But I did not want to look miserable in front of them. “Autumn….” Alpha Hugh called. I raised my hand. “You don't have to defend yourself, Alpha Hugh. I perfectly know the reason. That's why I am shifting my focus on Eric. He is a good man. And whatever you say, nothing will make me change my mind.”Cedric shook his head again. “Why was I the only one who thought the three of you should do something about it?”“Nothing should be done, Cedric. I am alr
AUTUMN: Sabrina must be freaking kidding me. What the heck was she thinking asking me to be her bridesmaid? Was she out of her mjns;? “Tell her she did not know what she was asking,” I muttered. If she will not practice now, what will she do? “Of all the women, why did it have to be Autumn? No offense, beta maddox, but your woman…she’s crazy sometimes.” “It’s not sometimes. She is always crazy.” What was her deal? Why did she have to ask for my presence at her wedding? It only meant one thing. “Did she know about our connection? Did you tell her about us?” Beta Maddox’s brows furrowed. “Why would I do that?” “You’re the only one who could answer that one, Beta Maddox. But you can tell your fiancee that I am busy. There’s so many things to do inside this house.” “You’re never busy, Autumn,” the beta insisted. I know what you're doing inside this house. You rarely take care of Gabriel. You let him do whatever he wants while you clean. Is cleaning more important than the future a
AUTUMN:I was already expecting that no one would answer Cedric’s question, but the beta responded, “It's because of the impending war. We don't want to lose our people and the alpha needs to marry the Alpha's daughter to save our people.”“I haven't decided yet, Maddox. Right now, I want you to shut your mouth while I think about it.”“I thought we were done with this, Hugh? You said you're going to meet that woman.” “I did say that, but I never said any date. I need to think about this a couple of times.”“Fuck,” Maddox cursed. “Do you think your people could wait? You heated them every day. And yet you could not even decide right now? What is stopping you, Hugh? Wake up! The people needed you!”Where was Gabriel again? I was glad that he was not here. Maybe he went upstairs and went to his room. It was safe if we were the only ones who talked about it.“Don’t you think I did not know that, Maddox? I am aware that the war should be stopped before it takes place, but I don’t want to
AUTUMN:Alpha Hugh’s eyes widened. “You’re in a relationship now?”“Yes,” I replied. “So please allow me to reject you, Alpha Hugh. Or you can reject me right now. it will be both beneficial for the two of us, Alpha HUgh. Let’s free ourselves from each other.”His face darkened once again. “No.”Someone suddenly cleared his throat. Glancing over my shoulder, I found Eric standing while holding some snacks. The sight made my stomach growl. “Uhm, did I interrupt something?”Alpha Hugh stood. “Gabby and I are going now. You can come with us if you want, Autumn.”Come with him? What did he think of me? Shameless and did not even have any dignity at all? After what he revealed, the more I wanted to stay here and think about everything once and for all. “No. I want to spend more time with Eric, Alpha Hugh. We will go home later.”“Don’t come home late,” he recalled and went inside his awaiting car. I gave me a curt nod. “Here, Autumn.” Eric gave me a cup and it turned out it was some kin
AUTUMN:What the heck was happening with my life? My first mate rejected me. My second chance mate was undecided with me. And now, he was telling me about a woman whom he was going to marry without even considering my feelings?Isn’t asking what you think of him marrying someone else one way of considering your feelings? another part of my mind asked. Would it be better if I did not know at all? ‘It was your fault in the first place,’ Trisha stated. ‘You told him you’re going to accept Eric’s feelings right now. That might be the reason why he finally decided on considering the woman as his wife.’‘He really did not have any feelings for me, right?’ All he wanted was to be friends with me again. Nothing else. ‘Tell me what I should do, Trisha.’My heart felt suddenly heavy as if there was a large elephant inside it.I just wanted to shift and let Trisha take over. A long run would be nice. I was pathetic. How could I long for someone’s acceptance to be his mate? How could I not mov