62. It's not over yet.Lana stuck closer to Noah, who seemed to have lost his wits. They witnessed Aria giving a kick in Veronica's side of the waist. "Don't you dare mess with me again." She flared her hair in Jake's frozen face not before giving Noah a deathly look.While everyone in the classroom clenched their teeth in agony at the scraped flesh of the Butt of Veronica, Aria dashed out and came to the library. She deposited her bag on the desk and sunk in her favorite chair in the corner of the room away from the entire place. Throwing her head in her hands, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply to bring herself in control.'Well, I won't say I am disappointed since you didn't let me out. I'd say I'm freaking proud of you for teaching that witch a perfect lesson that she deserved.' Melody spoke to her.However, Aria didn't feel what she did was right. She was not the type of person who'd hurt someone against the hurt they cau
63. Goodbye For Good! Jake never felt this intimidated before. And across whom? A girl! He stood consciously under Aria's scrutinizing gaze as he threw sharp and venomous daggers at his friend holding his hand."Let go." Jake said severely."Come on, don't be ridiculous. There's no way you are leaving it whatever that is you have between yourselves unfinished." Neil jumped in their conversation while Aria gaped at them curiously."Stop it." Jake eyed them.Neil refused to listen to him and faced Aria, "He's my best friend and I care for him more than my mate. So Aria, there's something you need to know about him." Jake tried to pull him away. "All this while whenever we bullied you, it was done on Jake's insistence.""What?" Aria's eyes were sharp and assessing."Jake made us do it… so that he could come and be the savior of your life. So you noticed him." He turned to shrug at Jake. "
64. GriefWhen Aria punched that out, Jake never assumed she would abide by her words. Because after that conversation with Jake, she never spared him a look. Ten days down in their lives, and she had still not looked at him. She didn't have any time to look at him provided that she made friends and they kept her entertained. Kai's mate, Daisy, was one of them. She disliked Kai and the gang of his bully friends. She was a feminist and the talks of Kai and his notorious friends led her to maintain distance from him. No matter how much Kai attempted, she found a way to ignore and piss him. When Daisy perceived Aria had problems with the same boys group, she quickly became friends with her. Then there was Patty, a girl from the preceding grade aka their junior. The little nerd was being pestered by the boys of her class when Aria found her. This led to expansion to her friend circle, and now she had three other shy nerds from Patty's grade. Aria did not feel ashamed hanging out with j
65. Aria's First Date!She looked at the closed door and then behind herself at the complete darkness. A feeling of beingstuck, being committed to this moment, pierced through her veins and settled like congealed sludge in her belly.Talk? What talk was he talking about? If he thought she was okay with getting humiliated and then approached again for the same thing she was humiliated for then he was wrong. She wasn't going to get along with this easily. Because Aria was super mad. Even enraged.'At least he's making an effort to talk.' Melody rolled her eyes as she recalled Noah and his selfish ass. That jerk never approached her at all.She shoved that remark away and focused on the handsome face that's coming to annoy her now. His words bit through her heart that day. Aria recalled how much she'd cried that night to the pillow.She's never felt so bad. Yes she was an omega. Yes her status was low in the pack. Yes nothing c
66. Shopping For Her First Date Aria tried on another dress and stepped out of the changing room to stop in front of Daisy, "What do you think?"Bright afternoon light made her dark blue off-shoulder dress shimmer. It was small and ended above her mid thighs. The fitting was perfect... As if it was made exclusively for Aria."Gurlll, I wanna kiss the heck out of your face." Daisy's animated expression heated up her face."Erm, does this suit me?""Suit you? Baby, this color is made for you." Daisy grabbed her shoulders and swirled her around.Aria prayed she must not slip and fall since her feet were adorned with high heeled glossy stilettos with cute shimmery butterflies under her ankles on both sides."Tony will lose his fucking brains right after the first glance. You have no idea how pretty you are looking!" Thankfully Daisy stopped spinning her around. Aria walked towards the wall of the mirror and saw herself. 'Gosh, I would marry you if I could, Aria!' Melody made her laugh a
67. One Night Stand With Tony!!!! "I agree Kai is very bad, but not to the extent that I should be holding him at an arm's length." Daisy said with an apologetic smile as if it was a hard thing she had to do to change her boy. "I let him make love to me so he knows I am still his. And as long as he does not bully innocent people, I let him have me one day out of seven. But when he changes completely, which I think will take a while, then he can have me every night as long as he doesn't impregnate me."Aria forced a smile and pulled the bag of her dress to stare into it to excuse herself for a while. In the last ten days, the pain caused by Jake's harshness was the second reason that made her cry at night. The first reason was the tearing pain in her heart that emancipated from Noah's adultery with her oh-so-lovely girlfriend aka her best friend's sister, Lana. He had had sex with her eight times out of ten days. And the pain sprouted from it was like a fork scraping at her heart i
68. Aria in danger?!! She was cute. Her bond with Kai was so messed up yet so pure. They acted crazy all the time in school. But their chemistry in private was like a goal other couples would love to achieve. Kai was a good mate. He was outdoing himself. "Daisy," Aria called for her with her heart settling down in distress as she thought about her own mate. "What would you have done if Kai was a heartless mate?" "Heartless mate?" Daisy turned back to Aria, the redness of her cheeks gone. "I mean to say.. What would have been between you two if he was selfish?" "Can you elaborate a little more? You know I am a slow learner.""Okay, so what I mean to say is that if your mate was bad to you, always hurt you, never believed you even if the truth was clear in front of him, dated another girl, had sex with her all the time without caring about how you'd feel, and if he never came to your help when you were in need of a rescue... What would you've done then? How would you have dealt wit
69. Preparing for the date The following day arrived and passed by like a ride in a ferris wheel. Too short to do a thing. Aria sighed at the clock and then at her dress that was nearly placed on the bed with her sandals and jewelry she was going to wear with it."Uff, Aria, you're still not ready?" Daisy walked in her room with wide eyes."I've been preparing all day but still..." Aria forwarded her wet painted nails. "I am still not ready.""Well I can see that. It's twenty-five to nine, Aria! You need to hurry." Daisy set her side bag aside and rushed out of Aria's room. She returned with a bowl of water, "Here, dip your nails in the water.""But they're wet!" "I know, silly. This is cold water. It'll help set your polish faster without ruining it. And you don't have to sit under the fan to dry it." Aria didn't protest. She quickly put her hands in the water and bit her lips. It was cold. She can feel the tips of her fingers getting numb. But it was worth it if it saved her tim
123Jake's POV The last time I felt humiliated in my life was when— I clearly remember that day like it happened yesterday— I was an eight year old child and in a summer camp. My father had accompanied me as it was a condition of the camp to have at least one parent coming with their child.Mom was usually committed to pre-scheduled parties with other Lunas and was too stubborn to cancel them for a camp which she stated would be too boring for her. But I wanted to go as all my friends were going. That's when dad canceled some of his meetings, which as an alpha he shouldn't have, and came with me.The part where I felt utterly humiliated was when I was reciting the poem I've written for my father. It was a task given to all the children. We were asked to write either an essay or a poem for our parents. I wanted to outshine other kids and show that I was a future alpha, and hence, I chose to write a rhyming poem while everyone else stuck with writing an essay.And as I was extremely eag
122. "My father only loves his reputation and power. Don't worry about him. He would hardly feel bad if I left." I remarked with no expression. "But he's your father. How could you—" "You can't convince me to stay, Harry. I've made up my mind. I'm going to take them down, no matter what it costs." "Uncle Zavier will not appreciate this. I don't think he would like it if he knows you're joining the war he himself is staying away from." Harry shook his head clearly indicating that he wasn't going to take me along. It made my anger worse. I seethed and grabbed the front of his shirt. "I'm not a child anymore. I'm a warrior and this is my fight. Don't try to take that away from me, Harry. If dad wants to stay away then it is his choice. I can't leave my family to thrive alone when I know I have the ability to and I can help them win."Harry remained firm on his words but the need to get away from this pack and its people made me try harder to convince him. "You don't know what it's
121The addition she made regarding Jake made my eyes burn. I felt my limbs quivering. That all-encompassing feeling of pain washed over me again and I found myself staring at Harry, who was watching me have a battle with my wolf. "It's okay if you don't believe me, Aria. But maybe this will help you know I am not making up stories." He said as he passed his phone to me. I took it with shaking hands and played the video that was on pause. A corrosive pain shot up my spine and burst forth in my entire body. My knees gave way, and I fell on the floor. My agonized sobs bounced off the walls as I cried my heart out. I desperately wished it wasn’t true, but like every other cruel reality I’ve faced, the video was undeniably real.Jake was talking about me in the video with Kai and Neil. They were teasing him by taking my name and he rolled his eyes. They asked if it was genuine this time but Jake laughed out loud and said he wouldn't be tolerating me if I wasn't my father's daughter.I
120"Let me start from the start, Aria. That way you'll get a better idea of what I'm trying to tell you... Actually, our grandfather used to be one of the greatest and strongest Alphas of his time. He had a huge flourishing pack named Berrywood Pack. All of us were happy in our lives, and then, one day your father came to visit our pack to help us.""Rogues have always been a problem, Aria. They were a little more daring in the past than they are now. In the past, they would just pick up any she-wolf or girl child they liked and had their way with them. Or worse, pick an entire pack and threaten them to send a woman on a daily basis to them. And if their conditions weren't agreed with, they would declare war. That's why your father was invited by our grandfather to kill these rampant rogues and finish their terror forever."Harry's eyes gleamed as he went on, "None of us knew that your father would find his mate in our pack, and that it would be none other than the Alpha's Daughter,
119Aria's POVMy fingers twitched and my forearms numbed from the onset of overwhelming emotions that surged through my body. My face was tingling and my jaw had become stiff. I couldn't move my jaw, much less part it and breathe.I was desperately struggling to regain control but I felt as though I was pushed, head deep, in freezing water. And no matter how much I struggled to come back on the surface, it was futile.A point came when I fell on my side and ended up curling myself into a ball. I covered my head with my hands, my entire body buzzing with a tingling sensation.Was this death? Is this how it felt when your soul left your body?I won't know whether or not it was death because the moment I willingly closed my eyes to accept the end of my life— which I thought it was— I sensed warm arms lifting me up.My body teetered as someone held me close to a warm chest and began to walk. The foul smell of garbage began to drift away, indicating that I was being carried away to a bette
118Aria's POVAfter leaving my house and Kai and Daisy in it, I rushed into a dark alley to cry my heart out. I was in pain I couldn't narrate. My heart was hurting from Jake's ignorance while my body vibrated from the after-effects of my mate's force used on me. My life went from bright to dark overnight. I was made to pay for a mistake I didn't even commit. My wolf was howling for respite. We both needed some rest. All these hours we tolerated since the morning has taken a toll on her. However, we refused to relax. Not now. Not when our eyes were blazing with the fire of revenge. Melody and I have vowed to not sit quiet until we settled scores with Noah Rhodes. That bastard caught us off guard. He attacked me when I was not prepared. But now my veins were fueled with aggression, my limbs aching to fight back. My mind was compelling me to use all the tricks I have learned from my father through intense training. I moved in the darkness as I made my way to Noah's house in search o
117"How dare you play such a trick on me?" Noah's voice bounced off the walls. He picked up Aria from over the broken bed and clutched her hair tightly, making her wail. He pulled them in a merciless joke as his canines surfaced. His muscles convulsed in fury as he brought his face closer to Aria, "It was Jake's idea, wasn't it? He asked you to do this to trouble me.""Aah!" Aria's body was a huge ball of pain. She tapped on his wrist so he would let go. Alas, enraged like an uncontrollable bull, Noah tossed her across the room again. Aria fell on her weak study table, crushing it under her. She hissed with thick tears streaming out of her eyes as a pointed piece of wood pierce her inner thigh. Noah didn't show any pity as he raised her by her hair again. Her scalp ached as a thousands brightly blinking stars burst across her vision. "I detest Moon goddess for mating me with a gold digging whóre like you. You are despicable and..." His words faded out as Aria's senses spun into
116Aria walked on the quiet road on light feet. She was feeling cold and had to wrap her arms around herself. The winds were piercing into her skin and the dust it carried swirled around her. She shuffled her feet ahead with teary eyes as she wondered where to go.She just returned from the club she heard the girls mention in the library. It turned out that Jake left an hour before she reached there. Then she went to his home, the alpha mansion. Unfortunately, there were a dozen expensive cars lining outside the mansion. The alpha probably had visitors, and thus she couldn't gather up the courage to walk into that house while powerful people occupied it.There could be one, if not all, disliking her father. She was too frightened to appear in front of any such person who could take a dig at her to humiliate the most feared hunter in the pack. That being said, she left without meeting Jake.Now as she started her walk to nowhere, she reminiscenced the times she spent with Jake. He had
115. Truth out in front of Daisy "I hate her for hurting Lana, Kai. I will never forgive her."She banded her hands around his waist stiffly and wailed. "She not only cheated on Jake and my sister but on me too. I trusted and loved her just like Lana. Why did she have to do that? She was very well versed with the fact that Noah was dating my sister. But she still kissed him." Kai chewed the inside of his cheek agitatedly. He wished to tell her about Noah and Aria being each other's mate but he bit it down. It wasn't his place to tell her. But he definitely needed to make her see some sense and not entirely blame Aria for the kiss. "Do you realize this wouldn't have happened if Aria didn't go to the old age home with you?" "What are you insinuating, Kai Sinclair? Do you want to say that I influenced Aria to do that." Daisy's voice hardened ruthlessly. "All I'm saying is that Aria isn't the only one who you should condemn. Noah is equally—" "What's wrong with you, Kai?" Daisy pus