All Chapters of Scumbag Contract Husband, My Regretful Mate is Back : Chapter 1 - Chapter 7

The forest became a prison.She didn't know how she had made it out, only that she had. They caught her once, and the only defenses left to her had been the fight in her kicks, scratch of her nails, and sinking of teeth. In the tumult of confusion, a gap appeared, and with those legs that carried her away, running as if her life depended upon it because indeed it had.But the forest offered little solace. Her triumph was short-lived, replaced by the crushing reality of her situation. Days blurred into the night as she wandered, a shadow of herself.The once proud Alpha heiress was no more than a rogue, a creature of the wild.Her world shrunk to the bare essentials: food, water, shelter. She chewed on bitter fruits that made her stomach churn, and drank rainwater collected in leaves or puddles. At night, she curled up on the damp ground as the cold seeped into her bones.Hollow, she felt; her soul being wrenched off her, so fast, alongside her pack. It was painful with every gasping f

Cold and damp, the air from the lower quarters wrapped her around like a wet cloak, clinging and choking her. She sat on the floor, leaning her back against the cold stone, her arms still burning to the joints from the drag. Her eyes were wide and staring ahead, her mind racing.He had called her a stray, thrown her aside like she was nothing. The emerald eyes that cut and the mocking smirk were burnt into her mind as her chest heaved to contain the feeling. What hurt most was the helplessness cloaking her like a second skin: so much struggle to survive, yet here she was locked up in the dungeon of the man who thought her no better than a weak rogue.Her hands had curled into fists. She would have liked to cry and scream, demanding answers, but none would come. Instead, she pressed her forehead to her knees, making herself think. What now?Above her, in the great halls of the mansion, Ryland moved with the assurance of a man who owned the world. At his side, his fiancée Serena walked,

He traced the scent to this room, the room where the rogue was kept, he was shocked at first, but something uncontrollable pushed him to go in. The creaking door groaned open and shattered the smothering quiet of the lower quarters into a million pieces. Stirring from her fitful slumber, her body stretched taut with exhaustion, her brain clouded with fear. The footsteps in the space echoed deliberately and slowly; a predator closing in on his target.Her heart quickened with his looming presence. She huddled in a ball, clasping her knees tight to her chest, her chains clanking at the grim reminder of her very vulnerability. She didn't need to look up and was surrounded by his scent: cedar and dark spice that spoke volumes through the air as her wolf stirred in both alarm and unwilling fascination.Ryland stood there, his emerald eyes glowing in the dim light as they locked on her. His face was impassive, unreadable, yet behind his stoic façade, there was a flicker of something almost