JESSICA
"Come here." He glances at me with pure hatred. "I want you to come here."
I nod my head softly before going to where he wants me to come to stand at the foot of his bed. I wrap my arms around my waist instinctively, feeling uncomfortable within my skin. He throws me another mean look that makes my knees shudder as I take small steps toward him.
"Don't you think you should find some other place to sleep for the night?" He barks at me. "You can use the attic upstairs. I don't want you in my bedroom." Then he takes another breath before barking instructions at me. "Get out of my face."
I nod my head slowly.
"Ok-okay. I will leave you alone."
"Remember my words. I don't want to see you. I don't want anything to do with you. Get out of my face with that disgusting scent of yours, you pathetic, spineless bitch."
I tiptoe to the front of the door before I summon all my courage to speak again.
"But it is our wed-wedding night," I stutter, "your parents want-want an heir for their pack."
"Just look at you! Just fucking look at you!" He gets up from sitting at the foot of the bed and starts walking toward me. "You should first learn how to speak in full sentences before finding a way to get closer to me." He takes long strides towards me, and when he reaches the door, he flinches physically. He forces himself to grab me by the shoulders and give me a good shake. Then he brings his lips closer to the skin of my earlobe. "I'm not going to touch you. I'm not going to touch for as long as I live, so help me, God, and get out of my fucking face. Why did you agree to marry me?" Then he scoffs. "Now that you have, you should bear the consequences of your actions." He shoves me angrily to the hard surface of the door, and I hurt my knee against the doorjamb. "I will not lay a finger on you as long as you are here in this house, living with me and sharing my bedroom. Don't expect much from me. If you do, I know how to take you a peg down. Believe it or not, you have made the worst mistake of your life by marrying me."
Then he slaps me across the face, and my face stings brightly from the impact, my eyes tearing up.
"Get the fuck out!"
I take a few steps backwards and unlock the doorknob in a haze before getting out of the room and locking it behind me.
Why did he hurt me?
What have I done to him?
I thought he wanted me.
And now he doesn't want me?
Did he just hit me?
My head swirls with thoughts as I take the stairs, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. My feet thud quietly against the wooden stairs while I try to follow the dim light from a hallway window so I can find my way to the attic in the middle of the night.
Finding the uppermost floor of the house completely empty, I walk cautiously with light steps as if to not make a noise as tears keep streaming down my face. The atmosphere on this floor is the coldest as chill is evident in the night air, and there's a lack of heating on this abandoned floor.
Luckily, when I reach the attic and try the door, the door gives way without much reluctance, and I step inside, wrapping my arms around my waist to shield as much heat as I can between my arms.
Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I turn on the flash option, and a steady stream of light flows through the flash above my phone's camera.
I find a couple of boxes on the left of the spacious attic, and on the right side of the room, an old abandoned bed sits covered in cobwebs and dirt. So I try to rummage through the boxes for an old blanket and somehow miraculously find one. Then I take steps to lie on the old, flat mattress and clean what I can with my hands. I beat the thin mattress with the back of my hand to airing it out before slipping in it while bringing the blanket all over my body to cover me for the night.
While I try to close my eyes to will myself to fall asleep, tears keep falling, and I cry into the back of my hands.
I can't believe that's the man my father chose for me.
My stepmother probably was the one who filled his mind with lies and manipulation.
After all that I have been through, I have to go through this too.
Do I really have to deal with the pain of having an estranged husband?
His words ring in my head.
I'm not going to touch you.
I'm not going to touch for as long as I live, so help me, God, and get out of my fucking face.
Why did you agree to marry me?
Crying some more into my hands, I'm almost not sure why I agreed to marry him. Maybe it was because I wanted to escape the mundane life I have lived so far. The thought of having a family was on my mind since I'm in my late twenties and because of all the trauma and abuse I have been through in my childhood, I couldn't bring myself to date anyone in the real world. So when my stepmother called me six months ago after a long day at work, I realised that maybe this time they were doing this from the kindness of their hearts. The harshness of my parent's behaviour slowly dissipated towards me when they realised The Rycroft family wanted me as their son's mate and to become someday the luna of their wolf pack. They also propositioned that I give the second-in-line to be alpha, their son, Asher, a son within the first year of our arranged marriage.
I knew they were asking for a lot, and when I talked to my stepmother about this, she convinced me that Asher had chosen me as his mate because he couldn't get my scent off his mind.
For some reason, I thought we were a good match, only to find that he doesn't feel the same.
Why didn't I meet him in private and clear everything before everything went down?
***
There are a series of knocks at my door, and I twist and turn against the thin mattress uncomfortably. A sharp pain rises from my lower back, and the pain tethers me to reality when I try to change the sleeping position while lying on the mattress.
Another loud knock almost makes me spring out of bed. I sit up upright quickly, rubbing the sleep off my eyes.
Who is it?
Could that be Asher?
What does he want from me now?
Is he here to hurt me some more?
Just the thought of being stricken across my face again makes my heart twist with agony. A shudder runs down my back as I hear the knocking return while I summon the courage to get out of bed and open my room's door. Finally, after a long moment, I give in and get out of bed.
With slow and heavy steps, I pull open the bedroom door, and another man meets my eyes. It's Asher's brother, Aidan, who looks back at me with dark eyes and reddish-brown, almost hazel in colour hair. His features are strikingly gorgeous, and he's more handsome than I remember him being from my childhood. My heart beats loudly against the walls of my chest as Aidan takes in my face. His eyes stare back at mine as he raises his arms to be in my line of vision.
"Here's a warm sweater," he offers the piece of warm clothing to me. "It's the warmest one I could find. I'm sorry I couldn't find a clean blanket to offer you, but I'll make sure I'll find something for you tomorrow." His eyes are still gazing at my face. "How did you-did you get that mark across your face?" He takes a breath in, running his fingers through his hair. "Don't tell me that Asher hurt you? How could he lay a finger on you? That fucking bastard!"
"Shh," I try to calm him down. "You don't have to be loud." I accept the sweater and pull it tightly across my chest as I step to the side, and he enters the room. "He didn't mean to hurt me."
"Of course," he nods his head. "I see that not much has changed with you, Jess." He exhales a harsh breath. "You're still lying to yourself. In your head, he's a good husband, isn't it?"
I fix my hair behind my ear.
"I never said that." I walk to the foot of the abandoned bed and take a seat on the edge of the mattress. "I never knew that he perhaps didn't want me because I thought he did when he came for that family dinner my dad hosted all those months ago. He was cordial and almost affectionate back then."
Aidan scoffs.
I continue talking.
"I really thought he wanted me as his mate since we knew each other since we were kids."
"Didn't you notice that we haven't been around each other since we were kids? Time changes people, Jess. People can change a lot over the years. I suspect there was perhaps another reason why you wanted him to be your husband."
I nod, biting my lip.
"I also thought that he liked me because I used to have this stupid crush on him and thought he wanted me the same way too." I swallow as my throat constricts. "He's also in line to be an alpha, and I thought I could have my family with him since my mom married an alpha when she was young. It made more sense when my dad was explaining it to me."
He nods.
"You probably thought you would be respected in our wolf pack better than you were in yours? Especially after your dad married your stepmother because she made your life hell all these years?"
Brushing my fingers over my cheeks, I situate my gaze down on the dirty floor.
"How did you know about that?" I bite my lip again as anxiety soars in my veins. "You weren't even in the country. The last time I heard of you, you were moving abroad to study till you would have graduated college." Then I match his gaze. "How do you know all about this, Aidan?"
"Because I was the stupid brother who has had a crush on you all my life since we were kids."
