Chapter 4

• ”Elijah,” my voice cracked a little. “What are they doing here?”
• Reese was unloading their suitcases as my mother and sister strutted towards us with big smiles on their faces.
• “Rosie wanted to come here. She’s missed her family and wanted to have a family get together. You didn’t mind so here we are.”
• “You brought me here because of Rosie.” I ended up laughing like a lunatic.
• All the happiness I felt earlier was for what? The long hours I spent shopping and brainstorming on how to save our mating was for nothing? Why did I not think Rosie would be involved? My mate cared for nothing and no one but once Rosie was mentioned, he turned into a different man. Why did I think for a moment that he remembered our anniversary for the first time in five years?
• “I brought you here because you wanted to come.” He sounded bored out of his mind. “I asked you if you wanted to come and you said yes. Why is it a problem all of a sudden?”
• “Oh, are we interrupting something?” Mother and Rosie had come to stand beside us while my heart raced and hurt at the same time. “Should we go inside and wait for you?”
• “No, stay out here!” I shouted but Elijah only shrugged.
• “There’s no need to wait. Let’s all go inside.”
• “Elijah, are you fucking kidding me!?” I screamed at him. “How could you invite them to our villa?”
• “It’s my villa,” he reminded me.
• I froze in shock at the emphasis he put on the possessive pronoun. He was telling me, without so many words to know my place. Even though I was his Luna and everything we had belonged to both of us equally, I was still nothing but the woman he chose to fill in a gap, a woman he neither wanted nor respected.
• “They’re your family and you haven’t seen your sister in a long time. Don’t you want to catch up with her?” He asked, irritation leaking from his words.
• “Catch up!? Catch up!? It’s our anniversary weekend, Elijah. Five years. We’ve been together for five years and I always begged you to bring me here but never once – you were always too busy, there was no time and no reason, but on the weekend of our five years anniversary, when I thought- when I thought –“ I broke off, feeling choked.
• My heart was hot, burning hot. My chest constricted and no words came from my mouth anymore. Reese was rolling the bags towards us. My mother had a bored look on her face while Rosie tried to contain a smirk. Elijah on the other hand, looked at me as if I was crazy.
• “What does the anniversary of a fake relationship matter?” He looked down at me and I felt – small.
• All he ever did was make me feel small. No one had humiliated me as much as Elijah had in this life but I still held on to him because I loved him. I fell in love with him one night many years ago and since then, I never looked back. Even when he treated me coldly and with indifference, I told myself I knew the real him because I had glimpsed a side of him that was raw and vulnerable, a side that he kept hidden from the rest of the world. I loved him and I wanted him to be happy since he had shown me how stifled and unhappy he felt but he wasn’t appreciative. It was like that night that I held dear in my heart never even happened for him.
• “I have dedicated myself to you for many years, Elijah. Everything - everything I have done has been centered around you but it seems you don’t care.”
• “As his Luna, everything you do should be for his benefit so don’t try to start drama now,” my mother said. “We’re your family so why are you throwing a tantrum this big because we’ll be spending a weekend together?”
• “I’m not throwing a tantrum!” I yelled.
• “Seems like you are.” She snorted. “Ever since you were a kid, you’ve always behaved like a little brat. I don’t know where your father picked you up from but you must have bad blood running through your veins. That’s why no matter what I did, you could never grow up right.”
• “Mum, don’t say that.” Rosie tugged at her mother’s arm. “We’re here to bond as a family. If you keep mentioning that dad brought her in from the streets, it’ll only sour the mood.”
• “That’s enough.” Elijah said. “If you don’t want to be here, feel free to leave. There’s no point arguing about any of this. I’m the Alpha of this pack and my decision is final.”
• He left us as he walked into the villa, never once turning to look back as he left me behind.
• “Why don’t you give up already?” Rosie took several steps towards me with a gloating smile on her lips. “The real owner is back so shouldn’t the fake step aside? Not only does Elijah not love you, soon, he’ll start to resent you for holding him back. Let him go before he crushes your poor little heart even more.”
• “You’re despicable,” I sneered at her.
• “Yes, but so are you.” She whirled around with a smirk. “Eli, wait for me!” She chased after him with a spring in her steps.
• “She’s right, you know?” Reese said. “There’s no place for you here. Not in this pack and not by Elijah’s side. Father brought you in and after raising you for twenty years, the least you could do is leave now that you’re an adult. Why do you continue to hang around when no one wants you here?”
• “Forget about this loser.” My mother took my brother’s arm. “She has no place to go anyway so expect her to leech off of us for as long as possible. Poor Elijah, I should have advised him not to take such a pathetic, clingy mess as his mate.”
• I stood outside for several minutes contemplating what to do. No part of me wanted to go inside but I couldn’t turn back. Admitting defeat felt so painful but there was no means for me to go back. Elijah drove and I had come here with the thought of having a romantic getaway with my mate. How would I get back home now?
• “Luna, let me help you with your luggage.” The caretaker of the property finally came out with two maids. “We prepared a warm meal for you and a cozy room. Let’s go.”
• He was an older man that felt like a father figure. Having no other option, I followed him, half listening to him talk about the house while thinking of my family’s words.
• No one in this pack accepted me. I was just the adopted daughter of the former beta. There were whispers that I was my father’s bastard child with another woman since I had striking blonde hair like him. It was the reason I was hated. The reason I couldn’t do good in front of anyone in this pack. My father brought me home one day and declared he picked me up from the streets and would adopt me. No matter how my mother refused, my father was adamant on keeping me. My parent’s marriage was said to have fallen apart because of me. I could not remember anything from my childhood but those that remembered never let me live in peace.
• “Here you are.” The old butler stopped in front of a room that made me do a double take.
• “Why am I staying in a side room? What happened to the master’s bedroom?” I asked as I stared at the small room. “Oh, you must have made a mistake.” It was a room right beside the master bedroom so I was going to walk over to my rightful place when he stopped me.
• “Well,” he cleared his throat, looking away from me as he loosened his collar. “The Alpha asked us to prepare this room for you. You know – he has a lot of work and says he’ll be up into the night working every night for the period of this break. In consideration of you,” the butler raised his voice when I wanted to walk past him. “In consideration of you, Luna, he asked that you use a separate room that is still close by. He knows you can’t sleep with the lights on so he asked us to prepare a different room for you that’s close by and luxurious!”
• “In consideration of me?” It was hard to think of Elijah as someone that had any consideration for me. “Did he say that or are you making things up to spare my feelings?”
• “No, really, the Alpha –“
• “Ri, is that where you’d be staying?” Rosie came out from the room just on the other side of Elijah’s room.
• “That’s how it is, isn’t it?” I laughed. “He must need me out of the room so he can spend as much time as possible with Rosie.”