Chapter 6

• “Ri!” I opened my eyes to someone shaking me vigorously. “Wake up.” She pinched my shoulder. “Wake up!”
• “What is it?” I asked as I pushed her off me with force. She ended up falling off the bed with a scream.
• “Why did you push me?” Elijah was running into the room alongside my mother as she shouted. “I was only trying to wake her up but she – she shoved me. My hand.” Tears filed her eyes as she held her arm.
• “Let me see,” Elijah demanded as he took her hand that was completely fine. “Why did you push her?” He growled at me. “She could have been seriously hurt.”
• “She doesn’t know the right way to wake a person. I reacted on instinct.”
• “Is your instinct to hurt your sister who just returned? How can you still be calm after doing something so horrible!? Apologize to her!” Mother shouted.
• “If you guys are just going to cause a racket, then you can all leave. I’m not in the mood.”
• The tone that flowed from my lips was unrecognizable even to me. Was this what it felt like to give up on all expectations? Since I didn’t care to receive anything from them, I didn’t care about the eyes with which they looked at me. Even when Elijah glared at me as he cradled Rosie’s hand, I felt nothing.
• Last night, I decided to give up on all my affections for this man. I didn’t think it would be easy to do but looking at him now, all I felt was regret. Oh, how many years I wasted chasing after this man! If I invested those years in pig farming, it certainly would have been more productive than this sham of a mating.
• “Kamari, don’t you think you should listen to your mother and apologize to Rosie? Is this how you treat your family?” His cold and unconcerned tone didn’t faze me anymore.
• Rather than feeling bad and upset as I normally would, all I felt now was annoyance. His face was a reminder of everything I had given up to make him happy. A reminder of my stupidity.
• “Since everyone is insisting, then fine.” I sighed. “Sorry for pushing you off me to stop you from vigorously shaking me, punching me and slapping my arm. I didn’t know I was supposed to just tolerate it.”
• “Liar!” My mother shouted.
• “I never did that!” Rosie also shouted. “I didn’t do that, Eli. I shook her a little hard since she wouldn’t wake up no matter how hard I tried but I never punched or slapped her. Why would I do that to my sister?”
• In the end, as always, he believed her. They all left my room but not before Elijah gave me a look that warned me to behave. I flopped back into bed with a yawn. Some things just never changed and I would no longer try to change them.
• I went to the bathroom to freshen up and once I came out, Rosie was going through my things.
• “We’re going to a get together hosted by one of my friends. Elijah wanted to invite you but I’m sure you know to refuse the offer.” She said without looking at me. She was going through my jewelry box in concentration. “No one there will welcome you so you better sit at home and continue to be a loser that no one wants.”
• “Right.” I ignored her provocation as I put on my clothes.
• “Oh, this is fancy!” She brought out a sparkling diamond necklace and put it around her neck.
• My first reaction was to yell at her and snatch it from her hands but I caught myself. It was a necklace I cherished with all my heart. It was presented to me by Elijah on the day of our mating and I took it as a token of our love. Now that I’d decided to let it all go, I couldn’t continue to hold on to it.
• “Can I have this? It fits me better than you, anyway.” Rosie was already putting it around her neck. In response, I shrugged. “Why are you so quiet? Are you hurt that Elijah took my side just now?” She laughed. “You should learn to deal with it. You’re nothing but a substitute and now that the real deal is back, you’ve lost relevance. If I were you, I’d leave quickly. Knowing that Elijah is too kind to kick you out, you took –“
• “If you want Elijah then just have him. No need to badger me.” I cut her off. “Take the jewelry, take the man, if you want, you can take my clothes too.”
• “W – what?” Her mouth dropped opened before she collected herself and sneered at me. “Are you trying to pretend not to be interested now? Do you think Elijah is the type that’ll fall for that kind of ploy. He –“
• “No, as mum said, you’re my younger sister so I should give way to you.” I shrugged again. “You’re my precious little sister who I haven’t seen in five years so I should not continue to hold on to a man that doesn’t want me and hinder your plans. I hope the two of you will live a happy life together.”
• “Stop interrupting…” A knock on the door stopped whatever nonsense she was about to say.
• I’d dressed and was now combing my hair so I yelled come in to whoever was at the door. I was surprised to see Elijah standing there.
• “Are you preparing for the banquet?” He looked me up and down, his gaze disproving of my outfit.
• I’d come here with mostly lingerie since I thought it was a couple’s vacation. This was the only casual cloth I brought with me.
• “Did Rosie tell you the kind of people that’s be there? You can’t go out like that.”
• “She said she’s not going.” Rosie jumped in. “She’s a bit under the weather so she wants to stay home. Look at this.” She put her hand on her chest and showed off my necklace which she took for herself. “Ri gave me this. Isn’t it beautiful? It suits me well, doesn’t it?”
• “What –“ His gaze cut to me and for a brief moment, I caught surprise reflected in his dark pupils. “Rosie, take that off. You can’t have that.”
• “Why not?” Her tone was pouty. “Don’t you like it on me? It suits me. It’s even blue like my eyes!”
• “Did you really give this to her?” Elijah asked.
• “Yes, “ I answered without turning to him, busying myself with applying mascara.
• “How can you give it away so casually!?” His voice raised. “Do you think it’s proper to give away things I gave you as you wish?”
• “Why not?” I closed my mascara tube and turned to him. “You gave it to me so I can dispose of it as I like.”
• “Dispose?” He sounded like he heard something absurd.
• “Yes, I got tired of it. It’s worthless to me now.”
• “Why – why are you looking at me like that?” He asked with his jaw working.
• “Ah, I’m sorry. Am I not allowed to look at the Alpha? My bad.” I averted my gaze.
• “Um, I didn’t know it was something precious.” Rosie said. “It’s my fault, Eli, so don’t be angry. I asked Ri for it as it’s pretty and she gave it away like it was only a piece of junk to her. If I had known it was so precious, I wouldn’t have dared to collect it.”
• “It’s a symbol of our mating. It’s not something you can have. Take it off and buy something else with my card.” His tone was gruff but I didn’t bother to look at the two as I put on lipgloss.
• “I’m really sorry. Why didn’t you say it was so precious, Ri? If it’s something that Eli gave specially to you, you should keep it somewhere special and not let anyone else touch it or even see it. If it was me, that’s exactly what I’d have done.” Words poured out of her mouth. I was a little angry but knowing I couldn’t do anything, I could only shrug.
• “To me, it’s a piece of junk. Throw it away if you please.”
• “Kamari Sinclair!” Elijah bellowed. “Are you throwing another tantrum right now?”
• “No, why would I?” I frowned.
• That necklace had meant the world to me. When he gave it to me on the night of our mating, I had stared at it with moons in my eyes. It was beautiful, expensive and picked out by Elijah himself. I spent days polishing it after that. He would scoff at me when he saw me doing this but I was just so happy to have something so beautiful. I convinced myself that it was something he gave me out of growing affection and after that, he never gave me anything else asides his card so I deluded myself further into thinking the necklace was special.
• Not now. Not anymore. It was as useless to me as he was.
• “Why are you acting like this?” He asked, an edge in his tone. “Dress up let’s go to the banquet and put this necklace on.”
• “I’m not going to any banquet and I don’t want that necklace. Ah, by the way, I got you something.” I brought out a carefully wrapped box from my unpacked luggage and handed it to him. His tense shoulders relaxed as he received the box from me. “It’s an anniversary present from me to you.”
• “I didn’t get you anything.” He said as a mater of fact, no remorse or apologetic tone.
• “It’s fine, I don’t want anything from you.” His expression collapsed and his shoulders tightened again. “Oh, no. I do want something else from you.”
• “What is it?” He pursed his lips. “You have an unlimited card with you so buy whatever you want.”
• “I want to annul this mating.” There was a collective intake of breath accompanying my declaration.