#Chapter 8 Her Name is Helen
Helen POV
Justin! I stared at my mate through the veil of my hands, my body stinging all over from the debris thrown on me.
How had The Devil found me!?
My first instinct seeing the last Lycan before me again—was to run.
I dismissed the urge as soon as it came through my head. His legs were significantly longer than my own and I had seen him move faster than me even while chained.
The next idea which came to mind was to deny who he thought I was—who he believed he knew I was but did he know? Could he know?
Lycans were rumored to have all kinds of gifts, but I knew his vision wasn’t perfect in the gloom which we’d met in. The darkness inside his room had been almost complete.
My heat had caused many of my own memories to be hazy. It was a fair bet Justin didn’t have much more clear memories of me.
“Thank you for your help, Alpha!”
“Alpha?” he asked, looking at me in puzzlement as he crouched to join me where I huddled in the walkway, “I’m your mate. Justin. Did they strike your head? Are you injured?”
They had actually hit me in the head, but I wasn’t injured enough to fake mental confusion. I was hoping I could hedge my bets by explaining I was not the woman he thought. I was—another female.
My sister!
“I’m sorry, I’m not your mate. You must have me mistaken for my sister. I’m Helen. My sister Diana was recently sent to be mated. Did you mean Diana?”
“You are not Diana?”
His confusion was palpable.
The low rumble of his voice made me want to cozy up against him, rub my face over his chest until I was bathed in his scent. I knew the only chance I had to free him from our mating was to continue to deny though so I went with denial.
“No, no, I’m sorry. I am not Diana. I’m Helen. You must think I’m Diana because we share rooms in our parents‘ home. We have a similar scent. I’m told.”
Wolfen had trouble identifying their own scents. I’d been informed mine was closer to jasmine or gardenia while I knew Diana was a very heavy musk scent overlaid the floral of our line.
She was easier to track than I was which was fitting since she was a pure Snow White and I was a mixed coat Tiger
Lily.
“You are not my mate?” he repeated, reaching for my arm to pull it toward him for a closer test of my scent.
I allowed him to hold my arm only long enough to get the scent of my soap into his nose then tugged my arm back with a gasp.
“No! I’m very sorry. I thank you for your help. I have to go though. I need to get home to my parents. They’ll be worried. I was only meant to come to town to run an errand then return home immediately.”
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“You are Helen? The one who married Diana’s mate at her wedding?”
1 blinked in confusion as I realized I’d told him of my tragedy from the perspective of my sister’s name yet my story—and he’d remembered!
His grip tightened painfully around my wrist as he shook me like a dog with a bone, “Apologize! You will tell my Diana you are sorry for being a faithless cur dog who stole her mate. You will take me to her now and apologize in front of me!”
I didn’t know what to do when confronted with the fact Justin seemed unwilling to let me leave even after learning I was a woman willing to take a mate from her own sister. He wanted me to apologize? For my own misery? To myself?
The irony wasn’t lost on me as I let my mate drag me to my feet with every intention in his form of towing me to issue an apology to myself.
“I can take you to a restaurant. I eat there with my sister often. We’re allowed to visit without a chaperone because they seat us outside on the walk.”
The patio was an informal restaurant cafe which served simple fare. My parents did allow my sister to eat there, and I was allowed to accompany her on the occasions she needed someone to carry things for her.
I’d never gone as a guest only. It wasn’t my place to be treated as a guest. I was the help. My job was to serve, not be served.
Shalong my apron out, I nodded to the collection of small outdoor tables which marked The Patio. Justin followed me with a confident strut as if he were wearing the finest suit when he was, in fact, wearing only a small pair of shorts.
My attention was caught by a gleam coming from his hip; I realized he had my necklace with my rings in his shorts ‘pocket! How had it gotten there?
I didn’t remember picking the necklace up. Justin must have done it at some point in the night after I had passed out. Had he put the shorts on only to take them off again?
I couldn’t make it all come together in my mind, but I knew I had to find a way to get my necklace and rings back. They meant something to me even if I couldn’t define the meaning in so many words.
“If you’ll wait here, I’ll go fetch my sister and her mate. My mate. Please wait.”
Justin caught my arm before I could escape. His eyes were serious as he studied my face; I was terrified he’d figured out I was the one he’d mated the night before though I knew I carried none of his scent and his mating bite was covered by my modest top.
“You will call her to you here. Send someone for her. You will remain with me. I won’t chase you.”
I wanted to tell him I wished he wouldn’t chase me, but I knew better than to mouth off to an Alpha much less the last Lycan.
Offering my phone, I said, “I can call her here. I’ll leave my phone with you if she doesn’t answer. I wouldn’t leave my phone behind without returning for it. My family couldn’t afford to replace it.”
My family was not a wealthy one and I was grateful for my maid’s apron which made me look even more poor than we actually were in our standing.
I called my sister’s number, well aware she’d never answer I even put it on speaker so he could hear when the
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#Chapter 8 Her Name is Helen
voicemail’s default message played.
“I’ll have to run for her. Will you wait while I go get her?”
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Justin eyed me suspiciously before snatching my phone to his chest and giving me a nod of dismissal which I took with a dead run away from The Patio.
My thoughts raced as I tried to come up with an answer to the predicament I was in. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t apologize to myself for my own circumstances! I was Helen! I’d told him I was Diana to confuse him in the event he came looking for me and he actually had tracked me!
Why would he have tracked me?
I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact my second chance mate was so willing to accept me as I came: flaws, mixed coat, low breeding, and poor. All of my faults numbered out to mark me as an unworthy selection for an Alpha much less an Alpha Prince who was the last Lycan!
Justin was only convinced of my story because he hadn’t gotten a good hit of my natural scent. My shower–fresh smell would begin to fade the longer I was in the elements, rushing around, sweating.
Seeing the pharmacy, I raced inside and went to the hygiene aisle where I looked through the vials available until I found a scent suppressant along with an odor replacer. I sprayed myself down with a tester of the suppressant which stole away all my natural scent then I used the replacer to give myself a similar musky scent to my sister. 2
If I did genuinely smell similar to Diana, Justin would have to believe me! Right?
I wasn’t sure about anything any longer, but the pharmacist was looking at me with suspicion and I didn’t have nearly enough money to buy either product I’d sampled.
Rushing out of the pharmacy, I went to see if my sister was still at home. I couldn’t very well ask her to come meet my Lycan mate and lie for me to say she was the one who’d shared his bed, but I could make sure she wasn’t going to arrive in town to make trouble for me.
I checked through the windows to verify my parents were still in the sitting room with Diana and Scott, then I went back to the restaurant where I found Justin waiting with a blank expression on his handsome face.
Why did he have to be so good–looking? It really wasn’t fair he was powerful, wealthy, and gorgeous all at the same time!
“Helen,” he rumbled at me in greeting, “I’m glad you returned to join me. Will we be waiting long on Diana?”
“I—”
What kind of answer was I supposed to give him? Why was this happening to me!?
Justin gave me a mysterious, knowing smile.
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