Chapter 97
Iliana’s eyes fluttered breathlessly under his scolding gaze and she even fell back a step on the plastic floor. Nora stood back, not at all as confused as I was,
and then she crossed her arms and lifted her head.
Should I say something?
“Iliana-”
“No,” the guy said standing next to me when I was about to repeat my question, “let her speak.”
We waited, stood still on a dance floor where people were bumping into us and I was stepping in something sticky every time I moved an inch from the hits.
A couple who were glued together with their tongues dancing as much as they were, rammed into Nora whose patience ran out.
She grabbed their necks and pinned them down.
“Go hump each other somewhere else!” she growled.
I laughed but it quickly died when the pit in my stomach grew, something was off. Iliana was staring at the guy and once she turned her gaze away from him it was intensely directed at Nora instead.
She sighed aloud and her shoulders fell.
“Fine, since you won’t let this go,” she seethed, “Hazel, our lives were ever in danger,” her eyes were on her feet, not on me.
“When- I mean- what?”
She chewed on her lip and her cheeks were turning the same bright red as her dress.
S
“He asked us to play a game, the object of the game was to create a scene where life and death existed simultaneously and to put you in a position of limbo where you didn’t know the outcome,”
A strong surge of power embraced me, wound around my body, and engulfed the whole club.
I looked to my side and up at his face.
“Bullshit, the object of the game was the scare the living shit of you,” he said and his eyes slowly softened when they landed on my face.
“He said that it was all part of your integration into the role as Queen,”
“Lies,” he called and this time he wasn’t alone to chime in.
“Tell her the truth,” Nora said calmly.
I looked at her, what did she know about any of this?
Nora’s arms hung by her side but her eyes were nailing Iliana to the spot. It was a threatening glare that didn’t give Iliana a choice but to be honest, however, I was genuinely afraid to hear what other truths she had to say.
“How could you do that?” I asked her in an exhale.
“Love is a fickle thief,” Nora said.
It took me a moment to wrap my head around that comment. Love had no place in any of this, where did it play a part… and with who?
“Emanuel?” Bullseye, I thought when I saw Iliana’s eyes harden.
“King Darian promised that I could keep him, that you wouldn’t ever be able to threaten what we have,” her words were calm but they were coated in a thick
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Chapter 97
web of anger.
“Emanuel would never agree to that. He doesn’t know, does he?” I said.
Nora’s head slowly turned and her eyes dripped with guilt and pity when she watched me.
No, I refused to believe that Emanuel had any prior knowledge of any of this bullshit that I was hearing. Iliana was my friend, she was the kind one out of the two of us, how could she ever think that I would want to steal Emanuel from her?
“He didn’t know,” I said and shook my head. There wasn’t a chance.
“Babe,” Nora’s voice was soft and graceful when she grabbed my hand, “he knew. Iliana got him and he got more land,”
Something in this world order was seriously messed up because the actual fuck?
Iliana, the innocent sweetheart with the kindest soul and the warmest heart- the girl who wouldn’t even stand up against her bullies? I physically fell forward from the knives I felt being metaphorically lunged into my back one by one.
“I didn’t feel like I had a choice. It’s you, every guy always chooses you, you don’t even have to try so when Emanuel chose me I was thrilled because finally, I had someone who didn’t just talk to me to get to you,”
Jealousy- seriously, bitch?
F
Trixy was growling like a true beast in the back of my mind and it was proving to be a challenge keeping her there.E
“Is that you defending yourself?” I asked with a bite to my tone that she picked up on.
“You’re with the King, it’s not like you can cry about having it worse than us,’
Everything bubbled under my skin and I wanted nothing more than to peel her face off or rip my hair out because this was beyond what I ever thought would come out of her mouth.
“You were there when he abused you before the Hunt! You saw him hitting me and putting his mark over Emanuels out of sheer stupidity but- no- no you’re right, I can’t cry out about having it worse than you because your mate fucks other women- OH WAIT!” I pointed at Nora, the Bell of the Ball who didn’t deserve the spotlight to be on her in this context but right now I can’t be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth. It’s either words or claws and this way is less bloody.
“But you’re queen,” Iliana rose a brow and shrugged a careless shoulder.
She didn’t get it. She didn’t want to.
“You need to leave, but before you do just know this,” I stepped up to her to make sure she heard every word that left my lips. “Emanuel chose you because Darian chose me. You were his spare, his second best, the leftovers that nobody else wanted and Dom chose Liv because Emanuel fought him for me. It will always be me. If I walked into your pack and told him to mark me again- be honest now- do you think he would say no? Or do you think he would kick you to your ass and make me his Luna in the split second it took for him to choose me the first time?”
Her eyes fell into that dark pit that I now called my home. Sadness washed over her face and even the ruby earrings looked less shiny when the dark cloud came over her.
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he Alpha’s Hunt
