Revenge, served in a black dress

Ch 5

Mid-semester exam week was here, and she’d sat in her study room all day every day and studied and attended her exams, and when Jace came looking for her late at night, she was buried in a pile of books and told him she had exams nearly every day, so that was her priority right this minute.

She had actively stated no to s*x when he’d stated, “don’t you want to come to bed,” and that soft husky note had rolled out of him as he’d implied he wanted to have s*x. “You’ll be all relaxed in the morning, better for your exam.” He’d murmured by way of trying to convince her to go to bed with him.

“I need to study. That is more important to me than having s*x,” she’d stated without looking up at him.

There had been dead silence from him for a solid minute, and then he’d grated out “Right.” and she’d heard him stalk off and bang into their bedroom, like he was ticked off; she highly doubted that he was. It was his wolf nine times out of ten that was in that bed. Jace didn’t want her at all.

Was only interested in Gloria and couldn’t have her right now because she, Nora, had yet to conceive the heir he wanted that would be stronger from a Goddess-Gifted pair was all. She sighed softly to herself as she’d heard the door bang, but then had thought just a second later, yes, let him be cranky about not getting what he wanted.

She wondered if he only didn't go off and have s*x with Gloria, because he thought it might push her over the line, and see her actively reject him before he got what he wanted from her. He didn’t actually know her at all. Nothing about her temperament because he’d never bothered to get to know her.

Jace had no idea if she would hide in her room and deal with the pains of betrayal, call for help down the mind-link to one of his unit or the pack doctor perhaps. He had no idea if she was the type of she-wolf who would in fact stumble out of the suite in her pain, and scream and cry in agony, and let the pack know just how cruel he was by betraying their mate bond.

And he was cruel all the time, because he used their mate bond to pull her into his bed, allow his wolf to sate all its needs with her body, and when he himself decided his own needs were too high to ignore, he too used her body to sate himself.

A part of Nora wondered if Jace imagined she was Gloria when he was touching her. It was likely she thought, because they looked absolutely nothing alike. She was short at five six and had long thick black hair, with a naturally dark olive skin tone, and she had light amber brown eyes. She’d had nice curves when he’d met her. Now she was thin with an athletic build instead of curvy, she’d actually liked her curves.

Gloria was tall, a she-wolf that stood five-eleven without shoes on, six feet with heels on, and she had long blonde wavy hair that fell to her waist, even up in a ponytail. It neatly hung to her waist and she had light blue eyes, much the same as Jace himself.

Though her figure compared to Gloria’s, she thought hers was better. Gloria was likely to be a size six with small breasts and practically no ass at all. Whereas Nora wore size 8, she had good-sized breasts and her ass, though not as plump as before, still had a curve to it. She looked good in a fitted dress, had curves that drew the attention of man’s gazes.

Jace had told her he’d loved her body when he’d first met her, and she’d believed him, because his hands and mouth had been all over her curves. He’d cupped her breasts. They’d fit perfectly into his hands and he’d grabbed her ass and groaned. She’d believed him right up until that fateful day of hearing him tell Gloria it was just the mate bond, tearing her whole world apart.

She found Jace standing next to her in the library this morning, almost glaring down at her. It had been four days since she’d been in their bed, four days of her sleeping in her study room surrounded by her books and tutorial papers. “What?” she asked, looking up at him from her cross-legged position on the library floor.

She’d found herself a nice quiet corner in the pack library, where the books were old and a little dusty, indicating that no one came down here and perused them. Which meant to her that she could simply sit and be alone and no one would see her, and she wouldn’t have to interact with anyone from this pack.

The librarian often asked if she needed something. Nora just shook her head and stated, “I’ll find it myself,” and moved on away from her. The woman looked at her just like the owner of the pack café in town did. With an apologetic look of 'I know what’s going on'. The pack members here pitied her, and she wondered if they believed she was young and oblivious to it all, or if they’d noticed she was never anywhere near their Alpha anymore.

“You’re studying once more?” he’d asked, “It’s all you ever do, don’t you care about anything else?”

“I’ve got my final mid-semester exam in like 10 minutes.” She glared up at him, because what did it matter what she cared about? She was under no illusion as to what he meant. Don’t you care to produce me an heir? That is all he meant.

“Or do you want me to be uneducated?” she’d half grated out herself. She was over him, always blaming her for the things that were wrong with their mate bond. For her not wanting to be in his bed or at his side. When he only ever came to her when he wanted to have s*x.

It was as if she was just his glorified w***e, but without the glorified part, he’d not so much as bought her a single thing or given her a pack card. She didn’t even really feel like a pack member anymore, because he hadn’t even asked her what she was studying or offered to take over the payments of it.

Like any Alpha Mate would normally do, hell even just as the pack Alpha they would discuss the education of new pack members to see what they were studying and see what needed to be organized. If the pack member needed to be transferred to a closer university, and organize the payments from the pack, and have it paid back over the first few years of their pack member working; a contract to take it from their wages.

Jace hadn’t even bothered to ask her what it was she was studying, and she knew why, because not only didn’t he care to know, he saw no reason in paying for it, because once they had their pup, he was likely going to just reject her and banish her from the pack.

She’d seen his eyes move to her laptop screen as though he didn’t believe her, and she turned it to face him directly, tilted the screen so he could even see it and stated, “What? Do you think I’m lying about studying? You knew I was in my first year of a university degree when you met me. But yes, go ahead and accuse me of lying about needing to study.” She shot at him angrily.

His eyes moved right to hers and anger flashed on his face. “Don’t speak to me like that. I asked a simple question, and looked for clarification is all. Don’t be so childish Nora. I’ve also noticed that you always have books around you,” he turned and looked at where she was. “Alone with just books.” He swept his hand to the isle she was in. “Could you find a place further from where any of the pack members sit?”

“So, what?” She bit out. “Should I give up my studies and just get pregnant and produce you an heir? Is that all you want from me? You're happy to have a Mate that’s dumb and uneducated, are you? is just a baby-making machine.” She dared to challenge him on what she knew to be the actual truth.

She’d watched his eyes meet hers and, for once, she didn’t care to see the anger in his aimed at her for him not getting what he wanted. What did it matter anymore? And maybe her outing what she knew about their relationship or the nonexistence of one, he’d just reject her. He’d just told her how he actually felt about her; she was just a childish she-wolf to him.

At least she knew now how he looked at her. Yes, she was 110 years younger than him and so, she supposed, she was a child to him, but if he didn’t like it, he shouldn’t have claimed her, marked and mated her, brought her here just to screw her over.

“If you don’t mind, I’ve got an exam in eight minutes now.” She’d muttered and then just pulled on her headphones and turned her attention back to her exam, that she was sitting there waiting to start. She saw him in her peripheral vision, turn and walk away from her, and she was glad of it; she focused herself on her upcoming exam.

She smiled when it was finished. She was certain that she had aced it, and that she was going to get her first 4.0. She just knew it. She was very happy about that, and proud of herself too. She’d always been a good student, but this, if she could get that 4.0 on her mid-semester exams, that would be amazing. She was excited and anxious about the results coming out in ten days’ time.