Revenge, served in a black dress

CH 8

She walked into the Alpha Suite and to her study room. One single tear was all that she had shed, and no others would there be. It may have hurt to say those very words out loud, but she’d already known the truth. She hadn’t even expected herself to hitch in her words or shed that tear before him, she’d told herself he would never see how she truly felt, because he didn’t deserve to know.

But there would be no more. That was it. She sank down at her study desk and turned on her laptop, logged into her course and read through the next assignment she had due, printed out all the details of it and started marking out what were the most important things she needed to focus on.

She hissed in pain and turned to stare at her own arm as she felt the pains of betrayal slide up it, and grit her teeth against it as her eyes turned to the ceiling. Even now, he would go and see Gloria, take comfort from her, when he was the one in the wrong.

She hadn’t expected him to come up here and apologize to her, not when she was nothing to him, but hadn’t expected him to cause her pains of betrayal yet again, knowing it was her birthday, he was likely trying to punish her for outing him to the pack she realized.

She knew just from that one thing, and the pain she felt that she was going to find him stalking into this very room, staring her down, an angry Alpha for humiliating him by calling him out in front of the pack members; he’d thought he was going to yell at her about her lack of care or concern for him, and she’d effectively turned the tables on him, and he didn't like it.

She wondered right now, just what type of Alpha he truly was, already touching another so as to make her feel it. Would he roar at her and hit her for humiliating him in front of his pack? Again, something he’d find wouldn’t go in his favor, because without Rosa it would bruise her, and she’d not be able to heal it. It would take a week or more without wolfen healing to resolve.

Nora would walk about the pack with it on show for all to see, and when or if someone asked her about it, she’d simply stated ‘Jace hit me for him not recalling my birthday and my stating it for all to hear.’

He would learn that her bark was worse than her bite, until the day came, when she did bite him for real, and tore a chunk right out of his heart and his soul. She would rip herself from him for all to see. This, what she was feeling, was nothing compared to what she wanted to do to him. She wanted to gut him with everything she had, but couldn’t, because she was currently as weak as a human, because Rosa wouldn’t be a part of the pack.

It was over an hour before she heard the door to her study room open, and she knew it was him. She didn’t even have to look at him to know it. She could feel his Alpha presence in the room, “Nora,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.” He sighed and walked into the room.

“So am I.” she stated flatly without looking at him, but she wasn’t sorry that he’d forgotten her birthday. She had never expected him to remember it in the first place. She was, however, sorry she’d allowed herself to be fooled by him, sorry that she had loved him, only to be betrayed by him from the very get go, betrayed before he’d even sunk his fangs into her and she knew it.

She was sorry that she was so naïve as to think that a mate bond meant love, that if she gave her love it would be returned to her. That, she now understood, is not what it meant at all. No, it was just their Goddess pairing up two of her wolves was all. Not pairing up the human counterparts; humans she knew were fickle and cruel, unreliable and mean even, to those they were supposed to love. Her human mate counterpart was all of those things.

She saw him in her peripheral vision as he knelt down next to where she sat, and his hand reached out to touch her face. She turned it away from him, not wanting him to touch her. He’d just come from touching Gloria. He could bloody go back to her for all she cared. “Don’t touch me,” she stated, keeping her eyes on her studies.

She saw the single red rose before her as he held it out to her. “I’m sorry, I forgot. Please forgive me,” he murmured, and though he sounded as if he truly meant it. She knew it was a lie, everything about him was a lie.

Nora knew he could sound like he loved her, fill his voice with desire and even allow it to reach his eyes, but it was not real, just the mate bond, not love. She pushed it away from her and turned herself away from him. “If you think a single flower which you took from the Luna’s office vase will fix this. You’d be wrong,” she told him, letting him know she knew where he’d gotten it from.

She knew at this time of night there was no way he could get a rose from any florist. It was Tuesday night and after nine o’clock, and the only place she ever saw red roses were in the Luna’s office. They were Gloria’s favorite flowers, and as far as Nora knew, no one else in the packhouse ever had red roses in a vase. They appeared to be exclusively for the Luna inside this pack.

“Nora, please, I’m trying to make it up to you.” he sighed softly.

“I don’t care for your apology, Jace, you had every intention of ripping me a new one downstairs when I came home.” Her eyes finally turned to lock with his “in front of everyone, your unit, Gloria, pack members as well, only you didn’t realize, you had nothing to back it up with. You were not worried about me at all, didn’t even know I wasn’t in the pack, did you!” It wasn’t a question but a statement, because she knew he didn’t.

She saw what she thought could pass for guilt cross his face, and knew in that instant she was indeed right. He’d had no idea at all, just took Gloria’s words for it, whatever they had been. “Just leave me alone. Oh! and just so you’re fully aware, I’m not interested in f*****g you tonight, and I won’t be sleeping in the same bed as you either. So just go away.”

She saw his eyes widen at her very direct words about how the rest of the night was going to go for him. He never used the word f**k, to describe wanting to bed her, he would say s*x, and other times make love. More often than not, he’d just tell her he wanted her or needed her, and he could sound like he meant it as well. But it was nothing more than the mate bond.

She saw him stand up and turn and leave the room, took that rose with him, he even closed the door behind him quietly. She was kind of surprised that he didn’t bang it shut. Hell, she was surprised he’d not just unleashed fury on her for her words. But really, what could he expect from her? She’d laid it out and hit the nail on the head.

He’d even gone to Gloria before coming here to her, had the hide to present her with his Luna and the love of his life’s favorite flower. He wasn’t sorry at all. He was just trying to placate her because he’d not gotten her pregnant yet, and needed that from her before ending everything.

She pulled her headphones on and put on some music that matched her mood and just sat there and focused on her studies. They were going to save her, get her through this nightmare of a mate bond, the semester was half over, she could survive here for the other half of it. Putting herself through this now at this age was going to make her stronger, more resilient and headstrong. When it was all over, she would be able to deal with anything that anyone threw at her.

That was how she was looking at this part of her life. It might be painful to suffer here at the hands of an unloving Mate. But she wasn’t likely to get one again after rejecting a Goddess-Gifted. She thought about that. Would she even want one? No, she could become a wealthy architect and live her life as she saw fit.

Date anyone she wanted to, human or wolfen, hell any species she bloody well liked and live her life without a care as to if she got another mate or not. And she wouldn’t just blindly accept anyone at all ever again. No, if she was gifted another, and he wanted her, then he could prove it, the long hard way.

She wasn’t going to be letting anyone, Mark and Mate her again without being fully aware of who they were and what went on inside their pack. If that mate loved her, he would wait months to claim her, years of going unmarked and unmated if it was necessary for her to find out everything there was about them. Though she didn’t really care right that minute to have another one at all.