Chapter 135
KASMINE
I swear I had no idea how to navigate my life at this point. I stared blankly at my phone, my eyes dry from too much scrolling, too many tabs open, and a lot of funny search history
Do women die from abortion?
What are the chances of dying during an abortion?
Is childbirth easy?
Pregnancy symptoms and how to live through them for nine months.
How to run away while pregnant.
Can shame kill you before labor does?
not just in the browser, but in my mind.
I couldn’t tell if I was more afraid of the answers or the fact that I was even asking them. Every question felt like a war drum against my chest.
I was stuck between two impossible roads – risking my life to get rid of it and actually keeping it but running far away from the pack to a place where no one knew me, where no one would look at me and call me a disgrace. Because that’s what this was, wasn’t it?
An abomination. A secret sin growing inside me.
My parents would never recover from this. The pack would shame me until I wished for death.
And my friends?
No.
I couldn’t face them.
I stared blankly at the TV, which had been showing a news station for hours now without the volume. I was totally uninterested in whatever was being said or shown, but images on the screen made me feel a bit safe, almost like a reassurance that I wasn’t home alone.
Claire had been nothing short of amazing since I came here to stay with her. Thank God her parents have been away on a vacation. It’s their anniversary, and they sure knew how to celebrate it.
Although she’s been begging me to tell her what’s wrong with me, and I’ve refused, she’s been taking care of me nonetheless.
She saw the haunted look in my eyes, the sudden nausea, the way I’d stare off into space like I was trying to crawl out of my own skin.
And though I said nothing, she still made me tea. Held my hair back when I threw up. Gave me her silence instead of pressure
She was the kind of safe I didn’t think existed anymore.
My long–awaited birthday was in a few hours. By tomorrow night, I should get my wolf… My companion. I couldn’t wait to meet her. I hoped she’d be strong. Kind. Beautiful. Pierce. Everything I didn’t feel like right now. I needed her. I could really use a close companion at this point in my life.
Chapter 135
+25 BONUS
Claire had decided to go and help Mum out with the preparation for tomorrow. Mum had called and texted and said all manner of threats to me, asking me to come home and, at least, join them in the preparation, but I didn’t reply. So Claire had to go in my stead.
She told me not to worry that she’d cover for me. She made me promise her that I’d rest.
But how do you rest when your world is slowly caving in around you?
When your body feels like a stranger’s?
I hadn’t moved in hours. Just curled up sideways on the couch, a blanket bunched near my waist.
My phone screen lit up against the dimming room, its glow stabbing through the semi–dark room. I blinked, then slowly reached over, arm sluggish as if my bones had turned to syrup.
I expected a check–in from Claire. Or maybe one last guilt–tripping paragraph from Mum, warning me about the sanctity” of tomorrow. But what I saw wasn’t either of those.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
I hesitated. My thumb hovered over the screen. Something about it made my heart twitch. I didn’t know why.
I opened the message.
And my soul dropped.
> “You disgusting little bitch. You think no one knows about your little secret with your brother? Well, I do. Tick- tock, sweetheart. I’m closer than you think.”
My chest tightened so fast it felt like I’d been punched from the inside. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.
My trembling fingers scrolled down, and I gasped audibly when I saw the photo that followed.
It was a clear picture of me and Kester in his office… Kissing. No. Not just kissing…
My lips were passionately on his. His hand threaded into my hair. My eyes shut. His thumb brushed the side of my neck while his other hand was buried beneath my dress.
1 clapped a trembling hand over my mouth. The phone slipped from my grasp and landed on the floor with a soft
thud.
“No, no, no…” I whispered, curling into myself.
This couldn’t be happening
That night we had been alone in his office. No one had been there except us.
A fresh wave of nausea swept through me, and I clutched my abdomen tightly.
My thoughts scrambled for answers. Who could have taken this?
Karina!
No. She just got back. She’d barely been around. And if it was her, she’d be louder and dramatic. She’d want to confront me to my face.
No- this was someone quieter and smarter. Someone who had more access to us than Katina.
But who?
“No, please,” I whispered, hugging my knees to my chest, rocking slightly with my eyes closed in an attempt to
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Chapter 135
stop
the torrent of tears already flooding my face.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t even think.
Every worst–case scenario started playing out like a movie behind my eyes… The photos sent to my parents. To the pack leaders. To the Council. To the damn press, maybe.
And then I’d be more than a disgrace.
I’d be executed.
Because no one would believe it was okay.
They’d think it was incest. Perversion. Sin.
And worse?
It actually was
I sat there, crumpled on the couch like a discarded thing, crying my eyes out when my phone buzzed on the floor, and the screen lit up.
Kester.
I didn’t move.
It rang again. I stared at it with red, swollen eyes as if the phone itself was diseased.
Again.
“Kester,” I croaked under my breath, the name tasting like bitterness poison on my tongue. He was the last person I wanted to hear from… The last voice I could stomach right now.
It rang a third time, almost as if it knew I was there. Like the phone knew I was seeing the call and intentionally ignoring it
–
I reached for the phone with trembling fingers, but my intention was not to answer it. No I wanted to throw it, smash it against the wall, and make it stop.
I was about to fling it off when it lit up again.
But it wasn’t his name this time.
It was just a number.
No contact photo. Just ten digits glowing against the screen
My heart seized, and I froze.
It could be them.
ΤΗ
