Chapter 2

Dad seemed pleased with my obedience, and Velma smiled happily too.

Yet, even after both of them were gone, Layla never left.

She followed me into my room.

"Let me help you pack up, Avril. I really never thought that Dad would agree to let us switch rooms."

She stood before me, looking quiet and docile, and asked, "Are you mad at me, Avril? After all, Eric likes me now, and I'm also taking over the room that you've lived in for 20 years."

I didn't want to talk to her, so I just turned around to pack my clothes.

However, she suddenly exclaimed loudly and fell heavily onto the ground on her butt.

"Ah, Avril!"

She happened to bump her arm against the edge of the table, and blood was trickling out of the cut.

"Avril Talbot! What the heck do you think you're doing?"

Without my knowing, Eric Blackclaw had suddenly appeared at the door to my room. He happened to witness Layla falling onto the ground.

His face darkened as he rushed up to us and carefully picked her up from the ground.

"I'm fine, Eric. Don't get mad at her, please. I know that Avril didn't do it on purpose," Layla said, tears falling from her eyes as she looked at me with a scared expression.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me… It really doesn't hurt that much. Don't blame Avril for it."

"You're bleeding, and you're still saying that it doesn't hurt?" Eric asked, looking at the gash on her arm with a heartbroken expression on his face.

Yet, when he looked at me, the warmth in his eyes disappeared. Instead, the rage in them intensified, making him look like he might explode anytime.

"You should have just directed all of your anger toward me instead, Avril Talbot!" he snapped. "Layla is not like you! She's different. You're the one who grew up with an Alpha father, but she grew up with nothing! She's only lived with her mother since she was young!

"I know that it's my fault for falling in love with Layla, but don't you ever think about hurting her just because of that. She rejected me only because she thinks of you as her own sister!

"Also, I promised your dad that I would mark his daughter, but I never said that I would mark you. You know that Layla is also his daughter now."

I thought that my emotions wouldn't be affected by him anymore. I thought that I was done shedding tears for Eric.

However, I was just a regular she-wolf.

I didn't have a body of steel, nor did I have an indestructible heart.

We had both grown up together and had run around in the forest as pups often. I'd even fallen in love with him, and he'd been my to-be mate for three whole years.

And yet, in just a matter of days, he'd become attracted to a younger, more delicate she-wolf than me. Now, he thought of me as a vicious, jealous beast instead.

I didn't want to cry. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Yet, my heart was still bleeding.

"We grew up together, Eric. You should know better than anyone else what kind of she-wolf I am."

He frowned slightly as his gaze landed on my face, his expression softening for a slight moment.