004 Temporary Arrangement

Lilith’s POV

“Orion, please, just accept my rejection,” My voice was very calm, unlike last time. I suddenly lost the urge to even argue, “For the sake of our past.”

What a laughable clown did I make myself? I came to his pack, chirping around him about our “happy reunion”. I bore his mark proudly, thinking that even though Orion didn’t send for me, he was happy that I came anyway.

I didn’t understand the taunt that had been in Hannah’s eyes when she looked at me. Until now.

I deserved it, for not seeing the obvious truth:

The prince no longer wants the poor little orphan.

Orion frowned, his tone turning cold: “I told you--”

“I’m not throwing a tantrum,” I cut him off, backing away from him to sit on the table. Finally seeing clearly took a huge weight off my chest, “You have a new life now, and I don’t want to be the burden that drags you down.”

Orion looked stunned.

“Just because I helped a friend?” Orion furrowed his eyebrows so deeply that they twisted together, “You are rejecting me, over such a small thing? What happened to the girl who begged me for a taste of the forbidden fruit, hmm? The one who said she would wait for me forever?”

“You said you were glad that I came...” I mumbled, letting tears stream without even a care. My Orion could never come for me anymore, because you killed him.

“What else could I I say?! That you almost ruined my whole plan? Why did you have to be so hasty?” Orion’s voice raised pitch high, “I never knew you were such a gold digger, but I guess Hannah was right!”

“What?” I gasped lightly, unable to believe my ears.

Orion pursed his lips, too, looking more nervous than guilty. I understood the no guilt part, after all, the boy who would protect me against anything was okay with burning our mate bond now.

But why the nervousness? I couldn’t even begin to fathom.

He didn’t want me to know that he never wanted me to come? He had made that pretty clear by now. It was me who was too blinded by our past to see.

“Anyway,” Orion looked away, walking to the window with both his hands on the frame and gave me his back, “I’m trying to get the title of Alpha heir for both of us, Lilith. I marked you, and you will be my Luna when that day comes.”

I didn’t mark him to be a Luna. I marked him to be the mate of Orion Lockwood.

But he is not Orion Lockwood anymore. He is Orion Hawthorne now, the third son of Alpha Hawthorne.

“I don’t--”

“JUST--!” Orion burst out, and I bit my words to a halt, “...please, I need to stay friends with Hannah. Her father is very influential, and I need the support from him and his friends, if I wanted to get the title as... a bastard.”

The last word stung me.

I knew how hard it was for him to go after that title. I knew that he was doing it not just for himself, but for the Lady, too. I could even believe that some part of him actually wanted to share that glory with me.

But not in this way.

Not by selling his dignity and mine, just to woo some high ranks for support. My Orion would loathe himself for this.

“Please, Lil,” Orion turned to me, his eyes begging with sorrow, “Would you help me? I really can’t deal with my mate constantly going after Hannah right now. We are just friends, I promise.”

I was going after...her? Did you know what she did to me? I want to ask him. I want to tell him all about his “good friend”, but I already tried that, and Orion didn’t want to listen.

Last Saturday, I was assigned to Hannah’s patrol team to take the place of a sick member. She led us high up the snow mountain when the patrol route should have stopped by the mountain's waist.

I knew there was a storm coming, but I didn’t know their plan was to trap me in it.

The air got colder as the storm approached, and Hannah and her friend shifted into their wolf forms and jumped over a three-meter-wide icy river – one they knew Lycoris was too small to do.

And they left.

I had to find another way around the river, but I wasn’t familiar with the mountain and I got lost. Even so, the storm wouldn’t have been an issue, but then, Orion happened.

The mark he left on my neck suddenly started burning, paralyzing me in the knee-deep snow. I tried to crawl with my paws, watching the storm gulp me but I couldn’t move a muscle, as the mate bond was burning my nerves on the inside while the ice knives cutting me on the outside.

I thought I was dying. I didn’t, but only because patrol found me frozen in the storm. A high fever tortured me for three days, and Orion didn’t even come to visit once.

He was taking care of Hannah, for a “twisted ankle”.

The fear of getting so close to death and the anger of being betrayed by my own mate drove me to the training ground looking for Orion as soon as I could, but when I told him that his new best friend left me in the snow mountain to die, he took her side and said I was overreacting.

Anger made me blurt out rejection, and that started my week-long torment, only for him to return home today for the first time after that horrifying murder, and throw me a condescending explanation that, he didn’t fuck her, he only stained our sacred bond by marking her, platonically.

He told me that no one could know he marked me. He called it a “temporary arrangement”, saying the Alpha was strict on him, and he was working on getting the Alpha to accept an orphan as the mate of his son.

But it was okay to give Hannah his mark, and let everyone see.

Was it your father who looked down on me, or you? I looked at his face, and I couldn’t get my answer. All I knew was, I no longer wanted to be a part of this “temporary arrangement” anymore.

You stopped wanting our bond. So did I.