Chapter 4

Eso POV

"Who the fuck do you even think you are? Going around with your fat self, thinking you can take what you don't deserve."

Leah screeched at the top of her voice.

Maria sat at the other end, acting like nothing was happening.

"Leah…" I called with a calm tone.

"Don't you dare interrupt me. I'm not done talking to you!"

"But…"

"Eso, can you just shut up your fat mouth?" Maria added in a much loftier voice.

She stood up from her seat, dragging her feet across the room to meet me.

"What do you think you are, fat maggot? My daughter has all this planned out, and you won't walk in and spoil what she has spent all her life planning. Do you get it?"

I hesitated for a minute before giving in to her words.

I didn't dare say a word back to them. Not that I was scared of how they would react, but I had to play my cards perfectly to have the life that I wanted for myself.

The feeling I got when we both were close to each other wasn't just a feeling, but maybe a sign.

I stood up from the couch. I walked towards the staircase.

"We aren't done talking to you." Maria's voice called my attention back.

I didn't move my feet. I stood there, waiting for her next words to come.

It felt like a minute, or maybe more, before she moved her lips.

"You know what? Do anything that suits you best."

I moved my feet again, almost as soon as she said those words.

I walked up the staircase. My emotions were all over the place. I couldn't define the feelings. It felt more than a normal feeling.

I swung open the door to my room. I shut it behind me. A wave of fury felt like it was eating me up slowly. I fell to the floor as different shades of emotions passed through me.

I had no one to tell how I felt. No one stood up for me. I was just here in this world with totally nobody. My father worked outside the pack and barely returned home; he just sent whatever we wanted. And his wife never cared; she never did anything that would be in favor of me.

"Fuck." I exhaled as the words rolled off my lips.

I laid my back against the wooden door, crushing my lips hard.

My upper eyelid started going pale. My eyes started drooping every two seconds. I slowly turned to my side, lying slowly onto the wooden floor. My eyes went shut almost immediately.

******

The sharp sound from downstairs woke me up even before I planned to. It was sharp and intense.

I slowly stood up from where I had lain over the night.

"What could be going on?" My hands flew across my face, rubbing my eyes to get rid of the morning feeling.

I walked into the bathroom to take my quick shower, but the voices from downstairs just wouldn't stop coming. I hated it more than anything else at this point. I was trying to concentrate on one person, but they just kept creeping into my mind.

"Can you just shut up down there?" I let out a scream from the top of my voice. You shouldn't get to the floor.

The sound coming from downstairs wasn't familiar like that of my stepsister. My stepmother's was not quite different this time. The tune and voices were familiar, but there were more than two people.

I took a quick bath, ran to my wardrobe, picked up a dress and flat slippers, and opened my room door. Everything just felt so rushed to me because I wanted to know who was there and also why the person was in my house.

I opened my door slowly to the banister upstairs. I looked down, and it was my dad. I ran downstairs to give him a warm embrace. It was also surprising. I wasn't expecting him anytime soon. Normally, before coming back, what was the shortest time? He had stayed over at the pack palace before coming back home.

"Father!" I put my feet faster this time, running towards him for a warm embrace. He stretched out his hands, accepting me like it was normal, my baby girl.

He spread both his arms, his face spread into a properly carved smile. I ran into him. He closed his arms around me, sending a hint of warm chill down my spine.

"I missed you, darling." His voice was barely above a whisper.

A smile spread across my pale face. Never in the past few months had I felt this flow of happiness.

We both separated from the warm embrace. The smile remained on my face like it was stuck right there and made permanent. My excitement was all over the place.

"Why are you back so fast?" He smiled for a second before returning to his stern and serious expression.

He went silent, not just for a second but for minutes. Maria and Leah's eyes felt like they were piercing straight into my soul. My heart flipped. The silence was biting deep within me already. I hated the feeling.

"Father…" I called again.

My father finally lifted his eyes from the floor. They moved from me to Maria, then back to me, and he looked tired, like a man who had been carrying something heavy for a very long time.

"Sit down, darling."

"I'd rather stand."

He let out a slow breath. "The Alpha's son sent for me last night, right after the ball. I came as fast as I could."

My heart skipped. Leah's lips curled into a smile, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment.

"He asked about you, Eso."

The smile froze on Leah's face. Behind her, Maria's hand tightened on the arm of the couch until her knuckles went pale.

"About me?" The words came out smaller than I wanted.

"Why would he ask about her?" Leah snapped. "She wasn't even supposed to be there."

"Leah." My father didn't look at her. "He wants to see Eso today. He said it's about an arrangement that would benefit them both."

"What kind of arrangement?" I asked.

"I don't know." He rubbed his forehead. "He didn't say, and I didn't ask. But you won't go alone. I'll come with you."

"She isn't going anywhere," Maria said, standing. Her voice was sweet, which was somehow worse than shouting. "Keith, think about this. A man like that, a girl like her. He'll only humiliate her. We're trying to protect her."

I almost laughed. Protect me. The same woman who had called me a fat maggot an hour ago.

"Maria." My father finally looked at her, and something passed between them, quick and silent, like two people sharing a secret they never agreed to share. Maria's mouth closed.

"I wasn't asking."

The room fell silent.

I looked at my father, a Beta who barely came home and sent letters instead of love. I wanted to run into his arms again. I wanted to ask him everything: why he stayed away, why he never came, and what Maria meant when she whispered his name like a curse. But the words sat in my throat.

"I'll go," I said.

Leah let out a laugh, but it came out thin and shaky. "You? He probably wants to laugh at you. You can't even—"

"He asked for me, Leah." I turned to face her, and for once I didn't lower my eyes. "Not you."

Her face twisted. For a second, I saw something behind the fury, something that looked a lot like fear.

I walked toward the staircase, my father's footsteps following slowly behind me. Maria's stare burned into my back.

Whatever waited for me at the end of that meeting, I knew