Chapter 3

"JASMINE! Get your lazy, defective ass out here right now!"

I scrambled to hide my phone under the thin blanket. I had gotten a notification, the Ivory Spire scholarship response mail, but I couldn't look at it. Not yet.

"I know you’re in here, wallowing like a wounded animal," Vivienne hissed, stepping into the cramped room. "Do you think because you were rejected, you get a holiday? Do you think the world stops because Malakai realized you were a mistake?"

"No, Vivienne," I whispered, my voice sounding thin and alien to my own ears.

"Good. Because we have guests. The Beta and his family are coming over to celebrate Malakai and Cecily’s union. Your father expects perfect dinner."

She leaned in, her eyes Narrowing. "And since you’re the only thing in this house that isn't fit to be seen in the dining hall, you’ll be in the kitchen. You will cook. Everything."

.

"I... I don't feel well," I tried, my voice cracking.

Vivienne laughed, a sharp, metallic sound. "You’re a werewolf, Jasmine. Or at least, you pretend to be. We don't get 'sick' from a broken heart. We get busy. You have two hours. If that table isn't full by the time Malakai arrives, I’ll have your father put you in the silver-lined cells for the night. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," I choked out.

I immediately went into the kitchen to start dinner feeling like a pilot flying blind.

I kept leaning over the pots, inhaling deeply, trying to catch even a faint hint of the spices.

"Move it, defect!"

Cecily sauntered into the kitchen, wearing a dress that cost more than the scholarship I was praying for. It was a deep, blood-red colour that clung to her curves—the same curves I had seen Malakai gripping just hours ago. She looked radiant, her skin glowing with the afterglow of their betrayal.

"Malakai is going to be here in thirty minutes," she said, checking her reflection in the polished surface of a hanging copper pot.

"He’s been working up an appetite. He told me earlier that I was the most 'delicious' thing he’d ever tasted."

She looked at me, waiting for me to flinch. I kept my eyes on the stew, stirring it with a wooden spoon

"Don't worry, Jasmine," Cecily continued, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Once we’re mated and he’s the Beta, I’ll make sure he lets you stay on as our head maid. You always were good at cleaning up after me."

"Get out, Cecily," I said, my voice harsh, I have had enough of her bitter remarks.

"Oh, big words for a girl with a broken bond. Just make sure the everything is perfect. Malakai hates overcooked meat."

‘Malakai hates overcooked meat’ I mimicked her fake sugary voice while making an ugly face.

She humped, stomping her foot as she walked out of the kitchen in annoyance, Cecily and I were age mates so I wasn't afraid of speaking back at her unlike her mum.

I set the timer on the wall, but in my distraction, I didn't realize the dial had stuck.

I went to the far counter to chop more herbs for the garnish, my back turned to the stove. I was lost in the memory of Malakai’s eyes, the way they had looked at me with such absolute loathing.

How could a fated bond be so cruel? How could the Moon Goddess pair a soul that wanted to love with a soul that wanted to destroy?

Suddenly, a loud, panicked shout echoed from the doorway.

"What the hell is that smell?!"

"Jasmine! Are you trying to burn the house down?!"

I spun around, my heart dropping into my stomach.

A thick, grey smoke was billowing from the edges of the oven door.

"Oh no," I gasped, lunging for the oven.

"You stupid, clumsy freak!" Vivienne’s voice boomed as she appeared behind Diana my second step-sister.

She pushed past her daughter, her face purple with rage. She grabbed a towel and began waving the smoke away, but the damage was done.

The kitchen was now filled with a cloud of burnt fat and scorched sugar. Even without my sense of smell, I could see the ruin.

"I... the timer... I didn't smell it," I stammered, my hands shaking as I pulled the smoking tray from the oven.

"You didn't smell it?" Vivienne grabbed me by the arm, her fingers digging into my skin with bruising force. "A wolf can smell a scorched hair from a mile away! Are you so useless that you can't even perform the basic functions of our kind?!"

"I can't smell anything!" I yelled back, the truth finally exploding out of me. "I haven't been able to smell anything since he rejected me! My wolf is silent, Vivienne! I’m smell-blind!"

The silence that followed was heavy. Diana and Cecily exchanged a look of shocked amusement. Vivienne, however, just let out a cold, sharp huff of laughter.

"Even better," Vivienne whispered, her face inches from mine. "Not only are you a late-shifter and a reject, but you’re a cripple. A smell -blind werewolf. You truly are a defect Jasmine."

At that moment, the front door opened. The heavy boots of our Beta and his son echoed in the hallway…