Chapter 5

“How long have they been in an affair? How did you find out?”

“Are they keeping the pup?”

“How did you feel when you found out his mistress was your stepsister?”

All the questions being thrown in my face was a little more overwhelming than I’d anticipated, but I remained poised, my expression neutral as I stood firm. The air crackled with tension, the rapid snaps and clicks of cameras capturing every second of this exhilarating moment. Some reporters were fumbling to relay the bombshell I’d just dropped, their fingers flying over keyboards and dialling numbers on their phones, while the others fought to get my attention, their voices increasingly growing louder and louder above all the commotion.

Be calm, Bianca. Calm, collected, and completely in control. I let out a breath, smoothing my dress down before raising a hand.

“I thank each and every one of you for coming out tonight to such an important event. I understand everyone may have questions, but the only thing I’ll say for now is that a divorce between Mason and I is in the works.” My eyes flickered to Isaac, who stood behind the swarm of reporters with an unusually devil-may-care expression on his face, waving at me cheerfully when our eyes met. I couldn’t help but scoff lightly – in the very few times we’d interacted, I couldn’t help but find him a little quirky.

Bianca, come to my office immediately.

The sound of Father’s gruff voice echoing in my head immediately made me jump, and my eyes flickered around the room before I noticed the blinking red light of the camera, indicating that these events were happening live and could be streamed from anywhere. Father rarely used our mindlink to communicate unless it was an emergency, and despite him not even being in the room, I could tell that he was seething with rage and I knew I had a storm waiting for me.

IMMEDIATELY.

The use of his alpha voice to enforce his control immediately made the wave of confidence I’d been experiencing tremble a little, and I excused myself from the flashing cameras, finding myself unable to defy his command.

“Ms. Ravenwood, we have more questions!”

“Where are you going now?”

“What does the president have to say about this?!”

***

“Father, I- oh!”

I didn’t get much of a chance to say anything else before he suddenly struck me across the face, the sharp smack echoing in his office. I gasped, stumbling backwards at the contact. “You…” I cupped my cheek, eyes wide and trembling as I processed what the hell just happened. This wasn’t the first time Father had scolded me for something, but this was certainly the first time he’d… hit me.

“You have no idea how disappointed I am in you, and you have no idea how deeply disappointing of a woman you’ve grown up to be.” Father spoke slowly, his hand slowly lowering back to his side. “Your mother is probably rolling in her grave as we speak. Get out of my face while Mason and I try to figure out how to clean up your mess. And change out of this god awful dress, I don’t know how you walked around wearing this all night. You look like a clown.”

“When Grandmother passed, you took your new Luna to her funeral, and I didn’t express my disappointment,” I laughed bitterly, turning to look back at my Father and trying to ignore the painful stinging of my warm flesh. How dare he bring up Mother in a moment like this?

“You always reserve the best for Vera, because she’s your little princess, and I’ve never shown you I’ve been disappointed by that. I’ve always obeyed you, trying to be the daughter you could be proud of. For all these years, not once have I done something for myself, but you’ve never given me a single word of praise that you’ve given Vera. I thought you were stricter with me because at least you cared about me. After Mason and Vera betrayed me, you betrayed me, too. I’m the one who’s disappointed in all of you!”

“I will no longer be your little political puppet.” I sniffled, reaching up to wipe at my wet eyes, my tears a result of all this pent-up rage I’d been storing away my whole life, “And guess what? I’m pregnant – and the father of my pup isn’t Mason. The only thing I’m planning to do with Mason is divorce him.” I looked over at Mason who could only shake his head at me.

“You watch your mouth, Bianca!” Father practically roared, but I stood my ground as the two of us stared each other down, “I’m going to have you locked in your room to think about what you’ve done, and the first thing we’re going to do after you have your head screwed on straight again is go right to the abortion clinic. I’m going to give you one chance to apologize to me, to Mason, to Vera-”

“Oh, over my dead body!”

“Woah, woah-” Just then, an unexpected voice broke up the tense atmosphere, and I turned to see Isaac enter the room while slowly clapping, “My bad, I thought this was the washroom- You know, this is all great stuff for TV. Are you sure we shouldn’t have the cameras in here? I’ve never seen such an exciting drama before.”

“I- who the hell are you?!” Mason suddenly spoke up before round the desk to grab the phone and dial for the guards, “Yes, we’re in the president’s office- I need someone to come and throw a completely unrelated man out and escort him away-”

“No, this is-” Father reached over and forced Mason to put the phone down before letting out a nervous chuckle, reaching up to adjust the collar of his shirt, “Mason, perhaps you’ve had one too much to drink tonight, are you forgetting who this is? Prince Thorne, so sorry you had to walk in on some family business, if you need the washroom I can have someone escort you there right away. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself at our banquet so far – I apologize that I haven’t had a chance to speak with you at all tonight. Is there a particular reason why you’re here?”

“Thorne?” I muttered to myself, the surname oddly familiar as it rolled off my tongue. I jumped when Isaac suddenly appeared by my side, looping his arm around my waist and pulling me close to him. I looked over at him with wide eyes, wondering what the hell he was doing with this sudden public display of affection. Isaac smiled down at me, giving the side of my waist a little squeeze before turning to face a very flustered looking Father and Mason.

It was at this moment that I realised who the man was standing by my side. Isaac wasn’t just any Alpha. Isaac – or, Prince Thorne – was the rumored Lycan Prince.

“Oh, god.” I swallowed thickly, looking down at my own stomach. I was pregnant with the Lycan Prince’s baby?

“Oh, nothing too crazy.” Isaac hummed, the corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk, “I just came here to find the mother of my pup, but from the looks of it, it seems like she’s in the middle of some drama which… I can’t imagine is good for our baby. So why don’t we all just take a breath and talk this out?”