Chapter 5

Sparrow’s POV

Has he lost his mind? What the hell was Felix thinking that he had the audacity to kiss my cheek?

Folding my arms over my chest, I faced him in the sitting room. The engagement party was already hours behind us. I had changed out of the black dress and red heels, but the place where his mouth had touched my cheek still felt present on my skin. Felix stood near the minibar stand with a glass in his hand, the liquid moving slightly when he shifted his weight. One hand stayed in the pocket of his black trousers.

“Why did you do that?” I was struggling to hold back what was boiling inside me.

He lifted the glass and took a drink before answering. “Do what?”

“Don’t play with me.” My fingers curled against my palms. “You kissed me. Pulled me against you in front of the entire pack. In front of him. We never agreed on that.”

Felix placed the glass on the table. His head tilted a bit, the movement making the silver hoops in his ear visible. “We are married, Sparrow. That is what married people do.”

“Not us.” I stepped forward. “This is a contract. You do not get to touch me whenever you feel like it, or decide things like that without telling me.”

He left the table and closed some of the space between us. His eyes moved over my face, trailing a slow line. “You belong to me.” The words left his mouth without force, as if he were stating a fact that needed no argument.

“I do not belong to you, or anyone. I belong to myself.”

Felix’s gaze stayed fixed on mine. He shifted his weight to one leg while staring right into my eyes with so much authority. “The day you signed that contract, you belonged to me.”

“That contract does not give you ownership of me.” My voice resounded higher, my body already vibrating with rage. “It is an agreement and nothing more. You do not own my body, or my choices.”

He took another step, closing the gap between us. My eyes traveled up, meeting his dark expression that made my skin crawl. 

“Did you even read the contract?” he asked.

My brows pulled together. “What?”

“The contract you signed. Did you read it properly?”

My hands twitched at my sides. “What are you talking about?”

Felix kept his eyes on mine without blinking. “Everything that is mandated of you is already written in it. You should take another look.”

He turned from me, walked back to the table, and finished what remained in the glass. He set the empty glass down, then left the room without looking back.

I left the sitting room and climbed the stairs in a hurry.

My feet carried me to the room I had been using since the night he brought me here. I slammed the door behind me, breathing hard. Closing my eyes, the conversation downstairs replayed itself: his voice, how he had looked at me when he said I belonged to him, and the question about whether I had even read the contract.

How did I let myself sign anything with that man without reading?

I knew there was something wrong with this entire Alpha household. It started with the mother and ran through every one of them. The only person I had ever believed might be different was Gavriel, and even he had shown himself to be a mommy’s boy who would choose her word over mine without hesitation.

My parents had warned me. Before they died they had looked me in the face and told me not to marry into this family. I had not listened. Now I stood in the home of the one the pack called the bastard of the family, bound to him by paper I had signed with shaking hands on the worst night of my life.

I took a deep breath before heading to where the contract was still in the drawer after signing. I pulled it out and unfolded the pages under the light.

My eyes moved over the words I had not properly taken in four weeks ago.

For the duration of the marriage, everything that belongs to the undersigned wife, including her body, shall be under the authority of Felix Hendry. He retains the right to exercise full claim. The contract cannot be broken or dissolved by either party before the completion of nine full months.

I stumbled backward, the paper trembling in my grip as my hands began to shake so hard. My eyes widened as the meaning of everything in the contract rang in my head.

He could take my body.

He could decide what happened to it.

I had no legal way out until the nine months ended.

Strength left my legs, causing them to betray me and my knees struck the floor. The contract slipped from my fingers and fell in front of me. My hands came up and covered my mouth, my whole body shivering as the reality of what I had done sank in. Tears slipped past my fingers and ran along my wrists.

How could I have signed this when I was barely able to stand? I had known what kind of man he was and the reputation of this family. Nothing good had ever come from them, and nothing good would. 

I did not want any man near me. Not now. Not after everything they had taken. Least of all the brother of the man who had ordered me whipped and thrown out like refuse.

I stayed on the floor with my hands pressed to my mouth until the tears slowed. Then I forced my breathing to be calm. This wasn’t the time to fall apart. They had already stripped me of my home, title, children, and my name. I would not give them the rest of me. 

Wiping my face with the heel of my hand, I picked the contract up from the floor.

There were still eight months to go and I must play my part of the contract.

I would give Flex whatever the paper insisted. And when I finished with his mother and Gavriel, I would deal with Felix as well. He had used the night I was broken to bind me. He would pay for that.

I pushed myself to my feet, left the contract on the bed, and walked into the bathroom. The warm water ran over my shoulders and down my back. I stood under it and let it take the heat from my skin while my mind darted to my ex-husband’s engagement I had walked into at the pack house earlier.

Suvi had stood at Gavriel’s side wearing the smile of a woman who had finally been given what she wanted. That same woman had hated me for years because she believed I took him from her. A woman who carried that kind of hatred would not treat my children with care. She would not protect them, nor love them either.

I dare not leave my children in her hands. No mother on earth would leave her children in danger.

Shutting off the water, I dried my body and dressed myself in the first clothes I found. There was no more time to sit with fear. I would get my children from the packhouse no matter what it cost. Whatever chaos it brought, I would take them back.

I left the room, went down the stairs, and walked out of Felix’s mansion to his garage. 

One of his cars was parked near the entrance with the keys still inside. 

Lucky me!! 

I got in, started the engine, and drove toward the WinterMoon packhouse with both hands tight on the wheel.