Chapter 5

Chloe’s POV

I sat up from the bed, rubbing my head.

Hannah just kept screaming downstairs about something. I did not need to listen in to know she was throwing one of her many dramatic fits.

My hand brushed the side of my body and I winced in pain from how sore I was.

Axel returned to my mind, and with him the deal we had made last night.

I still had no idea why he had agreed to such an arrangement but the deal was simple. He protected me until I was eighteen and I acted as his Luna, helping him run the pack.

At the end of one year, I was free to go.

As long as he did not violate our deal, everything else was fine.

When I came out of my bedroom a half hour later, Hannah’s words wafted up the stairs.

“...and he just gave it to me. You guys have no idea. Jax is so sweet!”

Since the shift last night, my nose was so sharp that I could sniff out the number of people in my living room.

My mum and David, Hannah’s clingy group of friends, were huddled together on the sofa, listening to Hannah’s boasting.

Hannah held up her right hand, chattering loudly with excitement. The four girls on the sofa all wore envious looks.

“Where is Chloe?” she asked while we both knew she could smell me as I came down the stairs.

Then she turned around dramatically, her hand wearing a ruby ring raised in front of her. The hand would have smacked the side of my face if I did not step out of reach.

“Oh, I did not see you there…you’re looking at my ring? Jax gave it to me.”

There was no one in the pack who did not know about the ruby ring Hannah wore. It was the former Luna’s, the ring that Alpha Paul had given her as a mating gift.

It was priceless.

Suddenly, my stepsister sniffed the air and took a step closer to me, intently sniffing. “You smell like Axel.”

“That is a hound’s nose that you have got,” I said.

“Did you sleep with Axel?!” she shrieked, her eyes blazing.

Oh, now, she remembered that she had feelings for him?

“Don’t assume everyone jumps into bed with random men like you do,” I replied.

Shock appeared on her face for a moment when I talked back to her and then, it twisted into rage.

Hannah’s hand moved to try to grab my shoulder but my wolf moved my hand reflexively. My fingers wrapped around her wrist, clenching around it.

“Let go off me!” I asked her.

Her claws outstretched and she tried to move her hand but my grip kept her in place. Both our wolves were rising to the surface.

“That is enough, girls,” David said, pulling his daughter away from me. I tossed her hand away as I glared harshly at her.

“Daddy, she–”

David shook his head at me. “Your sister is just emotional right now. You do not need to fight with her.”

Sometimes I truly wondered if Hannah’s muddled, thoughtless personality ran from David’s blood.

As the father and daughter supported each other, I glanced at my mother. She sat on the couch, looking down at the coffee table with a conflicted expression.

A little discomfort from her usual cushiony life and our mother daughter bond meant nothing to her.

Hannah caught the look on my face and smirked, showing the ring to her friends and our parents.

“Jax is just wonderful. Chloe, I wonder what you think you will get from sleeping with Axel…Let me guess, it’s nothing!”

"Hannah, if you keep going on like that, someone’s gonna seethe with jealousy. Everyone knows who used to trail after Jax all the time," a girl on the sofa simpered, darting an offhand glance toward me.

The rest of the girls snickered at her remark.

"Claire, don’t say that. Maybe Axel got Chloe a different courtship gift!" the girl beside Claire giggled, her sweet voice grating on my ears.

"If I’d been publicly rejected at a party and then had to buy him a mating gift, it would be two slaps on his face!" Claire retorted, and the group erupted into loud laughter.

Hannah held her right hand triumphantly right in front of my face, making sure I couldn’t miss it.

I quietly scoffed at Hannah’s smug self-satisfaction. When would she finally realize there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

Jax gave me the same gift in my past life and Hannah had seethed because Axel had not given her anything, as Axel had caught her fooling around with other male wolves in the woods before they could bond.

Hannah had always dwelt on it, but she ignored the real reason for never receiving a mating gift and blamed it all on me.

That ring had been the first of the lovely gems Jax had given me over the years to cover his bullshit.

After ten years in our past life, Hannah clearly saw me as her full-on enemy. In the end, I chose to keep my mouth shut.

“It is lovely,” I said and walked to the dining table where Mum had set out breakfast for the family.

Hannah brought her friends into the dining room, shoving me to the very edge. I started to eat in silence but Hannah just kept rambling about what her wedding with Jax would look like.

All the while, she kept shooting me haughty looks.

While I, tried my best to tune them out, afraid I’d laugh out loud at Hannah’s ridiculously smug face.

After breakfast, I started to clear up the plates. Like usual, Hannah and David vanished from the table right after the meal.

Laughter from Hannah and her friends drifted out of the living room, mixed faintly with David’s proud praise for Hannah.

“You know that a silly ring does not matter,” Mum said as we started the dishes.

I loved my mother but this was one of those few moments where I needed her to not say a word.

Before I could move past her to the dishwasher, she grabbed my arms to keep me in place. “Chloe, you know that being Luna is more important than some silly ring.”

I searched her eyes and found some sincerity.

Before I could speak, David called from the living room. “Chloe, someone is knocking on the door.”

“Hannah is in the living room,” I replied snarkily.

There was a moment of silence before he replied, his voice angry. “Hannah is having guests. You should consider for your sis—”

“Whatever,” I interrupted him to say. “Fine.”

I went to the door and threw it open.

It was Tony, Axel’s best friend and his future Beta.

What was he doing here?

“Good morning, Chloe,” he said with a bright smile, thrusting forward a box. “Axel has a mating gift for you. ”