Chapter 2

Natasha POV

The moment I arrived at the small apartment I shared with Kade, I began gathering the few of his belongings scattered around the house.

There weren’t many of them, just a couple of shirts, his worn leather jacket, a pair of boots by the door, but even that little was enough to reopen wounds that had barely begun to close.

I gathered every single one of them, and hell, the moment my fingers brushed against his jacket, fresh tears burned behind my eyes as memories, too many of them that we had shared in this apartment, flooded my mind.

The late nights sex we normally use to have on this same couch. His laughter echoing through the tiny kitchen whenever we cooked and made jokes, the way he used to pull me close like I was the only thing that mattered in his world.

My throat tightened painfully.

For someone who had cried the entire ride back here, I had promised myself I wouldn't cry anymore.

And yet, here I was again. Of course, the promise didn't last long.

Pathetic.

My fingers trembled as I folded one of his shirts. The fabric felt rough under my skin.

On a normal circumstances, I wouldn't be here right now.

Instead, I would be out there somewhere in a loud club, drowning myself in alcohol until I couldn't remember my own name. That had always been my way of dealing with the breakups.

But tonight?

Even that luxury was out of reach because every single penny I had… every bit of money I’d been saving for months… I had spent it all in the last twenty-four hours preparing for the wedding.

A wedding that never happened.

The bitter irony almost made me laugh.

Now, the only things I owned were the clothes on my body and whatever little property remained in this apartment.

Pretty embarrassing for an Alpha's daughter, right?

I mean, the whole concept of having to work for everything I want, where other Alpha's daughter get whatever they want on a platter.

But that was just my life, and unless you came from a family like mine, you would never understand.

I swallowed hard and wiped away the tears beginning to slip down my cheeks.

God… I didn't even understand why my life was like this.

As if being born into a family that hated my very existence wasn't bad enough, fate had decided to curse me with something else.

A rare condition.

One that made people, aside from family, despise me.

Women avoided me like I carried some contagious plague. They believed if they stayed around me long enough, they might somehow catch the same curse.

Ridiculous.

As for the men?

Well...what man would willingly stay with a woman who could never respond to his touch, never get excited, never make their intimate moments feel alive?

To them, I was broken, boring, and defective.

But with Kade…

A foolish, hopeful part of me had believed things might be different.

That maybe the bond between us as mates would be stronger than everything else.

I swallowed thickly as his name surfaced in my mind again, and more tears threatened to fall.

But then I clenched my jaw and forced them back.

No.

I wasn't crying for him again. The bastard wasn't worth it.

And besides…this wasn't the first time something like this had happened to me.

And if I had survived the others, then who the hell was he?

With that weak attempt to comfort myself, I forced myself to continue cleaning.

An hour later, I finally finished rearranging the apartment after packing Kade's belongings neatly into a corner for when he'd eventually come to collect them.

By now, I could feel my back aching a little from moving things around, and the silence in the apartment was beginning to feel suffocating.

I sank onto the couch and closed my eyes, trying to reach out to my wolf who behave like doormat sometimes and as usual, she remained silent.

Just when I was about to give up, my phone suddenly rang from the table beside me. The sound cut through the silence so sharply that I flinched.

I picked it up.

It was my Mother calling. I hesitated for a moment, wondering why she was calling, but then I cleared my throat and answered nonetheless.

“Mother?”

“The hell did I just hear, Natasha?!” Her voice exploded through the phone immediately, her high-pitched voice so loud and defeaning that I had to push the phone away from my ear. “Kade called and said you two had a little misunderstanding, and now you're calling off the wedding with him?”

Her tone was laced with so much anger and irritation.

A little misunderstanding.

That was the story he gave them?

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“Didn't he tell you what he did?” I asked bitterly. “A little misunderstanding, Mother? Do you really think I would call off a wedding over something like that?”

“And so what if it wasn't a misunderstanding?” she snapped. “It's not like this is the first time a man has gone after your sister because you couldn't keep him satisfied. But this is Kade. Your mate.”

My chest tightened painfully.

Of course. As usual, the fact that my sister had slept with my fiancé was treated like some minor inconvenience.

Just another another casual conversation. Ever heard of a completely messed-up family?

Well...welcome to mine.

“Yes, I know he's my mate!” I retorted back, my voice trembling. “And that's exactly why I did everything to make him happy! Even when he had nothing! But he still dared to do that! He couldn't even respect our bond!”

A quiet sound escaped my throat as the emotions I had been trying to hold back pushed forward again.

Silence lingered for a moment until, after a while—

“Yeah, I know," I heard her sigh from the other end, her voice softened slightly as she spoke again.

"I understand how painful this must be for you—”

“No, you don't understand shit, Mother.”

The words came out before I could stop them.

Because if she did understand… she wouldn't be here lecturing me.

She would be tearing Kade and Katherina apart.

“Because if you did,” I continued, “you wouldn't be talking to me right now. You would be berating them for what they did. Especially Katherina. This isn't the first time, Mother. Not the second either.”

“Fine,” she replied coldly. “Maybe I don't understand. But you also can't blame anyone for this. Katherina was only trying to help you out before everyone finds out you can't keep a man yet again.”

Immediately, my nails dug into my palm at her words.

Help me out? Seriously?

“As for Kade,” she continued casually, “he's a man. He has desires.”

My stomach twisted.

“And you should also remember something important, Natasha.” Her tone shifted at this point, colder and sharper now, like she was about to tell me something serious.

“Kade isn't just some poor rogue you found and brought home as your mate. He's someone your father holds in very high regard.”

My breathing slowed.

“He has more importance in this family than you do now.”

For a moment, I couldn't even speak as my mind struggled to process what she just said.

Kade?

The same Kade I found wandering in the forest like a rogue?

The same Kade I took in protected supported helped rise to where he was today?

Now he had more importance in my family than me?

My stomach sank, and for a second, I couldn't breathe.

Was this some kind of sick joke?

But honestly…

From a family like mine?

It wasn't even surprising anymore.

“So you see,” my mother continued calmly, “you can't break up with him. No matter what he did. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell you why. So don't even think about it, because if you do…”

Her voice turned chiller, even chiller than before.

“Your father is prepared to disown you.”

The call ended right after that.

Just like that.

I stood there in the middle of the room completely dazed with the phone still pressed against my ear. The silence inside the apartment felt louder now.

Slowly, I lowered the phone from my ears.

So this was it.

I wasn't even allowed to leave the bastard, whether I liked it or not.

I remained standing there for a long time, staring at nothing in particular. My mind kept turning the situation over and over again in my head.

Kade was a bastard.

That much was clear.

And even though I had no idea what kind of deal he had with my family or why my father valued him so much, one thing was certain.

I could never go back to him.

Never.

I had sworn right in front of them before leaving that hotel this morning that I would make them pay for what they did to me.

And if I went crawling back now to rearrange the wedding…

It'd look as if they had won.

And I refused to give them that satisfaction.

I was still lost in my thoughts when, suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.

The sound echoed through the apartment, making me flinched.

My eyes immediately darted toward the door, my mind racing.

Who could that be?

My gaze shifted to the wall clock opposite the couch. It was six in the evening. I couldn't remember inviting anyone over.

Which meant there was only one possibility.

Kade.

My jaw tightened, my eyes narrowing at the door.

Of course, it had to be him. He was probably here to collect his things.

I walked toward the door and pulled it open.

However, the moment it swung open, I froze because the man standing outside was definitely not Kade.

He was someone I had never seen before.

He was tall, sharply dressed in neat and expensive clothes, the kind worn by wolves who served in the Supreme Alpha Court.

His posture was straight and calm, and he carried himself with the calm authority of someone used to power, as his sharp eyes studied my face carefully.

My brows pulled together in confusion as I stared at him.

"Hello." I called. My voice came out cautious. "How may I help you?"

The man looked at me again before speaking.

"Miss Katherina Rutherford?"

My brows furrowed even more as he asked that.

Katherina? My sister?

My frown deepened.

Who was this man, and why was he looking for her?

The words, 'I'm not her,' were already on my lips.

But something stopped me as a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Just what was that scheming sister of mine involved in now?

Why would a strange man come looking for her here?

I studied him again carefully as curiosity slowly got the best of me, pushing aside my hesitation.

“Yes,” I nodded slowly. “Of course, I'm her. What is it?”

Although I knew I shouldn't have lied, but then curiosity and the fact that I knew Katherina would have done the exact same thing in my position didn't made me think twice about it.

“Well then, congratulations, Miss Katherina.” The man face suddenly streched into a wide smile.

“Because you have just been nominated as one of the women selected to participate in Alpha Damon’s Mating Consort.” He dropped the bomb.