Chapter 4

Calla POV

Three years later

I know I’m not in my bedroom before I even open my eyes. 

The lighting’s wrong. This room is easily thrice the size of mine. A huge crystal chandelier dangles from the off white ceiling. 

The furniture looks like it’s just been imported from Europe. Wood cackles in the fireplace. 

The air smells like cheddar and cologne, but nothing, and I mean nothing, can hide the obvious smell of sex in the air. 

It all comes rushing back to me. Horrifying images from last night.

Letting down my walls. Accepting the first glass of whisky from Blade. That would be my first mistake.

After that, everything else had spiraled out of control.

A massive figure stirs next to me. I do not need to look to know that it’s Blade. 

I can smell the Dior cologne emanating from his side of the bed. It’s mixed with that manly scent that is uniquely Blade. 

No doubt, this is his bedroom. It’s funny how I’ve never been allowed to spend the night in this room in the three years that I’ve been the Alpha’s official breeder. 

I’m still considering pretending to go back to sleep when he pulls himself up into a sitting position. 

Even though everything in me is screaming at me not to look, I look anyway. 

He’s got his face looking upwards towards the ceiling. There’s something akin to disgust on his face. 

And just like that, whatever shred of hope I’d clung on to last night, goes crashing down all around me. 

I don’t dare breathe, as I wait for him to say something. He knows I’m watching him, waiting for his verdict. He makes me wait. Let me stew in my nervousness. 

The seconds stretch. It’s awkward. 

Last night was obviously a mistake. I don’t know what it was that I was thinking. 

None of this would have happened if only I hadn’t accepted that blasted whisky. 

But how could I have refused when he had looked at me with such warmth and vulnerability?

The Alpha of Ash Creek pack had clung on to me with all his might. 

I could tell something had happened yesterday, but I didn’t ask. 

I didn’t push him away. I let him hold me. I didn’t pull away when he pressed his nose against my neck, inhaling my scent. 

It was the first time he’d ever shown such emotion to me and oh boy, did I eat it right up?

I can still feel the imprint of his lips on my clit. If I shut my eyes tightly enough, I can still conjure what his kisses taste like. Mint and whisky. 

The dirty little nothings he had whispered in my ear, as he fucks me, replay over and over again in my mind’s eye. 

Pictures of our raw, unbridled fucking threaten my sanity. 

My master.

After three years of playing the role of breeder, last night had been the first time we’d been intimate. 

Correction 

The first time he’d held me like I mattered.

Last night was our first kiss. The first time he ever held me so close. 

Looking at him now; at that disgust on his face, I highly suspect he’s about to break my heart in new ways yet to be seen. 

But I don’t want him to be the one who gets to let me down easily. 

It’s humiliating enough to have given him so much vulnerability last night. I don’t want to give him this right as well.

“Last night,” I began. 

“Was a mistake,” he finishes for me. 

He’s still not looking at me. He plucks a cigarette out of the custom-made pack and sticks it in his mouth. 

He lights it up and takes a lazy puff.

 The tattoos that coil around his arms and torso, glow underneath the crystal lightings. He looks ethereal and viscous, all at once.

I stare at him in a daze. I can’t believe how non-chalant he is. How can he be so indifferent?

My heart’s racing. My vision of Blade blurs the longer I stare at him. 

“It’s morning,” he says, dropping more hints with his aloof body language. “I have a meeting at the office by 8. I need to get ready. You should head back to your room.”

“What do you mean last night was a mistake?” I ask, finally finding my voice. It’s hoarse and cracks pathetically. 

“If I remember correctly, y-you came on to me first. You initiated the kiss. Y-you held me and wouldn’t let go until I kissed you back. You held me in your arms all through the night. How can you act like none of that had happened?”

“What is it exactly that you’re asking?” he puts out his cigarette on the ash tray. 

I realize he’s got one on his dresser. There’s so much I don’t know about his personal life. The need to know feels like a nasty itch, waiting to be scratched.

“I-I was okay with being just your breeder up until last night,” I tremble with the force it takes for me not to cry. 

Heavens know I’m barely hanging by a thread. 

“Was last night really a mistake? Did none of it mean nothing to you?”

“Calla,” he snaps. His eyes flash with impatience. Thinly veiled irritation. “What’s the first rule of our arrangement?”

Fuck that!

I couldn’t care about the bloody rules right now. Not when I’m hurting and feeling used.

When Blade sees I’m not about to answer him, he goes on to remind me of the rule. 

One of the many he had stipulated on the first night he’d taken me to bed.

“No sentiments,” he adds. 

“From the first day we met, I told you that ours wouldn’t be a real relationship. The only reason I chose you as my breeder was to produce heirs. So far, you’ve only managed to give me a daughter. Don’t you turn around and start pulling this sentimental crap first thing in the morning. Focus that energy on getting pregnant and giving me sons.”

“Sentimental crap!” I re-echo. I can’t believe how cruel he’s being. 

“You came on to me. If you care about your rules as much as you claim, you shouldn’t have crossed the line between us.”

“I regret it,” his words cut through my heart like a blade of destruction.

 “On top of that, I was batshit drunk.”

He doesn’t apologize. He says nothing more on the matter. 

He merely gets off the mattress and disappears into his adjoining bathroom. A moment later, I hear the shower running.

I’m still sitting in the same spot, still staring off into the distance.

My name is Calla. Three years ago, I was sold off by my father for the sake of an alliance bet

ween Ash Creek and Dashbury packs. 

A beacon of peace, forced to end the war between both our werewolf families.

Three years ago, Blade Blackthorn made me his official breeder.