17

Ingrid’s jaw dropped from what Louis just said. It was so rude from her perspective that she felt she was humiliated in front of him, and the only thing that could save her dignity at that time was to actually go home.

She did not expect Louis to suddenly act like that. Although she had heard how foully Louis treats women whom he has no interest in, her ego just couldn’t accept the fact that she was one of those girls he had rudely treated.

She could clearly see how hard it is to tame Louis that she just goes home for a while and leaves her sister to Louis, but at the back of her mind, she doesn’t really care about Helena. It was just her act to pretend that she cared, but she didn’t. Not even a bit.

She was cursing Helena instead, blaming her for the misfortune she was getting the moment Helena woke up from her coma. It was like she had brought her bad luck that things weren’t going according to what Ingrid planned or wanted.

Meanwhile, Helena was already starting to calm down as soon as the medicine hit her system. She was already in her own room resting, and she could not help but shut her eyes and groan out of frustration. She had a lot of things to work on herself to conquer her trauma.

What, Helena? You are going to tremble in horror and disgust as well once you see Darren? Because there is no way you would never encounter him in Emerald Ville knowing that he belongs in the upper class and you are now on top as well.

Worse, he is going to marry Ingrid who is just connected to you at the moment. What would you do if he showed up in front of you? Are you going to break down, tremble in fear, and accuse him while you are trapped in Helena’s body?

She was brainstorming for a minute, and she could not think of any possible way to escape her fear. She is still trapped, and everything feels so fresh for her that she can’t just move on from it, knowing that it caused her death.

Will someone even believe her if she tells them that Darren was once in a relationship with Alana, a nobody who came from a not-so-wealthy family that abandoned her, and was hid by her own boyfriend from the world? Of course. It was only Ingrid who knew everything—the one whom she trusted because she was her best friend, and yet it was her who also betrayed her.

She cried while processing things that she really had no one in the past to lean on, just herself, and how she fought so hard to live, but still life fucked her up. She felt so weak and useless that she lamented on her bed for a minute until the door opened, and she immediately wiped off her tears.

When she noticed that it was Louis who even caught her sobbing and wiping her tears off immediately, she regretted crying that she just pulled the blanket to hide a bit of her face.

Louis walked to the table carefully and placed the tray with a glass of water, a plate of food, and some of her medicines again.

“You’ve barely eaten your dinner. I am just making sure that you will eat it tonight so that you won’t upset your stomach,” he said calmly.

She nodded. “T-Thanks…”

Louis looked at her for a while, but Helena just avoided his gaze, and she didn’t want to talk about things. When Louis realized that she only wanted her alone time, he decided to leave. But on the door, while he was already slipping himself out, he spoke to her.

“Whatever it is, you can talk to me about it. I can help you with that,” he said and left.

Helena feels a little bit pressured somehow. It was so hard for her to trust again knowing that those whom she really knows, those she thinks she could always trust, betrayed her. Imagine getting it from her best friend, her boyfriend, and worse, even her family. It was like a world against her that she felt so bad for herself.

She lost everything, despite the fact that they never held her. She lost not just trust but also the will to live, so even if things were different and she wasn’t killed on that night, she knew she already died the moment she found out everything.

Can I really trust you, Louis Montville, when all my life I was betrayed by the people I love? What if you would only repeat the same mistake they have done to me? And where would I blame it? Of course, the jokes would be on mine again for trusting the nth time.

It was hard for Helena that she could not grasp the help Louis lent her and acted normal on the next days, like it never happened as she was trying to distract herself in the garden of the mansion.

Louis noticed she was back being optimistic again, and their relationship was back to square one too. He barely engaged in any conversation with her because he was a busy person, but during his free time, he would let Helena explore herself as the future Montville if things got serious between them.

“Louis said to get dressed and he will take you somewhere,” Anna said one morning, which made Louis curious.

She was thinking if it was a party again or an intimate dinner and she would be able to meet some of his friends, but based on the clothes she needed to wear, they were going to a cold place because of how thick the jacket was.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked when she was already inside with Louis in the car.

“Somewhere you needed the most,” he answered meaningfully.

She started thinking deeply about it. Clearly, what she really knows she needs the most is justice, but there is no way Louis knows about it that she could not think of a place he is talking about.

That’s why when the car entered a camp that was now covered with snow and she saw some of the houses that were built small, more on good for a small family, her brows knitted.

“You are in my pack,” he said.

His…pack?

Helena was a bit shocked that Louis decided to bring her to the camp to introduce her to the pack. She heard a lot of things about Louis’ pack in the mansion of the Ashers about how his pack was the strongest and most feared by many.

She didn’t know how to respond to Louis. As soon as they got out of the car and she felt the coldness trickling through her skin, she hugged herself and roamed her eyes around, knowing that the thick fog was somehow overtaking her vision.

“Alpha Louis…” the voices of some until one by one, they showed up themselves dressed in clothes that made Helena shock because it wasn’t as thick as hers.

“They’re used to the cold since, as wolves, we have our own body heat. We don’t mind the cold,” Louis explained when he noticed how Helena looked at their clothes and looked at hers, who was almost wrapped in thick clothes.

“Is she the woman you are talking about you wanted us to meet, Alpha Louis?” one of the little girls said while grinning.

Helena knitted her brows and looked at Louis, who shook his head.

“No. That woman is different,” Louis explained, which made Helena curious, and thought it might be the woman Anna was talking about as well, Louis’ first love.

She is now curious: where is the woman? Is she his past lover? Is she still alive, or probably dead by now that he couldn’t introduce her to them? Because if that woman rejected Louis, it was just too impossible to think that there was a woman out there who would reject him. She might be a goddess of beauty to do that…

Well, if she were the woman too, she might reject men like Louis because he’s just too much for him. She doesn’t want men who are too intimidating and intense because she always wanted someone like Darren who radiates a prince-like, pleasing personality that is very calm and gentle. And now she regrets it because he only did her dirty.

“This is Helena Asher, and I want you to be friendly to her. You can also teach her things so she would learn to at least adapt our nature for self-defense and own protection,” Louis said, introducing Helena to his pack who listened carefully.

Helena’s eyes widened by Louis’ statement because it is what she really prayed for the most—to learn something new that could save her from so many dangerous things and to be able to protect herself. It was like a wish granted, and she couldn’t help but smile, nod at them, and bow her head a bit to show how honored she was.

“I will be very happy to learn a lot of things from all of you. Please have some patience with me, and I hope I can gain lots of friends here,” she mumbled heartily. Louis didn’t expect that she would be that game and confident to participate.

But Louis purposely brought her to the camp because she knew Helena was having a hard time trusting someone to call for help, so he decided to let the help come from her own instead.