Chapter 3

Adrian’s POV

I sat brooding amid loud bar music and colorful mist. “How dare she prepare the divorce papers?” I muttered to myself while staring at the drink before me. “And she thought I wouldn’t sign them?” My lips morphed into a twisted grin. “But I destroyed her little plan, didn’t I?”

I felt that Natalia was not only a really dull woman, but a wicked person. I could still vividly recalled the details of the events that led up to our marriage. She had been eighteen the night we “met.” It had been my twenty-first birthday, and she’d drugged me. I woke next to her in a hotel bed the following morning and I understood it must be Natalia who did that.

I hated her from that day forth, especially after my father demanded that I had to marry her.

She had to have begged my father to marry me, too. Seeing how she was the daughter of a gamma, she had no chance to be the pack’s luna otherwise. So she’d entrapped me. And my father, in his perfection and compassion for other pack members, didn’t give it a second thought before he sacrificed his own son’s life. Worse, he’d blackmailed me about my future position as alpha to force me into marrying that evil woman.

To think she set me up with the intention of sleeping with me. That evening was the night of my twenty-first birthday. At such a tender age, that woman could formulate plots and trap me like that at such a tender age.

Although I slept with Natalia, I never felt any bond with her either, despite that we’d slept together. It was why I had never marked her. Not to mention that she didn’t deserve my mark. Besides, she didn’t even have a wolf, so my mark would have been useless anyway. What was odd was that my wolf had surprising affection for Natalia, despite that she didn’t possess a wolf of her own.

Regardless, I’d been lucky. Fate had allowed me to meet another woman, one named Lynda, who was both sexy and beautiful. Even better, after asking about a scar on her arm.

One day, I had learned she was the little girl who’s saved me as a child. She was working on saving ne once again now. She had heard about the divorce, so she’d come with me to the bar, offering comfort.

I felt her hand on my lap and turned to her.

She pressed her body against mine and said, “Don’t worry. That woman doesn’t deserve you. Be with me. I’ll always stay beside you.” She moved back and offered her hand. “Come with me,” she invited seductively.

I took her offered hand and followed her way through the crowd until she stopped in front of a door that led to one of the bar’s private couch-filled rooms. She pulled me inside, shutting the door behind us.

Her alluring figure made me want to take her right then, so I shoved her onto a couch, getting ready to do just that. But my wolf frantically stopped me. ‘No! You’ll regret if you sleep with her!’ he yelled telepathically. ‘She’s not our mate.’

His insistence perplexed me. ‘If you don’t want Lynda because she is not our mate, then why do you want that wolfless woman?’ I asked him in anger.

He ignored my question, instead saying, ‘I will take control if you insist on doing this.’

That wasn’t something I could risk, so I sighed and lifted myself off of Lynda.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, frowning.

“You’re a pure woman,” I said, patting her hand. “I don’t want to ruin you. Wait for the right time.”

It was an excuse, but what else could I say?

***

A short while later, I left the bar, frustrated with my life being dictated by both my father and my wolf. After a ride home with my driver constantly glancing at me in fear, likely because of my angry demeanor, we arrived at my residence. Natalia, the reason for my distress, was leaving the house, carrying a heavy suitcase.

I was so badly wanted to take all my wrath out on her. So I launched myself out of the car, slammed the door, and stormed over to her. She noticed me and paused her steps.

“Where are you going?” I asked in demand, while eyeing her suitcase.

“I told you.”

“Told me what?” I roared at her.

She shuddered.

So feeble. If the sound of my human voice was too much for her to take, what would she do if I used my alpha voice?

 “I’m leaving your house and your pack as well,” she said.

I snorted. Who was she kidding? How could she leave without the head Alpha and Luna’s permission from my father and mother, the head alpha and luna of the pack in shame.”? “Why? Staying in my pack too shameful for you?” I said, goading her.

She averted her gaze from me like a scaredy cat.

“Coward woman. You have nowhere to go. Who will dare to give shelter to their future alpha’s divorced wife? No one! You’re still a member of this pack. If you have the audacity to cross the boundary, you’ll be killed by wolves.”

She began crying false tears. With a snide look of derision, I brushed by her, heading for the house, intent on leaving her outside alone. But as I was about to cross the threshold, the sounds of sobbing stopped. Curious, I turned and saw her crumpled on the ground.