Shout out to liara rainbowe for giving this book the first gem. I really appreciate it. 🥰🥰🥰
♡Arielle’s POV♡“Any luck?” Brielle asked as I walked into our room. She looked up from the homework she was grading, and she grimaced at my terrible countenance. “Not good, huh?”“Yes, not good. Finding a job is harder than I thought.” I sighed, throwing my bag to one side of my bed and crashing down on it too.I knew getting a new job would be hard, but I never expected it to be extremely difficult.“After spending all day jumping from one building to another, all I received was ‘we are sorry, but we don’t have any vacancies’ or ‘you don’t have the experience we’re looking for’ or ‘we’ll get back to you’ when they knew they wouldn’t. It’s so frustrating. How am I going to get experience if no one will hire me?” I complained, lying on my back, and I shut my eyes.“And do you know what makes the entire situation even more frustrating and annoying? It’s the fact that most of those jobs are at the end going to go to some already preselected persons, whether or not they deserve it becaus
♡Arielle’s POV♡‘I just want to go home, sleep, and forget everything that ever happened today.’ I sighed, leaning my head on the window of the cab as the driver drove through the dark road. Day three of searching for a new job turned out to be more futile and frustrating than the previous ones. At least the people I met those days had the usual professional politeness, but the set I met seemed to be demons out to get me. All through the day, I interacted with people with different levels of attitude and hauntiness. Their snarky mouth had no filter and let out snide and demeaning comments almost as freely as they breathed. It was irritating and tiring to keep my cool and remain polite and composed. I needed to. Too many things were at stake to act rude and snap because someone else was being a pain.My mom’s condition had gotten worse. It seemed she had gotten better since the Jake incident, but it spiked up again before I left home in the morning. The drugs that were making her cond
♡Arielle’s POV♡“I’m glad you could make it, Miss Wilson.” Raphael said, his lips curled to a small, cocky smile as the waiter and I arrived at the table reserved for us.“I wish I could say the same, but I can’t. I’m only here because I’m desperate.” I said plainly, not hiding how I felt as I sat down and took a good look at him.Something was different about him. His alpha pheromones weren’t as strong as I remembered; I still felt the connection, but the alpha aura he gave off before was almost nonexistent. For that moment, he seemed like an ordinary Beta—well, almost. He tried to look the part by wearing a simple, plain shirt and jacket. Dark shades covered his eyes, and his platinum-blond hair was tousled and let down to cover part of his face.Even with what he did, they only helped to tone down his good looks a bit, and he still radiated confidence that not many Betas in Shadowmere had.He tried so hard to blend in, but though no one would be able to tell he was an Alpha, anyone
♡Arielle’s POV♡There, I said it plain and simple. There would be no kind of sexual intimacy between us. Period. And I wasn’t compromising either. His action and reply about it would either make or break my decision because one thing was certain: I wasn’t going to sleep with him, and I wanted him to know that.Even though he was drop-dead gorgeous and my omega genes wanted him, it was still a big no. Marrying an Alpha was bad, but sleeping with one… That was the gravest sin I could imagine. It would ruin everything my mom had done for me, trying to keep me safe. If he was going to kick against it, I was going to walk away, no matter how desperate I was. A deep part of me hoped he wouldn’t.“The first is completely understandable, and I agree, but the second and third…” Raphael mused, crossing his arms over his chest.My lips moved, ready to spew out words, but I pressed them shut. It would be foolish for me to jump to conclusions again without allowing him to speak.“You can have your
♡Arielle’s POV♡“What am I going to do? What am I going to do?” I mumbled, pacing up and down in the bathroom like a madwoman. “Can I really go through with the deal?”A lot of things had changed and needed to be reconsidered the moment his true identity came to light. I was no longer dealing with an ordinary Alpha; it was one of the most influential Alpha Lords in the world. Marrying him would make me Luna, even though it was for five years. Being Luna was never part of the idea. It made things a thousand times more complicated.There was going to be a lot of eyes on our relationship, and with one wrong move, our lie could blow up in our faces. And worse, I could be putting my mom and Brielle in danger. What were the odds that even with the fake story we would create about me, someone wouldn’t get nosy about me, especially since I suddenly popped up in his life?They could discover my family and our secret. The whole situation would end up being a terrible catastrophe. My mom would n
♡Arielle’s POV♡“How did you get the money?” Brielle asked the moment my back hit my bed, and I sighed.The question I had been anticipating all afternoon and evening had finally come. I had to give it to her; she was a lot more patient than she usually was. She didn’t ask me all throughout the time we were at the hospital. She allowed us to get home first and have the best dinner we had in weeks, then dropped the question on me the moment we were in our room. On a norm, she would have found a way to drag me to a corner at any time of the day and grill the question out of me.“Will you believe me if I say it was a miracle?” I asked, refusing to look at her as she lay by my side.“Miracles have a source, you know. So what’s the source of this one?” She asked, and I let out another sigh.How was I going to tell her I was entering a contract marriage with not just an Alpha but an Alpha Lord? She wasn’t going to judge me, but I couldn’t fashion the right word at that moment.“I just got r
♡Arielle’s POV♡“You’ll be alright, Arielle. I know you have a large distrust of me, but I swear I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.” Raphael comforted, noticing my distraught appearance, and offered me a small reassuring smile.“Ok,” I mumbled, and I couldn’t stop the small, shaky smile from creeping on to my face as a reply. For an Alpha, he was kind of sweet. “I have one week to prepare myself before we leave, right?”I wished it could have been longer, but it was better that way. The longer I delayed, the harder it would be. I just wanted to see my mom being wheeled out of the operation room before I left.“Yes. And you just need to take a few personal belongings; everything else will be provided for you at your new home.”‘My new home,’ I drew in a shaky breath and held back my laughter. No, I couldn’t call it home. Home was where one’s heart was, and my heart was with my mom and sister. It could never be with him.“Ok,” I simply replied with a fake smile. Raphael opened his mout
♡Arielle’s POV♡ “Mom!” I gasped, and Brielle and I quickly jumped to our feet. ‘How long has she been there? Did she hear everything?’ I stared at her. The cold glare she sent my way told me she did. “Mom, I… I c-can explain.” I stuttered as my heart thumped harder with each slow step she took towards me. I wanted to help her, but the look on her face froze me in my place. “Mom, I—” *Slap* The collision of her palms hitting my cheek echoed through the room. It wasn’t hard because of her health, but it didn’t need to be. The emotional pain I got from the slap surpassed any physical pain I could have gotten. “Mom!” Brielle gasped, and I remained quiet with my hand on my cheek as I stared at my feet. I deserved it. I had betrayed her. I had done the one thing I had sworn not to do. “I knew what you told me this afternoon was a lie with the way Brielle was acting, but I never expected this.” She snarled, and I flinched. She did notice. How did I not notice that she did? I underes