Chapter Three

Aurora’s POV

“What do you mean you were raped?!” Jasmine shrieked.

The memory of the past night flooded my heart for the umpteenth time, and again, I couldn’t help but remember the dark smirk on that stranger’s face when he stepped out of the bathroom.

Again, I felt weak, useless even. My heart broke at the thought of being in that sort of situation, and without holding back, I burst into tears.

There was this look in her eyes, one that I could easily associate with pity but before I could make sense of what it was, she quickly masked it with a forlorn smile, grabbed me by my arm, and dragged me upstairs, and as soon as we arrived at her room, she pulled me into a hug.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she whispered over and over again to me but I could only nod. Hell, I couldn’t even find my voice!

Another problem was the fact that I couldn’t go home yet, especially not now that I looked like I had been run over (and maybe I have!). I couldn’t even begin to think what my family would say when they saw me like this.

I couldn’t handle the humiliation yet!

Luckily, I still had Jasmine to fall back on, and even though I was still more than a little pissed that she’d gone home last night without waiting for me, she was still the closest thing to a friend I had left. I let my head drop in shame.

“Why did you leave me at the club?!” I cried out, pushing myself out of her hold. She looked surprised at my outburst, and after what felt like a long moment of awkward silence, she finally responded;

“I didn’t leave you, Arie. For a minute, I thought you left me and so slept off on the club’s staircase while waiting for you to return. When I woke up, and you still hadn’t returned, I decided to come back alone.”

As she spoke, I watched her closely. She seemed to be telling the truth and so I believed her. Jasmine wouldn’t lie to me anyway.

“What do you plan to do?” Jasmine's voice cut through my thoughts, causing me to look up at her in surprise. At first, I wondered what she was talking about but then when I saw the knowing look on her face, my heart fell. She was talking about the one-night stand with the stranger!

“I don’t know!” I cried, burying my face in my hands. I then went on to tell her about how it had all happened, without bothering to skip even the tiniest detail.

I told her about how we’d been involved in an argument and how I had fainted only to wake up in his bed, and as stupid as my story sounded, I knew that she believed me. I could see it in her eyes.

“You can’t tell anyone about it,” she said suddenly while I could only nod. I wasn’t planning to tell anyone else in the first place.

“Can you keep it a secret?” I mumbled in a small voice, taking her hands in mine.

“Of course!” She cried, pulling me into a hug. “Of course! The thing with Trevor is also a secret… I wouldn’t spill on you when you know things about me too.” She added.

I had no idea if she said that to reassure me but it indeed made me feel better. I hugged her, crying some more when I remembered how I had lost my virginity to a total stranger.

Heck, I could still feel his gaze on me, even his sinister smile, and couldn’t help but think about how his deep dark eyes would forever haunt me.

“Snap out of it,” Jasmine whispered, and like a puppet, I nodded my head.

It took another two hours of sobbing uncontrollably in Jasmine’s arms, a large bowl of ice cream, and a large bucket of KFC chicken to finally calm me down, and after I’d had some semblance of calm, I changed into one of Jasmine’s old dresses and bade her goodbye.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at my house was the terrible state of my room, and mind you, it was squeaky clean when I left it yesterday.

I gnashed my teeth together knowing fully well that it had to be none other but Bella, my accursed stepsister’s doing.

My clothes were thrown all over the place. Even my bed, the unbalanced plank and foam I have been managing for years had been thrown apart, and the wood broken. My body shook with anger when I noticed that my piggy bank had been broken too, and as expected, all my money was gone!

“Bella!” I yelled angrily, not caring for a moment that her father, Richard, could punish me for doing as much as yelling his daughter’s name.

Anger coursed through my veins, and just like that of last night, I couldn’t control it.

Again and again, I screamed out her name, and just when I felt her presence behind me, I picked up one of my big encyclopedias and threw it in her direction, aiming for her head. Frustratingly, I missed, and to further rile me up, she began to chuckle.

“What happened here?!” I growled, gesturing to my messy room but instead of answering my question, she gave me her signature eye roll, stalked off to a corner of my room, and crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned on the wall.

“Where’s my money?!” I barked, feeling tears well up in my eyes again but this time, they were angry tears.

Right now, I wasn’t sure if it was because of my stolen money, or because I had been rejected last night by my mate and then raped by a total stranger that made me cry, I didn’t even care to know.

“Your money?” Bella asked with a frown. I was certain that she knew exactly what I was talking about but right now, she chose to feign ignorance.

“Why would I want to touch money belonging to some rejected wagwan?” She spat, causing my heart to do a flip in my chest.

She knows… that means, Richard knows too, and my mom.

Damn, I couldn’t stand this embarrassment, I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine how far the news must’ve spread by now.

“Everyone in the pack knows. Michael is the next Alpha, remember!” She spat in my face, causing my eyes to widen in shock. I didn’t even know I said it out loud.

“Why did you take my money?” I decided to change the topic because right now, I was still too sore to talk about Michael, and to think that I was the talk of the pack for now only made me feel ten times worse.

“I took it to show you what being rejected feels like!” She spat, eyeing me like I was worth no more than a piece of crap. My anger flared.

“Do you know what that makes you?” I snapped angrily.

“No?”

“It makes you lower… lower than the so-called rejected wagwan, you petty thief!” I lashed out at her, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

Without a word, she nodded her head at me and with a sinister laugh, walked away without sparing even a glance at me only to begin crying as soon as she stepped out of my room.

I knew what she was trying to do; I wasn’t new to that tactic. The only problem I had now was the fact that Richard would be here anytime soon to fight for his pompous shit of a daughter.

The thought made me so angry that I tightened my hands into fists by my sides in a bid to stop myself from lounging at her. For the first few minutes, it was strenuous but after what felt like an eternity, I began to calm down.

Deciding to ignore her, I began to tidy my room when suddenly a voice rang through my head; “All the youths of the pack are to report to the open field right now!”

I knew that voice like the back of my hand. It was Michael’s. Right now, I was reluctant to go because I didn’t want to see him just yet but at the same time, I couldn’t disobey his orders as that could put me in more trouble.

Reluctantly, I stopped what I was doing to go for the so-called meeting, whilst bracing myself for the worst...