♡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♡“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♡ “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

♦Raphael’s POV♦“Thank you for yesterday, and I’m sorry for being moody.” Arielle’s meek voice from beside me broke my attention from the clouds outside the window, and I snapped my head towards her. She avoided my gaze and paid attention to the book in her hand.I stared at her, wondering if she had actually said that or if I had imagined her voice. That was the first and longest statement she had made to me throughout the day. Since she had woken up to the time we boarded the plane, she had replied to all my conversations with ‘ok’, ‘sure’, ‘alright’, and ‘yes’. The best I had gotten from her was ‘I’m fine’, nothing else, nothing more.She had kept quiet, with a solemn look on her face and her head in her book. Honestly, I had prepared for her to treat me that way till the end of the day, and I couldn’t blame her. The wound of her being disowned was still fresh, as was the fact that she was moving to a new place with a man she met in just a few days. She needed space to get used to

♡Arielle’s POV♡ ‘I really, really don’t want to get up.’ I rolled from my left side to my right and snuggled deeper into the duvet. I had been awake for more than five minutes, but I had refused to get off my back. It wasn’t like me to just lie in bed and not want to get up; that was more of Brielle’s thing. I always got up the moment I opened my eyes, which was a minute before my alarm rang, to do my daily chores, but at that moment, I didn’t. For the first time in my life, I was refusing to get out of bed to face the world. It wasn’t because the bed and duvet were ridiculously and wonderfully soft and fluffy or that the ambience of the room was cozy. It was because I was afraid. I was afraid of what was going to happen. I was in a place I had never been before, in a position I had never imagined myself to be in, and I was undeniably afraid. Though I had done all the pep talking, confidence training, and building my nerves of steel for when I was going to arrive at Raphael’s house,