Chapter 12: Chapter 12

ELEANOR

“Argh!” I screamed in agony. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the abdomen with a sharp knife, and the pain wouldn’t stop.

“Eleanor, just hold on. I’ll call Beta Costa,” I heard Ivan’s voice, but it sounded like he was miles away. I partially opened my eyes to see that we were only a few feet from Xavier’s front door.

“What the hell is going on here?” a new voice asked, and it took me a few seconds to recognize that it was Marquez.

“I…I don’t know what happened, Gamma Dante. One moment, she was all right, and the next moment, she fell to the floor screaming in pain,” I heard Ivan explain.

Black dots started to appear in the corner of my eyes. Someone lifted me off the ground, and my head started to spin.

Just when I thought I couldn’t handle it any longer, the intensity of the pain abruptly decreased.

“What’s going on here?” Xavier’s front door opened, and I saw him walk out wearing a towel around his waist.

Soon, Jade walked out to stand next to him with only a bed sheet to cover her naked body.

I realized then why I experienced such pain.

“What the fuck did you do, Xavier?” Marquez growled.

“Marquez.” My voice was barely above a whisper, but Marquez’s attention quickly turned around to me. “Please take me to the hospital,” I told him, and he nodded his head.

With one last glare toward Xavier, he rushed me to the hospital.

We entered the hospital, and Marquez frantically looked around for someone to help. Finally, a doctor walked toward us.

“What’s wrong with her, Gamma Dante?”

“I’ll explain in the room. Could you please show me where I can put her?” he asked the doctor, and she nodded her head.

I was still able to feel the pain, but it was not as intense as before. I leaned my head against Marquez’s chest. It became difficult to keep my eyes open as my entire body felt exhausted. I fell into a dreamless state before we reached the private hospital room.

BETA XAVIER

I was so engrossed in my paperwork that I didn’t hear the knock on my door at first.

“Come in,” I called, and a warrior walked in with a paper bag in his hand.

“Beta Costa, a woman handed this to me, and she told me to give it to you,” he said.

“Thank you, you can put it on the table,” I told him, and he nodded his head.

“Did she give you anything else?” I asked him, and he nodded his head and took out an envelope from his pocket.

After handing me the envelope, he left the room. I opened the paper bag and took out two small bottles that contained a purple liquid. Inside were instructions on how to use it.

~Drink one teaspoon of this liquid, and the effect will last for three days. You will not feel any pain if your mate has sex with anyone else.~

I placed the bottles back inside and tore the envelope open.

~Meet me at your pack border at seven pm tomorrow.~

~Elizabeth.~

I put the letter inside a file and got back to work.

“~Let’s go home and see our mate,~” Kyle whined. Yet again I looked up at the time to see that it was past 8 p.m.

“Fine, let’s go home,” I told him, got up from my place, and walked out of my office.

“~You know we can’t meet her empty-handed, right?~”

“~What do you want me to do now?~” I growled, getting irritated at his behavior.

“~Let’s get her flowers,~” he suggested, and my eyes widened in shock.

“~I am not doing that!~”

“~Please, please. Just tell her it is from me then,~” Kyle begged.

“~Fine!~” I yelled.

I bought a bouquet of multicolored lilies and walked back home. Eleanor wasn’t inside the house so I decided to check the clearing in the forest to see if she went for a walk.

I found her by the river, but she wasn’t alone. She was with…Ivan?

Eleanor sat beside him, the two of them talking like they didn’t have a care in the world. She looked relaxed, genuinely at ease in a way I had never seen when she was with me. She hadn’t even noticed I was nearby, watching from the edge of the trees like some uninvited ghost.

When Ivan pulled out a fork and offered her a bite of apple pie, she leaned in without hesitation. Her smile stretched wide, her eyes lit up as she tasted it, and she laughed gently.

My hands clenched at my sides and my jaw tightened. She looked happy. Happier than she had ever looked around me.

I knew I should just walk away. Why did I care anyway? Give her space. But I couldn’t move. She leaned a little closer to him, and she said something I couldn’t hear. That easy comfort between them lit a fire in my chest, jealousy burning through me, sharp and relentless.

I stormed out of there and went to my house. After closing the door behind me, I threw the bouquet on the floor and stomped on it, but that wasn’t enough to control my anger. Those idiots made me think that she was different, and for a second, I believed it, but she was just like Chantelle.

“~You fucking ruined it, Eleanor!~” I screamed into the empty house while I frantically looked around. I knew there was no use breaking anything because it would never make her feel the pain and agony that I felt.

I took the small bottle of concoction from my pocket. I walked into the kitchen, took a spoon, measured the exact amount that Elizabeth said, and drank it.

“~Don’t do this, Xavier. There must be a misunderstanding,~” Kyle whimpered.

I walked back to the living room and took my phone.

“~Don’t do this, Xavier. You’ll regret it later.~”

Without a second thought, I dialed Jade’s number and waited until she picked up.

“Xavier! I’m so happy you called,” Jade’s overly sweet voice said.

“Come to my house now,” I told her in a monotone before I hung up and went upstairs to the guest bedroom that I always used whenever I had a woman in my house.

Ten minutes later, I heard the clicking of heels, and the room door opened.

The overpowering scent of her cologne made me gag, but I kept a neutral look on my face.

“Baby, I thought you forgot about me,” Jade murmured as she ran her hand on my back.

I quickly turned around and pinned her to the nearest wall, which made her moan out in pleasure.

She was wearing a sleeveless red dress that was barely covering her ass.

“Aren’t we going to bed?” she asked as she looked at me through her partially opened eyes.

“Shut up, I don’t want you talking,” I commanded before I quickly tore the dress off her body.

Once all our clothes were out of the way, she tried to kiss me, but I moved away and stared right into her eyes as I began to mercilessly fuck her.

I didn’t stop until I heard a scream from outside.

“~Mate!” ~Kyle warned me.

It was a scream filled with agony and pain, and this made me stop.

For a second, Eleanor’s screams made my heart ache, but the thought of her together with Ivan was enough to bring my anger back.

“Why did you pull out!” Jade whined when I didn’t finish what I started.

“I’m done,” I told her as I quickly wrapped a towel around my waist and rushed out of the room.

I didn’t understand why I felt this way. I was the one who set the rules—six months, nothing more. This was supposed to be clean. Controlled. So why did the thought of Eleanor in pain make my chest tighten?

It should have felt like justice. A necessary consequence. But it didn’t.

Instead, it made my heart ache in a way I wasn’t prepared for and definitely didn’t want to admit. I had no claim to her, no reason to care. But knowing she was hurting brought no satisfaction. Only anger I couldn’t place, and a sense of helplessness I hated.

I ran downstairs, and when I opened the front door, I saw her on the grass in a fetal position.

Ivan and Marquez were beside her. Jade joined me in the doorway.

I didn’t hear anything they said because my eyes were solely focused on Eleanor.

She was half conscious, and her face turned so that our eyes locked.

Her irises were swirling with hurt and betrayal, but I just stood there without moving.

Soon, Marquez left with her, but I continued standing there, trying to process what I had just done.

“Baby, let’s go and continue where we left off.” Jade placed her hand on my shoulder, and it only made me step back.

“Get out of my house, Jade,” I mumbled.

“What! Just because that bitch made a scene doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue what we began, Xavier,” she asserted.

She took a slight step back, feeling the anger emanating from my body.

“Get the fuck out!” I yelled as I roughly pushed her out of my house and locked the door.

I should have felt satisfied, happy, or even content.

But why did I feel remorseful?