Chapter 53

ELEANOR

My head pounded like a drum, and even the slightest movement sent waves of pain through my body.

Why do I always end up in situations like this? What the hell is wrong with me?

With a lot of difficulty, I opened my eyes. The room was almost dark, only illuminated by a dim light that barely brightened the room. I looked around and realized there were no windows, only a single door in front of me as the only source of exit.

The stench of the room gradually filled my nostrils, and I felt my stomach turn and the bile rise up my throat. I tried not to vomit, but the scent of foul blood and sweat didn’t help, and I vomited on the floor beside me.

Even after emptying the contents of my stomach, I still felt nauseous, and my stomach grumbled. I looked down to see my hands and legs were tightly tied to the wooden chair using silver chains.

The acrid taste in my mouth was unbearable. I spat repeatedly, trying to get rid of it, but it clung stubbornly to my tongue, refusing to go away.

~Click.~

Benjamin stepped inside along with a woman, both of them with a victorious smirk on their faces.

“She looks worse than she looked in that picture,” the woman commented as she looked at me from head to toe.

I wanted to tell her she looked like someone who’d just walked out of a mortuary, but I bit my tongue. Anything I said right now would only backfire, and I wasn’t about to risk anything happening to my baby.

“She’s not as beautiful as you, baby,” Benjamin asserted as he pulled her close to him and kissed her on her lips.

Their make-out session made me want to vomit again, so I averted my glance.

“She looks like we repulse her, Luca,” the woman said, and that was when I finally turned around to look at them again.

“Luca?” I asked him.

“My full name is Benjamin Luca Garcia. But my mate likes to call me by my middle name.” I was surprised that he answered my question.

“You know you’re a coward.” I couldn’t help it and the words slipped out of my mouth.

“Despite being an ex-head warrior, you didn’t have the guts to fight with Xavier head-on,” I said.

For a long period, they remained silent, then he started to laugh like a maniac while the woman had a stupid smirk on her face.

“Think whatever you want, bitch. But you have no idea about the power of a mate bond,” Benjamin said as he walked closer to me.

“If I kill you, it would kill part of his soul as well. This will eventually weaken him, and he will die a natural, painful death,” he said.

“Is this all because he demoted you from being the head warrior?” I asked him.

“Not only that,” he said.

He straightened his back and walked to stand next to the woman. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to his body.

“He humiliated my love. He banished her from his pack and made sure that she could never enter another pack again,” he said, and this only confused me further.

Why would Xavier do that to Benjamin’s mate?

Something doesn’t add up at all.

“I still don’t get it. I know Xavier would have never done that without a good reason.” I started, and this time, I saw the anger on the woman’s face.

“Without a good reason! I admit that I never loved him, but I was ecstatic when I found out that I was his mate. I was the beta female of that pack. I loved the power that came with it, but my heart was elsewhere. So, what’s the harm in staying with the man you love while making sure you have the job you want?” she casually asked me, and everything finally dawned on me.

This was the woman who broke Xavier’s heart. Chantelle.

I never thought that the Moon Goddess would have paired a plastic bitch like her with Xavier, but I guess everything happens for a reason.

“Be glad that he didn’t kill you then and there,” I mumbled.

“What did you say, bitch!” she yelled as she took two large steps toward me and slapped me across the face.

The force of the slap made my head turn to one side, and I felt my ear start to ring.

“He should have been happy to have a beautiful mate like me,” she screamed, and this made me let out a dry laugh.

“Can I just kill her, Luca? The longer I see her breathing the same air as mine, my blood pressure skyrockets,” Chantelle asked.

Benjamin stepped forward and held her by the shoulder.

“Chantelle, you know we have an agreement with them. I don’t want to ruin anything,” Benjamin said.

“Do you know that Chantelle means stone? I think your parents aptly named you,” I asserted, and that was her final straw.

Before Luca could hold her, she came toward me like a ferocious tiger and roughly pushed my chair back, making me fall to the ground as I banged my head hard on the concrete floor. “Chantelle! Get out of this room right now!” Benjamin yelled at her.

“But…”

“You better leave before I make you,” he warned as I heard her storm out of the room.

He grabbed the chair I was tied to and hauled me up. He was extremely close to my face, and I could feel his breath.

“Next time, don’t expect me to save you from her,” he said in a sickly calm voice before he left the room and locked me inside.