The Beast And The Blessed

Natalie's P.O.V

I could feel my heart breaking all over again the longer I stayed in the pack house the next morning.

Haylee never came home last night, and I knew she was right upstairs, sleeping next to the man who claimed he loved me just two days ago. The man who had promised me forever.

The dryness in my mouth and throat made it hard to swallow, but no matter how much I drank, I couldn't seem to get past the utter devastation flowing through my veins.

As little as I wanted to be here, I had chores to do. The Lycans would be arriving in a matter of hours, and as the lowest-ranking pack member, I was stuck with cleaning up the mess from the party. My goal had been to get in and out as soon as possible, but when I heard footsteps hit the stairs, I knew I had taken too long.

The pile of vomit I was cleaning up had me ready to gag, and I knew if I didn't get it off the floor, depending on who was about to join me, there was a good chance my face would end up in it. But I had stupidly saved it for the end, knowing it would be the worst part of the mess to clean.

"Tilly?" His voice called out softly, and my spine straightened as goosebumps covered my flesh.

It was an odd sensation, having the only person I ever felt safe around suddenly be the cause of my fear and panic. I didn't like it. While the rest of the pack loved to hurt me, the emotional pain he caused was much worse than any broken bone or cut.

"Please, just leave me alone," I whispered as I placed the rancid paper towel into the trash bag by my legs. "I have work to do."

The sound of his feet padding across the hardwood floor made my stomach roll, and I could feel him getting closer to me. I used to feel butterflies, but now there was a cold dread that washed over me.

began to spray the floor so I could

to clean." He said, and I tensed as I heard him stop only a couple of feet away. Knowing

cry at the sound of his voice, but it was

yesterday," He trailed off, sounding irritated as I kept my back to him and began to scrub the cleaner off the floor. "Look at me,

each time he said it, he reminded me of who I was. Silly

bag before taking my yellow kitchen gloves off and getting to my feet. "Why should I?

I lie to you

"Why don't we start with, 'I love you', or 'I hate your sister. She's such

watched as his eyes swirled with

had shifted, you would have probably found yours by now too, and none of this would even have happened!" His chest rose and fell as he yelled at me, surely

blaming the fact that he cheated on me on my not

sister! But that's not even the worst part! You kept telling me that you didn't care that I didn't shift, but you lied! You were actually using it as an excuse to end our relationship if you didn't find your mate last night!" I yelled back, feeling my body start to shake. I knew there was no reason for it. I had gotten angry before. I had felt this same

like my anger evaporated, and the wolf that I was begging to finally

came down here to make things right between us because you're my best friend! But I'm glad you brought up Haylee, because I have a few things I need to address. If you want to throw a pity party that we broke up, that's fine, but don't you dare disrespect my mate again. The way you publically treated

laughable. It was knowing that he was planning to punish me that made me pause. Would I be locked in the dungeons for a night or would they take so far as to tie me to the post outside to be

had taken everything they could throw at me before, and I

or at least he wouldn't before my evil sister got her claws into him. She was going to corrupt him, and her manipulations, jealousy, and power-hungry mind would be