The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 3

Ella POV

His reaction, the anger in his voice, surprised me even more. He wasn’t laughing or mocking me, nor did he seem upset. Just… mad. Frustrated.

“I don’t understand,” I blurted out. “You hate me, Alexander. If I’m the one to take the blame, thus protecting your reputation from harm, then why wouldn’t you jump at the opportunity?”

There was a long moment of silence. Alexander stared at me, green eyes unreadable. I held his gaze, even though it wasn’t something I was used to.

Then, finally: “Our contract clearly states that only I can initiate a mutual rejection.” He pulled a drawer open from his desk and reached in, pulling out a leather bound folder that I knew all too well. He flipped to a certain page and extended it to me. “Page three, clause B.”

I sighed exasperatedly but took the contract. Indeed, the clause he’d pointed to stated that only Alexander could end our “relationship”. I faintly recalled reading it at the time of signing, but had been under so much pressure and the naive hope that Alexander might eventually grow to love me that I hadn’t paid much attention.

“The only reason I married you,” he went on, rounding his desk and crossing over to the small bar in the corner, “was to give the public a good impression—an Alpha who marries his fated mate is a better candidate for Alpha King, after all. And now, with the election coming up, I can’t risk losing favor.”

Right. So this was all about the upcoming Alpha King election. Alexander had always wanted the position, and now that the current Alpha King’s ten-year term was coming to its end, new candidates would be campaigning soon.

Alexander was one of them.

“Furthermore,” Alexander turned his back to me and poured himself a glass of bourbon, “your father is still benefiting from Ashclaw’s support. Unless you’re planning to leave him high and dry with a debt he can’t repay.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. He was pouring himself a fucking drink, his back turned to me, and speaking in a tone as if we were simply discussing business.

And I supposed, in a way, this was business. Maybe it hadn’t always been that way for me, because I had once stupidly held onto the hope that my fated mate would fall for me, but it had always been

a transaction to him.

“I’ll speak to my father. We’ll pay you back the money you gave him and we’ll be even.”

“Go ahead. You’ve wasted enough of my time today. But don’t come crying to me and pretending to be all innocent again when he turns you down.”

I rolled my eyes and abruptly left without another word.

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Chapter

A few minutes later, I found myself in one of the sprawling gardens out behind the mansion. This particular garden, with a gnarled old flowering cherry tree in the center and high hedges, was one of the few places in the mansion where I truly felt at peace.

like I could breathe. Hardly anyone but me ever came here-the gardeners rarely tended to it, allowing little flowers and shoots

the one place here that

long, though. Because soon,

my father’s number and sat on

the third ring. “I was wondering when you might call.

I want

“What? Why?”

dormant, and I’ll die in a year if he doesn’t mark me or reject

talking about? I’ve never heard of an illness like

you want your daughter to live, you have to help me get out of this marriage. Because Alexander is definitely not going

sighed. “Ella… You know how important this union is. Whatever is going on between you two, you need

fighting,

push through. Stormhollow needs Ashclaw’s

throat tightened at the mention of my late mother. She had died when I was just a baby, so I had never met her-but Stormhollow had been her pack. She was the only heir to Stormhollow, but when she had married my

of things in our world. Men were Alphas. Women

right now… my life was less important than what two

my father went on, “I just purchased a new diamond ring for Margaret for our wedding anniversary. I can’t

almost laughed out loud at that. Margaret, my stepmother and mother

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Chapter

gladly spend all of our

her.

Not me. Never me.

was just the daughter to be used up, even

When it killed me.

bit out, hurt and angry. “I’m telling you that I’m going to die, and you just

die,

hear more, I abruptly hung up before he could finish. I hung my head in my hands

something I could do.

to look up to know it

from the

The sight made me want to cry even more. “Is

don’t know. Alexander won’t mark me or divorce me, and I was stupid enough to sign a contract that disallows me from rejecting him myself. And my father just cares about the money. So right now, I’m

a little sound of

for anything in return. And now, the one time I don’t just want help

I was supposed to die for them, when they