A menacing growl emanated from his chest and the next Hunter knew was that his long fingers had tightened around Rosalie’s neck. He slammed her to a wall as his fangs lengthened.
“Hunter!” Rosalie shrieked, shocked at what just happened. “What are you doing?”
Grabbing her necklace, he snarled, “This necklace belongs to my mother and I gave it to her. Who are you to determine that she stole it? Did you see her stealing it?”
The entire hall went silent at their Alpha’s action. They watched him on Rosalie’s neck in stunned silence. The music that had earlier started to play softly, paused.
Rosalie grasped his wrist and tried to free herself, sputtering and coughing. Tears came in her eyes at the lack of air. Hunter was just too powerful for a she-Lycan like her. She found her feet dangling a foot above the ground. “N-no!” she rasped.
“Then how dare you accuse her without evidence?” he growled.
“-” Rosalie couldn’t speak at all as her mind became numb with Hunter’s tight grasp on her throat.
Hunter was too pis*d at her for accusing his mate. All he saw was blood. He wanted to ki*l this little bit*h but years of practiced control made him leave her. Rosalie slipped to the ground on her a*s. She got up on her fours and crawled as she coughed and wheezed. Hunter got down and unclasped the necklace from her. Shoving it in his pocket, he snarled at her in a warning to stay away from her. He walked out of the Emerald Hall not concerned about the curious looks he received which he knew were mixed with fear.
Rosalie watched him leave with tears coming out of her eyes. And at this moment she hated River more than anyone or anything in this world. The damage she did to her carefully planned party was irreversible. Hunter didn’t even look at her once while marching out of the hall. Mina and Gina came rushing to her as soon as Hunter was out. They helped her get up and made her sit on a chair. Rosalie was so humiliated in front of all the guests that she didn’t know how to react. However, it was Mina who came up with a plan to salvage the situation.
Gina smiled when she looked at her sister and said, “Leave it to me. You take care of Rosalie.”
Soon gossip went around and Rosalie was seen as a lesser devil. Mina asked the musicians to play the music. Some women sneered at Rosalie for being such a snob but they also admired her secretly.
Hunter walked out of the hall, feeling terrible. His evening was ruined and he wondered where River had run. He followed her smell all the way to the corridor and then towards the kitchen. Her smell was mixed with that of metal, which meant that she was also hurt. Once again, he saw red. He wanted to hurt Rosalie so bad that his claws elongated.
He rushed to the kitchen where the cooks were working for the ball. As soon as they saw him, all of them stopped working and bowed to him. Hunter avoided their inquisitive gazes and went to the garden following River’s smell. As he approached nearer, he heard her soft laughter. He opened the door that opened in the backyard and was taken aback.
River was having a small party with all the omegas. Faria was sitting on the same table as her, smiling as she peeled oranges in front of her. Seeing River calmed his nerves. He was so scared that she would have run away towards the forest full of demons that his heart was thudding against his ribcage wildly.
He took a careful step towards her, mesmerized by her laughter and the pink that crept on her cheeks when someone joked. However, the moment he came, everyone stopped talking or laughing.
He coughed lightly at the silence and approached River who was also now staring at him with wide eyes, surprise evident in them. Faria got up and bowed to him and did the others.
“Alpha Hunter!” River rasped as she too stood up.
“Why are you here?” he asked. “You should have been in the ball.”
River pursed her lips and lowered her head. “I am so sorry, Alpha Hunter, but I was-” she stuttered. “I was-” Bile rose in her throat when she remembered what happened at the hall and she couldn’t speak further.
Hunter noticed the scratches on her beautiful neck and a growl vibrated in his chest. “Never mind,” he said. He walked up to the table and sat down over there. “I will have my dinner here,” he announced.
“With all of you!” All he wanted was to sit with River. It didn’t matter that he was with the omegas who were lowest in the werewolf hierarchy.
Never ever in the history of Dark Moon pack had the omegas had the pleasure of the king having dinner with them. So when they heard it, there was a collective gasp. Seconds later, the servants were all active. Their king wanted to have dinner with them. And they were going to make sure that it was the best dinner of his life. Some of them looked at River with appreciation in their eyes while some were pure jealous. Why was she so important to him?
Soon orders were shouted and more tables joined the one at which Hunter was sitting. A group of omega girls were so eager that they performed a small dance for him. Dishes were arranged on the table. The omegas prepared a five-course dinner for their king.
River couldn’t help but feel giddy. Alpha Hunter had left the ball and came here to find her? Somehow, she couldn’t digest the fact. So, she continued to sit there and blush as he watched her.
Meanwhile Rosalie was too embarrassed to stay in the party. It was a charity that she had organized and she ended up being insulted. She was going to make sure that she would drive the breeder out of the castle. But first she had to ask for Hunter’s forgiveness. One thing at a time. She excused herself from the ball and went to search him.
Hunter had never insulted her in all the years she was with him. She had been trying her best to get in his pants and even self-declared that she was very close to him. Over the time, she knew that Hunter had accepted her as his future Luna and that was why everyone in the castle and the Dark Moon pack were afraid of her. However, one little breeder comes and ruins her plans? She was going to give the breeder a lesson of her life.
Rosalie had carefully built her reputation and now she was living in the castle. She was not in the same wing as Hunter but moving in his castle was a victory on its own. She had meticulously crafted every lie, every move to enter the castle, eliminating competition.
Rosalie walked all the way to the kitchen and then the backyard, after asking servants as to where Alpha Hunter was. But what she wasn’t expecting was that Hunter was sitting amongst the omegas and having dinner with them. Snakes crawled in her chest when she saw that River was also sitting at the same table as Hunter was. The Lycan King who was the most powerful of entire werewolves and Lycans combined, was sitting with the lowliest omegas and having dinner with them? And that too because River was here? Anger blasted in her, but Rosalie knew that this was not the situation to be angry.
As soon as she was in the backyard, the loud banter morphed in murmurs as everyone glanced at her with caution. Slowly, Rosalie walked to where Hunter was sitting, ignoring a wide-eyed River. She noticed the bruises on her skin. “Alpha Hunter?” she said in a soft voice.
Hunter was so engrossed in looking at River that the world around him faded. She was so beautiful but too skinny. His beast wanted to feed his mate and so whatever chance he got, he would pass on the food to her on the pretext that her wound would heal faster. Hunter realized one thing-it didn’t matter where he was sitting or in whose company, he was having food. She was more beautiful than any woman-human, werewolf or Lycan-that he had ever encountered.
Her auburn hair was up in a messy bun and some loose, unruly curls had come to bounce on her neck.
The lights of the lamp posts around them caught the red color of her glossy man, complementing her deep emerald eyes. He was so mesmerized by her that he didn’t even realize when Rosalie arrived. So when she called his name, his chest filled with a dangerous growl instinctively. He whipped his head towards her and his eyes flickered amber as his beast surged forward to protect his mate from potential danger. Every omega kneeled on the ground in pure submission with their head low.
Immediately Rosalie sank on her knees and lowered her head in submission. She was shivering under his gaze. Her voice was a mere whisper when she said, “I am very sorry, Alpha Hunter. I shouldn’t have judged so soon. Please forgive me.” Her voice choked and she started sobbing. “Please don’t be angry with me.”
When Rosalie entered the backyard and saw what was going on, she knew that right now omegas were all favoring River because it was rarely, they were given any importance and she was the last one to give them any. The situation wasn’t in her favor but at east she could draw some sympathy from them.
Sobbing was the best way.
Hunter’s beast growled at her, but in that process, he sensed River’s fear. He settled his beast just so that River calmed. “See that this doesn’t happen again,” he said to her in order to dismiss her.
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