THE ALPHA KING'S RELUCTANT BRIDE

MILICENT'S POV I walked silently and gently as I could as I approached the cabin, not wanting my footsteps to be heard. Even from a distance away, I could hear the moans coming from inside and it sounded like the voice of my best friend, Gabrielle. “Oh, baby. I want all of you. All of you…” I held my breathe. Who was she with? Did she finally agree to have s*x with Mark? Or was she playing with her self? And why was she doing it here now? I had came here to wait for Caleb, my boyfriend. Her moans continued loudly but that wasn't the shocking part. It was the fact that the next voice I heard was my boyfriend's, Caleb. “You like that, baby? You like that? Come on. Moan for daddy.” And then she gave out the loudest moan. Slowly, I stood at the threshold of the cabin and pushed the door open. Tears rolled down my cheek as I stood there, watching them. It was my Caleb — f*****g my best friend on the table, her legs spread wide open for him. Both of them still hadn't noticed my arrival. “Oh, yeah? You like it how I give it to you? You like it?” “Yes, Daddy,” she crooned, pulling him closer. I couldn't hold in anymore and I sobbed out, “Caleb..” He jolted and jumped in shock and surprise. “Mi…mi..milicent..” He stammered as he pulled out of Gabrielle with a wet sopping sound. “Oh, Goddess,” I whispered, almost falling onto the ground in my heartbreak. “Caleb, how could you?” “Mi..milicent, I'm sorry. It was a mistake! I—” “Mistake?!” I asked, tears blurring my vision. “You cheating on me with my best friend was a mistake?!” It was Gabrielle that replied me. “Oh, come off it, Milicent, don't be so dramatic.” I watched as she rose from the table and advanced towards us with a smirk. “It was bound to happen,” she continued, “Caleb is a man with manly urges. Urges you can barely satisfy or take care of, so why not be grateful to me instead of being mad?” Before I could think it twice, I raised my hand and slapped her across the face. She stared at me, stunned. “You filthy b***h,” I growled, anger filling every pore in me. Caleb broke in. “Don't insult her!” “What?” I asked in a disbelieving whisper. “Look, Milicent, Gabrielle is right. You're barely in the mood for s*x and I just have to find an alternative elsewhere.” I shook my head as I stared at him, unwilling to believe that this was my boyfriend of two years — my boyfriend that I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. Gabrielle smirked at the look on my face. “You can deny it all you want, but no one wants you. You're just the privileged Alpha's daughter responsible for her mother's death.” Her words hit me like a wall of brick, resonating in my head like an echo. No one wants you. Responsible for her mother's death. My mother had died when I was ten. We had gone flower picking because I insisted on it and we had been attacked by rogues. They killed her right then and there, but for some reason unknown, they spared me. Ever since that day I had been an outcast in the pack, even to my own family. They all believed I was the cause of my mother's death and I had always been left on my own. Caleb and Gabrielle were the only ones I had been able to rely on, but it seems I had been mistaken. Eyes teary, I gave a sad smile. “I'll hand it to you, Gabrielle. You're a pretty good actress. You had me fooled all along. You both did. How long has this been going on?” I asked them. Caleb sighed but when he replied, his tone was not apologetic. If anything, he sounded relieved. “It's been going on for a while. Look, Mili, I wasn't really into you. It was just a bet between the guys and I on how long it would take me to f**k you. And when I did, you were already deeply in love with me, and I found it difficult to break up with you.” “What?” I asked, then I laughed, a sound bordering on madness. “All this while and it was nothing but a sick joke to you?” It seemed like my heart just shattered into a million pieces at my feet. “Why didn't you tell me?! Why, Caleb?! I would have understood.” “No, you wouldn't have,” replied Gabrielle, her tone hard as stone. “But now that you know, why don't you leave and let us go back to enjoying each other. Unless you want to join us, of course.” As she said this, she was already wrapping herself around Caleb. Caleb grinned down at her, gnawing on her lips. “A threesome. That wouldn't be such a bad thing.” I stumbled out of the cabin, unable to hear any more, drunkenly staggering along the path that led further into the forest. I had trusted them both, taking them as my family, but they had been betraying me all along, fucking each other behind my back. I had been a fool. I had been too desperate, too needy. What had made me believe they would want me anyway? I remembered Caleb’s words. It was a bet. All along, it was bet. Everything I thought I had with hum had been nothing but a sham. Maybe I wasn't truly deserving of love like they say, maybe I deserved to be dead like my mother. I drew out the knife in my pocket, staring at it with blurry eyes. On other parts of my body where no one else could see were numerous cuts — cuts carved by my own hand, with the knife I now stared at. It had always been my own way of deali ng with my emotional pain, but now it wasn't enough. I wanted to deal with it permanently.