Tamed by Her Alpha Stepbrother

2: A Psycho of an Alpha Prince

HARPER

Kingsley stayed true to his words and I really spent the night in the library, on the floor, cold and miserable with rats and all sorts of insects flying around.

I initially tried to scream to see if the security would somehow hear me but it was a futile effort and I eventually gave up to spend the night there.

The door was opened the next morning by the librarian and I found my phone and the keys waiting for me in my locker. The rest of the day passed in a blur and on getting back home after closing hours, the sight that welcomed me was that of Mom carrying a truckload of expensive-looking packages into the house.

Just like she has been doing for the past one month.

I knew they were from her nameless and faceless fiance. They started dating a little over two months ago and he has spoilt her with expensive gifts and has even sent some gifts to me. I was grateful that she now had someone else after confining herself to singlehood since Dad died more than seven years ago and while this new boyfriend seems to be really into her, I was skeptical since she was still keeping his identity a secret.

"Hi Mom, did you just get back from your trip?" I asked her as soon as I entered her room where she was busy unpacking her gifts.

"Yes darling, how're you doing? Did you have a nice time? Hope you didn't miss me too much?"

"Yeah, I had a nice time," I replied and the mental image of curling in the corner of the library flooded my mind.

Fucking Kingsley Hawthorne! I really hated his guts and everything about him.

"So I have good news for you," Mom suddenly pulled me to the bed in a typical girlish tea-time manner, "We're going to have dinner with my fiance and his son this weekend. We're thinking of tying the knots as soon as possible so it's just normal that you meet him soon."

"Wow. I'm..." I threw my hands around her, "I'm so happy for you Mom. I honestly am, you deserve this after everything."

"Of course," she hugged me back, "you also deserve a full family, and that reminds me," she nearly shrieked as she moved back a little, "his son attends your school."

"Wow," I spluttered, suddenly a bit skeptical. If his son attends my school, then there is a high probability that he's among the students that hate me seeing how 80% of the student body hates me and I wasn't sure how that'd work, becoming family with someone that hates and sharing a house with them in the near future.

"So who's he? Even if you're not going to tell me the identity of your fiance, can you at least give me a little hint? His last name, perhaps?" I tried to sound so meek and coy, hoping Mom would buy my acting.

She did not.

"No Harper, the weekend is almost upon us and you'll find all the answers to your questions then."

*********

No matter how hard I pastered Mom about revealing the identity of my soon-to-be stepfather, she remained tight-lipped and so for the rest of the week, I became a detective trying to figure out who my soon-to-be stepbrother could be. But I came up with nothing.

Mom wasn't particularly close to any single parent in my school so it was hard to figure out who he was and I had to give up. The weekend was just tomorrow and all my questions would be answered so why bother myself now?

The last class for the day was Mathematics and as usual, more than half of the class was already dozing off but for me, even though I found the subject boring, I had to listen attentively because I couldn't afford not to get a perfect mark in the subject.

The class soon ended and everybody found themselves in groups of twos and threes, talking about plans for the weekends and I felt a tiny pang in my chest at how lonely and absolutely alone I was. I had no friends, not even an acquaintance, and all the relationships I had in this school were polite and necessary ones.

I gathered my books, suddenly wanting to be out of here and I had hardly stepped out of the class when someone bumped into me.

"Ohh, I'm sorry," the male student apologized and walked away before I could even reply. I found the encounter bizarre; the bumping into and the too-quick apology but I wasn't going to dwell on it so I resumed my walking.

And that was when I felt something crawling under my shirt and I didn't when have time to process that before I felt a sharp sting, one that made pain erupt in all parts of my body, made my vision blur, and made me scream in loud and ugly ways.

The pain was too intense and unlike anything I've ever experienced before and I was struggling to get my shirt off, to get whatever just stung me out of my body while the pain kept intensifying and I could feel my body getting weaker and weaker.

No one made a move to help me. Despite my pain, I could hear the students mocking me while some even had their phones out to video me.

I finally got it off my body and on seeing it, my body finally weakened completely and I collapsed onto the floor.

******

Beeping sound woke me up and for a while, I was groggy and I didn't remember who or where I was until everything suddenly came flooding back.

The Scorpion. I was stung by a scorpion and I passed out from the intense pain.

I attempted to sit up immediately, expecting to feel pain all over my body but all I felt was a tiredness so extreme that I collapsed back on the bed.

"Oh my God! Harper!" Mom's worried voice filled my ears as she leaned over and that was when I noticed that she was sitting beside me on the hospital bed where I was connected to a heart monitor and a drip and some other machines I couldn't name.

"I was so worried, Harper. God! You were in so much pain and I couldn't help and I thought something bad was going to happen. I'm so sorry, baby girl," she hugged me tenderly as if I was made of talc and she would hurt me if she hugged me stronger than that.

"I'm fine now, Mom," I replied even though I didn't feel it, my body felt so worn out as if I had gone through the most herculean task in the past day, "I'm sorry I put you through that but I'm fine now."

She pulled back and the sight of tears in her eyes made my heart shatter completely. I hated stressing Mummy and putting her through things like this.

"I'm glad that you are. Thank God for the school nurse who performed first aid on you before you were transferred here. If not, it'd have been worse than this. The scorpion is a poisonous one and if the first aid had been performed just a second later, your heart would have..." she choked, unable to say the word and she hugged me again as if to bask in the wonder of the fact that I was still here.

Poisonous scorpion! A poisonous scorpion! My mind was reeling from that fact. Ordinary scorpions were too scarce in our city so a poisonous scorpion was basically nonexistent.

I remembered the student I bumped into when I left the class, how he had been too quick to apologize and walk away and dread filled my entire body.

He could have dropped that scorpion on my body. Someone must have asked him to do that. Someone that had always threatened to kill me but I've always thought it was all bluff.

Mom's ringtone suddenly jolted me out of my thoughts and she stood up.

"This is your school principal. Her rep just left some minutes ago on my insistence so let me get this call outside."

I barely managed to nod as she walked out because my thoughts were reeling and I couldn't believe it and I was... I was...

Kingsley Hawthorne couldn't have really done that to me, right? I could have died. He could have killed me.

"I see that you're still alive," his condescending tone snapped me out of my reverie just as he lowered himself into the seat Mom just stood up from, the corners of his lips curled into a sardonic smile. And a damn Apple in his hands.

"You... you... you!"

He chuckled, an amused and dark sound that sent jitters all over my body. I've never been afraid of Kingsley but him sitting there, looking regal like a dark lord after he just really attempted to end my life made me fear him more than I've ever feared anything in my entire life.

"Who'd have thought a day would come when the almighty Harper Wright would be this speechless? How ironic! Would have gotten that on recording if I knew it'd happen."

He was amused but nothing was amusing about what was going on. He just attempted to kill me for crying out sake!

"Was it you? The scorpion?"

He took a bite of his apple with a proud smile on his lips, "who else do you think is capable of that?"

I opened my mouth to talk but I couldn't say anything. I was thoughtless and speechless.

"I could have died, Kingsley, you could have killed me."

"Nope," he tossed the apple to the bin, his eyes darkening in anger as he stood up to tower over me, "your reckless audacity could have killed you. Do you really think your life is worth all that? You're just a miserable omega. I have your types at home running my bath and waiting on my beck and call but you! You're so audacious to come after me every single time."

He straightened up and jammed his hands into his pockets, "You haven't learned your place, Harper, and until you do, I'll be more than willing to teach you," a proud and purely sadistic grin transformed his face into the most terrifying thing I've seen.

"So, what do you think? I'm benevolent, right?"

"You're... you're..." I stuttered, hating myself for being so weak in front of him, "you're so vile."

"Good that you now know and the next time you stick your nose into a business that isn't yours," his voice turned into a sweet but deadly whisper, "I'll hold your hands while I make you breathe your last."

Then he was gone as if he was never here and he left me with my heart beating in fear and trepidation.