Chapter Three
1061 Words
Daphne had spent the last three days pacing and worrying over what to do. She'd gone to her cleaning job every evening, but in the daytime when she was supposed to be out hunting for a day job, she'd spent it starving and wondering what she was going to do about her current situation.
She was sure this was what it felt like to have frozen trauma.
She knew she had to do something – Well, a lot of things, but she was so overwhelmed and confused she couldn't for the life of her articulate what those things were, talk more of beginning to do them.
Something kept ringing in her head though: Hadn't he felt the mate bond too?
Sure he might have been as drunk as she was, but the morning after… he'd left before her and he couldn't possibly have been drunk then.
As she sat on the floor against her bed and stared at the wall, she decided that if she continued this way she would run mad.
She picked herself up, wrapped a jacket around herself, took her purse, and decided to step out that morning, if only to just walk around and see other human beings while it was daylight.
As she stepped out into the street, shock enveloped her.
The streets were lined with festive ribbons and everything that screamed celebration.
People were laughing and taking pictures and Daphne just stood in the corner of it all, almost unable to process it.
And then it hit her. It had been announced months ago that a mating ceremony would be held after the crescent moon pack assumed its new leadership.
The pack was the biggest and strongest of the four main packs in Davedswood and so was largely respected and acknowledged.
She began moving woodenly, ducking out of pictures she had no business being in, turning her head the other way when every five minutes she ran into lovers engaging in PDA.
She soon found herself in an almost empty coffee shop and bought the cheapest coffee on the menu. All she cared about was that it was hot.
As she sat there, warming her hands with the cup and trying hard not to think of how, if she'd had any friends, things would not be so bad for her.
There was no one to talk about this issue with.
“... The Ark family has confirmed that preparations are still in full gear, and they cannot wait to host the mating ball.”
A newscaster again.
Daphne's heart pricked with pain. So the ball was to be held on the Ark estate…
Of course, it was.
It clicked then that the most likely reason why they had scheduled all this to align so closely with the new Alpha taking over the pack was possibly because he wanted to take a bride.
Her heart lurched at that.
What if he truly didn't know he was her mate?
She gulped her coffee, scalding her tongue and causing tears to form in her eyes.
She knew what she had to do now.
The ball was that evening… and Daphne was going to be Cinderella.
*******
Daphne missed her step nothing short of three times as she was shown into the ballroom. She kept looking up, mesmerized by the scandalous beauty of the place.
Her heart ached as she looked at it all. What she would have given to have lived in a proper home.
She'd dug into her belongings, tearing her apartment apart to look for the gown she'd been gifted by one of her lecturers upon her graduation.
She'd found it, trimmed her hair properly so she didn't look like some homeless sub, and she'd forced herself to learn how to walk with heels again.
She knew the alpha would appear midway into the event and her sole aim now was to make him know of her existence.
Daphne wasn't invisible, nearly everywhere she went at the ball, men made room for her. As a result, by the time the announcer said the alpha had arrived, half of the unmated men present had set eyes on her.
They all had a way for her as she wove herself through the crowd to get to Alpha Xander.
Most of the people around him had dissipated once she got there and so that she wouldn't be blocked instantly by the guards, she leaped, instead of walking to him, and found herself a hair's breadth from the most eligible bachelor in the land.
Their eyes locked and Daphne felt it as her entire being sang at the feeling of being in presence and such proximity to her mate.
This was a mating ball, the perfect night for him to put his final mark on her. Daphne became lost in the fact that this would happen and so it came as a very rude shock when her handsome Sweetheart stepped back from her, disgust written all over his face.
“Who let this lowlife into the premises?” His baritone voice boomed.
“What?” Daphne was the first to comment.
His guards immediately began apologizing and took hold of Daphne.
Daphne was shocked and struggled against them, shouting.
“Mr Xander, I'm here to tell you something important!”
He stepped closer to her and whispered.
""There is nothing worth hearing from your filthy mouth! I, Xander Ark, reject Daphne Slawn as my mate."" He eyed her up and down as she writhed in the pain that came with severing their souls. Her wolf howled in pain, she fought to take control, but Daphne's mind was too weak to even process what the wolf demanded.
“You're a scum and I will never associate myself with scum.” He said aloud for everyone else to hear.
“And if it makes it out to anyone that you were my mate, I will hunt you down and destroy you.” He whispered again.
“But…” the baby. Daphne tried to say, but all she could produce was ragged sobs.
She lifted her hand to try and reach for him as she was dragged away, but the next thing she saw was a news camera in her face.
She was on national television.
‘Crazed woman tries to get the most eligible bachelor to marry her.’
Everything faded to black.
- Writer
