Chapter 3 Substitute Bride

SCARLET'S POV"

I hurried out of the hotel room and rushed into an elevator. Immediately, the door dinged open on the first floor. I rushed outside and didn't stop running until I got to a park and then sat down on a bench.

The air seemed to flow inside my skin in a comforting way, in such a manner that I had never felt before. The breeze was soft and gentle against my body.

For some reason, I felt so light. My mind wandered back to the steamy moment I had just shared with a stranger whose face I couldn't even see.

Judging from his style of dressing, his athletic body and strong grip, I could tell he was a man of wealth and probably too high status to be in a room like that.

My cheeks flushed red as I remembered how strong his grip around my waist had been and how it felt to be in his arms.

In such a scary situation, he found a way to make me give into his desires and want more of him. My fingers trailed subconsciously across my lips, remembering how he had sucked on them.

I had never had sex before, I had never even kissed before! He took my first everything! The world of sensual pleasure felt so strange yet very delightful and gratifying.

The way his dark gray eyes bore into mine when he touched me, the way they looked at me every time I moaned. If only I had seen his handsome face. I could only make out his smoothly stumbling beard and soft pink lips before I was pinned to the bed and forced to drown in a world of pain and pleasure.

I had never had a man wrap his arms around me before– I shook my head. "What are you thinking about?" Slapping myself to wake me from my thoughts.

I rose to my feet and took my time to adjust my clothes properly. His cologne lingered on me, but I was sure it wouldn't be noticeable in front of my stepmother and sister.

'Or perhaps I'm the one who has it stuck in my head.' I thought to myself. That sweet masculine scent filled my nose and roused my entire body the moment we touched.

When he kissed me, he tasted like alcohol, a strong brand of whiskey, perhaps. Maybe he was drunk? But he didn't seem to like it. He behaved strangely, like he wasn't in his right senses, but not under the intoxication of alcohol, but something else.

He said I saved his life, but from what though? He couldn't tell me more than that! After forcing me to his bed! He couldn't give me a goddamn reason for it.

It made me feel like a fool that I had run away instead of questioning his unethical behavior and demanding a proper apology--and compensation for that!--from him.

I thought the thought would make me angry, but it didn't. Instead, I was grateful to have been helpful to someone, anyone, even a stranger! However, it was that I had been helpful to him.

So I picked up the grocery bags and started down the road back to the house. Deborah had strictly stated that I mustn't be late. She hated tardiness, it was a thing she could never put up with.

And as much as I would like to place her on my lap and spank her till she had some respect, all I could do was obey her commands and wait patiently as I would be free of her soon.

*

I gently closed the door to the entrance of our apartment as I walked in, not to alarm anyone of my return. Retiring to the kitchen, I dropped all the heavy bags that slumped my shoulders down and began to arrange them where they ought to be.

Several times, the masked man from the hotel crept back into my mind no matter how hard I tried to shove it away. Why had I even gone to that hotel in the first place?!

I questioned myself angrily. My eyes widened as the answer tickled the back of my mind. "Shit! I forgot to pick the package!"

"I never doubted your incompetence."

I flinched as I turned around at the sound of my stepmother's voice. "Stepmother, I–"

"Save it!" She cut me off angrily. "Why are you always so useless to this family?"

Deborah splashed her drink at me and orange juice soaked my clothes and hair. "Deborah–"

A slap landed on my face, cutting me off. "Did I hear you call my name just now? "How dare you!" She glared furiously. "A filthy muggle like you shouldn't even know my name!"

My fist clenched in anger and I responded through gritted teeth. "I had simply forgotten to go to the hotel because of the long list you gave me." I lied.

I had to. How would I bring myself to tell them I had forgotten because I was raped? I didn't even like to think of such an experience as rape, but that was what it was.

"Oh, so this is my fault now?" She arched her brow at me as she crossed her arms beneath her breast.

It fascinates me sometimes how an eighteen-year-old can be so damn rude!

"No, I was only just stating–"

"Silence fool!" My stepmother growled and I flinched.

The woman scared me to death. Who knew when she would get tired of me and feed me to her wolf?

My stepmother sighed and touched her forehead tiredly. "Everything you do is wrong and terrible, you seem to be growing some wings there, speaking back at Deborah the way you did just now, and I would nip them off if I had the time to.

"As much as I would like to beat you up like a baker beats his dough, we need you to look as pretty as you can get and that means without bruises."

Confusion took over me as I squinted. "Need me? I do not understand, stepmother."

"You see," she continued. "My beautiful daughter was supposed to be mated to the alpha of a dark claw pack, but you know how she is, everyone does. I cannot have my daughter--young as she is--live the rest of her life suffering under a cruel alpha.

"So, my dear, I have decided to make a little switch. You will substitute my daughter and marry Alpha Everett of the dark claw pack."

I shivered down to my bones as fear overwhelmed my entire body at once...