Chapter 8
55 Vouchers
Ivar is playing on my computer while I make dinner and wait for the storm that is about to explode in this apartment. I already spoke to my landlord to let me out of the lease. We were able to get a few boxes to start packing.
My stomach is in knots. This is not going to blow over quickly, and it’s not going to be something that Santiago is going to take lightly. I keep glancing from the door to the envelopes with the royal seal on them.
My entire body locks up when I hear the key slide into the doorknob. My heart is beating so fast that I can barely breathe properly. What am I thinking? I could have just sent Ivar back home and told my grandmother I’ll be staying here. I could have played the devoted mate until it was over.
When the door opens, Santiago walks in and steps aside. I grip the handle of the knife in my hand tighter when his father walks in behind him. I stare at the two of them, not knowing what to do. His father looks down at my knife and smiles.
“Good evening, Soph,” he says and looks up at me with the most condescending smirk I’ve ever seen on the man.
“Alpha Romano,” I clear my throat and lower the knife.
“You weren’t kidding,” he says, tapping Santiago on the chest.
He walks into my apartment as if it were his home. He looks around without looking back at the two of us. I step back when Santiago tries to hug me. He glares at me and smacks the knife out of my hand. It hits the floor, making the loudest sound it could possibly make as he comes closer to trapping me against the wall.
“Hey,” he says as if he weren’t trying to intimidate me with not only his presence, but his father’s.
“What’s this?” Alpha Romano asks. Santiago turns around to face, and when his gaze snaps back to mine, his eyes are dark.
“What’s that?” he demands. He moves away from me, and I let out a momentary sigh of relief. He rips the envelope open and begins to read it. “This shit again, Sophia? Are you out of your fucking mind? You called your stupid ass grandmother?”
“Excuse me?” The room falls silent when Ivar steps out of my home office.
The second prince walks into the living room, placing himself between Alpha Romano and Santiago. The two of them are completely flabbergasted. Both Alphas are intimidating men, but when Ivar wants to be, the man imposes in a way that the two of them can never. Even together.
“My grandmother is closing her accounts here and wants me to send all of my father’s belongings back to Blackstone. Prince Ivar is here to make sure everything is in order by the time she gets back from Austria,” I inform them.
“My prince,” Alpha Romano is the first to recover. He bows his head submissively.
“Grab what you need, Sophia. We’re leaving,” he orders without taking his eyes off Santiago.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he blocks the kitchen entrance. I don’t move a muscle.
“You really want to play this game with me, Santiago?” Ivar comes around and waves me over to him. Santiago steps in front of me when I take a step towards him.
“My prince, Sophia is my son’s mate-” Alpha Romano tries to get in the way.
“A right he relinquished when he mated another female at the Goddess Altar last weekend. I suggest you move the fuck out of her way before I call in my alphas. Come here, Sophia,” he growls, taking another step closer to Santiago.
He doesn’t move this time. I rush over to Ivar and take his hand. He gives me a nod, and I all but run into my room to gather
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Chapter 8
55 vouchers
everything I need for school. I grab a weekend bag and stuff as many scrubs as I can inside before walking back out. Ivar takes my bags and opens the door.
“Is this really how you want to do this?” Santiago asks.
I pause at the door and look up at him. I can’t help the tears that are streaming down my face. I never imagined that the fairytale I sold to myself would ever turn into the nightmare that it is now. I have no words for him. Without saying anything, I leave the apartment I worked so hard to get.
My entire body is shaking when I get to my car. Ivar takes my keys and guides me over to the passenger seat. I can’t even bring myself to look up at him. That is one of the most embarrassing things that has ever happened to me.
“You undersold the situation,” he says when we’re finally on the road to my family’s estate.
Again, I don’t know how to reply. When we get close to the house, I see that it’s alive with people. It’s been a very long time since I’ve come here. It hurt too much to be in the place where I had been happy with my family. I couldn’t bear walking inside to be greeted with emptiness.
It doesn’t surprise me that my grandmother sent a team to clean up and make the place presentable for her favorite trouble- making prince, and maybe make some changes so when she puts the estate on the market.
He parks my car beside my brothers‘ cars. There are four of them in total. Cars, the two of them worked on with my dad. and then alone when his beta’s duty got a little more demanding. Ivar lets out a heavy sigh and gives me a second to compose myself.
“Please, don’t tell her yet,” I manage to choke out. “She’ll come here and start something.”
“It’s in her right, Sophia. You are the granddaughter of one of the most esteemed Lycan warlords we have. This goes beyond disrespect. What do you think they were going to do to you? Eat the cupcakes you made? You can’t be-” he pauses when I let out an exasperated sigh and pull the door open.
“I am,” I say angrily. “I am that naive, your highness. I am nineteen years old, and he was the only good thing in my life. You want to know what your most esteemed Lycan Warlord did as soon as she got the chance?
“She fucking put me in the academy knowing that I hadn’t properly healed yet after I was almost mauled to death and lost my entire family. So yeah, your princeness. I am fucking naive and scared and fucking defenseless.
“Because if being abandoned here by my only relative isn’t enough for you, I’m an omega. A useless nothing that didn’t even deserve a wolf. Call her and remind her of that while you put all these people in danger.”
“Sophia, I didn’t mean-”
I don’t let him try to apologize. I grab my bags and head up to my room. Some of the staff members try to get my attention, but I don’t have the energy or courage to face anyone right now.
That was low. None of this is his fault, and I blew up at him for no reason. He’s right. I don’t know what Alpha Romano and Santiago planned to do to me. I slam the door to my childhood room shut behind me and collapse against it.
The room is dark and as big as my apartment. The familiar scents hit me, and it finally all catches up to me. I look around the room, feeling my anxiety burn through my veins as I try my best to keep my breathing even, but it’s too much. I take one of the squishmellows on the bed and bury my face in it to let out the scream I’ve been holding back all week.
I scream until I’m lightheaded. I sit on the floor holding the soft pillow to my chest and stare at nothing. All I can do is cry. There is nothing I can do to change a single thing that has happened. That’s what it means to be an omega. I am expected to serve, and no matter how hard my grandmother tries to deny it. Serving is all I’m ever going to be allowed to do.
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
