Sold by My Mate, Claimed by Another Alpha Chapter 02

Sold by My Mate, Claimed by Another Alpha Chapter 02

If they wanted me to confess, then I would confess.

If they wanted me to go to Grimwood Pack and apologize, then I would go.

All I asked in return was for them to give me my mother’s ashes back. After that, whether I lived or died would have nothing to do with them anymore.

By the time I dragged my ruined leg back to Ashenfang Pack, snow and wind had already buried me from head to toe.

The front doors of the villa stood wide open. I found my old room from memory, and the moment I reached the doorway, I saw all my belongings thrown outside and piled in the corner like garbage.

My figure-skating trophies had been smashed to pieces.

The gemstone Rafael once gave me and the diamond pendant my mother left behind had been tossed out like merchandise for the servants to pick through.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

A fury I hadn’t felt in a very long time surged up inside me, sharp enough to make my chest ache.

Only then did the servants turn around. The second they saw me, they burst into laughter.

Clara came downstairs with her arm looped through Cassian’s, sounding half annoyed and half as if she were making a pointed reminder. “Are you all blind? That’s the Alpha heiress. She only got out of prison today.”

“Sorry, Emilia. I only said I wanted a dance studio. I didn’t realize Rafael and Cassian would have your room cleared out for me.”

“But with your leg like that, I guess you don’t really need such a big room anymore.”

Her coy voice was thick with smug satisfaction. Cassian’s dark stare pressed against my back like needles.

He looked like a beast guarding its young, as if he were terrified I might lash out at Clara out of jealousy.

I suddenly found it absurd.

Even back in the years when I hated Clara most, all I had ever done was cry, make a scene, and even starve myself, all for the smallest scrap of love from Cassian and my brother.

And now, I no longer cared.

“I know.”

I answered flatly and turned to obediently gather my things.

But Cassian wouldn’t let it go.

“What kind of attitude is that? Clara’s trying to make peace with you, and you can’t even be bothered to respond?”

The scent of tuberose perfume drifted in from behind me.

After two years, Clara’s scent had soaked so thoroughly into Cassian that it made me sick.

No matter what I said, they would always believe I was in the wrong. Even when I said nothing at all, Cassian still took it as disrespect.

Clara, meanwhile, said with feigned reproach, “I told the prison staff to take good care of you these past two years, but I’m sure you still suffered a lot. You must know you were wrong by now.”

Cassian let out a sigh. “You’re too generous, Clara.”

I said nothing and kept packing.

If he ever found out how Clara had “taken care of me” in prison, I wondered whether he would still be able to say that.

Clara watched me for a moment, her eyes shifting. “Emilia, let me help you.”

Before I could refuse, her hand landed on the pink diamond pendant at the same time as mine.

It was the only thing my mother had left me.

My heart jumped. I tightened my grip around the chain, but Clara suddenly let go.

With a sharp snap, the necklace cord broke and the pendant shattered across the floor.

Clara crumpled to the floor as if on cue and said tearfully, “Cassian, I’m hurting…”

A violent shove came from behind me and sent me crashing into the edge of the table.

The pain was so sharp it nearly knocked the breath out of me.

Two years in prison had already left my body frail and broken. Pale-faced, I looked up and met the disgust in Cassian’s eyes.

“If you’re going to throw my kindness back in my face, then get the hell out and sleep in the basement servants’ room.”

That night, I curled up in the filthy basement and spent my first night back at Ashenfang Pack there.

It was also my twenty-eighth birthday.

Clara’s Instagram, meanwhile, kept updating all night.

[I’ve been craving cake so badly, so happy birthday to my Lily instead!]

Lily was Clara’s cat.

In the photo were an expensive ornate cake and Clara, wearing a jeweled tiara like a princess.

Cassian and Rafael stood on either side of her as she made a wish, with fireworks blooming brilliantly behind them.

The two of them looked at her with the kind of tenderness I had never dared to dream of asking for.

All I could do was sit in that broken little room, stare at the shooting star outside the window, and make a wish of my own.

“This year, I only wish that Mom and I can be reunited soon.”

The next morning, the table was covered with an elaborate breakfast spread.

Cassian and Rafael were already seated there, waiting for me to eat.

For one suspended moment, I froze, as if I’d been thrown straight back to six years ago.

Back then, Clara hadn’t entered Ashenfang Pack yet, and I was still the Alpha heiress Rafael and Cassian treasured most.

I had been spoiled and overbearing then, and I’d made them promise to eat with me every single day.

They used to hunt down every kind of breakfast they could think of and cover the table with it.

Just like this.

Rafael picked up a cream-filled pastry and passed it to me, speaking as if the words meant nothing.