Page 64 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
There was one thing Elias had failed to mention in his story. It was how beautiful Rielle was. Even with her mind gone, she had a haunting type of beauty. There was something in her fragile, beguiling features that made even me feel protective of her.
She was small, her head reaching only as high as Damien’s chest, with lustrous blond hair as fine as silk that fell almost to her knees, and I’d never seen eyes like hers, a blue so deep and rich that they seemed unreal.
Years of vagrancy might have left her rail-thin, but her movements held the innate grace of a natural predator. Yet as she stared up at Alpha Damien as he chastised her softly, she seemed on the brink of tears once more, a defenseless lamb.
I couldn’t help but notice how good they looked standing so close together—a fragile Beauty and her domineering Beast. I could only imagine how good they would have looked together in their prime.
“They look like they belong together,” the insidious voice, suddenlyat my side, echoed my thoughts. “That’s what the term fated mates means after all. Destined to be with each other by the moon Goddess herself.”
The newcomer’s voice dipped with dark amusement as she continued on undauntedly.
“Tell me, cousin, how does it feel to be discarded?”
Smoothening my expression out, refusing to let her, of all people, see me rattled, I turned to face my cousin.
“Ivy,” I deadpanned coolly. “To what do I owe the displeasure of your visit?”
Ivy’s eyes darkened slightly at the insult, but her smile stayed undimmed at the prospect of seeing me in pain.
“Surely you’ve not forgotten about our blood duel, cousin?” Ivy mocked softly. “It’s time for the oath-taking. Wouldn’t want you running off once the baby is born, would we?”
Of course.
The oath-taking required the exchange of blood directly preceding the duel date, where both parties basically vowed to each other to keep the faith of the duel. It was legally binding. If any broke the oath, they would be hunted down and granted an oath-breaker execution.
Alpha Damien was fully capable of protecting me from the consequences of my oath-breaking if it ever came down to it, but somewhere in the months between Ivy issuing the duel challenge to me and now, I’d decided I wasn’t going to run from her. Not from the girl who’d tormented me all my life and stolen everything from me. No. I was going to fight with everything I had, and if I died, it wasn’t going to be alone.
“Come,” I gestured towards a more private reclining area by the staircase, unwilling to keep watching Alpha Damien and Rielle. “Let’s get this over with.”
After a beat, Ivy followed. With the flicker of a knife and a few hastily spoken ritualistic words, the oath was done. I turned to leave, but Ivy couldn’t help but poke one last jab at me.
“A weak runt like you actually dared dream that Alpha Damien wasgoing to mate with you?” she scoffed. “The only thing that’s in your future is a death as miserable as that of your pathetic parents.”
The Raven of the past would have sucked it up and let it go. After all, what was one more insult to the plethora Ivy had plied me with daily? But I hadn’t been that Raven in a long, long time. I turned to face my cousin and had the pleasure of seeing the shock on her face as I backhanded her.
“Don’t you ever dare talk about my parents like that,” I warned.
Trembling, Ivy cupped her red cheek, her lips parting on a snarl.
“Bitch,” she raged, fingers morphing into claws as she reached for me.
Suddenly, Elias was there, standing between us and blocking Ivy’s blow.
“What do you think you are doing?” Elias growled, pushing Ivy back. “She’s pregnant. You could have hurt her.”
Ivy and I stared at Elias with similar expressions of disbelief on our faces. Ivy recovered faster, though.
“I could have hurt her? So what if I did?” Ivy screamed. “Since when did you start caring so much about this fucking bitch?!”
I noticed the back of Elias’s shoulders stiffen.
“Don’t call Raven that.”
Ivy stepped up to him, eyes dark with an incandescent fury.
“I’ll call her whatever the fuck I want to,” she bit out, her gaze moving beyond Elias to meet me. “She’s just a wolfless, pregnant whore who spreads her legs for both uncle and nephew—”
Elias slapped Ivy.
