Chapter 159 You Want It?


    TESSA


    I thought my days without my parents were bad, but it got even worse when I came back. Back then, at least the loneliness was something I could swallow and learn to endure. But here, it was humiliationvered upon humiliation, each one a fresh reminder that maybe I should have never returned.


    Zaria told me I wasn’t arrested for the “mercy” of the pack. Mercy. What a cruel word that was. What kind of mercy was this, when every step I took was an invitation for someone to sneer, shove, or whisper lies about me? Maybe it would’ve been better to be locked up, to rot behind iron bars where at least the walls couldn’t spit in my face.


    Someone spat in my food.


    “You eat anything, right?” an unfamiliar person asked, smirking down at me without shame.


    Theughter that followed rang louder than the thud of my tray hitting the ground. I tried to leave, but Cameron stuck his foot out at thest moment. I stumbled, the floor biting into my knees and palms.


    A bruise already started blooming along my shin when I forced myself up.


    “You must be liking your new heart, huh?” someone asked.


    “Crap, don’t get too close to her,” another hissed mockingly. “She’ll kill you.”


    I let out <i>a </i>deep breath. With that, I left, biting my lip as I forced the sting in my throat to lessen.


    I didn’t care if I had another ss. I went out of the gates and went straight to our home.


    When I arrived, I thought it would be empty.


    I wanted silence, to copse on my bed and cry into my pillow where no one could see me. But as soon as I stepped inside, I realized I wasn’t alone.


    Zaria was there.


    For a moment, panic seized me. Her gaze met mine across the room, and I braced myself for another round of ridicule. But her face softened instead. It startled me so much I thought I was imagining it.


    “Tessa,” she said quietly.


    I froze, torn between suspicion and a small, foolish sliver of hope.


    She came closer. “Did you cry again?” she asked again, even softer this time.


    What was this? Why was she speaking to me like this<b>? </b>


    She sighed and shook her head, grabbing a handkerchief from her pocket and cing it in my hand.


    “That’s why you shouldn’t have done it. But, you know. You’re still my sister.”


    My throat ached instantly, hot tears pricking at my eyes before I could stop them. “Sister?” My voice


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    <b>Chapter </b><b>159 </b><b>You </b>Want It?


    cracked <b>on </b>the word. “You’ve hated me for so long… I don’t even know what I did wrong


    $10 Free Come


    Her expression faltered, but she reached for my hand. I didn’t pull away, though every muscle in <b><i>me </i></b>trembled from this strange tenderness.


    “You didn’t deserve all of it,” she whispered. “I forgive you, Tessa”


    It was ridiculous, wasn’t it? Forgive me for what? But still, hearing the word was like a damn breaking inside me. My tears spilled freely, and I clung to her, my shoulders shaking.


    “I just wanted… I just wanted a family again,” I choked out. “I’m so tired of everyone looking at me like I’m a monster.”


    Zaria’s arms wrapped around me, warm in a way I hadn’t felt in years. She stroked my back gently, and for a fleeting, dangerous moment, it felt like realfort. Like how things might’ve been if our parents were still alive.


    When she finally pulled back, she offered me something small wrapped in shiny paper. Choctes. My breath hitched–because I remembered. My parents used to bring me choctes whenever I was sad, cing them in my hands.


    I stared at them.


    “They always helped before, didn’t they?” Zaria murmured.


    With shaking fingers, I unwrapped one and put it in my mouth. The taste was soft and familiar, melt my tongue. My tears slowed, though my chest still ached.


    Zaria smiled faintly, brushing a strand of hair from my face before she left.


    I sank onto the couch, clutching the rest of the choctes, and wondered what had caused such a sudden change in her. Why did shefort me tonight, after everything she had done?


    But after a while, I realized something was wrong. Dizziness crept into me, slow at first, then stronger, spinning the room in uneven circles. My skin burned and my heart raced.


    “What is this?” I whispered to myself, clutching at my chest.


    Then it hit me–the heat. Fierce and consuming, rising inside me like fire.


    The chocte.


    The choctes must have had something in them. I wasn’t imagining it. There was no way this was just sugar melting on my tongue. I could feel it running through me.


    An aphrodisiac. That had to be it. Zaria’s soft voice, her gentle eyes, the way she offered me sweets like the sister I thought I had lost–it had all been a setup.


    My chest <i>rose </i>and fell too fast. I pressed a hand over my mouth, but the trembling wouldn’t stop. The warmth was spreading lower, coiling like a fever I couldn’t fight. This was bad. This was so bad. I needed to get out, to hide somewhere, to lock myself away before anyone saw me like this.


    I


    staggered to my feet, nearly slipping, and fumbled to go upstairs to my room. However, before I could take another step up, the front door opened.


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    <b>Chapter </b><b>159 </b>You Want It?


    “<b>Davida </b>familiar voice started,


    My heart stopped.


    Rowan.


    He froze in the doorway. His tall frame blocked out the light from the hall, and his eyes widened at the sight of me on the floor, hair in disarray, lips parted, my body already betraying me.


    “Tessa?”


    Then he frowned. “What are you doing?”


    I wanted to answer. I wanted to scream that this wasn’t what it looked like, that I hadn’t done this to myself, that I wasn’t weak enough to crawl after him like some desperate shadow. But the words wouldn’te out. All I could do was press my palms into the floorboards and try not <i>to </i>copse entirely.


    The worst part wasn’t me–it was him. His scent. It swept over me the moment he stepped inside, rich and heavy, and it tangled with mine in the air until I couldn’t separate where I ended and where he began. My wolf wed at me from the inside, aching, begging, howling.


    Rowan stiffened. His jaw clenched, and I saw the way he raised his hand to cover his nose. But it was toote. The bond, rejected or not, still lingered and burned through both of us.


    “No…” I rasped, shaking my head. “Please…”


    “Leave, please. “


    I meant it. Spirits above, I meant it. But even as I did, my body betrayed me, inching toward the warn. that was Rowan. My wolf didn’t care about pride or about every scar I’d collected from being unwanted. It only wanted him.


    His brows furrowed as his eyes darted around the room. “David isn’t even here.”


    He red down at me, suspicion dripping from every syble. “Did you n all of this, too? Are you that desperate? Even after I rejected you?”


    My lips trembled as I shook my head. “No… I… I didn’t…” The tears burned my eyes, but I forced myself to choke out the truth. “Zaria.”


    He narrowed his eyes.


    “Zaria’s not even here,” he said coldly. “She has an important event at Elite.”


    My whole body went still.


    So it really was like that. It was all a lie. My own sister had yed me like a fiddle.


    How could I have even thought she had changed?


    My scent continued to fill the room


    He cursed under his breath. His fists clenched, knuckles white.


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    <b>3/4 </b>


    Chapter 159 You Want It?


    Fines


    That one word cracked through the air.


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    <b>His </b><b>eyes </b>burned into mine, furious and conflicted, and his chest rose and fell as though he was fighting himself.


    “You want it?”


    “I’ll fucking give it to you.”