Elena POV

"Go ahead," Jessica said. "I'll follow along in a little while."

The man groaned and rubbed his face roughly with his hands. "Don't tell me you actually believe her lies? You think we wouldn't have heard about it by now if Alpha actually chose a mate?"

"Besides," he gestured roughly in my direction. "Why would he choose someone like this when he could have literally any woman he wanted?

You think he would really pick her over Lady Vanya?"

"She needs help., Jessica said softly. "And I'm going to help her. You can leave if you don't want to come along."

"Suit yourself." The man threw his hands in the air as he walked away. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Jessica watched his figure fade into the distance before she turned to me, smiling. "Where did you say you wanted to go?"

*********************

"I don't think this is the way to my room," I said to Jessica as she walked in front of me. "I've not seen anything resembling the hallways Draven and I took earlier.

Jessica stumbled, almost tripping over, and I quickly threw out my hands to support her. "Are you okay?"

A strange look was on her face when she turned to look at me. "You call him Draven?"

"Yes." I flushed slightly. "He asked me to call him by his name."

"You've talked to him?" The look on her face turned even stranger, her eyes widening. "Face to face?"

A crease formed between my brows. "Of course I've talked to him. How else would I have become his Luna?"

"Never mind." She shook her head, smiling brightly again. "We're almost there. This is a shortcut.

"Okay." I breathed, relieved.

"We're here," Jessica announced a few minutes later as she threw open a large door.

I entered, looking at the wide swimming pool that spanned almost the same length as a small river, then turned to Jessica. "This isn't my room."

"I know." She said, walking slowly towards me.

I moved back step by step until I was almost at the edge of the pool. "W-what do you mean you know? Weren't you going to take me to my room?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "How did you do it? How did you get him to choose you?"

I looked at the pool behind me, fear creeping its way up my spine. I didn't know how to swim. I hadn't learnt before my mother's death, and after, I no longer had the opportunity.

The pools at the pack were meant for pack members, not slaves like me.

"Tell me!" She moved closer, barely inches away from me. Her eyes had turned red, and she held tightly onto my shoulders. "How did you seduce him?"

"S-seduce him? What are you talking about?" I said. "Please let go, I don't want to fall in the pool."

"I heard he left the pack yesterday to go do something important." She said, a bitter look coming over her face. "Who would have thought it was to pick up trash like you?"

"I'm not trash," I said firmly. "Don't call me that."

"You are whatever I say you are." She sneered at me, the action twisting her features.

I froze for a second as a thought flashed through my mind. "Are you his lover?"

"His lover?" She laughed, but it sounded more like crying when it came out of her mouth.

"He won't even allow us to get close to him, yet he let you call him by his name?" She poked her finger at my chest. "Just what is so special about you?"

Us? So there was more than one lover?

I grabbed her finger. "Whatever issues you have with him, you should take them up with him, not me. And if you really want to know why he chose me, it's because I'm his mate.

His true mate."

The blood drained out of her face, and she looked at me from top to bottom as if she was seeing me for the first time. "You're lying."

"You can go ask him yourself if you're so curious," I said, sidestepping her. "But leave me out of it. I don't need any trouble."

"Just where do you think you're going?" She dragged me back by the arm, and I lost my balance. I pulled her with me as I fell, both of us landing straight inside the pool.

Somehow, she managed to disentangle herself from my flailing arms and quickly put distance between us.

"Help me., I yelled, panicking as I swallowed another mouthful of pool water. "I can't swim."

"That's your problem." She said, with a dark look on her face, when she got out of the pool. "So figure it out yourself. I'll come back for you in an hour or two."

My arms ached as I struggled to keep my head out of the water. "I'll be dead by then!"

"That's kind of the idea." She said, walking away. "You should blame it on yourself; it's not my fault you were unlucky enough to meet me."

I'd never imagined I would die due to drowning, but as the cold water seeped into my lungs, I thought it was fitting.

Maybe the coldness of the water would take away the fiery heat of the hell that had been my life.

"Al-Alpha." I heard Jessica's voice. It sounded muffled as if I were merely dreaming it.

"What are you doing here?" Draven asked, his voice cold.

"I-I was cleaning the pool." She said.

"That's not your job," Draven said.

"The person in charge was sick, so I offered to cover for him." She said.

"Just you?" Draven asked. "Did you bring someone else along?"

"No." Her voice shook. "It's just me here, no one else."

"Okay, Draven said. "You can leave."

"What is it?" Draven's voice sounded again. "Why are you blocking my path?"

"T-there's a dead rat in the pool, Alpha," Jessica said. "You can't go in yet."

A sob escaped my mouth as I sank, water quickly rushing in to take its place.

***********************

I opened my eyes to see Draven's face right above mine as if he was leaning in for a kiss.

"What are you doing?" My voice sounded hoarse, my throat raw.

He moved back, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "What did it look like I was doing?"

I felt wrong. Who would look so angry when kissing someone else?

"Is this how you usually dress up in your pack?" He asked, looking away from me.

"Y-yes., I said, looking down at my dress in confusion, only to see that the material was completely clinging to my skin as if it had been spray-painted on me, and I wasn't wearing a bra.

Letting the pack know I needed new ones wasn't an option either, since they would only mock me. I'd survived the years by picking through the dumpsters for clothes people threw out.

"Don't look!" I quickly crossed my hands over my chest, covering the hard things that seemed as if they wanted to poke through the dress.

Elena POV

 "I wasn't looking in the first place." He said dryly, turning to look at the side. I turned along with him only to see Jessica there.

She was sprawled on the floor, staring at me as if I were a ghost. Draven got up and walked slowly to her.

It was only when he got up that I noticed his clothes were wet, as if he'd dove right into the pool with them still on.

 He stopped right in front of her, his voice cold. "Explain."

 I tried to stand up as well, but my whole body still felt weak, so I just sat up and watched them from behind.

 "I saw her when I came to clean the pool," she said, her eyes quickly filling up with tears as she looked up at him. "But I thought she was dead, so I was going to find someone to help me get her out before you came."

 Draven turned to me, but all my attention was on Jessica.

I stared at her, dumbstruck. "You brought me here. I fell into the pool because of you."

 "She's lying." She started sobbing and crawled to hold Draven's thigh, rubbing her face all over it.

 A bolt of jealousy shot straight through my heart. He was so cold to me, but he was letting her touch him as much as she wanted.

 I almost let out a sigh of relief when Draven pulled away from her grip, his voice calm. "I guess we'll find out the truth when we check the cameras."

Then he turned to walk away.

 The blood drained from Jessica's face, and she quickly ran after him, throwing herself against his back. My teeth clenched so hard that I thought a couple of them would break.

 "I can explain." She panted. "I can explain."

 Draven peeled her hands away from his body and turned to face her. "You had your chance."

 She crashed to the floor, a pained look crossing her face as her knees met the hard tiles. "I wanted to punish her for her lies."

 She looked up at him, her face pitiful as if she was begging for sympathy. "She's been going around saying that she's the Luna. I just wanted to scare her a little, I-I didn't know that she couldn't swim."

 "She's the Luna, Draven said simply, and I watched Jessica's face collapse.

 "Th-then what about me?" Her voice shook.

 "Where do you think you're going?" Draven's voice rang out, and I stopped walking. Having recovered a bit of my strength, I'd been trying to slowly make my escape when he caught me.

 "I'm not done with you yet." He continued. "So stay."

 ************************

 "W-why are you coming so close?" I said, taking a small step back as Draven walked towards me.

 He'd had the guards drag Jessica away a few minutes ago when she kept crying and clinging to him.

To where? I had no idea.

 "I thought I told you not to overstep." He said.

 "I didn't!"

 "Then how do you explain this?" He said, his gaze moving over my chest. "What are you doing in my private pool?"

 A shiver ran down my spine and I quickly clamped my hands back over my breasts. "I didn't know the way back and asked for her help. She brought me here."

 He raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't notice the difference in your surroundings?"

 Warmth moved to my cheeks, my eyes, everywhere it could reach. "She said it was a shortcut."

 "And you believed her?" He took another step towards me. "Are you really that naive?"

 I couldn't hide the crack in my voice. "How was I supposed to know she was lying? Am I supposed to expect to be tricked when I ask for help from a stranger?"

 "Yes." He said simply as he moved even closer to me until there wasn't even an inch of space between us. "You should. You won't survive a week here if you don't."

 "What's going to happen to her?" I asked.

 "You're worried about her?" He raised an eyebrow.

 "N-no." I said softly. "I'm just curious."

 "Well, don't be." He said, moving away. "It's none of your business.

 "Is it none of my business, too, that one of your lovers just tried to kill me?" I called out to his retreating back.

 "One of my lovers?" He said, standing in place.

 "Yes," I said firmly. "Isn't that why you let her go so easily?"

 "You think I let her go?" His voice was cold.

 "Didn't you?" I said just as coldly.

 "You can think whatever you like." He said as he continued walking. "Just stay out of my way."

 My teeth chattering from the cold, I said, "Can we have breakfast together?

 But not today.

 On the day I choose, you must have it with me, regardless of whatever you have going on."

 He turned back to me, an incredulous look on his face. "What part of stay out of my way do you not understand?"

 I pushed past the embarrassment that made me want to hide my head in the sand, raising my chin at him. "You owe me one. After almost getting killed by your-"

 Within seconds, he was in front of me, his hand over my mouth before I could say lover. "Fine." He gritted out, annoyance flashing in his eyes. "Breakfast."

 ************************

 My wolf Lara whimpered all the way back to my room. 'Does he not want us? Isn't he supposed to love and cherish us as our mate?' Lara had left me for a long time, locked somewhere I couldn't reach her.

 I didn't know how to tell her that sometimes, people don't like the mates given to them by the goddess or that they may not even want a mate. It was pretty common now, even though everyone pretended like it was not. There was a reason makeup was so popular now.

Many women had been forced to find a way to hide their bruises when sunglasses and an 'I fell' excuse couldn't explain them away.

 Most packs portrayed the glamour of a loving relationship between mates, but most times, beneath all that wwerelies and a desire to keep up the expectations of other people.

 To give off the illusion that you were happy even when you were not, because that's what was expected of you.

 My father hadn't wanted my mother either. He had gotten her pregnant and then abandoned her.

 My mother had remained unmarried all her life, believing that he would come back for her one day. She had made excuses for him every time I asked about him; he had issues to deal with, and he was busy.

 He had been too busy to call, too busy to come see me even on my birthdays, too busy to visit my mother's grave after she died. I didn't even know what he looked like. Sometimes, I wondered if he was even real.

 Despite the pain and rejection she had experienced at the hands of her mate, she still raised me to believe my mate was the perfect one for me. But when she died, I finally understood the truth.

 It was all a scam. The mating pull was a lie sold to omegas so they would willingly offer their necks to any alpha willing to mark them. If I were being honest, I resented her for it a little.

 If she had told me there was a possibility I would be rejected by my mate, abused by him even, I would have been prepared for it, even just a little.

 I wouldn't have waited ten years like a fool, hoping for him to change and finally pick me.

 "Luna." A soft voice came from the side. "Are you okay?"

 I hurriedly wiped my eyes and put on a smile as I turned to her. "Yes, I'm fine, who are you?" I asked, glancing at the loaded bag in her hand.

 "I'm a maid in the palace, Luna. Alpha instructed us to bring you a change of clothes, some toiletries and food. The others are on their way." She said, eyes still filled with concern.

 "Alpha?" I asked, confused. "Alpha Draven?"

 "Yes Luna." She beamed at me.

 What was she so happy about? And why was she calling me Luna when there was no one there to hear her?

We both knew my position was only for show. But I didn't say anything, merely smiled as I moved to take the bag from her hands.

But she dodged, and somehow managed to open the door to my room, slipping inside quickly.