Alpha Carl pulled away from the hug as soon as he had made that discovery. His face was covered in confusion as he took two steps backwards, away from the woman that he had thought to be his mate until only a few seconds ago.
Ethel felt her heart racing and this time it was more of fear than excitement. The way he was staring at her, his gaze that had suddenly gone much more intense than it was before.
"Is... Is anything wrong?" She slowly questioned him but there was no response from Alpha Carl and the next second, Ethel's back had been pushed against the wall and his arm was to her neck, almost choking her.
Ethel gasped as her back hit the hard wall in a single second.
"Who the hell are you?" He questioned, his eyes turning a bright red that scared the hell out of Ethel.
"Wh... What do you mean?" She stuttered out, not willing to give up on her guise, not just yet.
"You are not my mate, who are you?" His voice deepened but this time not in that hot manner that it had done previously, this time it was in scary way.
"I...." Ethel thought of what to say as her heart hammered away in fear of the man in front of her.
All of his hotness seemed to vanish as the atmosphere in the room changed with his words and the look on his face.
"One lie, one lie and you have your head on the floor"
Ethel gasped as she felt sharp claws grazing the skin of her neck. Her breath turned heavy and she struggled with what to say.
"An impostor?" His hand wrapped around her neck, choking her.
Ethel hit his hand that was holding her neck, trying to get his hands off but her human strength was no match for his own strength and she knew that.
Ethel flailed her hands, trying to speak up but still, she could not do so with his hand holding onto her neck.
Carl let go of her neck but held her, pinned to the wall. Ethel's face lowered as she coughed, trying to get back her breath but Carl did not have the patience.
He grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her head backwards.
"I will only ask one more time" His words came out in a growl.
"Who are you?"
His eyes looked dangerous and his grip on her hair was tight, so tight that Ethel knew that her only option was to tell him the truth but when she thought about her father, Ethel dwas skeptical about letting the truth out so easily.
"You are useless"
"You can't do a thing well"
"I regret having you"
Her father's voice rang in her head and it pushed tears into her eyes more than the physical pains of her hair being grabbed and pulled at.
"I... I am Lucy, your mate" her voice cracked out her lie.
He growled out his anger and quickly running out patience.
His hand let go of her hair and pushed back into her neck, he raised her up, with his right hand holding tightly onto her neck.
"One more lie and I am snapping this head off your neck. Who are you?! Where is Lucy?!" his eyes darkened.
Ethel's legs flailed in the hair as she tried to wiggle her neck out of his hands but it was impossible. More tears gathered in her eyes as Ethel realized that once more, she had to disappoint her father, she had to fail him and be useless to him once more. She had to do that to survive, to live.
"I... I am Ethel, the twin sister of Lucy" she choked out the truth and saw his expression being replaced by an expression that she could not read.
His grip around her neck loosened and the next second, he let go of her neck completely, withdrawing his hand and taking a step backwards.
Without his hands holding her up, Ethel slid to the floor on her knees, coughing hard.
She took her right hand to her chest, trying to calm herself and return her breathing to normal.
Carl had heard about Ethel before, once or twice, he had heard that his mate had an identical twin sister named Ethel but he still could not understand why she was here in his home instead of his mate.
"Why are you here? Where is Lucy?" Carl asked, his words came out in an impatient growl.
Ethel did not have a whole lot of time to debate on whether to tell the whole truth or not. She had already let out the biggest part of it, trying to hold back any other thing was going to be useless.
"She... Lucy is in coma" Ethel stuttered out and Carl's eyes darted towards her.
"Coma?"
"Yes, Alpha Carl. She slipped into coma after the accident and...."
"And you and your family thought that the perfect thing to do is to send you to me, to deceive me?" He asked and took two steps towards her.
Ethel quickly crawled backwards, away from him.
"Th... That is not it" she shook her head, still moving away.
"Not another step backwards"
Ethel froze and suddenly felt glued to the spot she was kneeling on.
"Then what is it all about? Sending you in here to act like my mate, what else could it be if not deceit?" Carl bent downwards and reached his fingers forward and took hold of her cheeks, raising her face up to meet with his gaze.
Ethel's lips let out a soft whimper as his eyes bored holes into her eyes. Carl withdrew his hands from her cheeks and stood up straight.
"Tyler!" He called out loudly in an authoritative voice.
It only took a few seconds before the door opened and Tyler, the beta of the pack rushed into the room.
"Alpha Carl" he called with a slight bow before turning towards Ethel. He was surprised to find her on her knees.
"Alpha Carl, what is going on?" He asked, letting out his words slowly and gently in order not to irk the already clearly irked Alpha.
"Get the Adams family, right now!"
"This can't be good, Matthew. This can't be good" Mrs Adams, Ethel's mother repeated her words like she had been doing throughout the entire journey to the Alpha's home. "Your stupid daughter. We sent her over there just this night and we are already being called" Mr. Adams replied his wife in a mindlink and sighed heavily. "She told you that it was not going to work, Matthew. You should just have told the Alpha the truth. If you had done so, this would not be happening" her voice was panicky as she replied him back in the mindlink. "Do not blame me for this. Just blame Ethel" He groaned his response and looked forward to Tyler who was driving the car."Beta Tyler" He called."Yes, Mr. Adams?" Tyler looked into the mirror. "Do you know why we are being summoned right in the middle of the night?" He asked, slowly. "I have told you a thousand times already, Mr. Adams, I do not have any idea why I was asked to bring the both of you" he replied and Mr. Adams let out a shaky breath an
"You are useless, Ethel" Mr. Adams said to his daughter. Ethel lowered her face back to the floor, sobbing silently. "You see what you caused? I am having my toes chopped off! And it is all because of you! Don't you dare come back home! Don't you dare come back home or else I am getting you killed, Ethel!!" He screamed at her.Tyler pressed his lips into a thin line and glanced over at Ethel for a second, her shoulders shook lightly with her sobs. Tyler took his eyes away from her and looked at Mr Adams who would not stop ranting about how useless his daughter was. "Mr. Adams" Tyler called when he could not stand it anymore. "You should not talk to Ethel that way, not when you were the one who schemed all of this""Beta Tyler, you... " Mr Adams stopped talking and sucked in a large amount of air into his lungs and glared at his daughter. Tyler walked over to Mr. Adams and grabbed him by the arm. "Mr. Adams, let's get your toes chopped off. I will try to make it as painless as p
It was 10am when Ethel left the room. She had taken a bath and dressed up in one of the clothes that was meant for Lucy. She stepped into the passage and could not help but notice how sparkly clean it was. She walked to the stairs and the intricate designs of the hand rail hooked her. It was so beautiful and carefully done. Fear and tension had not allowed her notice so much details of the mansion the previous night. Ethel took a few seconds to admire the designs of the hand rail before continuing her walk down the stairs. Thoughts of her father, her mother and Lucy flashed through her mind but she was able to push away the thoughts before it would get to her heart. "It all already happened. I just have to survive" she mumbled to herself as she climbed down the last stair. Ethel pulled herself to the kitchen door and pushed open the door.She stepped into the kitchen and let her eyes roam around the clean place. She approached the cooker and noted that it had been used that morni
Ethel stared at the retreating figure of Alpha Carl until he completely disappeared from her sight.She still stood at the same spot thinking about the new rule. She was not allowed to go close to him.Ethel bit gently on her lower lip. It wasn't like she would glue herself to him anyways, after all he was not her mate. ."Anything the issue?" Tyler's voice came from behind, shaking Ethel back to life.Before she could turn back to glance at him, he was already by her side."Uhm... Welcome back, Beta Tyler" Ethel greeted."I told you already, Ethel. You can call me Tyler" he paused for some seconds. "Ethel" he added and let out a soft smile. It was clear that he enjoyed having her name roll out of his tongue. Ethel simply lowered her head without a response to him. "Was Alpha Carl being harsh with you just now?" Tyler asked. "Not at all. He only gave me a rule.""Which is....?" "I am not allowed to come close to him. All I should do is stay away" she replied. "That's not that
Ethel stared back at the Alpha in even more confusion. She had no clues about the moon ring and absolutely did not understand what he was asking her. "I am Ethel Adams" she replied timidly, wondering if that didn't sound dumb. "I know you are Ethel Adams" he groaned. "What are you? Why do you make the moon ring shine?" He requested again, this time sounding more impatient "Alpha Carl, I do not have any idea what the moon ring is" Ethel replied and though Alpha Carl clearly had more questions to ask, he kept them to himself as he realised that whatever was going on, Ethel most probably didn't have a clue. He slowly let go of her hand."Leave" he uttered the one word order. Ethel took three steps away from him and had just turned to walk away when all of a sudden, the lights went off. Ethel shrieked as both she and Alpha Carl were immediately enveloped by the darkness. Alpha Carl's first object of attention was the ring that had suddenly stopped shining. "What is wrong with the
Ethel's lips were parted as she breathed out heavily, trying to process what had just happened. She had just been kissed by the Alpha and it was a great kiss, a kiss that had totally blown her mind away. Ethel's eyes were still on Alpha Carl's lips and he was staring at her too, the both of them seemingly ignoring the presence of Tyler in the room. "Alpha Carl" a soft voice called, attracting the attention of Alpha Carl and Ethel. The both of them looked towards the direction of the voice and there was a lady standing, a bit farther away from Tyler. Alpha Carl recognized her almost immediately."Hayley?" Alpha Carl stood up from his kneeling position.That was when Alpha Carl understood what had happened to the lights. It was Hayley's habit to have the lights turned off whenever she was making her entrance after a long time and then she would turn it on when he could see her. That way, she felt like she came into his life as the light of it except that she was moe far from being
Alpha Carl, dressed up for work, stepped down from the last stair the same time Hayley walked into the living room. "Good morning, Alpha Carl" She greeted with a slight bow, still walking towards him to close the quite long distance between the both of them. "I told you to never come back, why are you here?" Alpha Carl asked, his gaze cold and piercing. Hayley gulped down, noting that the eyes she was seeing at the moment was colder than she ever remembered it to be ."I am here... I am here to see if you have forgiven me for what I did"Alpha Carl's lips curled up in a small smile that left as quickly as it had appeared. "Forgiveness? I kind of don't remember that the word even exists"Hayley lowered her head for a second. "I am really sorry for killing Molly. I... I just wanted your love and even right now, I still do. I still want your love.""I only have one question for you, Hayley. You were also a friend of Molly, you could not have killed her just because you want me, ther
Alpha Carl settled into his seat in the office. He reached for his laptop and pulled it a bit closer to himself. "Is there anything that you would like to have, Alpha?" Tyler asked. "Get the witch to come over tonight. I have some questions to ask her" he replied. "As you wish" Tyler replied and opened his mouth to say something else but he hesitated and decided against saying it. "I will take my leave now" Tyler added.A few seconds later, the scent of Tyler faded and Alpha Carl heard the door closing. After working for a few hours, Alpha Carl wanted some tea and instead of calling out to Tyler, he decided to go get it himself. Rolling his sleeves up his arm, he got up from his seat and walked out of the office. He walked down the short passage that led to the elevator and stepped into it. The journey to the floor he was heading to was short and he stepped out of the elevator in no time. Stepping out of the elevator, the first thing he set his eyes on was a kissing couple.