Chapter 99: Healing The 100

Sihana’s POV 8.72%

Throughout the journey to the temple, I didn’t utter a word. Aristo tried to crack silly jokes from beside me but I didn’t reply him. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend to be happy. Understanding Cahir’s decision didn’t mean I had to be happy about it, neither did it mean I couldn’t be angry that my mate went behind my back to make plans for me and then spring it on me last minute.

“You can rest on my shoulder if you feel sleepy, Aristo aid in the car’s silence. I was sandwiched between him and a guard so when he spoke, I knew the words were directed at me but I said nothing. “Sia.” He tapped my knee. I turned to him with a glare and he raised his hands in surrender.

The silence stretched after that so I ended up falling asleep. In my dream, there was a pup chasing me about despite my tiredness. It was a dream I had frequently before I got the priestess‘ necklace.

From the dream, I could feel myself getting warm as I got increasingly tired.

“Wake up, Asena’s voice whispered to me from a faraway place. I struggled to respond to the voice but I was dead tired. The energetic little pup wore me out ‘Stupid human, wake the fuck up!” The panic in my wolf’s tone snapped me out of my looped dream.

I regained consciousness slowly and before I opened my eyes, I could tell I wasn’t in the car anymore, I was on my back with a soft mattress underneath me.

“Sihana, wake up!” My eyes snapped open as my fever peaked. My eyes met darkness, “Did we crash?” It was the only thing I could think of to explain my wolf’s mounting panic and the heaviness of my limbs. My body also felt feverish and my eyes had trouble focusing in the darkness.

As I contemplated what had happened, light flooded the room, blinding me for a split second. When my eyes adjusted to the light, they met a relieved–looking Aristo.

“Goddess, I feared something may have happened to you.” The look in his eyes had me flinching.

Aristo stood before me but it wasn’t the Aristo I knew. He had a creepy look in his eyes like a man possessed.

“What happened?” I asked through my dry throat. “This isn’t the temple. I’d been to the temple only once and even though I didn’t explore the holy grounds, I knew there was no way this place would be the temple. The temple had a serene ambience that would have cooled my rising fever the minute I entered.

Speaking of my fever-

“Where the hell are my clothes?!” I exclaimed.

The heat distracted me but it was hard not to notice my jeans and shirt were gone, leaving me in my underwear. I tried to cover my body with my arms but then I realized my hands were tied. As were my feet “I took them off when your fever rose,” the man before me said. Was this really my mate’s beta?

“Aristo,” I growled his name. “What the fuck is this? What’s going on?”

My brain went into overdrive to understand the situation and it was telling me that Aristo had staged this, taken off my clothes and tied me to a bed in an unknown location.

Thu, Nov 7 0 and sat beside me on the bed.

+5 Pearis The look in his eyes made me uncomfortable. It was a familiar look, one I’d endured in Silver Moon from disgusting boys and men who did not bother to hide the fact that they were undressing me with their eyes. This one this one actually undressed me.

–

“I am going to kill you,” I whispered the words, swallowing down the lump in my dry throat and the hysteria making me burn hotter. “I swear it on my mother’s grave.”

“Why?” His eyes widened. “You like me.”

“I – I like you?” I spluttered. “What nonsense is this? Let me go, you fucking bastard!” I screamed, yanking at the ropes he bound me with. They were thick and knotted tightly.

“Hey, don’t bruise your skin.” He held my hands down. Don’t hurt yourself, Sia,” he called my name with an intimate voice that made me shudder.

“Why What’s the meaning of all this? What makes you think I like you?” I snapped at the bastard.

My fever was rising, burning my throat and causing my heart to beat faster – no, that was the anger and shock from waking up tied in a strange room by my mate’s best friend.

“We’re friends and I’m the only person who has stuck by you, Sia,” he drawled. “If you don’t like me, who do you like? Cahir?” His eyes darkened and they reminded me of the crazy woman in my hotel room Manz Island.

He only wants her body, I can fuck up her face.

Those were words spoken by that woman, words that plagued me on my bad days.

I started to connect the dots or at least I tried to. It made little sense.

Cabir killed that woman before he thought to interrogate her and the wide network of the Alpha Blood pack still wasn’t enough to find out who sent her to me.

Could it be?

It never occurred to me that it would be Aristo. There’s never been a reason to suspect that Aristo would want to harm me. He was Cahir’s beta and best friend, goddammit!

Cahir-

We had a mate bond to communicate with. I didn’t know where the hell I was but someone had to know that I didn’t make it to the temple and that Aristo was a potential traitor.

A sharp stab of pain exploded in my head as I tried to open a mind link with my mate. I gasped and Asena howled at the pain.

“Oh, I should have told you. You wouldn’t be able to get in touch with that bastard. I used a product mixed with wolf’s bane, I’m sorry. It is untested but it alters the senses in a way that prevents wolves from forming mind links.”

“Why are you doing this!?” I snapped, gasping as residues of the pain made my head pound. “Do you hate Cahir or what? This makes no sense!”

“Yes,” he said in a quiet tone. “I hate that bastard but not as much as I love you.” I blinked at him once, then

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twice.

“W–What?” I stuttered. “You love me?”

Aristu had been friendly to me because he was a friendly person, nothing more. What the hell did he mean by he loved me!?

come to “Yeah, I guess you can call it love at first sight.” He gave a boyish smile, the same smile that I’d associate with him, a smile I’d returned frequently. “From the second I set my eyes on you in that kitchen with that bitch harassing you, I fell in love but of course, the fates had to make a joke of me.”

He let out a peel of harsh laughter. “You moved my heart the minute I met you but you had to be mated to a man that didn’t even want a mate!”

“Cahir is –”

“Don’t,” he growled. “Don’t say his name!” His eyes darkened and I swallowed, he looked perfectly crazed. “He doesn’t deserve you. What has he ever done for you aside cause you pain? I’ve been the one who had to watch from the sidelines, loving you but watching him hurt you. That bastard has always had what I wanted but I couldn’t even say anything because the goddess made it so!”

He heaved as if the words were a weight he’d been aching to get off his chest.

I wanted to say something snarky, it was on the tip of my tongue to hurl insults in his face but I was an omega and I knew what danger smelt like. This bastard who had laughed and smiled with my mate was nothing but a fraud.

“I fought alongside him for Alpha Blood but he got the top position while I got second because he was born an Alpha and I was born a Beta. Does that make any sense? Does it?” I shook my head as he rattled me with his eyes jumping about. “You’re the only one that understands me.” He gave me a warm boyish mile.

“The goddess favours him and for what? I saw you first, wanted you first, but he got to have you and he didn’t even cherish you,” his tone turned bitter. “Even when I thought we could be together, when I sent you to Manz Island, the bastard still found a way to come between us.”

“You sent people to kidnap me.” There was no question there.

“As of then, I didn’t know how to convince you to be with me so I tried playing the hero who rescues you after being kidnapped. It was stupid but I was desperate and yet, that bastard beat me to it. This time, rather than anger, there was sadness in his tone. “I’m sorry I played such a dirty trick on you. Ha, you don’t know how relieved I am to apologize. It’s been eating at me.” He gave some a sad smile. “It’s just that that bastard has always had what I want so I got desperate.”

“You’re the bastard here, Aristo.” I couldn’t help but snap. I was in a precarious position but with a rising temperature coupled with anger, I wasn’t thinking straight.

“Ha, I’ve watched you turn feisty, belle. Although I preferred you docile, I love every part of you, feisty or OL“He gave me a stupid grin.

“Don’t call me that. Don’t fucking call me that!” I hissed.

“Why not you’re beautiful and I’ve earned the right to give you nicknames, love.” He stroked my hair. “Every time that bastard did you wrong, I was there for you. I’ve been there for you from day one.”

“Do you even dream you can be compared to Cahir?” sneered Chapter 100.

“I’m better than him,” he growled. “The only thing he mine. Everything he has that is mine, I will take back, 2.4K