Chapter 38: Right In The Middle

ASTRID’S POV

Ethan was down my neck. He didn’t want to leave me alone for a single second ... and yet, he hadn’t even bothered to carry his own wife to the festival.

"Hey Astrid, I know you’re going for the festival," he texted me.

"Yes, I’m going," I replied.

"We’ll be going together then. See you, love," he said.

Who the hell was his love?

He was really getting on my nerves, but I couldn’t disobey him. The one who had been responsible for my freedom now owned me. That was the sick irony of it all.

At the festival, he always wanted to be around me. If I hadn’t told him I needed to ease myself and see a few family friends with my parents, I would have been glued to his side all day and all night.

He was a clingy motherfucker.

Every little thing was an excuse for him to grope my ass ... and mostly in public. This wolf actually made me fck him in a nearby, deserted garden. What the hell!

He was a drunk, a cheat, and a stupid wolf. I had gotten so fed up with him already.

After a full day at the festival, he told me he had booked a hotel for the two of us to stay in.

"I came with my parents. I can’t ... what will I even say?"

"Say anything, Astrid. You’re mine tonight, and that is on period," Ethan said with all the audacity in the world. He didn’t even flinch. I wanted to cry. I had no freedom. Had he freed me from Bloodmoon’s prison just to lock me inside another one? I asked myself that question and had no good answer.

I ended up lying to my parents, telling them I’d be hanging out with friends.

I had spotted Selene earlier in the day, and she looked stunning. Nothing like a breeder ... more like a Luna. Maybe she really was born to rule. Her baby shower was genuinely beautiful. I found myself standing at a distance, watching from afar and quietly fantasising about what mine would look like.

Was there even going to be a mine? I didn’t think so.

I responded to my own hope with bitterness. At least my parents had seen her, and that would make them happy. So there was that.

Ethan and I lodged in a hotel in Winterwood that night.

After we went to bed, he tapped me in the middle of the night saying he wanted a quickie.

"You couldn’t say anything all night? Now is the time to sleep. I have the dance tomorrow ... I need every bit of my strength." I turned my head the other way and closed my eyes.

"It’s when I get horny that I call you, and I’m reaching my peak right now."

I didn’t answer him.

"Astrid! Astrid..."

He tried to force my underwear off, but I refused him.

Then he reached for his phone. The sneaky bastard pulled up a video ... footage of the two of us going at it in his sports car. The very sex that had bought my freedom had been taped and kept on camera.

"What?" I gasped, my breath catching in my throat. I hadn’t seen that coming. Not this soon.

"It is what it is, Astrid. So you’ll do what I say, or I do something you’ll regret. I’m immune. You’re not," he said flatly.

I stared at him, sleep still heavy in my eyes. He was a wolf who would destroy anyone for personal gain ... and he meant every word.

He pulled me toward him again, and this time I let him. I let him ride me like a rollercoaster. And I gave him the best quickie of his life that night.

He came hard, groaned like a dog, and collapsed across the bed. Within minutes, he was out cold.

Or so I thought.

I waited until I was sure, then quietly reached for his phone. I managed to unlock it and went straight to his gallery. I found the video. I deleted it.

"Even if you delete it, I still have backups everywhere," came his voice from behind me.

He hadn’t been asleep at all.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I asked quietly.

"I’m the information minister. I always have information. Besides ... I like you. That’s why I’m this drawn to you," he said.

"Can I at least live my life in peace?"

"You belong to me now. Under every circumstance, you are mine."

I walked back to the bed and lay down without another word. I had given up.

He wrapped his arms around me, his hands resting against my chest. That was how he held me until morning.

The rest of the festival was spent entirely with him. I kept giving my parents excuse after excuse to stay away.

I prayed Selene wouldn’t spot us together ... especially during one of those moments when we went to eat at the grills and he casually draped his arm across my shoulder like I was his.

"Bloodmoon people will see us," I whispered.

He whispered back without a second thought.

"I don’t care."

And he kept doing exactly what he was doing.

When our group’s time came, I danced. The routine we had been rehearsing for weeks. While I moved through every step, I could see Ethan in the crowd, cheering with that wide, shameless grin of his.

This drunk wolf really wanted to get at me.

We ended up winning an honorary medal of participation that night. But I still wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy with who I had become, or with what my life had quietly turned into without my permission.

People commit greater sins and walk away clean until their very last day. Why did mine have to be nothing but consequences? This suffering felt like too much. I thought about it for a long time.

Then I pulled myself back.

If life gives you a watermelon, you make juice. Or a stew. You make something.

Life was unpredictable, and I had been a fool to keep letting it happen to me instead of using it. Whatever I had ... whatever I’d been given, however unwillingly ... I was going to turn it into something that served me.

I was going to use Ethan to my own benefit.

The predicament was supposed to break me. I was going to let it build me instead.

The tournament wrapped up. Winners were announced. Jubilation and noise filled every corner of the grounds.

"Mom, Dad ... I want to go with my group. We’re doing a little get-together after the win tonight," I told my parents.

"Best of luck, dear," they said, glowing.

They had been the happiest people in that crowd during my performance ... and even after. The medal was the icing on the cake. They were always like that, whether I won or not. So I handed them the medal to hold for me.

In my heart, they were the real winners.

I slipped away with Ethan. His sports car still drove me crazy every single time. He had been one of the sponsors for the car race this year ... the whole thing was impressive, and so was the machine he drove.

The road stretched ahead of us. Cool music played low in the background.

Then Ethan said something that made my chest drop.

"I want to tell you something, Astrid."

"Yes? What is it?" I looked at him straight in the eye.

"I’m getting a divorce."

My chest dropped the moment those words left his mouth.

"Are ... are you for real?" I stuttered.

"Have you ever seen me joke? I’m getting a divorce," he repeated, steady as anything.

"What happened?" I placed my hand carefully on his shoulder.

"I’m just tired of my wife," he said.

I didn’t say anything after that. Everything that had happened ... all of it ... had left me completely speechless. And just like that, I found myself standing right in the middle of someone else’s marital wreckage.