Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother

Chapter 71

Jasmine

I was hit with a very strong headache as I opened my eyes and found myself in a place that I could not recognize.

Where was I?

What had happened?

And then as if thinking about them suddenly made all the memories come back, I was flooded with so many memories. The ball that had been in full swing to help Hardin find his mate, running into the woods and…

And what happened after that? Why was I in this dark room that smelled like dust and soot?

I could not remember and just thinking about that made me begin to panic in earnest because what could have happened while I was unconscious? And my baby? Was my baby alright?

I tried to reach for my stomach and that was when I realized that my hands were tied behind my back. I was wearing a dress that for the life of me, I knew was not mine and had a scent that I did not recognize and it made me wonder what was going on.

Where was my mother? Where was Russo? And even though the mere thought of him caused me immense heartache, what about Hardin?

The door to the dark room suddenly creaked and when it opened, a maidservant entered, surprised that I was awake before she composed herself and dropped a tray of what smelled like food on the floor close to me.

“Please, where am I? Can you please tell me where this is?” I asked and she paused, her face filled with contemplation before she turned around and quickly left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Well then.

Without a doubt, I was nowhere close to home. I must have been kidnapped. But by who and for what? I had the shittiest luck.

I didn’t know how long it was but the door creaked open again and I was ready to try another tactic to beg the maid to let me go when the person behind the door entered and closed the door behind him.

My mouth fell open in shock.

“Lorenzo? What is going on here?”This is from NôvelDrama.Org.

What did Lorenzo have to do with any of this? Sure, he had been hounding me to sleep with him as payment for the deal that we struck but kidnapping me? Why?

If he was truly behind this, then did that mean that all this while he had only been pretending to be a good person?

“Hello, Jasmine.” He said and as he tried to close the distance between us, I shifted back from him and when he dragged out a chair to sit in front of me, I kept moving back until my back was against the wall.

“Answer me, Lorenzo. What the fuck is this? Why are my hands tied? What do you want?” I yelled and he shook his head, his face calm and gentle, like it usually was but this time, nothing about his calm nature made me feel safe or even relaxed. It made me feel on edge and anxious.

“Please be calm, Jasmine. Struggling will only cause you to bruise yourself and you don’t need to be afraid. The last thing that I want to do is hurt you, you of all people know this.”

“Then what am I doing here and why am I tied up like an animal? Release me and take me back home at this instant.”

He raised his eyebrows at that.

“You want to go back home to Hardin? Really, Jasmine? After everything he has done to make your life a living hell? I do not know the extent of what has been going on between you and him but he is not worthy to even speak to you. He does not deserve you. He has been nothing but an asshole to you and you and I know that he will not stop even if you go back today, am I right? He probably does not even care that you are not there right now and someone else will already be warming his bed.”

Warming his bed? Did Lorenzo also know that I and Hardin had sex several times, or had Hardin let it out and made me a laughing stick?

I remembered how Hardin had nonchalantly called me a whore when he found out that I was pregnant and how he had proceeded to go on with the ball as if what we had was nothing. Well, what we had was actually nothing. It had never been anything in the first place. I was the one that had somehow gone and grown soft despite everything he had done to me. I was the one that was delusional about Hardin and had a little part of me hoping that he was not just an asshole. That he was more than that.

Foolish. I was so foolish and of course delusional.

This pregnancy had made me believe that it would change how he acted towards me. I had seen that he was capable of kindness and that he was more than an angry misunderstood wolf, but Lorenzo’s words gutted me and at the same time, it triggered the rest of the memories that were missing.

I remembered leaving and running into the woods with nothing but pathetic thoughts on how to escape the reality that was my life. Yes, I had felt so low that I was ready to hurt myself. That must have somehow triggered my wolf because one moment I was feeling suicidal and the next, it felt like there was something inside me that was struggling to get out. I remembered the crunching of bone against bone, the exhilarating feeling of power and shifting into my wolf.

And then I remembered the most important piece of the puzzle. My wolf had called out to our mate and Hardin had appeared. Hardin was my mate.

“Look at how sad you look. That is what happens to anyone that associates with Hardin. He takes everything that he touches and he ruins it. Look at the way he has been ruining you, Jasmine. Tell me that your life would not have been better without him in it.” Lorenzo said and when I looked up at him, he left where he was sitting to gently kneel in front of me.

“Hardin does not even deserve to lick your feet, Jasmine. He deserves everything bad in the world. And I can make sure that he will suffer for everything that he has done to you, if you will allow me. All I need you to know now is that I have you by my side. I can take care of you.” He was saying all of the words that made sense. He was saying words that I had imagined Hardin would say when he heard that I was pregnant, but I felt nothing.

It would not and did not change the fact that Hardin was my mate. This changed a whole lot of things. Yes, he was an asshole that hurt me and he was mean and rude and was fucking other people. Yes, he deserved a whole lot of curses but right now, I was so tired of it all and now Hardin was my mate.

I did not even know how to feel about that. I did not know if I wanted to cry in relief that my child’s father was my mate or curse the gods for this pairing that had caused me so much humiliation and pain even though I knew that I had feelings for Hardin. I did not know what was going to happen going forward, but I was certain of one thing. The decision was mine. Lorenzo was trying his best to paint Hardin as a bastard and while I did not disagree with him, he was no saint either.

He had pretended to be a hero and my friend, but I feared he was not that. He had tried to blackmail me with sex, kidnapped me, tied me up like a common animal and was still thinking that he was better than Hardin.

“If this is about your baby, then I promise that no harm will come to the child while you are here, Jasmine, because like I said, I would never hurt you. But you have to tell me who is responsible, sweetheart. Who is the father of your child, love?”

His voice brought me out of my thoughts again and when I looked at him, he waited expectantly for my answer.

Well, fuck it. There was nothing to hide anymore, was there any?

“My child is Hardin’s, Lorenzo. Hardin is the father of my baby.”

The smile on his face disappeared as quickly as it came and he stared at me in horror, about to say something when a servant rushed into the room, his face filled with panic.

Still dumbfounded, Lorenzo turned to look at him, as did I.

“What is it?” He growled.

“There is an intruder in the mansion!”