River snapped her eyes wide when Rosalie said that Hunter was the older man who Natalie was seeing.
It took a moment for her to soak those words in. She felt nothing but a rising sense of dread.
Rosalie, on the other hand, looked nervous, as if she had touched a nest of wasps. “Luna River,” she said in a low cautious voice. “I didn’t want to tell this small detail to you, but after a month of careful contemplation, I mustered the courage to tell it to you. This was a secret between Natalie and me. She asked me not to mention it to anyone because she was waiting for Alpha Hunter to reject you. But…” she drawled. “He never rejected you and-”
“Rosalie!” River cut her off. “Don’t tell lies about my husband!” she retorted. “He is my mate and I don’t believe in you that he was seeing Natalie. I know you very well!” River got up, panting in anger. “You just want to create problems in my life. And your behavior has been like that since the day we met!”
“Luna River, you misunderstand me!” Rosalie said with nervousness. “I only want to state facts so that Alpha Hunter gets a direction for his investigation.”
“And how will Hunter get a direction if you tell me that he was the older man who was seeing her?” River spat. “I know your conniving nature, Rosalie. With your accusation, Hunter will only be the center of the investigation!” She crossed her arms to contain the fury in her chest that was threatening to rise and ****her on spot. “But you forget that Hunter is the Alpha of the pack. If he wants, he can have a harem and still no one would be able to speak a word against him. Why will he keep his affairs a secret? But you-” she pointed her finger sharply at her.
“But this is the truth!” Rosalie cried.
“You are spouting nothing but trouble. You dare to point your fingers at Hunter in front of me so that you can plant seeds of doubt in my mind? Well, then let me tell you one this Lady Rosalie-” River paused, sneering at her. “No one can do that. Hunter is my mate and I have implicit trust in him. So you can go and ****yourself!” She turned around to leave but she stopped, looked over her shoulder and said, “Get out of this castle and don’t think of stepping inside even once. If I hear this from anyone else, I will assume that it is you who has started the rumor. And then I will punish you. Severely!” Saying that River left the main hall and strode to her bedroom. She didn’t even wait to see Rosalie’s reaction, as fury bubbled inside her like a live volcano.
*Luna River?” Faria said as soon as River came into the room. “You look flushed. Are you feeling well?” She turned to see if River was being followed by Rosalie, but there was no one. “I told you to be wary of that snake.”
River huffed and then sat down on the chair at the writing table next to the window. “I ***that woman!” she said, wondering when someone elicited such a strong reaction from her. She disliked the moment Rosalie mentioned Hunter’s name and she loathed it when Rosalie tried to drag his name into the crime.
“Everyone at the castle ***her, Luna,” Faria said, giving her a glass of water. She is a critter, a ***, a lowly ****who was obsessed with Alpha Hunter’s position and wealth and nothing else!”
River pursed her lips and looked outside the window. It was early in the morning and the gardeners were trimming the rose ramblers or the golden hedges of the main garden. Although she had scolded Rosalie, her mind was restless. Was Hunter really seeing Natalie? She shook her head. It couldn’t be possible. Hunter loved her way too much. He was her mate and he had proved himself all the time that
he had eyes for her only. She had seen how other Alphas of the werewolf packs were into having two or three more women as lovers apart from their wives. It was said that the Alphas had a strong sexual drive and often their wives were not able to match it.
“Would you like to eat anything?” Faria asked, seeing how disturbed River was. “Or how about taking a stroll in the garden?”
“Yes!” River said. “I will walk in the garden.”
On her way to the garden, she walked across Mia’s room. She wished that Mia was there in her room and not gone to the school because she really wanted to talk it out with someone close and Mia was the perfect person. She sighed as she walked past her room, missing her presence for the first time in her life. Suddenly, she heard soft sobs coming from inside her room
Uneasiness knotted in her chest. Slowly, she walked towards Mia’s room hoping that she was imagining. But the sound of sobs was now louder. Shocked, River knocked the room. No one answered her and the sobs stopped. “Mia?” River called her. There was no response. “Mia?” she called her in a louder voice.
When there was no response again, she barged open the door. When she entered the room, she was stunned. Mia was still on the bed, dressed in her school dress and she was crying with her face buried in the pillow, “Mia!” River rushed to her sister-in-law.
Mia turned her face to look at River, and River’s heart squeezed. Her cheeks were stained with tears, her eyes were red and her lips were swollen. River went to sit by her side. Mia got up and hugged her tightly. She buried her face in River’s neck and started crying loudly. River stroked her back gently to soothe her. “What is wrong, Mia?” she asked.
“I can’t go to school!” she cried.
“Why? Did anyone say anything to you?”
“No, but everyone is behaving weirdly with me.”
River’s heart beat wildly. In a very low voice she asked, “Why?”
“There’s a terrible rumor going on over there.”
River stopped stroking her, trying to embrace herself from what was coming. “What rumor?”
Mia removed herself from River. “River, it’s just a rumor and so you should treat it like that.”
“What rumor?” River repeated her question.
Mia lowered her head as her shoulders wracked. “The rumor is that the older man who Natalie was seeing was Hunter” River clenched her jaw. So Rosalie had already started the rumor.
