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Tamed by Her Alpha Stepbrother
3: Her Stepbrother
3: Her Stepbrother1835words
Update Time2024-10-15 08:32:47
HARPER
"Mom, are you sure this is the right place?"
I just had to ask because my jaws had been on the floor since we drove into this mansion. No, my jaws have been on the floor since Mom gave me a pink gown that I'm sure could feed us for three years and ordered me to put it on without asking any questions, and that sleek limousine had picked us up. I thought looking at it from outside was expensive but the minute I stepped in, the coolness, the luxness, the air and smell and all.

If I hadn't been so awed by how expensive and pretty everything looked, I was sure I'd have definitely fallen asleep because the seats were the most comfortable ones I've ever sat on.
And as if that wasn't enough, the driver had driven us into this expensive-looking mansion that looked like something straight out of a fairytale and I wasn't so sure if this was real anymore.
"Of course, darling, we're in the right place."
Wow. I tried to hold my questions in, to control myself as we got down from the car and we walked into the grandest place I've ever been in my whole life.
Words would never be enough to describe the beauty of this place, the white walls, the huge chandeliers, the artwork, the bifurcated stairs it felt like I'd stumbled into a palace from the Victorian Era.
And did I mention that a maid had welcomed us at the door and she was the one leading us to where I assumed the dinner would take place?

"Ohh, there you are, my lovely Maria, hope you had a pleasant trip down here," that masculine voice that commanded so much power and authority and could only belong to an alpha said and I felt my body shiver slightly.
It sounded so familiar as if I had heard it before and before I could catch a glimpse of his face, he pulled Mom into a hug and the position shielded his face away from me.
"We sure did, thank you for sending over that lovely ride."
"Anything for you, Maria."

"Now, meet my daughter, Harper Wright," they both turned to me, "Harper, my fiancé and your stepfather-to-be."
I forgot how to be, to breathe, to do anything. I just stood like, like a statute, petrified out of my own mind because standing in front of me was Alpha Hawthorne.
The man Mom just introduced as her fiancé, as the man she was going to marry was the Alpha King, Alpha Hawthorne. I know him because I've seen him countless times in the news and I've also seen him in school when he attends public programs because he's the chairman of the school.
And because he's the father to the asshole that nearly killed me just two days ago, the one that had made my life at Empire High a living hell.
He was the father to Kingsley Hawthorne and that meant Kingsley is my stepbrother-to-be.
I started feeling the telltale signs of an impending anxiety attack. This has to be some sort of lie, a cruel joke by the universe and the Moon Goddess. This can't be possible.
This can't...
"Harper?" Mom probed me slightly with her elbow and that jolted me back to reality where Alpha Hawthorne was staring at me expectantly.
"Ohh, I'm really sorry. I'm just... I'm just really taken aback. I had no idea the boyfriend Mom has been sneaking around with is the Alpha King."
They both laughed at my humor attempt and Alpha Hawthorne started saying something else when a movement on the stairs caught my attention. Someone was descending down the stairs and because I had spent the last few years accustomed to his presence, I could tell his scent apart even in the midst of thousands of people.
But still, I was desperately hoping that this was all wrong. That this was a dream, a nightmare, one that I'd wake up from but the second he finished climbing the stairs and I came face to face with Kingsley Hawthorne, I knew this nightmare was my new reality.
I struggled to get through the dinner. I could barely eat a thing even though the food was the tastiest I've ever eaten but how could I even get the food down when Kingsley was sitting right opposite me, glaring at me and looking at me with an unreadable expression?
God! It felt so suffocating that I've been counting down to the end till we started eating but it looked like it wasn't going to end anytime soon.
"Maria told me you attend Empire High too?"
"Yes sir," my voice sounded scratchy from being unable to swallow properly since dinner started.
"And she told me you're on a scholarship as the most brilliant student ever in the school."
"Yes," I replied, expecting to feel the gloating feeling that I always feel whenever I was being praised but I felt nothing, all I felt was a deep emptiness and a bizarre feeling of doom.
Kingsley Hawthorne had a poisonous scorpion bit me just two days ago and now, he was going to be my stepbrother.
In what universe was that even supposed to be possible?
"Good!" The gloat I couldn't feel was full in his voice, "I'm sure you'd have a positive impact on my son, your new stepbrother. The certainty that he's going to take over the throne one day has made him so relaxed and nonchalant in his studies."
I nodded and barely managed to say yes while King said nothing. He has been quiet since dinner started. He has barely replied when the introductions were made and has solely focused on his food and making me uncomfortable throughout dinner.
"I'm sure they'd make a fantastic pair as siblings," Mom added and I felt the food I managed to swallow rush back to my throat.
Make a fantastic pair? This was the person that nearly made me lose my ife and the only thing that was going to happen from now on was for him to completely make my life a living hell or probably kill me while at it.
I've also been thinking, at the back of my mind that I'd find a way to talk Mom out of this engagement but throughout the dinner, I noticed that she was irrevocably in love with Alpha Hawthorne. I've never seen her smile that wildly at anyone since Dad died, I've never seen her come this alive and I knew it'd be bad of me to try to take this away from her over a silly High School drama.
Except it wasn't just a silly drama.
After dinner, Alpha Hawthorne said the words that sent me straight to hell.
"Kingsley, why don't you show your sister around the house? I have something to discuss with Maria."
And before I could even say I was okay and didn't need anyone showing me around, they were already gone, leaving me alone with Kingsley.
The air in the room dimmed and it suddenly became a herculean task to breathe. I was acutely aware of everything of him dressed in a casual pair of black joggers and black tee, of the unreadable expression on his face, of the deadly venom that runs in his veins instead of blood.
I've never been scared of Kingsley but after he actually dumped a deadly scorpion on me, I was starting to become really scared of him that I couldn't even think of writing another article to bring him down.
Going against him was fighting a losing battle and I wondered why it took me this long to realize that.
"You don't... you don't have to show me around."
He looked at me, his eyes briefly scanning my entire body and my body tingled from his perusal when his eyes moved past my slightly exposed cleavage before he looked at me in the eyes again.
"Follow me," he commanded harshly, and even though, I had every intention of ignoring him, my feet developed a mind of their own at his harsh command and they hurried after him.
He showed me the rooms, the other sitting rooms, the private screening room, the indoor swimming pool, the flower house, and all. I tried to get lost in the grandeur that he was showing him but I couldn't, not when he was breathing so close to me, not when we were moving further and further away from the main house and getting to where it was so quiet I could hear the frantic thump of my erratic heart.
"I think we should go back now," I just had to tell when we got to that part of the house that was so quiet and it was at the topmost floor and I was starting to get scared of what he could do to me here.
"Really?" He turned to me for the first time since the mini-tour started and the pure malice and hatred brimming in his eyes made me stagger.
He had been putting a close lid on his anger since dinner started and now, they were practically coming out in fumes, in ugly waves, making him look like Lucifer's incarnate.
"You want us to go back now? Are you not interested in seeing the whole of the property your mother is digging her fangs into?"
I felt insulted at the time he used to describe my mom but before I could even air my displeasure, he already started walking towards me in close, calculated, and predatory steps and I found myself moving back, to get away from him.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, shut it, Harper," he was so angry, so angry, I'd never seen him this angry and I didn't understand why the anger was directed at me.
"Isn't it obvious, that your mother, a lowly omega, an inferior being is trying to get married to the Alpha King? Isn't it obvious what she's trying to do? That she's trying to whore her way to the top of the ladder."
"Stop it, Kingsley, I won't have you insult my mother because..." my words trailed off into a yelp when my lower back collided with something cold and my upper body swayed as it collided with thin air.
I looked back and dread and anxiety crawled at my chest. My back was to the railing and a single tip would have me falling from the 4th floor to the ground floor.
I looked back at Kingsley who was now standing so close to me. He looked behind me and on seeing the state I was in, a pure sadistic and venomous grin touched the corners of his lips.
My heart splintered because a push or pull from him would determine whether I leave here on my two legs or in a body bag.
And from the maniacal look in his eyes, I kind of knew what he'd go for.