Chapter 74

Harper’s POV

“I will only be with my true mate, not a substitute or a fraud. Keep that in mind before you approach me again,” Lucas growls at Sierra. His words make something in my chest ache as the mark on my neck begins to burn again.

The air in my lungs grows thin, and I lean against the wall, feeling as if he just rejected me and not another woman. That said, if he’s looking for his true mate, then he’s probably not looking for the random girl he marked while at a party.

I duck behind the wall as Lucas storms off, and I realize now might not be the best time to talk to him. He still seems to be in a terrible mood, and the last thing I want is him refusing to listen to me again.

What if he gets angry and throws me back into prison? I don’t think I could handle that right now, not with the threat of torture still hanging over my head.

Sighing, I lean against the wall to take weight off my injured leg. I tried to heal it while walking, but the lack of rest seriously drained me, and I don’t have enough energy to use my magic.

“What do we have here?”

I almost fall over when I hear Sierra’s voice from behind me. I try not to put too much weight on my leg as I turn around to face her. Her eyes sweep over me, eyeing the mud that got all over me when I fell. Then, her eyes fall on the laptop I clutch to my chest.

Without hurting my leg further, I straighten up. I remind myself that Sierra isn’t better than me. in fact, she’s worse than me. The only thing special about her is that she still has her wolf, and even that is pushing it.

“It looks like you crawled out of a dumpster,” she says then slowly waves her hand in front of her nose, “And smells like it too. I guess you found where you really belong, huh?”

I scoff and shake my head, “Sierra, you have no room to insult anyone right now after what you’ve done. You’ve put yourself on the bottom of every pile by trying to force a fake mate bond.”

She growls and darts forward, grabbing me by the collar. I don’t back down.

“Who are you to talk,” she hisses. “You’re nothing. I know you heard what Lucas just said. He only wants to be with his true mate, and newsflash, that’s not you. That pathetic little mate mark would’ve caught his attention sooner if you were true mates.”

“You’re just jealous that he chose someone else over you,” I spit, not fully believing my own words. But she doesn’t need to know that.

“Harper, do you really think he wants you? How could he? Your own father didn’t even want you.”

I bite back the anger and glare at her. I know I’m stooping to her level, but I let my filter fall away.

“At least Lucas hasn’t outright rejected me. How did it feel to be rejected after you risked your own life to get him to love you… oh wait, you couldn’t even do that correctly,” I hum, faking a smile. This only makes Sierra angrier, and she shoves me back into the wall.

The laptop slips from my hands, and I try to catch it, but Sierra holds me tightly against the wall.

“Oops,” she coos sarcastically. “It seems like you’ve been left alone, Harper. Lucas left you to rot in prison, not caring about you because you’re just a mistake from his past. And Logan? Well, he would rather chase ghosts than be with you.”

Confused, I try to think of what Sierra means. Ghosts?

“What are you rambling about?” I ask. I guess I played right into her hands because Sierra smiles and laughs.

“Logan only went after you to make me jealous,” she says, that sickly sweet smirk making me feel sick. “He betrayed you because he was rejected by me. His true mate. I didn’t want a pathetic mate like Logan, so he left the pack and found his way into some seedy dealings it seems. He returned not long before you, trying to win me back with his money and so-called power, but I’d already chosen to take Lucas as my mate.”

Disgust rolls through me as I realize what she’s saying. Sierra was awful enough to reject her fated mate just because he didn’t have money or power. Then, when he went out and illegally obtained both of those things, she still rejected him.

Is that why he turned out to be such a terrible person? Had the rejection from his mate turned him bad?

If it did, that would mean this is all Sierra’s fault.

However, if he still wanted to be with Sierra, why did Logan fake a mate bond with me? I never did anything to make him like me, as I’d never met him before I came back. The only reason I can think of would be that he was trying to make Sierra jealous, like she said, but if that’s true, he picked the wrong girl.

Sierra hates me.

My head spins with the new information. None of this information answers the most important question, though. Why would Logan accuse me of helping him do all the awful things Lucas accuses him of doing?

I can’t imagine it’s to shift the blame off himself, because he confessed. Did he just want to have someone else share his misery?

I groan and shove Sierra. My action surprises her because she actually releases me and stumbles back with a gasp of shock.

“Don’t touch me!” She hisses, wiping at her clothes. “You’re so pathetic, Harper. From start to finish, Logan and Lucas have never truly given you a sincere connection.”

“Well, then, I guess that makes two of us,” I snap, bending down and grabbing Nora’s laptop from the floor. Before Sierra can grab me again, I dart down the hallway, moving as quickly as I can with a hurt leg.

“Are you sure about this?” Nora asks, glancing behind us.

“I am. I just want to leave and go back to my peaceful life before all this drama,” I tell her, not mentioning the fact that if I stay away from Lucas for too long, the mark might start hurting me again.

If I tell her that, she won’t let me go.

“You’ll stay in contact with me, though, right?”

Nodding, I pull her into a hug and squeeze tightly. “Of course. You’re my best friend. Besides, I won’t be far. I’ll just be in the Renan District, which is close enough that you could run by and visit.”

“I know,” Nora mumbles. “I just hate that you’re in this situation again.”

“Me too. Now, I need to leave before someone catches me. You remember what I said about the laptop?” I ask again.

“Give the laptop and the notes you wrote about the puzzle codes to Lucas so he can learn that you’re innocent,” she repeats. I can tell she wants to ask me to stay again, but she doesn’t. She knows that it’s too dangerous right now, but who knows.

If Lucas can use what I found on the dark web, I might be able to come back someday.