Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates - Chapter 176

Chapter 176: 176-Forced To Be This Way

Norman:

My reflex was working hard, and normally I would have thrown or pushed her back, trying to keep the environment and our relationship clean and appropriate, but right now, she was not at fault.

And I have already manhandled her enough when thinking she was attacking me. I gently placed my hands on her back, with a very fearful and shaky body language, and carried her to put her down.

“Helanie! You don’t want this. You will hate yourself when you come to. So how about you rest,” I spoke to her calmly.

This was the first time I was able to watch her face so closely. I had seen her before, but right now, I knew she was so intoxicated that she wouldn’t remember all these details in the morning.

I just had a moment to stare at her closely.

Mom’s words resonated in my mind, and I quickly disagreed with my mother’s words when describing Helanie’s features.

Her words didn’t do justice to her beauty.

I have never seen someone so flawlessly beautiful but with such a messed-up fate. She had been through enough, and even her own mother kicked her out of her life.

She was a rogue and had been attacked to the point that she was left for dead, and today, she was drugged.

I began to wonder about her fate and her identity.

“But I–I don’t want to be alone,” she pouted, her eyebrows slanting.

I let out a deep sigh of exhaustion, worried if I left, she would run out again and get herself into trouble that no one, not a man or a woman, wants for themselves.

Even the thought of her acting this way would destroy her confidence. From the way she keeps herself and how everyone wanders around her, especially the boys, not like I haven’t noticed, I could tell Helanie was saving herself for her special mate.

So her protection was important.

“Okay, I will stay here and ask my guard to bring you some sleeping pills,” I uttered, attempting to get up, but she held my hand and stopped me from inching away from her.

“You should stay here,” she pouted and lay down while still holding my hand. I looked around awkwardly at the walls, as if someone was watching me.

But there was no one here.

“Okay!” I awkwardly replied.

I shouldn’t care too much. Call someone from the paramedics and put a guard outside her door. But she was–she was my brother’s mate. So I had to personally take care of her. My hatred for her mother aside, I was seeing change in their behavior.

She seemed different from her mother, but who knows what she is hiding beneath the beautiful face of hers.

My eyes drifted to her as she moaned in the bed, probably from the heat in her body, and I quickly looked away.

“You know, you are so heartless,” she uttered, almost like whining.

“Why would you say that?” I inquired in a low murmur, kind of intrigued to know her thoughts about me.

“Because you don’t care about anyone,” she added. Her eyelashes were long and curled up, and it was crazy that she didn’t seem to be wearing any makeup.

“That is not true. I care about my brothers a lot,” I corrected her, and she shook her head.

“You only care about your rules. You want to control them, or maybe show them that they can rely on you,” she continued to misread me.

“Is that how I come across?” As I asked, she sat up to face me. It was quite intriguing to see a she-wolf resisting for so much. Like I said, she would be throwing herself at me and screaming if she didn’t get what she wanted in the moment. But she was holding it back to the point that she was sounding more drunk than aroused.

Or was it because of her inactive wolf?

Could be.

“You do,” she voiced softly.

“You are hiding secrets in your heart,” she continued to shock me with her observation. “It is okay to share it with someone sometimes. You won’t get hurt.”

“Do you believe in sharing secrets?” I asked in much anticipation, and she shook her head very steadily, like a mischievous puppy.

“No! Two can only keep a secret if one is dead,” her voice had turned into an even softer whisper now.

“Then why are you asking me to share my secrets with someone?” I inquired, raising my brow at her.

“Because I don’t like you and I want to give you bad advice,” the minute she said that with the most genuine pout on her lips, I felt life run through my body, and a loud laughter escaped my lips.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her trying to be evil when on FOL, when people are horny instead.

“This is crazy. You are laughing!”

The sudden waking of my wolf changed my mood instantly. I stopped laughing at once.

“What happened? Is my joke not funny anymore?” she inquired, watching my face with so much intent.

I gave her a gentle headshake and added, “I guess this is the loudest I have laughed in so many years.”

“Oh no! I wanted to hurt you,” she pouted again, making me smile at her. I have never sat down like this with any woman and spoken so many words about basically nothing.

So this is how a meaningless talk sounds like? But it’s not too bad?

My words are always calculated; I don’t speak when my words are not directed toward a cause. But today, as the sun was going down, I sat with this girl that I hated so much and had the best talk ever about literally nothing.

“Why do you dislike me so much?” I asked her, tilting my head tiredly at her.

“Because you dislike me,” she attacked back.

“I don’t have a choice, Helanie, but you have. I am not born to like anyone,” something deep within me started to shake as I said those words. It was so hard to open up and not feel the same pain in my chest that I felt when my mother clung her claws into my chest, grabbed my heart in her fist, and muttered to me,

“Your life is mine.”