Chapter 18
Jasmine's POV
Looking away from my phone after I read the message, I saw that Hardin's glare was on me, his expression tortured as if he was expecting me to defend myself or argue with his horrid accusations.
He looked like he had been expecting a verbal response from me after he had all but called me and my mother names and informed us that he had reported to his aunt.
Well, I guessed he really hated us that much and before today, I knew that I would have responded immediately, but now that I felt some sort of empathy towards what he might be going through and the changes that he had no choice but to accept immediately, my desire to argue with him had waned considerably.
My phone buzzed again and when I saw that it was my mother, I picked it up and answered, still keeping my eyes trained on Hardin's whose face had hardened.
I knew that with his supernatural hearing, he would hear everything that the other person on the other end of the
phone was saying with premium ease and it made me envy him even more for being able to shift into a wolf at will and be blessed with everything that came with the supernatural.
I had nothing. Except for the claws, my senses were pretty much ordinary and nothing was heightened. I was a human with claws.
"Hey, where are you? School closed a while ago? Are you okay?"
I looked back at Hardin who was waiting patiently for me to answer.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'll be home soon."
"Okay, did you get my message? And have you been able to find Hardin? His dad has been trying to reach him but his phone is turned off."
I looked at Hardin and mouthed if I could say yes. Surprisingly, he agreed.
"Yeah, I've found him. And yeah I saw your message."
Apparently, there was a guest at home. A very important guest and I could hear the nervousness in my mother's voice.
It intrigued me because my mum was hardly ever rattled about anything.
Looking at Hardin to see that he had finished eating, I reached for the lunchbox to pack it up, flinching when our hands brushed and refusing to look up at him because I was scared that he would catch me staring at his lips and say something completely lewd and uncouth.
"I'm done. Come on, let's go" I said when I was done packing and Hardin raised his brow, probably about to say something about him being the one to give the orders but I was surprised when he held himself back and rose to his feet, towering over me.
We walked in tense silence back to the house and when we entered the living room, I saw my mother sitting with a woman, her posture stiff while the woman spoke to her about something.
The first thing I noticed was that the guest had strawberry blonde hair that stopped at her shoulders.
"Oh, there they are." My mother said, rising to her feet when she saw Hardin and I, her smile forced and uncomfortable. I was about to walk up to her and ask what was going on, when the woman she was speaking to, finally turned around and rose to her feet.
My mouth fell open in shock at first because I had seen this woman before. Anyone that was in this pack knew Lily Morales, Hardin's mother plus I had seen some of her pictures around the house and the person standing in front of me was a spitting image of her.
The same blue eyes that Hardin had, but her strawberry blonde hair was cropped short whereas she used to wear it longer.
I looked at my mother for an explanation and when she looked at Hardin, I turned to look at him and saw that he was not surprised at all.
The woman smiled widely as she took in my perplexed state and took a step forward.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I look like Hardin's mother. I'm Lily's twin sister, Lisa and Hardin's aunt. You should have seen your mother's face when I walked in. She thought I had come from the dead to take back my husband." She laughed and then covered her mouth with one hand.
"Oh, pardon me. Did I say my husband? I meant Lily's husband. It is a pleasure to be here." Looking towards Hardin, she opened her arms.
"Come now, my darling nephew, will you not give me a hug? I haven't seen you since the funeral." Her lips were tilted in a smirk even though the mention of the word funeral made Hardin's face turn pale.
Slowly, Hardin walked into her embrace, bending to reach her height so that she could pat his back and when I looked at my mother, I saw that she was not looking so comfortable at all.
Judging from the way she was looking at Lisa, I had no doubts that she was the cause, especially because of the way she looked at me when I had first entered. And her words? They were insincere. As if she truly enjoyed making a joke of the situation.
It was one thing when Hardin had told me that he had told his aunt about us, which I understood to mean he had said nothing good about us, but now that I looked at the boxes that she had brought that were being taken upstairs by the servants, I wondered if she was going to be staying for a while and what her intentions were.
Releasing Hardin, she opened her hand for me to give her a hand shake and after I did, stiffly, she turned to my mother with a smile.
"I'll be heading to my room to quickly shower and change, so that I can join you to prepare for dinner. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, no, not at all. You can take your time. The maids will assist me."
"And I will too." I said immediately, finally getting a genuine smile from my mother since I entered the house.
"Alright then. See you at dinner."
Hardin was the first to join us downstairs, his hair damp like he had just taken a shower and when my eyes involuntarily moved to his lips, I was lost in it for a while. He caught me staring, then narrowed his eyes at me. Having no other option, I looked away immediately, fighting the urge to bite my mouth.
Slipping her hand through Hardin's arm, she asked him to show her to her room and Hardin gave me one last glance before heading upstairs.
"I'm going to drop my bag and be right down." I told my mother and she nodded before heading to the kitchen.
But as I changed into more comfortable clothes, I wondered what kind of person Lisa was and if I was quick to misjudge her. If she hadn't heard anything good from her nephew about us, it was obvious that she would treat us badly but she had yet to say anything directly offensive. Yet. I didn't know what she had said to my mother to make her look very dejected but I was going to find out.
My mother, on the other hand, refused to say anything when I finally joined her in the kitchen and said she was fine. So we prepared the table in silence.
Russo came down next. He had come in sometime around dinner and had come to say 'hi' to my mother before heading upstairs to shower and change. Walking up to my mum, he kissed her gently and I looked away, my mind going back to how Hardin had kissed me in the forest.
"Hello, Hardin. I tried to reach you." He said as he sat down, but Hardin merely nodded and continued looking down at his phone.
My mother was about to send a maid to call Lisa when she appeared, dressed like she was attending a ball.
The red long sleeved dress she wore exposed her cleavage and left nothing to the imagination.
She swayed as she walked towards us, her face layered with make up that was quite different from the one she had on when I met her in the afternoon.
Russo rose to his feet.
"I did not want to disturb you when I got back this evening. I didn't know you were coming. It was thanks to my wife who texted me as soon as you arrived. I would have sent someone to pick you at the airport." His tone was accusing, especially because he looked in Hardin's direction and I realized that he hadn't told his father about his aunt coming. I had thought that Russo knew because they had been arguing about Hardin talking to his aunt about us but I guessed even him did not anticipate Lisa flying down here afterwards.
When Lisa reached where Russo was standing, she pulled him in for a hug gently and kissed his cheeks before she pulled back and smiled, brushing his shoulders.
"It would have ruined the surprise. You should have seen your wife's face when I walked in. Karen, isn't it? That's your name, right?" She said as she looked at my mother whose face had hardened.
"It's Camila, Lisa. And please sit." Russo answered, right before I wanted to, giving my mother an apologetic look.
Lisa covered her mouth with her hand and smiled cheekily at my mother before she sat down.
"Oh, my bad. I'm not really good with names. Shall we begin this dinner then? I'm starving."