CHAPTER 20 – DECEPTION

CHAPTER 20 – DECEPTION
Nathan P.O.V.

I’m having the best night of my life. Finally, I have her again in my arms; we are enjoying each other’s company, and all her smiles shine just for me, as it should have been since the very beginning.
My wolf is wagging his tail in my head, happy like he’s never been before, until someone clears his throat and breaks our perfect bubble.
“Do you mind?”
I turn my hard gaze on that dick, ready to tell him to go fuck himself, when Sloane squeezes my left hand, the one that is still threaded in hers, and with those gorgeous sapphire eyes tells me not to cause a scene.
Fuck! Is she for real? 
Is she seriously asking me to step back just to keep up this farce of the perfect couple with this dickhead? 
My world slowly comes crashing down; she was good with her words, telling me she wanted us to be officially mated, that she wasn’t afraid of what other people would think. But those were all empty words. The truth is right in front of my eyes: she’s casting me aside for an Alpha, in front of everyone, it doesn’t matter that he tried to rape her, that he’s a bastard of the worst kind, she still chose him over me.
Well, they can both go fuck themselves. I’m done. 
I turn around and stride towards the bar, immediately downing in a row three glasses of hard liquor, trying to lessen somehow the rage that is trying to consume me.
“Are you alright?” Evelyn’s concerned voice breaks through my foggy mind, like an anchor trying to steady me at the dock.
“No, but I will be.” I don’t explain further, I haul her on my lap, while I’m seated on the bar stool, I cup her face in my hands and kiss her deeply, trying desperately to find even an inch of the I felt while having Sloane in my arms. Why can’t Evelyn be my mate? Things would be so much easier.
“Woah, Nathan, take it easy, it’s not appropriate here in this crowd,” Evelyn whisper yells when I release her lips, although I can see she’s enjoyed it, her cheeks now showing a deep red blush.
“I don’t care,” I reply squeezing her ass for good measure, and taking her lips again in another hungry kiss. She moans in my mouth, and I wish I could feel any kind of pleasure, usually her whimpers would turn me on, but kissing Sloane has ruined any other woman for me, and even if I shouldn’t, I resent her for it. She trucked me into wanting her, and now that she’s succeeded, she’s thrown me away for a fucking Alpha.
“Let’s dance,” Evelyn suggests jumping off my lap and hauling me off the stool, before I can kiss her inappropriately, as she put it, again.
My eyes scan the dance floor, and I notice that Sloane and Axel have stopped dancing and have joined other Alphas at the bar to chit chat. Axel’s arm is glued to Sloane’s waist, and she doesn’t make a move to disengage him. Good, have it your way, keep up the act, no one can deny she’s a good actress.
We start dancing; I catch Sloane stealing glimpses of me now and then, a hurt expression on her face, I’m not sure if it is out of guilt or out of jealousy, I honestly don’t care, she deserves to feel that way.
 As the evening goes on, I see a change in Sloane’s behavior; not that I am watching her on purpose, my eyes just happen to land there involuntarily.
At first, I thought she saw me kissing Evelyn and was trying to make it even with me, but after a while it became clear that she was not herself.
Once I saw her draping her arm around Axel’s waist and leaning into his side, with her head resting onto his arm, next she’s gone on her tiptoes and is placing kisses on Axel’s neck, while giggling like a schoolgirl being naughty, the last straw is Sloane kissing Axel passionately in front of everyone, her naked toned leg draped sexily on his hip, while he holds her firmly, a hand on her thigh and the other on her ass.
Some of the golden couple admirers are hooting and goading them on, unaware that something here is very wrong.
Although Sloane was incredibly hot and eager when we kissed, it was in private and I am her mate, I don’t really see her going around shagging people in public, it’s just not her. And especially Axel, who I know for a fact she despises.
The only possibility is that that son of bitch has again spiked her drink with some aphrodisiac drug, something like the one I have found in that farmhouse, which Daniel then confirmed being a sex drug.
Talking about Daniel, where the fuck is he? Why isn’t he keeping an eye on her? I don’t even recall seeing him at the ball, maybe he hasn’t come. What a fucking lousy Beta she has! For fuck’s sake, Sloane, why are you always putting yourself in these dangerous situations?
And here I am, angry again, at her for being so hopelessly naif and easy to prey on, at me for letting all this happen right under my nose. Fuck!
I watch Axel drag a giggling Sloane out of the ballroom, she can’t even walk straight, and her face is stained by a red blush, which would look incredibly enticing if I didn’t know what has caused it.
Apprehension takes the place of my anger, and before I know it, I’m dragging Evelyn out of the ballroom with me, while I’m trying to think of a plan to save that beautiful naif idiot of a mate.
“Where are we going?” Evelyn asks urgently, while trying not to stumble on her vertiginous heels.
By the expression on my face, and my menacing aura, she knows without me saying anything that I’m not taking her on a romantic escapade.
Not wanting to be overheard by others, I reply through the mind-link.
N: Axel has given Sloane some kind of aphrodisiac. He’s planning to rape her. I need to stop him.
She frowns at my words.
E: Why you? I mean, you are friends, but shouldn’t someone from her pack take care of it? Like her Beta, Gamma or someone for them? 
N: She’s my fated mate.
Evelyn stops in her tracks, looking at me with wide eyes, like I’ve grown three heads, or maybe checking if I’m joking.
E: Sloane is your fated mate! And all this time you didn’t say anything. Now a lot of things make sense. But why aren’t you two together? 
She asks curiously, as we resume walking.
N: It’s complicated.    
E: What’s so complicated? I like you, you like me, let’s make cute babies together. It’s as easy as that.
I want to laugh at her antics, but I’m too tense for that, and we need to focus on the mission at hand, not on the hardships of my relationship with Sloane.
N: We’ll talk about this later. Now I need your help with something. I need you to take out the two guards stationed outside the packhouse’s north perimeter. Do you think you can do it?
E: Done thing. You know I kick assess better than anyone in this pack. 
She winks, and I can’t not appreciate her boasting and easygoing personality. She’s always been a loyal and good friend to me, and I’m incredibly grateful for her unquestioned help.
I take the stairs which take to the second floor, while Evelyn continues to the side door which leads to the garden.
N: Be careful.
E: You, too.
 I silently sneak on the second floor’s main corridor, popping out just a few steps behind Sloane and Axel. As expected, he’s taking her to his room, disgusting prick.
Before he can feel my presence, I run the small distance between us, and karate chop him at the base of his neck, between his left and right collar bone. I put a lot of momentum in his blow, knowing that if I couldn’t manage to knock him out on the first hit, I would have lost my chance.
Axel faints to the floor, and I support Sloane making her lean on me, before she could join Axel in a heap on the floor.
Her body feels incredibly hot to the touch, like she has a fever, and even if her eyes are closed, she’s starting to react to my scent, her hands wandering all over my chest and shoulders, while her tongue darts out to lick my neck.
“You taste delicious,” she says lewdly, making me immediately hard. Fuck.
As much as I want to take her right here, I can’t, for thousands of reasons, the main one being Axel’s going to wake up soon, and when he does, we need to be as far away from here as possible, so that he can’t find us.