Chapter 20 Rosewood

[Stephanie's POV]

If I nodded, I annoyed Arthur. If I denied, I had a thing with Arthur. What a bitchy bitch!

I was affected by Arthur's anger because of our mate bond. Believe me, if we were standing in a public area between the two packs, either Arthur or I would definitely shift and beat the bitch couple up.

"First of all, boy, I am 49 now, not 50. Don't you think it's very stupid to judge a wolf's ability by its age? Second, no one can predict the arrangement of the moon god." Arthur managed to control his anger, only he spoke in a lower tone. I could sense that he was warning Carl not to challenge his temper again.

"Third," Arthur turned to Freya, "you, as an omega, command your future alpha not to be aggressive. Who gave you the right to do that?" His back was straight, and his voice was full of majesty.

"I'm so sorry. Your Majesty." Freya's face was pale, and her voice was faltering as she apologized to Arthur. Her shoulders seemed to be shaking. She chose to hide behind Carl, who couldn't help but take a step backward as well.

I sighed in my heart. Was this the power and aura of Alpha King? If he had just said those words to me, I would have felt scared too, wouldn't I? But now, I didn't have the feeling of fear. Maybe it was because I had become stronger after I shifted.

"That's enough. Carl, Arthur, it was a misunderstanding. Let's just forget it! By the way, why did you and Freya come to our territory so early? You have something for me?" I deliberately asked Carl the intention of coming here.

"It's your birthday, babe. We're here to give you a birthday surprise, of course." Carl's serious expression eased. He turned to me with a smile and touched his left hand to his trouser pocket. He pretended not to feel the gift for me and then looked down into his other pocket.

"Shit, he's going to kill us with that fucking dagger! Steph, I'm going to come out and bite them!" Rose screamed inside my head.

I didn't want Carl and Freya to find out that I had shifted. However, my desire to defend myself prompted Rose to ask me to let her out to protect us. I ground my teeth and tried to calm Rose down. This was the first time I realized I might not be able to control my wolf.

"Oh, it's your 17th birthday, and you have a year before you can shift." Arthur's reminder rang in my ears. He had probably sensed that I was losing control of Rose, and he patted me on the shoulder." Happy birthday, Steph."

Yes, there was no way Carl and Freya could obtain the weapons to kill me now. The smell of fir lingering in my nose helped calm Rose and me. Rose even asked me to jump into Arthur's arms. I ignored her dangerous request.

Carl glared at Arthur and pulled me in front of him, pulling a small velvet cloth bag from his pocket. Thank goodness the birthday surprise really wasn't a dagger.

"Steph, I went to a human jewelry store for a few days to pick out this emerald necklace. My princess will definitely look better in it." Carl took out a beautiful butterfly-shaped necklace from the velvet pouch.

The butterfly's silvery wings were each inlaid with an emerald. The expression on his face as he spoke revealed confidence. It was as if he was sure I would like the gift he had prepared.

I wasn't too interested in precious stones. Because for me, most of them could only be used as decorations. Not very practical.

If I had to choose, I would have preferred the motorcycle Patrick gave me yesterday, even though it was temporarily locked up in our father's storage.

Nevertheless, I accepted Carl's gift with a smile and said, "Thank you, Carl. I can't wait to wear it to school."

I didn't give Carl a chance to touch me, especially not my neck. After all, I couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't utilize the opportunity to help me put the necklace on and suddenly bite me on the throat and kill me.

To show my eagerness to wear the gift, I snatched the necklace out of Carl's hand. Then I quickly undid the spring clasp of the necklace. It took me two seconds to put it around my neck and position it correctly.

"My my, if you wear it and put on the pink dress I gave you last year, you'll be the most beautiful princess in the world." Carl praised me.

Forget it! If I were to put on that pink dress I had worn in my last life when he killed me and wear this emerald necklace right now, I would choose to let Rose solve this demon immediately.

I didn't give Carl any other response. He looked at Arthur, and I managed to catch his smile and eyes, revealing smugness and show-off.

I was already uncomfortable with Carl's and Freya's presence. Now Carl was treating me as his property and flaunting it to others. I wanted to rip the necklace off my neck and throw it in his face.

"Isn't it supposed to be summer vacation? You two packs founded a school that doesn't allow students to have summer vacations?" Arthur asked me. It sounded like the high schools in the Silver Moon pack would have long summer vacations.

"Yeah. Our 10-day summer vacation ended yesterday." I shrugged.

Today happened to be the first day of the third school year. When I died, I had only graduated from high school a month ago in my last life. Now, I was 17 again, which meant I had to relearn a whole year's classes I'd already taken.

Arthur nodded without saying much else.

"I'm afraid Alpha King is no longer fit to experience the joy of school at our school right now." Carl's smile hid a bit of provocation.

"Maybe! Who knows?" Arthur gave a very vague answer. I guessed he wouldn't show up in my classroom to be with me, would he?

After remaining silent for some time, Freya hugged me with red eyes that were about to burst into tears. She whispered, "Happy birthday, Steph. Sorry, I wanna go to school early today. I'll go first."

As soon as Freya hugged me, I smelled the residual smell of rosewood on her body.

As far as I knew, only Carl's house used expensive rosewood furniture in the Demon Forest Pack. It seemed that my best friend and my boyfriend (actually ex-) had a very pleasant evening.

Freya buried her face into my shoulder and then kissed my left cheek.

"Steph, you must wash your face as soon as you get back. Who knows if that bitch has some kind of poison on her lips." Whenever Carl or Freya approached and touched me, I noticed that Rose would always go crazy and scream to remind me. In fact, I totally agree with her.

But, at least for now, I was trying to play the role of a good friend. I patted her on the back and sighed deliberately." Okay! Freya, did you have breakfast? I can bring it to school for you."

Freya shook her head and left, lost in thought. If a stranger had passed by at this moment, he/she would have thought that Freya was greatly suffering and would not be able to resist comforting her.

Carl already showed a worried expression. He took a quick look at me and planted a kiss on my forehead. He was so fast that I couldn't even step back and refuse.

He patted my shoulder and told me, "Babe, you go back to breakfast. Freya is my pack member. I'll go check on her. If she does something stupid to hurt herself over someone's word, our pack will lose a good omega."

"Okay. I'm worried about Freya too. Go ahead!"

My boyfriend would definitely make a good alpha in the future. See, he really cared about his pack member. Watching Carl's back as he went after Freya, I grunted and wiped my forehead and left cheek hard with the back of my hand.