His Threat

"Herla!" 

Eve shoved Herla, who'd dragged her out of the hotel to the very back, and rubbed her wrist that was a bruised red. 

"What is your problem? What are you even doing here with Patro?" 

Herla looked at her with derision. "I should be asking that question. What do you think you're doing? I know you were never in a relationship with Malakai Salvatore, so why are you suddenly getting married to him? What are you planning in that thick head of yours?" 

Eve pulled a face, drowning in confusion. 

"Is that all you seriously have to say to me?" 

"Meaning what?" 

"You're not going to explain to me why you were with Patro? Why did you two seem so…intimate?"

Herla stared at her with a conflicted look, before morphing into something Eve had never glimpsed before. Hatred…

"What do you want me to say? That I fucked him even when you were still new into your marriage thing? That now…we are a couple, pretty much in love, something you never had with him. Something you could never have with him despite being his mate." 

Eve's breath got caught in her throat and she swallowed thickly.

"But…you're my best friend, Herla."

She rolled her eyes at her so dramatically and Eve's brain shut for a second, going entirely black as the pieces suddenly started to fill itself perfectly into place. These two…they were…they had…

All those times she would feel left behind and they said they had something to do together… Eve never really noticed Patro's interest in Herla, so she never thought much of it. 

But at some point, it really felt too much, not to mention her constant arrival. She also knew of everything going on between her and Patro, how abusive he was to her, and she'd had thought her coming was to be there for her so she wouldn't lose her mind in that family. But it was…actually the opposite. 

Who would have thought her best friend of twenty years was sleeping with her husband while she was losing her mind to his abuse?

A chuckle fell from Eve, suddenly realizing how stupid she actually had been. "And all that, you did because?" 

Herla scoffed. "Are you seriously playing the victim now?" 

She snatched Eve by the jaw. "You're unbearable, Eve. You're acting the victim now, but what about me? Since we were little, I've always had to stand behind the line and watch you get everything that I've ever wanted. Hell, even a father that loves you. Why couldn't I also have everything you had?" 

"How is that my fau—" 

"It was you, always you, Eve. Top of the class, genius, it's all Eve. Love letters, it's Eve, everything it's always you and for you alone! Me? I'm just a regular omega who doesn't amount to a thing and you never forget to rub it in my face. Always flaunting how smart you are, how you're such a genius and how better than other omegas you are." 

Eve slapped her hand off, now equally enraged by her words. "I didn't flaunt anything in your face. What is there to flaunt? What is your problem? I've never done anything wrong to you, I've never had issues with you and if you somehow felt like I wasn't good enough, why didn't you just say so?" 

"I hate you!" Herla pushed her harshly into the wall, chest rising and falling in heavy breathing. "It's your fault, everything is your fault. You always made me feel like I was below you, mediocre when it came to you. What? You wanted me to tell you, so that you can wallow in my misery?"

"Herla, is that what you think of—" 

"So that I could feel beneath you? It's always you, taking everything that I wanted!" she was shouting at her now. "Oppurtunity, praises, recognition, everything you took from me and then…you got married to Patro Zolotov, a billionaire like Patro! Gosh, you knew I had always wanted that man even though we were all way beneath him. You were out of his league too, but you got him." 

"HOW IS THAT FAIR?" she screamed. 

Her hands came around Eve's throat, choking her. Eve grabbed her wrist, trying to break free. Compared to her, Bridget was much taller. "Bridget…l-let go—" 

"Everything that I should have had, you got it, but this one time, I'll be the one taking from you. No, I have taken from you." Bridget burst into laughter. "Oh fuck, I never thought I would enjoy seeing pain in your eyes. I wish there is more than I can take. But it's over. You will never get Patro back. I'm not even sure how you got Malakai to marry you. You just always seem to get what you want, all the time, like the moon goddess just favors you."

She leaned in with a cruel grin. "But be careful though. I might take more from you." 

As soon as she let go, Eve dropped to her knees and coughed so hard to catch her breath. 

"You're a very good actor, you know that, Herla?"

Herla smiled down at her. 

"Yes, Eve, that I am. Something you aren't capable of. I endured it, pretended, watched you, gave you all my fake sincerity and struck once I found a crack in your perfect life. Unbelievable, isn't it?" 

"What is unbelievable is how you are going to die." 

The sudden low rumble had her flinching around immediately. Eve raised her head, gaze meeting with very bright golden eyes. Malakai was intimidating, like a giant staring down at Bridget with a killing intent looming in his gaze. She didn't know what it was, but him in that moment was best described as deadly. Like a ticking bomb. 

"Malakai," she said his name, but didn't know what to say after. 

Malakai looked at her, while his thick fingers wrapped around Herla's throat.

"Do you want her dead?" 

"Huh?" Eve blinked. Was he…asking her what she wanted?

She frantically shook her head at him. There was no way she was going to make a billionaire of a man a murderer. To be useful, he needed to be clean of any crime. "No…no, please let her go." 

He did, letting go of Herla, but not before he leaned his face closer, saying in a voice so chilling, so cold, "If you speak of any of this, and if you hurt her again, I will find you and I will make you disappear."