Snakes Over Wolves Chapter 02
The next day, I stopped by a jewelry store to pick out a return gift for Nathaniel.
Since his beast form was a black snake with green eyes, I went with a pair of snake-shaped cufflinks set with emerald eyes.
I figured I should look on the bright side—the Cranfield family was insanely wealthy and powerful. What right did I have to complain?
I was just finishing up at the register and turning to leave when I heard an exaggerated gasp.
“Cam, look. Vanessa says one thing but does the exact opposite. She claims she doesn’t want to be your slave, but here she is secretly dropping a fortune on a birthday gift for you. I could never be that manipulative.”
Anika leaned against Cameron, a triumphant smirk on her face.
It hit me—today was Cameron’s birthday.
They seriously thought I was buying the cufflinks to suck up to him.
Cameron stared at the box in my hand with utter disgust. “I figured you were just being stubborn, but you still caved so you wouldn’t get assigned to some rogue werebeast. Those cufflinks are ugly, and I don’t want them. Go exchange them for silver wolf ones.”
I frowned, cutting him off before he could keep going. “These are for my fiancé. They have absolutely nothing to do with you.”
Cameron burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Give it a rest,” he scoffed. “You’re twenty-five. Nobody wants an older she-werebeast like you. Keep playing hard to get, and I won’t even let you be my slave.”
Anika glanced down the street and spotted a shop next door—the kind that applied slave marks.
“Cam, they can give Vanessa her slave mark right here. I hate seeing her stress about her future, so we should just get it over with today.”
Cameron affectionately tapped her nose. “Annie, you’re way too sweet.”
Then, acting like he was doing me the favor of a lifetime, he turned back to me.
“Well? Hurry up and get inside.”
Inside the shop, a massive iron brazier full of burning charcoal dominated the center of the room. Rows of branding irons—forged with humiliating slurs—were lined up beside it.
Just as we walked in, a worker drove a glowing-hot iron into another werebeast’s flesh. Even though the victim was a heavily muscled male, he screamed in absolute agony.
Cameron flinched slightly at the sound, but he didn’t lift a finger to stop Anika when she ordered her bodyguards to drag me all the way in.
Right then, it hit me. The Cameron I grew up with—the boy who cared about me, protected me, and fought off anyone who tried to hurt me—was completely gone. He simply didn’t exist anymore.
Anika’s fingers clamped down on my arm with incredible force, completely shedding her fragile act.
With a vicious sneer, she whispered, “I’m going to pick out a pretty little slave mark for Vanessa.”
She scanned the wall until her eyes locked onto a branding iron bearing the word slut.
Snatching it up, Anika actually skipped back toward me. “This one suits her best.”
I ripped myself out of the bodyguard’s grip. I hadn’t even laid a finger on her yet, but Anika was already stumbling backward, playing up a fake shove.
The branding iron slipped from her hand and hit the dirt. A stray spark popped up and landed on the back of her hand, but it didn’t even leave a mark.
Anika cradled her hand to her chest and instantly burst into tears.
“I just wanted to save Vanessa from being assigned to a rogue werebeast,” she sobbed, “and she tried to burn me!”
Before I could even get a word out, Cameron stormed into the room.
He shoved me hard toward the fire pit. My hand slammed right onto a hot coal. The pain was blinding, searing straight through my flesh.
The second I snatched my hand back from the embers, a sharp, stinging crack echoed across my face.
Cameron had slapped me. He stood there glaring down at me with pure disgust. “You are unbelievably cruel, Vanessa. Annie actually defended you to me, and this is how you treat her? Apologize to her right now!”