Snakes Over Wolves Chapter 08
Her screaming brought a dead silence over the party.
A second later, hushed whispers rippled through the crowd.
Clearly determined to make a public scene, Anika didn’t care how messy she looked and started loudly sobbing about her situation.
Listening to her, I finally pieced together what had happened — Cameron had cut off her tail the very day he kicked her out of the Hocknell family.
Mom and Dad had totally turned their backs on her too, ignoring every time she begged for help.
Anika had been living on the streets ever since.
She hadn’t even realized she was pregnant until she started showing.
Furious, Cameron tried to peel her off of him, but she had a death grip on his legs and refused to let go.
The baby was her only leverage — her one and only shot at salvaging her ruined life.
The surrounding crowd of werebeasts watched eagerly, soaking up the Hocknell family’s very public humiliation.
Hearing the uproar, Cameron’s dad rushed over. Desperate to do damage control and save the family’s reputation, he had no choice but to force Cameron to take Anika back.
As they left, Anika glared at me with pure, unfiltered resentment. Her face was completely twisted with bitter jealousy.
Once we got home, Nathaniel rubbed my shoulders and started my bath, just like he always did.
I caught his eye, and suddenly I just needed to know. “Earlier, when you kicked that female werebeast out… what did you mean when you said you’d spent years in love with me before we finally got together?”
His hands stopped. The silence stretched out before he finally turned and walked into the study.
Before I could even wrap my head around what was happening, he came back with a vial of truth serum and downed it right in front of me.
“Honey, I’ve been in love with you for seven years,” he said. “Do you remember going up into the mountains to study herbs and saving a little black snake? I’d been attacked by my enemies. I was badly hurt and stuck in my snake form, but you healed me with a potion.
“You found me right on the brink of death, and I fell for you that very day. Unfortunately, by the time I finally managed to track you down, you were already engaged.”
I stared at him, completely floored. “That little black snake was you?”
I’d always assumed it was just some everyday garden snake.
I never would have guessed I’d accidentally saved the prince of the Weresnake Tribe.
Then, it hit me. “Wait, were you the werebeast who pulled me out from under that car, too?”
Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah.”
Real regret washed over his face. “I’m so sorry. I got stuck late at work that day, and I couldn’t get there in time to stop them from hurting your hand.”
I glanced down at my palm. It was totally healed now.
The ointment he’d given me had worked absolute wonders — my hand recovered fast, without leaving a single scar.
I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you, babe.”
Nathaniel froze. His ears turned bright red, the flush quickly bleeding down his neck.
Thanks to the truth serum, his filter was completely gone. He pressed my hand firmly against his cheek, his eyes lighting up with pure excitement.
“Honey, can you call me babe again?”
***
After that confession, Nathaniel got even more affectionate.
He cashed in years of saved-up vacation time so we could travel for our honeymoon.
With Cameron out of the picture, we were incredibly happy, just completely focused on each other.
Every now and then, we’d catch some gossip about the Hocknell family. Anika and Cameron had grown to despise each other, making each other absolutely miserable day in and day out.
But because she was pregnant, they were forced to stay together.
For all intents and purposes, they were stuck with each other for good.
I really thought I could finally just live in peace, but things went sideways again.
Anika and Cameron got into a screaming match in the middle of the street that turned physical.
It ended with Anika getting hit by a car, and she lost the baby.
Just like that, without a child to secure her place in the family, the Hocknells threw her right out on the street.
Not long after, Cameron showed up at my front door.
He just stared at me, this sickening obsession in his eyes. “Nessa,” he said, “our obstacle is gone now.”
I flinched as a wild, horrifying thought crossed my mind.
What if the accident wasn’t an accident? Cameron was absolutely unhinged enough to orchestrate the death of his own unborn child.
Before I could even get a word out, Anika burst from the nearby bushes.
She looked completely out of her mind, charging right at me with a paring knife.
“Vanessa, I’m going to kill you,” she shrieked. “You’re the reason my life is ruined. You only have one life left. I took eight of your lives, and I can take the last one, too.”
Cameron’s eyes went wide, and he lunged in front of me to take the blade.
He collapsed to the ground, clutching his wound as blood spilled past his lips.
As it turned out, the exact placement of that stab wound left him permanently sterile.
The cops showed up and arrested Anika on the spot.
Cameron eventually pulled through and got discharged from the hospital, but his freedom didn’t last. Investigators quickly figured out he’d actually hired someone to cause Anika’s miscarriage, and he was sent to prison.
After that, things finally settled down.
Over the next three years, I poured myself into my work and became the top potion maker in the country.
Nathaniel and I also welcomed boy-girl twins.
Our daughter was a rare nine-tailed werefox, just like me, and our son was a little black snake, just like his dad.
So much for the rumors about Nathaniel being sterile — though of course, the new gossip around town was that I just had him under my thumb.
During those years, my parents tried to drop by on multiple occasions. Hoping to make amends, they even dragged along the wedding gift they’d failed to give me way back when.
I refused to see them.
Every single time. I’m happy now, and I don’t need their hollow affection.
We threw a one-month celebration for the twins, and pretty much every wealthy family in the area showed up.
There was a steady stream of guests all day, loaded down with gifts for the babies.
Nathaniel and I were playing with the twins when a server walked over carrying a massive gift box.
He explained that some uninvited guest had left it at the door and taken off without leaving a name.
I popped the lid. Inside, I found a pile of expensive jewelry and legal paperwork transferring twenty percent of the Hocknell Group’s shares straight into my name.
Buried at the very bottom was a ring — the exact same one I’d tossed into the sewer all those years ago.
Cameron had actually gone down there and dug it out.
Not that it mattered; the ring meant absolutely nothing to me now.
I put the lid back on the box and looked up at the server.
“Please mail this back to the Hocknell Group,” I said calmly. “And pass along a message.”
“What’s the message?” he asked.
“Cameron, I forgive you, but we never need to see each other again.”