Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 82

Jasmine

The moment those words had left my mouth, I wanted to cringe. Feeling stupid, I wrenched my hand away from his and ran as far as I could.

Acting as the best man there is in the world, did not feel enough to me, to make up for all Hardin had done.

My heart might have flustered a little after Hardin's words, but my vengeful conscience was not a very forgiving person. His words had moved me for a moment, but going back to our past and all that Hardin had put me through, I just couldn't find myself forgiving him so easily, especially over spoken words.

Was I supposed to just give in, and welcome him back? What if he decided to go against his words one day, I would be the one hurting and not him.

"But he's proven himself to you Jasmine, he's your mate" my wolf reminded me but I wasn't listening. Being my mate was not enough of an excuse to buy him forgiveness. Had I not been his mate, would he have felt sorry that he tortured and harassed me all these while? If for anything, Hardin had taught me that he didn't care about the fact that I had emotions when it came to maltreating me.

And as for proving himself, it wasn't enough! Yes, he might have gone into a dangerous race with Lorenzo for my sake, and even though it earned him a bit of my respect and admiration, it still wasn't enough.

"What about your baby? Don't you think it's going to be hard if your child grows up without a father? Reason being that his mother is just intentionally acting like an unforgiving person?" My wolf was once again trying to fight for Hardin. I understood that she was probably fighting to be with her mate, so I didn't really hold it against her. But as my wolf, I really expected her to be on my side more often. And the only excuse that I could make for her was that she was not there with me while I went through all the harassment from Hardin.

"Don't you think it's better for my child to grow up without a father than to have an abusive one?" I asked my wolf. She fell silent for a moment, probably due to her inability to bring up a good argument to counter my question.

"That's what I thought" I added after her silence. She probably couldn't argue anymore. No child would ever want to come into a world where they'd only suffer. With Hardin, that was looking like the case. Though he was making improvements in his character, I still couldn't bring myself to fully accept him that easily.

I flopped down on a root, exhausted.

'Speak of the devil' I thought to myself the moment I saw Hardin's figure approaching me. Without warning, he leaned down to my height and threw his arms around me in a warm embrace. Subconsciously, without me even realizing, I had withdrawn from the embrace and had spaced out from him. It was only after my reaction that I turned to see Hardin's stunned one.

"Is anything wrong Jasmine?" He inquired but I didn't answer, in fact I didn't want to talk to him at all at this time. "Tell me what's bothering you" He urged but I didn't yield.