86 Forced Mating Marks

"She was running around picking fights with everyone and trying to escape," Rora said.

Yup.

That's Ani for you.

She's a lot more hot-headed than me, doing things based off of her current mood instead of thinking things through.

But I can't blame her for trying to escape, I've tried to do the same thing several times too.

"Ani? What are you doing here?" I asked

"Emi! Thank God you're here!" Her pretty face looked quite ecstatic to see me, unlike the last time that we had talked.

Ani and I used to fight a lot when we were younger.

As we grew up, we became rather distant until she started working for the government.

Although she and I worked in separate departments, we kept in a touch a lot more due to work.

The last time we talked was when I told her about handing in my resignation letter to my boss.

She was upset that I was leaving the facility over something stupid like 'guilt' and 'fear' when I could be making big money like she could while receiving awesome benefits.

Although I was talking to Ani, I wasn't entirely looking at her face.

My eyes were glued to the juncture of her neck and shoulder where the skin was red, swollen and painful looking as if it was rotting away.

So this is what a forced mating mark looked like, I thought.

After inspecting it for a couple of seconds, I started having this sick feeling in my stomach at just seeing that forced mating mark on her neck.

"Who did that?" I asked, pointing at her neck with a shaking hand.

Don't let it be a name that starts with a 'Z', I prayed.

"Zanthos." Ani's voice was low.

Her eyes narrowed when she spat out the single word that seemed to cause all of our moods to dampen.

"He's your mate?" I asked incredulously, taking a seat across from her.

I'm not quite sure how to process this information.

"He's not my mate!" Ani seethed, brows pinched together in disgust at the thought of being mated to Zanthos.

It's as if she was trying to make the words a reality; even though, we both know it isn't.

I would have probably reacted the same or even worse if Zanthos was my mate.

I would be sobbing pitifully and beating the ground while cursing the gods out for putting me together with someone like him.

I'm over-exaggerating.

I know.

But I can't help but be extremely glad that it wasn't the case.

Poor Ani.

She really received the short end of the stick on this one.

But, then again, she doesn't have to jump into the fire pit known as Zanthos if she doesn't want to.

"I'm getting married in 6 months, Emi. This mate bullshit is not on my to-do list," she hissed out, flashing me the expensive diamond ring currently perched on her ring finger.

The ring looked like it cost more than my life did.

From what I know, Ani is in a serious relationship with her fiance, Wyatt Collins, for over 10 years now.

They have known each other practically Ani's whole life, probably when they were in diapers even.

In my eyes, they were the perfect couple.

To say that they loved each other a lot was an understatement.

Zanthos trying to butt into the relationship is going to be like Lucifer trying to enter heaven. Impossibly hard.

I know for a fact that Zanthos will have to cross through heaven and hell if he wants to separate Wyatt and Ani.

Good luck to him because he is definitely going to need it.

"Have you tried rejecting him?" I joked because I didn't really know what to say to make the situation any better than it already was.

That sounds kind of bad but I can't help but want to be a roadblock for Zanthos.

I had the upper hand now because if he wanted Ani's affections than he had to walk past me first.

I'm not going to let him step all over Ani just to have his way without respecting her wishes.

She has the right to decide whom she wants to be with the rest of her life.

He should have the decency to accept her wishes.

For all the trouble he gave me, I can't just let him walk right past the first obstacle right?

Right.