The Delta's Daughter Chapter 137

I had to swallow down the bile that rose in my throat. I had never attended the Gladiator games, not even on opening day, and I didn’t want to start now. I didn’t agree with any of it. Forcing men to fight in a barbaric and inhumane way, more so, I didn’t want to show support or encouragement for my father.

I hated him. And as for the slave girls being initiated… well, is it a wonder that at 21 I was still a virgin growing up in this hell hole.

*We need to talk, meet me in my room.* Jasper's voice filled my head and I told him I would be there shortly before I cut the link and excused myself from his mother, making my way to his room on the 2nd floor.

I knocked softly, looking left and right down the hallway, making sure no one was watching. The door opened and Jasper grabbed my arm, yanking me into his room and closing the door behind him quickly.

He pushed me up against the wall and began rubbing his body all over me and licking my neck. Covering me in his scent.

“Jasper! What the fuck are you doing” I gasped at him while shoving him away, horrified at what he was doing, it was so unlike him.

He ran a hand through his Blonde hair Blowing out a breath, his face showing stress. “My father caught me in here with Eloise.” He admitted with a tremble in his voice.

I opened my mouth, forming an ‘O’, “Did… did you guys, um… you know. Did you mate”

“No, but we were fooling around when he walked in, I managed to hide her head, but he will be wondering who was in here. If he finds out it was her… Fuck if he finds out Eloise is my mate, he will kill her.” Jasper started to rub his eyes and forehead aggressively. “I didn’t know what to do, so I thought if you had my scent all over you… He would just assume…” He gave me a pleading look.

I leaned my head back against the wall, tucking my hands behind my back and closing my eyes, “This is so fucked up.” I sighed.

“You’re telling me I can’t even mate and mark the one person the Moon Goddess gifted me! It’s been two years Tala! Two years! I don’t know how much longer I can keep my wolf at bay, he wants his mate.” The sadness in his voice jarred me.

I knew how difficult it was for him and El, but I hadn’t met my mate, so I couldn’t fully understand the pull of the bond. I never expected it to be so strong after watching how my parents treated theirs. So to see Jasper and Eloise fight it day in and day out, the bond wearing them down, calling to them, it was breaking my heart. I just wanted them to have a happy ending.

“What the fuck are we going to do Tala Opening day is in two days, your father is going to announce our pairing, then I am expected to participate in initiation day! How do I explain that Eloise” He slumped down the wall. “How did we get such fucked up lives How can our parents do this to us”

I slid down, leaning against the wall next to him and taking his hand in mine. His hands were huge compared to my tiny ones, but I tried to offer him some kind of comfort and patted his calloused hand.

“Jasper, what if we could change things” I said after a few moments of silence. He turned his head to look at me with a questioning look on his face.

“How so”

“I don’t know, but what if we could What if somehow, instead of fighting our parents we could pretend If given the choice wouldn’t you want to change this pack” I was thinking out loud, not really thinking of the words, just processing random thoughts.

“Worst-case scenario, I could mark you, but we wouldn’t have to mate, then once I was Alpha we could reject each other” He too was now processing.

I lifted my hand to smooth out the deep lines on his forehead. He was too young to have those types of creases, deep worry lines from constantly frowning, furrowing, and worrying.

“It would kill Eloise,” I whispered, thinking how it would never work. Him, marking me could kill Eloise’s wolf and in turn, she would suffer heartbreak and die. “Besides, they have ‘a way’ to make us mate, remember.”

“Tala, I don’t know how to protect El from any of this.” His voice broke and his very loud audible gulp echoed in my ears. I leaned my head on his shoulder, one hand still holding his, and I let a single lone tear slide down my cheek.

I hated this for both my best friends. I hate my father so, so much.

I left Jasper's room, his scent stuck to me like glue so if anyone came across me they would think we had been rolling around in bed together, accept the scent of arousal and sex were absent, hopefully, they would just assume we had been together.

Everything about my life was shit. Secrets and lies.

I made my way up to my mother’s room, opening the door quietly in case she was sleeping. I found her sitting in a chair by the window looking out. Her maid was laying out some food and tea on the little table that stood by her side.

She gave me a look, shaking her head, lips pressed tightly together. My mother was having a bad day. I sat in the chair next to her and took her hand and stared out the window with her. The barren land of Bhakhil was dry and depressing. Not a tree or bush in sight, just sandy dirt for miles upon miles.

“Your father will save you. He will come for you. He loves you.” Whispered words passed my mother’s lips and I looked up at her, tears graced her eyes.

She was having one of her delusional days. I know this because my father would never save me from anything, and love me Ha! I didn’t think he even knew what the word meant.

She said nothing else as we sat there in silence and watched the light breeze dance across the desert earth lifting particles of loose dirt and scattering them across the plains. I gave her a kiss when I had sat there long enough and left her in peace.

Maybe tomorrow would be a better day.

I decided to take a walk around the palace grounds, not knowing what else to do with myself. Six guards entered through the main door with Teal, one of the Gladiator slaves.

Teal was an older man, around my father’s age, late forties, maybe. He had been here over half his life, since before I was born. He was handsome, with bright red hair like mine and eyes as cerulean blue, Tall and muscular. They had him cuffed in silver as they ushered him towards my father’s office.

Every year just before the games began, my father would summon him. I always felt a peaceful comfort coming from him whenever I saw him.

He smiled at me as he passed by, an emotion I couldn’t decipher shone in his eyes. Funny enough, my wolf, Mora, would always preen when he was around like she was happy to see him and wanted him to notice her.

He was the longest gladiator resident in history, and I could never figure out why my father had not granted him his freedom yet, or why, if he wasn’t going to release him, he hadn’t killed him off. Realistically, he would never let anyone go, never mind grant them their freedom. So how had Teal survived all these years