Chapter 30

I’m at the table coloring with Grace when my phone goes off. I check it to find that someone sent me a message. I open it and drop my phone with a gasp.

Grace looks up from her picture. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I tell her. “You picture is pretty. I think you need a sun in the sky.”

She studies her picture for a moment. She must agree with me because she reaches for a yellow crayon. I pick my phone back up.

The message is a picture of me in my hotel uniform next to one of me at the ceremony looking incredibly uncomfortable with Julian’s arm around me. The picture is captioned “Gold Digger”, and according to the screenshot, it had been shared, liked, or commented on hundreds of times.

I open my social media app and start to scroll. Dread sinks into my gut and I can’t believe what I am seeing. My feed is full of photos and memes of me. So many are captioned to label me as a slut or that I’m only with Julian for his money. There’s even a few of Adrian carrying me back to the car after the wolf attack next to one of me pushing Julian away at the ceremony. Those are captioned “The Whore Switched Whitmores.”

I close my phone and look to see Grace watching me intently. Those eyes see way too much.

“I think we have a trip to the mall for new shoes today, don’t we?” I ask, trying to mask the panic in my voice.

She doesn’t quite buy it, but she plays along. “Yes, we do!” And bounds off the steps to get her shoes to go.

At the mall, I hope to distract myself from the social media storm currently happening around me, but it’s hard to do. Every second I get, I’m pulling my phone out and scrolling to see photos and videos of me, each one more hateful and embarrassing than the last. One of the most popular is a video of me dashing out the door and then being carried back by Adrian. The video invites a debate on whether I seduced the younger Whitmore and then staged the dramatic exit in order to get the attention of the older.

I never thought something like this would happen to me. I hate attention, and yet the last few days have been nothing but humiliating for me. It’s like a nightmare I can’t seem to wake up from.

“Hey! It’s you!” A woman yells and I look up to see a stranger pointing at me. “You’re that slut trying to seduce the entire Whitmore family.”

Color drains from my face and I start to panic. Grace looks up at me, fear in her eyes and other people around us turn to stare. I push her behind me, shielding her from the crowd and say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m sure you don’t.” Another woman answers sarcastically.

“There’s no rainstorm for you to run dramatically through here!” A man chimes in.

I watch as phones come out and people start filming me while taunts of “Gold Digger” and “Slut” are hurled in my direction.

I don’t know what to do. I’m panicking and all I know is that I need to get out of here. Grace clings to my dress and tears fill her big eyes. I turn, scoop up the child and hurry from the mall. The filming crowd follows and cheers as I retreat.

“What was that?” Grace asks shakily. She’s scared and I don’t know how to explain it to her. I take a breath and fight for the words, but my mind is spinning and I can’t focus.

After another few breaths, I manage to calm my nerves enough to look at her and say, “Some people told some mean lies, and now people are angry. It’s just a mistake. Everything is alright.”

“It doesn’t feel alright.” Grace says unsteadily. She’s an intelligent child. I won’t be able to distract her from something like this.

“You are safe.” I assure her.

“Are you safe?” She asks, her eyes still filled with tears.

“I am right here, and I am safe.” I tell her as firmly as I can. Though I wonder if I’m telling myself as much as I am her. It seems to settle her though.

Once we get home, I send Grace to the living room to practice her piano while I go the bathroom.

Inside the privacy and safety of the bathroom, I lean against the door and slide down to the ground. Tears pour down my cheeks and I allow myself to sob. None of this is fair, I didn’t ask for any of it. I just wanted a quiet life of security with my boyfriend, now all I’ve gotten is humiliation and threats.

When I finally get myself under control, I splash cold water on my face and walk back out.

Adrian is there. He studies my face and then asks, his voice concerned, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I answer, “I’m fine.”

“You were crying. I heard you.” He insists gently.

“I’m okay, really. Just a bad day.” I say. The thought of telling Adrian what happened makes me want to cry again. I’ve caused enough trouble for him. I don’t want to cause any more. Besides, there’s nothing he can do about it anyway. He doesn’t control the internet and people can be cruel.

Arian POV

“Have you seen these?” a message from my Beta comes to my phone and I open it to find picture after picture of Lily. Except these pictures are less than flattering. They are downright cruel and they’re flooding both social media and the tabloids.

I have an idea of who is behind it. There are a few of these pictures that could only have been taken by certain members of my pack. My wolf howls angrily. I have no doubt this is why Lily was crying in the bathroom earlier.

I don’t hesitate. So long as Lily lives in this house, she will be protected. Even if I have to protect her from my own pack.

I call my Beta. “Gather the noble families. I want anyone allied with Vanessa and her family brought here now.”

An hour later, I’m standing before Vanessa and at least five other noble families. Half of them are looking at the floor. A few don’t seem to know why they are there, and the rest are glaring at the ones who have the decency to look ashamed.

“I think you know why you are here.” I begin. “A member of my household has been targeted and attacked. I do not take kindly to my family being hurt or humiliated.”

Vanessa starts to shake a little. If her family wasn’t so influential, I might rip her throat out here and now. If anything, it would make my point.

“The pictures, the videos, anything you have published online of Lily gets taken down now. If I find that my demands are not met, you will not like the repercussions.” My tone is all threat. I will not allow any argument or room for defiance. My demands will be met, or blood will be spilled.

I obtain agreement from each one of the families. Then to ensure their compliance, I leave them in the hands of my Beta, who watches as they log into their accounts and delete everything they have posted. Later, he will give me a list of the guilty parties. I don’t know what I will do with the information yet, but my wolf is enraged, and I don’t have the will to calm him.

Next, I call Edward. One of my most valuable employees. He is a hacker who watches out for the interests of the family online and manages my appearance to the media. He also removes anything that might leak related to the subject of werewolves.

“I expected this call.” He says. “Your son’s girl, right? I can clean it up if you want.”

“Do that.” I give the order. “Anything at all that’s out there, get rid of it.”

“It’ll be done by tomorrow.” He assures me.

Lily POV

I open my social media and start scrolling. It’s like an addiction at this point. It horrifies me every time I see a post or a video of me, but I can’t seem to look away. Every time I check, I find myself hoping that nothing will be there and it was all a bad dream.

Except this time, I scroll and find nothing. I do a quick search and find no results. No photos, no videos, no nasty comments.

Tears of relief flood my eyes, and I look up to find Adrian at the door.

“I took care of it. They won’t be bothering you anymore.” He assures me.

“But how?” I ask. I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to fix this, and I would just have to wait until people moved on to something else.

“I told you I would protect you and you should come to me if anyone bothers you again.” He sounds almost like he’s chastising me.

“I’m sorry.” I say. “I didn’t want to cause any more trouble for you. I thought I could just ignore it. Then those people confronted me at the mall with Grace.”

His eyes harden and I think he might be angry with me for putting Grace in danger.

“Thank you for protecting her.” He says instead. “I promise, this won’t happen again.”

There’s something in the way he says it that assures me this is promise he will keep.