OUTCAST: THE ALPHA KING’S BELOVED BY BLUE TEARS
CHAPTER 75 A JINX
Austin’s POV:
Jennifer’s expression was so amusing. She must’ve never expected this to happen at her banquet. It gave me joy to see her and Anthony so frustrated.
Even I had to admit that I didn’t expect my plan to go so smoothly. I must thank Arthur and his daughter, Ella. They seemed to hate Jennifer as much as I did—or maybe even more.
Of course, it was I who brought them to the banquet to humiliate Jennifer. I needed to do everything I could to prevent Anthony and Jennifer from announcing their marriage. I needed to protect my throne, after all.
Sure enough, when Ella announced that Jennifer was bad luck, the guests at the banquet broke into hushed whispers. Even the elders who usually supported Anthony seemed to be uneasy. They all approached Jennifer to ask her for the truth.
While all this chaos was ensuing, Caroline hid behind Elizabeth, putting on a terrified expression.
Huh! Caroline was quite cooperative. Only I could tell she wasn’t scared at all.
Without anyone noticing, I approached her and whispered in her ear, “How do you feel, seeing Jennifer suffer like this?”
Caroline glanced at Jennifer loftily and answered, “How do I feel? I feel she hasn’t suffered enough. I will let her know what real pain is.”
As the two of us chuckled to ourselves, Elizabeth tried to gain control over the situation. She tried to comfort the restless elders, but her voice was quickly lost in the crowd.
“Let’s wait and see. The most exciting part is yet to come,” I told Caroline.
She looked at me in confusion as I turned around to ask my attendant to find some werewolves to crash the party. I wanted to teach Jennifer a lesson.
As the crowd’s cries died out a little, I seized this as an opportunity to ask Jennifer, “Is what Miss Wood said true? If you really bring misfortune to those around you, then you and Anthony can’t be together. After all, the royal family must be careful when we choose our mates, so as not to affect the royal family’s luck.”
Before Jennifer could defend herself, several agitated werewolves stepped forward aggressively. “We can’t let her stay here! We can’t let a jinx get close to us.”
More and more werewolves echoed their shared sentiments and started to corner Jennifer.
In a flash, Jennifer was surrounded. She was shoved back and forth, and she obviously had no idea how to respond. Once again, everything was going according to plan. The group of werewolves I appointed started simmering the pot.
“Get out! Jinx!”
They tried to push Jennifer out of the banquet hall.
But Anthony stepped in between them and her, holding his arm in front of her.
“What are you doing?” he roared. “This is the royal banquet hall, not some place for you to throw tantrums. If anyone hurts Jennifer, I will severely punish them. You’d better not take another step forward, or I will teach you a lesson.”
Anthony’s imposing manner was undeniably intimidating. The werewolves who were stirring up trouble stopped in their tracks, frozen in fear. In that moment, Elizabeth seemed to come back to her senses. She also came to Jennifer’s side. “Don’t let such groundless rumors sway you! Ever since Jennifer became Anthony’s mate, our lives have changed for the better. Everyone knows that my health has been declining. I was even kidnapped not long ago! If it weren’t for Jennifer saving me over and over again, I would have died by now.
Jennifer is no jinx. She’s my savior.”
Elizabeth was the queen mother of Osman Kingdom, so she had some prestige. As she spoke, many people calmed down and listened to her, which was bad news for me.
This would put all my efforts to waste. I had to find a way to make them quarrel again.
Just as I opened my mouth to say something, Anthony put his arm around Jennifer’s shoulder and announced, “I’m going to marry Jennifer. I love her. I don’t care about her past. Besides, Moon Goddess matched us. I firmly believe in her arrangement.”
As soon as Anthony said this, the discussion changed its direction.
“That’s right. It’s impossible for Moon Goddess to arrange for the prince to marry a jinx.”
“If both Mrs. Jones and Anthony said so, then it must be true.”
“Even though they have marked each other, nothing bad has happened to Anthony since. He is fine.”
“So it seems that the Alpha of the Rainbow Pack is lying, right?”
The situation went from bad to worse. I looked at Arthur desperately. Thankfully, he took the hint and stepped forward. “There’s an elder in the Rainbow Pack who can predict the future. He once predicted that Jennifer was a jinx, but her parents refused to believe it. They insisted on keeping her. As a result, both of her parents are dead, and her brother is nowhere to be found.”
He pretended to be sad and put on a long face. “Alas, in order to keep the Rainbow Pack alive, I had no choice but to take over the pack and drive Jennifer away. Although I sincerely wish Jennifer all the best, I’m more worried about the welfare of the royal family—which is why I’m being honest with you now.”
Wow. Arthur was so good at acting. If I didn’t know the truth, I would have believed his story.
Now, both parties were at a stalemate. Anxious to create more chaos, I cleared my throat. “Since you all have your differing opinions, how about this? The royal family also has an elder who is good at predicting the future. Let’s have him come out to verify Arthur’s words.”
“No need,” Anthony strongly opposed. “I don’t believe these groundless claims at all.”
I turned to my close elders and gave them a meaningful look. One stepped forward and said, “It’s better to be safe than sorry, Anthony. We will not allow a jinx to join the royal family.”
The atmosphere became tense once more.
Anthony’s POV:
What on earth was happening? How dare these people slander Jennifer and claim she was a jinx! How dare they threaten to kick her out of the royal family?! This was all so infuriating.
My mother had specially arranged this banquet to announce our marriage. But everything was ruined by the sudden appearance of Arthur and Ella.
I knew Arthur, the current Alpha of the Rainbow Pack. I also knew that most of Jennifer’s sufferings had been caused by him.
Ever since he showed up, Jennifer’s attitude had changed completely. I could understand how she felt. The pain of losing family was unbearable for everyone, let alone having it resurface like this.
“Jennifer, don’t worry. I’ll always be with you.” I held her hand rea*s*suringly.
“Anthony, he killed my father.” Jennifer’s voice broke. I could tell she was about to burst into tears, which made my heart ache.
“Sooner or later, he will pay the price,” I told Jennifer seriously. I would make sure of this. I would never let such a werewolf live happily for too long.
But what I couldn’t understand was why Austin had brought Arthur here, not to mention Ella, whom I had already driven away. I had thought she would never dare to show her face in front of us again, but here she was, as audacious as ever.
Austin must’ve found something out. Maybe he caught wind of our plan, but I didn’t know which part.
Austin was a sly guy. I should always be on high alert to him. But first, I must protect Jennifer.
I need to deal with Ella and her father. How dare she pretend to be good friends with Jennifer while calling her a jinx? Unbelievable!
Jennifer was the opposite. She was my good luck charm.
However, there were still many werewolves who were swayed by Arthur’s slanderous words. They firmly believed that Jennifer was a jinx. With the interference of Austin, more and more werewolves looked at Jennifer with disdain, wanting to kick her out of the royal family. They even tried to physically push her.
I couldn’t allow these thugs to bully my girl!
I couldn’t take it anymore. I announced loudly, “I will marry Jennifer. I don’t need your approval. I just want Jennifer to be my wife.”
My mother backed me up. “I believe in Jennifer. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have accepted her as my daughter-in-law.”
Tears welled up in Jennifer’s eyes. She whispered to me, “Thank you.”
I squeezed her hand rea*s*suringly. I had always known about Jennifer’s past. She must’ve wanted to scream the truth about Arthur at the top of her lungs, but she didn’t have any hard proof that he was guilty. We could do nothing but stand our ground.
Both my mother and I stood by Jennifer to comfort her in silence.
The guests at the banquet were divided into two groups. Some elders who usually supported me now sorted out their thoughts and began to defend Jennifer. The other elders, however, were adamant about keeping a jinx out of the family. They thought that what they were saying was reasonable.
“If she is really a jinx, she can’t marry into the royal family.” “Can you prove that she’s a jinx? Or are you completely swayed by a mere rumor?” an elder who supported me argued strongly.
The two sides were once again in a stalemate. Austin even mentioned a royal family prophet, encouraging the crowd to probe into Jennifer’s background.
I had never heard of such a prophet. I figured it must’ve been another of Austin’s trick. He probably made arrangements so that this so-called prophet would confirm that Jennifer was a jinx. Thus, I disagreed loudly and firmly.
“Austin, I’ve never heard of anyone in the royal family who can predict the future. Are you mistaken?” I asked Austin.
The elders who supported me also expressed their doubts. The two sides began to quarrel again. In the end, Austin grew furious and pointed at Jennifer.
“If you don’t want to be checked, then prove that you’re not a jinx! If you can’t, don’t even think about marrying Anthony!”