Hazel was still in disbelief about what was happening to her right now because she definitely wouldn't believe it if someone told her she was going to have a connection with the Ashdown family.
At this moment, she was not going to think about all the talk regarding shifters and non-human beings. Her mind couldn't catch up with that, especially when she had another problem at home to deal with.
Technically, this was her family, since she bore their name, but by blood, she was not part of them. The only person that she had a connection with was her mother, who was married into the family.
Therefore, she didn't need to come here and go through the torturing hours of sitting with those people, who clearly despised her very existence.
However, for some reason, Greg Webster, the person who became the head of the family now, after the death of his father, called Hazel to come home because apparently 'her grandfather' had left something for her.
As long as Hazel remembered, she didn't have a close relationship with her grandfather. He was a very strict man and came from a military family before he chose business.
Yet, Hazel didn't want her position in the family to become even more difficult than this. For now, it was only her parents, grandparents and her older sister that knew about their mother's infidelity, while from an outsider's perspective, Hazel was the 'bad daughter', who rarely joined family events and did whatever she wanted outside.
"You don't need to go if you don't want to," Micah said, looking at the house in front of him disinterestedly. This house was huge, but it was only of peasant size compared to what Micah had.
The car had stopped for about five minutes, but Hazel had not yet come out of the car. She seemed very reluctant to part with the comfortable seat of this luxurious car.
"You read my mind again." Hazel shot him a glare, but she was too anxious to become angry at him right now. "I hope I don't need to," she mumbled.
"We can go to my place and do whatever you want." That was not a suggestion, but more like an order because after that, Archer was about to drive again.
"No, no, no!" Hazel said frantically. It was true that she didn't want to go, but the problem was not as easy as that.
"If you don't want to do something, don't do it."
Hazel pouted her lips and folded her arms. She hoped she could just do that, but this was a situation where she had to do what she had to do even if she didn't like it.
"Can you tell me other motivational words instead? Because your suggestion is out of the options," Hazel grumbled. She needed a little bit of motivation to face her family. Something that could make her look forward to it, because her grandfather's will was not enough to excite her.
"Micah can go inside with you if you don't want to face them alone," Archer suggested.
"What should I tell them?" Hazel stole a glance at Micah. She just learned his name because Archer had been calling him that. "He is basically a stranger."
"But, now you know that he holds more power than me and my brother, right? Your family will be respectful to someone, who has a higher social status than the Ashdown family." Archer tried to get on the alpha's good side, trying to make him look good in front of his mate.
However, little did the royal gamma knew that it would backfire at himself.
Hazel tilted her head and looked at Micah with calculative eyes. "But, no one knows who he is, moreover this is a family event, I don't think they will allow someone outside the family to join."
Archer bit his lips when he heard Hazel say that no one knew about Micah. Well, that was not completely wrong, but it sounded a little bit hurtful.
And as Archer thought, the words didn't go unnoticed by the alpha.
"So, it is okay for you if it is Archer, who goes with you?" Micah asked coldly and all of a sudden, the tension inside the car increased.
"Archer…?" Hazel contemplated, she then looked at the gamma. It would be great if she could bring Archer and introduce him to the family.
This could be a slap in the face for Gaia, knowing how proud she was to snatch her scumbag boyfriend, only to find that Hazel had managed to get a better man from a prestigious family like Archer Ashdown. She wanted to see his father's jaw drop at the sight of Archer Ashdown in their family house.
It would be quite a show then. Hazel giggled at that thought. However, she couldn't do that. She wanted this event to end uneventfully, so that she could go on with her life without them interfering with her life anymore.
Moreover, she still couldn't understand what was going on with her life and these men.
"So, is it okay if he goes with you because he is more prominent?" Micah's voice had this sharp edge when he talked. He didn't recall having this conversation with her, because in the past, it was him who drove her to her family house and she bolted out of the car once he hit the brakes.
"Nah, that's not the problem here," Hazel said lightly and reluctantly opened the car door. "Even if I want to take his offer to accompany me inside, this is not the right time or even right place to do it."
And after saying that, Hazel went out of the car and bent over when Micah opened the car window. "I will pick you up."
"No, why will you do that? I want you to leave my house." Hazel frowned, but Micah didn't seem to accept such rejection pretty well, because he rolled up the window glass and the car sped away.
"It is fine, if it is you…?" Micah muttered viciously under his breath, which left Archer grimacing.