The wolfless bride of the drying alpha3 / 3

Chapter 3 The Deal

Arielle's POV

They kept me in cold storage all night.

No blanket.

No shoes.

My wet servant dress froze against my skin. My knees bled onto the stone floor, and tears dried on my cheeks.

Outside, I could hear the feast.

Music played for Kael and Elara's engagement.

The pack howled their names.

"ELARA! ELARA!"

Drums thundered. Laughter echoed. Wine glasses clinked.

I sat in the darkness, hugging my knees and listening to my stepsister receive the life I had once believed would be mine.

My silver hairpin was gone.

Crushed beneath his boot.

At dawn, the door banged open.

Two warriors stood outside. The Beta's men.

"Alpha Lucas wants you in his study. Now."

I tried to stand, but my legs were numb from the cold.

They dragged me anyway.

My bare feet scraped against the stone as they pulled me through the corridor.

The keep was a mess of flowers and spilled wine. No one looked at me as the warriors hauled me through the hall in my frozen, filthy dress.

My father's study door stood open.

Lucas sat behind his desk in his Alpha's chair, still wearing the clothes from last night's feast. His eyes were red, but I couldn't tell whether it was from exhaustion or anger.

Valeria stood beside him in a red gown, smiling with quiet triumph.

Like she had won a war.

Elara stood by the window in her new silver engagement dress. She was still glowing, still perfect, her cheek pink from where Kael had kissed her.

All three looked at me as though I were garbage they needed to dispose of.

Lucas didn't tell me to sit.

"Clean yourself up," he said coldly. "You stink of cold storage. You stink of shame."

I stood trembling before his desk, barefoot and bleeding, my hair frozen in tangled clumps.

"Father-"

"I called you here for a deal," he interrupted. "Not for apologies. You humiliated Silvercrest in front of the Alliance Council last night. You threw yourself at Kael Blackthorn like a desperate, wolfless girl."

"I didn't-"

My voice broke. My throat was raw from crying all night.

"He told me to wait for him. He said the next time he came, he would come to propose. He gave me the hairpin. He said-"

"He said nothing!"

Lucas slammed his fist against the desk. The ink bottle jumped.

"Kael Blackthorn is marrying your sister! Your true Alpha daughter! He chose a blessed wolf, not a wolfless failure!"

Valeria laughed softly behind her hand.

"Oh, Lucas, don't be so hard on her. She really thought an Alpha would want a servant. It's almost cute. The delusion of witch blood like mother, like daughter."

Elara covered her mouth and laughed.

That perfect, tinkling laugh I had heard throughout my childhood while I scrubbed floors and endured their cruelty.

"Stop," I whispered. "Stop laughing at me. Please, stop."

Elara stepped closer. Her silver dress brushed against my dirty, bleeding feet.

"You still don't get it, do you, wolfless?" she whispered, making sure only I could hear her. "Kael never wanted you, he told me you begged him for attention, that you let him touch you in the rose garden in exchange for a hairpin."

Her lips curled.

"That you spread your legs the same way your witch mother did. You're exactly like her-wolfless, desperate, and cheap."

Something snapped inside me.

My hand moved before my brain could stop it.

I slapped her.

Hard.

The sound cracked through the study like a whip.

Elara's head snapped sideways. A red mark bloomed across her perfect cheek.

She gasped.

Then she screamed loudly enough for the entire keep to hear.

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU WOLFLESS BITCH! YOU HIT ME! FATHER!"

Valeria shrieked.

"LUCAS! SHE ATTACKED YOUR DAUGHTER! YOUR TRUE DAUGHTER!"

Lucas rose so quickly that his chair crashed to the floor.

He seized my wrist and twisted it until I cried out. Pain shot up my arm, and my knees nearly buckled beneath me.

His Alpha anger filled the room.

"YOU DARE LAY A HAND ON MY TRUE DAUGHTER?" he roared, his Alpha aura crushing down on me until my lungs struggled for air. "YOU DARE HIT ELARA? IN MY STUDY?"

"I hate you!"

The words tore out of me, carrying years of pain, every sleepless night, every insult, every floor I had scrubbed while they treated me like I was less than nothing.

"Did you ever love me? Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to you? Even as a child, you never looked at me as your daughter!"

His grip tightened until my wrist throbbed.

"If you will not respect me as your father, respect me as your Alpha! Stop raising your voice at me!"

"Now you're pretending to be my father?"

I sobbed, tears streaming down my face.

"You never acted like one. You let them call me a failure. You called me your biggest shame. Your biggest mistake."

Silence fell.

Elara held her cheek, her eyes filling with perfectly timed tears.

Acting.

Valeria watched without saying a word.

Still smiling.

Lucas stared at me with cold disgust, as though I were a stranger standing in his home.

"Leave my study," he said in a low, deadly voice.

He released my wrist so abruptly that I stumbled backward.

I stood trembling, my wrist throbbing, my legs still weak from the night in the cold.

Valeria stepped forward, smoothing her red gown.

Her voice turned sweet, like poisoned honey.

"Oh, don't be angry, darling. We have a solution. Two useless people belong together, don't they?"

My blood ran cold.

"What?"

Lucas sat down again and straightened his sleeves as though the shouting had never happened. He picked up his quill.

"Kael proposed to Elara to secure our alliance with the Blackthorns. But their true Alpha heir-the older brother-is dying."

He dipped the quill into the ink.

"Adrian Blackthorn. Alpha of Blackridge. Silver poison runs through his blood. He needs a bride before he dies, or his bloodline may end with him."

He finally looked at me.

There was no fatherly affection in his eyes.

Only the cold calculation of an Alpha making a trade.

"So I offered you."

The room tilted.

For a moment, I felt the freezing stone beneath my feet again. I could almost feel the cold storage walls closing around me.

"You... offered me?"

"Yes. As the bride of the dying Alpha of Blackridge."

His expression didn't change.

"The Blackthorns get a wolfless girl to warm their dying Alpha's bed during his final months. We get their army and their gold. And I finally rid myself of my biggest shame."

I stared at him.

My father.

My own blood.

The man who had once told me I had my mother's eyes.

"Did you ever love me?" I asked quietly.

My voice sounded so small like that of the little girl who had once waited for him to defend her.

"For one day? Did you ever love me?"

Lucas didn't answer.

He looked down and signed the paper before him.

"Pack only what you can carry," he said, setting down the quill. "You leave at dawn. A warrior escort will accompany you. Don't embarrass me again."

Valeria opened the study door.

Her smile was pure triumph.