Chapter 8: BRIDE

"What?" I blinked, unable to comprehend what he had just said.

"Are you deaf?" Trent barked at me, and I jumped.

"Of course she is." Luna Elizabeth stepped forward from behind him.

She looked me over from head to toe.

"Good Lord." Her eyes fell on the bottle of wine in my hand. "Is she drunk? What do you expect from someone like her? A human."

"This pack is sinking." Trent pointed down at me, and I flinched. "Father spoiled you rotten and left me with pieces I had to pick up for myself. I am the only reason this pack is still afloat! Unless you have hidden money somewhere."

My mind immediately went to the few coins I had managed to save over the years for Amy and me to escape.

Just about five hundred gold coins.

It was all I had.

"I have nothing," I replied.

"Even if she did, would the bitch give you anything?!" Luna Elizabeth shook her head. "So ungrateful. After everything I’ve done for you! I married your father to raise you and that brat as my own, and what have you done?! Put us in debt! Brought disgrace upon this family!"

She fanned herself with a hand fan.

She had helped us?

And we had been ungrateful?

She had nothing before she married my father.

None of her children even had any rights to the pack.

They had no blood ties to us.

"Now," Trent said. "I have come up with a very reasonable solution."

My stomach twisted.

"You will be wed off tonight to the Night Pack—"

My body went into a state of shock.

The Night Pack.

The most barbaric pack that existed.

And then my memory flashed to the men I had seen earlier.

Had they come for me?

To take me away?

Had this always been Trent’s plan?

"Tonight?! The Night Pack?!" I barked in disbelief.

Now it made sense.

He intended to tell me on the same day I was supposed to be married off so I wouldn’t have the chance to run away.

"You dare speak back at me when I speak?!" he roared. "You filthy bitch! You should be grateful!"

"I would rather die than marry anyone!" I shot back.

Another slap landed across my face.

The force was so strong it threw me to the floor.

I slowly sat up, tasting the blood in my mouth.

My hands were shaking.

"Defiant bitch!" he barked before kicking me in the stomach with his boots.

I cried out in pain as he repeated the motion over and over again.

"Trent, don’t." I heard Luna Elizabeth warn him. "If you beat her up, she will have scars, and he won’t want to marry her anymore. She is already hideous enough."

I felt a chill in my stomach, my body now aching with pain as tears filled my eyes.

I looked up at him.

"I would never marry anyone for your selfish benefit! You ran this pack to the ground! You are not the heir to this pack! I might be a human bastard, but you’re the one who doesn’t belong here."

I spat the words through my tears.

"You should ask your mother which brothel she had you in."

Trent’s pompous face turned red with rage.

He turned and rushed back toward me, grabbing me by the neck.

I kicked and struggled as I felt the air leaving my lungs.

"I’ll kill you with my bare hands! I should have fucking killed you a long time ago!" he swore.

He was bigger than me.

And now he was an Alpha.

I was no match for my stepbrother.

"Trent!" Luna Elizabeth hissed at him. "Don’t kill her! Do you want them to send your sister instead?!"

His eyes were murderous.

For a moment, I truly thought he was going to kill me.

Then, as if forcing himself to stop, he aggressively let me go.

I gasped heavily and touched my throat as I coughed.

"You know what?" he said to me.

I looked up at him.

"It’s fine."

He smiled.

"Don’t get married then."

My heart stopped.

"Once Amy is mature enough, she will be married off to him." He said, turning and walking towards the hall.

"No!"

I screamed as I scrambled up and grabbed him.

"NO! NO! NO!" I pleaded in panic, my heart racing.

I shook my head at him.

"No, please! She is a baby! Please! She is just seven! They will kill her!"

My body trembled at the thought of Amy being married off to the Night Pack.

They were barbarians.

Monsters.

No.

I would never allow it.

I turned to Luna Elizabeth.

"Please. I beg you. Please! You said it yourself. You made sacrifices to raise us. You’re supposed to be a mother to us."

She snatched her dress from my grip.

"Don’t touch me before you give me lice. This is your doing! And I am not your dead, pathetic human mother!"

Trent kicked me off and continued toward the balcony doors.

He grabbed the knob.

He was about to step outside when I screamed.

"Fine! I’ll do it!"

He stopped.

"Please! I’ll do it! I’ll marry him! Please, just leave my sister out of this!"

The words left my mouth before I could even think.

I had no choice.

I would marry a monster if it meant keeping Amy safe.

?

A few hours later, I stood in the center of the hall in a white dress, a veil covering my head.

I was being forced to marry a member of a barbaric pack.

My hands trembled as hot tears ran down my cheeks.

All I wanted was to find my sister and run away.

I regretted being born here.

Ever since Father died, I had taken on the role of both mother and father to protect my sister.

We had struggled to find our footing.

And now I blamed myself.

I should have run away earlier.

I should have taken Amy and left before Trent ever had the chance to do this.

I looked across the hall and saw Leon standing with my stepsister in the corner.

My spirit burned with anger.

I was all alone.

The doors suddenly opened.

I jumped.

My hands trembled beneath my sleeves.

Heavy boots marched into the hall.

I was too terrified to look up.

A single pair of boots approached me.

Closer.

Closer.

My heart raced so hard I thought it would leap out of my chest.

And then he stopped inches away from me.

I slowly looked up.

He was wearing a mask.

My heart skipped a beat.

That mask.

Why did it look so familiar?

Then he reached for my veil and pulled it away.

By the time I looked up at him, his mask was gone.

I froze.

Those blue eyes.

I knew those eyes.

He was the man from earlier that morning.

The man I had met with my horse.

The same man I had almost given myself to just hours ago.

And now...

He was the man I was being forced to marry.