Two weeks later
Harold stared at all his assembled pack mates. Damn, he’d rather be working than attending this ridiculous engagement party. What a waste of time! The bride wasn’t even there. Apparently, she couldn’t make it on such short notice, and in spite of this, his mother had insisted on going ahead with the party.
Christine’s parents were there. It showed how little the bride really mattered in this marriage. It annoyed him no end. He would have liked the chance to meet her, to gage her reaction to the impending marriage. Of course, it didn’t matter how she felt about it, but this was the woman he would have to live with for the next sixty years, it was important they get off on the right foot. Would anyone really care if he wasn’t there either?
“Harold,” called Marguerite. “Come and meet your new father and mother-in-law.”
The father’s eye twitched at that. Yes, he had agreed to the mating, but his father confided that it was very grudging. This wasn’t going to be an arrangement of like minds. Harold hadn’t been involved in the negotiation, so he wondered how high-handed his father and grandmother had truly acted.
He walked over to them and tried to smile in an ingratiating way. Given their stony expressions, it wasn’t working. Though, they were chatting to his grandmother – that was enough to sour anyone.
“Harold, this is Cole and Enid.”
Harold inclined his neck to them in submission. “Alpha,” he said and nodded at Enid.
Cole gave a slight nod in acknowledgment, while Enid merely sniffed. If Christine were like this, it would certainly be an uphill battle. Though, they probably wouldn’t spend that much time together anyway. He worked long hours.
“I’m sorry our daughter could not make it,” Cole said finally after a few nudges from his mate.
“I hope she will make it to the ceremony on Saturday,” sneered his grandmother.
If looks could kill, his grandmother would be on fire at that moment thanks to Cole’s glare. “She will. We didn’t expect the wedding to be so soon.”
“The only way her boss would allow her to leave so quickly is if she worked this weekend,” explained Enid, gripping her mate’s arm. It was probably a good job she was because it looked like Alpha Cole wanted to wrap his hands around Harold’s neck.
Yes, the wedding was being arranged very quickly, and it appeared that Christine’s parents were not happy about that at all. Hadn’t his family said that Christine’s parents were very fond of her – it seemed like they were furious to lose her.
The close date of the wedding was down to his grandmother’s influence no doubt. The other pack had dragged their feet on agreeing, and she wanted to make sure they didn’t change their minds.
His mother – the born hostess – took hold of Enid and Cole’s arms and led them away to introduce them to more people.
“Hey, Harry!”
Harold growled as his brother Jonathan slapped him on the shoulder. Jonathan was twenty and in college. Or at least, he should be in college – he had already been thrown out of two for his loutish behavior. If he were thrown out of a third, he wasn’t sure even their father would take the risk of bribing a fourth to take him.
“Hey, Granny, new cane? It’s lovely, goes with your eyes. Changed your will again this week? Am I still the favorite?”
Jonathan gave her a puppy dog look. Their grandmother snorted and cuffed his ear before walking away.
“Get lost,” muttered Harold.
“New bride couldn’t make it, huh?”
Harold ignored him.
“Maybe she’s afraid if you see her, you’ll change your mind.”
Harold ignored him.
“Probably good for you – she’d probably change her mind if she met you.”
Harold ignored him.
“Need any tips for the wedding night?”
Harold cuffed him around the ear as well and walked away, trying to drown out Jonathan’s raucous laughter. He really should have watched where he was going. Two seconds later, he was cornered by Sabrina. He should have realized she would be there – she was pack, she was invited.
She was sipping a huge cocktail, and given the slight sway in her step, it definitely wasn’t the first. “So, it’s really going ahead?” she demanded.
“Yes.” He couldn’t have been clearer about that when they last saw each other.
“You’re really going through with it?”
“Indeed.”
Her face pinched. “Maybe I’m pregnant!”
“You’re not,” he sighed. If she were, the cocktails would have been a bad idea.
“I could be.”
“Not by me, Sabrina.”
She huffed at him and stomped away – which now seemed to be a habit of hers. Her drink sloshed over the side of the glass, splattering the carpet.
Harold stiffened slightly as he sensed his father joining him. “Taking the news well I see.”
“She knew from the beginning I would have an arranged mating.”
“She’s very ambitious. I expect she thought she could change your mind.” Harold Sr. slanted him a look. “She hasn’t, has she?”
“Of course not. What about the bride, she hasn’t changed her mind?”
“No. She will be here. Now that we have signed the official agreement, she wouldn’t dare back out.”
Harold raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yes, we had to ensure there would be no complications.”
“Such as?”
Harold Sr. waved his hand. “We wanted to ensure she wasn’t already pregnant and that she had broken things off with her boyfriend. The last thing we wanted was her producing a bastard in less than nine months time. We had our own doctor check her out.”
Harold sipped his whiskey. No wonder her parents stared at him with such loathing. He couldn’t imagine bringing that up had been particularly pleasant, and his father wasn’t particularly tactful. It was where Harold got his bluntness.
“If she backs out now, we gain all of her pack's assets. If you back out now, they are free to all of the money we are putting into their business, and we would have no claim on it either.”
“I won’t back out.”
Harold Sr. gave him a small look of pride. “I know, son. We raised you better than that.”
Harold withheld a snort. His various nannies raised him. After his first shift, his parents generally just shouted at him every evening for about an hour, lecturing him on the importance of being a dutiful alpha.
“As for the rest, there is a clause that says if she cheats on you or tries to harm you or run away or steal from you, then we gain all her pack’s assets.”
His brow creased. “You think that is likely?”
He hadn’t considered the idea that she might actually try to harm him physically. Surely not. Though the idea of waking up to someone holding a knife over him was a disturbing image – and one he had ingrained in his psyche thanks to a prank from Jonathan when he was sixteen. Perhaps separate bedrooms?
He had wondered about whether she might seek affection elsewhere. His parents certainly had. Their mating agreement must not be quite so robust. It was a concern given that until the mating was agreed, Christine had a steady boyfriend.
“We have no idea – she seems sound enough, but we can’t be sure. She is a native Texan after all.”
“What else?” asked Harold quickly. There was only so much snobbery he could handle in one sitting.
“If you harm her in any way or fail in your husbandly duties then the money is their’s and their alpha retains the right to challenge you to a death match.”
“A death match?” And people thought arranged matings were archaic.
His father chuckled. “Her father was adamant about that part. If the union fails to produce a male child within five years, then the marriage will be absolved, and we will take our money back out of their business one way or the other.”
“I see.”
“That was your grandmother’s insistence.” His voice took on the exasperated tone always present when talking about his mother. “She said we had to ensure that the next alpha could be born. She believes that if Christine does not give you a son, then we can arrange another mating to a woman who will.”
“What if we only have daughters? She does realize that it is actually the male who determines the sex of a baby, right?”
Harold Sr. shook his head. “Your grandmother just put that in to ensure that you did have children. I’m fairly certain that if it came to it, we could challenge it. I would imagine that if you are married five years and have female children that we could find a way for you to stay together – for the sake of the children. But who knows, by then you may want to be rid of your wife.”
His father’s eyes sought out his own wife, narrowing slightly, and Harold felt a small churn inside. He did not want to become his father in twenty-five years time. That was more horrifying than his wife trying to butcher him in his sleep.
“Don’t worry,” said his father, aiming a jovial slap on his back. “Everything will work out, you’ll see.”
Harold nodded, but he couldn’t help a little trepidation. Yes, he had known this was coming for twelve years, but he really was mating a woman he had never met – she really could make his life hell. She could be a monster. She could be… anything.
Though, judging by the looks his future father-in-law was giving him, it seemed like he was going to be the bad guy in this. Well, if they didn’t want their daughter to mate him, then they should never have agreed to the mating.
He wasn’t going to make the mating bad – he would do everything he could to make it work. But if she had any hopes of anything more, then she really would be disappointed.
*
A few days later
Christine stared at the boxes dotted around her bedroom. Yep, she was definitely leaving. The increasingly bare bedroom was a testament to that. With every book or every item of clothing that was removed, she felt a little sadder. Any hope she had that her parents were going to turn around and shout ‘April fool’ were slowly dying. She really was leaving to marry a man she didn’t know.
She pulled an old 10th Kingdom poster down and started rolling it up.
“What are you doing?” asked her mom.
“I…”
“You won’t need that, sweetie.”
“No, I guess my husband will have already decorated his house,” she said dully.
“I’m sure you can redecorate when you get there.”
Christine eyed her mom who had the grace to look a little shamefaced. Decorating her new home was really low on her list of worries at that moment.
Her mom held up a box of clothes. “I’ll take this downstairs.”
Christine couldn’t take all her stuff on the plane, so they were shipping a lot of it. It would arrive a few days after the wedding. Which was on Saturday. Four days away.
She had already worked her last day at work. She spent her last day explaining her duties to her replacement. It hadn’t taken her boss long to find someone new. It would be like she had never worked there.
Damnit. She was trying not to get too maudlin but going through all her stuff, the many items she had accumulated throughout her childhood was depressing.
Christine stiffened as she scented something familiar. Roark.
She spun and growled as she found him climbing in through her window.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed, rushing to close her bedroom door before her parents realized he was there.
Her parents knew she was sexually active, but it was a rule that none of their children could have ‘sleepovers’ in the family house. Which is why for the two times Roark had stayed the night he came in through the window. A little naughty maybe, but it was nothing compared to what her brother Jordy got up to.
“I wanted to see you,” he said in a low voice.
He had tried to contact her repeatedly since she told him of the mating, but she didn’t want to speak to him. He had scared her, and she was worried he would be angry again - or worse, that he would try and win her over into rejecting the mating. It was far too late to go back on her word now.
“Please just leave,” she pleaded.
He held up his hands and gave her his usual devilish smile. The same smile that had won her over all those months ago, that had made half the females in the pack swoon. Yet, he had chosen her. Of all the prettier females, he chose her, he chased after her, and it had felt so good to be someone’s first choice for once. She was no beauty, but she had a girl next-door cuteness, but this didn’t really incite many feelings of lust in men. Roark had seemed different, but that was before he went all Godzilla on her a couple of weeks ago.
“Just hear me out.”
“Roark, please. You need to leave. There’s nothing to be said.”
His smile dimmed but didn’t completely disappear. “What are you doing?” He looked around the half-empty room.
“Packing. I have to leave in a couple of days.”
His eyes swam with amber; his inner wolf was close to the edge. “But what about us?”
“There is no us. Not anymore. I’m getting married.” It perhaps would have carried a little more weight if her voice weren’t so shaky, but she was still coming to terms with it herself.
His face became increasingly darker. “You should be marrying me.”
“There’s nothing I can do. It’s all arranged.”
He goggled at her. “You’re joking.”
“No,” she whispered tremulously. She wished she was.
“Who? Who is it? Have you been seeing him while you were seeing me?” His chest started heaving. He was getting angry again, and she definitely did not like him when he was angry.
“I told you, it’s an arranged mating. I’m moving to be with him in Virginia. I still haven’t met him.”
Roark let out a loud belly laugh. “I don’t believe it for a second. You won’t go through with it.” He grasped her arms a shade too tightly. “You won’t marry him. You wouldn’t even let me screw you until we knew each other for six months, and even then I had to tell you I loved you to get you in the sack.”
“Let go of me.”
“You won’t let this stranger near you.”
“You’re hurting me,” she growled, her wolf scratching to be free.
“You really think you can allow him to kiss you? To fuck you?”
“Get out!” she screamed. Irate at the way he was treating her and talking to her, but more bothered by the fact that he had touched a nerve. She was wondering those things herself. How could she stand to let this person – this stranger - touch her? Would he even want to?
“Call off the wedding.”
“I can’t,” she rasped through gritted teeth.
Christine struggled against his hold, but he was far too big, too strong for her to budge him. She raised her leg, trying to knee him, but he blocked her.
He grasped her head, dragging her lips to hers and pressed a punishing kiss against her mouth. She pushed against his chest, trying to get away. She prepared to shift, to turn into a wolf and clamp her jaws around him.
“What the hell?!”
Her father roared and shifted to his own huge red wolf. Roark growled and tossed Christine to the ground, beating a hasty retreat. Her mom’s arms quickly wrapped around her; she muttered soothing words and tried to ease Christine’s trembling.
When Christine went to bed that night, she wept into her pillow. Maybe she was feeling a little sorry for herself, maybe it was pathetic, but she didn’t care. A few weeks ago, everything had been wonderful and now…
Her lips still felt sore and bruised. She wanted to hate Roark, but she didn’t. A part of her still clung to the man who stole her heart, a part of her still wanted him. She also wanted to hate the man she was about to marry, but she couldn’t do that either. He was in the same boat she was, and it was a crazy boat, though, hopefully, not quite as doomed as the Titanic.
Just four days to go, and perhaps, given Roark’s behavior, it was for the best that she was leaving the state.