She sighed and ran a hand through her hair , twirling a silver lock in her hand " so you want us to make this marriage work? And act what- like a real mate , do you even understand what you're asking ? Being mates with someone is not a joke , it's all about touchy yucky things and as you just said , you don't like it ."
"And that's why I'm asking you to try it out with me , this marriage won't end with divorce , my pack ain't gonna like that , they need a Luna and I need a mate and this marriage of ours won't be fooling anyone if we just stay clear of each other , which I don't think is necessary , I'm gonna give you what you want , if its loyalty fine its yours , power , comforts anything .Do you still want us to remain mere strangers , for all our life?"
Okay that was an incredible deal , Rosalie had to admit that . But would it work? Can she really trust him with her heart?
Rosalie suppressed the urge to grab her hair at her inability to make a decision even after wracking her mind and her body , oh bloody hell , her body wasn't helping , uh oh it wasn't .
As for her her wolf she wasn't sharing the same problem . Oh no. With her dominant nature, her wolf wasn't interested in details or what ifs, she was only interested in whether Aiden could be her potential mate , that she had been waiting for .
Her wolf was howling in agreement , having liked his confidence, his authority and his heavy aura of dominance and she absolutely loved the way he smelled . Her wolf was totally fine with letting Aiden mark her , imprint her and do whatever the frickity frick he wanted .
In fact, she was going ballistic with heat .
Uh oh , that was a problem .
" Have you thought about what you're even talking about by meaning to claim me ?" she asked. "Your wolf will at once know I'm not your true mate, and he may even understand but that's not import ant for him , its just minor details to him. If you mark me your wolf is going to see me as all his in every way. That means you - "
" Cannot whore around with another she wolves as my wolf will be insanely possessive, jealous and protective of you " said Aiden counting out all the what ifs she was talking about . "That will help us with mating bond. Though I'm sure that by his understanding about you being not my true mate won't be a problem since he himself killed his own mate."
This was the truth , his wolf was currently silent in his head, completely focused on Rosalie as he waited for her to agree .
His wolf approved of his little wife . He had identified her wolf as dominant and wild , and he very much liked Rosalie too for her incredibly yummy looks , liked her stubborness and he especially liked that feisty temper of her's . Just as Aiden .
And her scent… for the love of the Holy , her scent was making his wolf crazy .
He knew that she was close, already contemplating what he had offered her , ready to accept his proposal.
He didn't blame her for being suspicious or hesitant, but she had to know about her situation , their situation "Rosalie , I'm sincerely offering you a way out. Think for a second , Me being the Alpha my subjects or my pack won't say a word about me sleeping around with other woman but how do you think they will look at you ? Knowing that you cannot even keep your husband . They won't be respecting you as their Luna , You said you have been living a life in a hell hole , which is shitty way to live if You ask me , do you want to continue living like that , where people look down on you, still ?"
" I would never agree to it never, no matter what."
" Then I will take on the option , I'm presenting you with , let me imprint you , mark you , make you my mate . you can refuse of course but,it seems to me, , that there aren't any other choices open to you right now. You're my wife , its an unchangeable fact only with my death will you be free of this bond , If you don't start smelling like me till the end of the week , where I will be holding the banquet for my pack , well you are smart " .
"I was planning to never come in front of your pack."
Oh he had not thought that she would come up with such a plan . "You - I don't even have words . You as my wife not appearing in front of my pack will be seriously demoralizing not to mention extremely disrespectful . As the Luna its your responsibility to hold the pack together , while I go out and defend our boundaries " .
She swallowed hard. "I don't know if I can trust you yet , you have never even sent me message or letter. Much less ever coming to meet me before we got married and now all of a sudden you want me to become your one true mate , Are you saying you would honestly accept that this - this proposal if you were me , that you would break off every relation with your best mate , like you told me in our wedding reception just for the sake of making our marriage work?" She didn't even bother hiding her apprehension from her voice.
"Yes, I would," he stated , his voice sincere and stern,"I need you as my mate as much as you. You can still take all the time you want till the weekend reception but I hope you won't make the wrong choice. You rejecting me won't bother me at all because unlike that pretty ex mate of yours I'm a born Alpha , being dominant is in my blood unlike you , Who is a recessive , there is no point looking at me like that , its the truth and you know it ." he added as Rosalie glared at him " Your wolf's strength can be stabilized if she bonds with me , its surprising enough that you haven't lost your wolf entirely but even if you haven't she might already be really, really weak . Will you really let go of your wolf just because of your distrust about me ? I think you're very clear about how the mate bond works , with your wolves elemental nature , mine can preserve her . You will have your wolf take form in no time but if you were to refuse - well six months at the most let us give it a shot , if it doesn't work , you call the shots " .
Rosalie bit her lips , it was an extremely good deal , something she wasn't expecting from him . Her instincts yelled at her to let the good man have a chance but she couldn't trust them .
He raised his brows questioningly "Well, do you agree wifey ?"
"There's one thing I really don't get. Why marry me , when you have so many woman , or maybe you could have just married your mi- bestmate . I don't see the point in all of this ?"
"Well this is going to be a pain in the ass , its complicated. My mum don't like Giselle , well not enough for her to become her daughter in law . It would be even more complicated to convince an unmated female to marry me , instead of her mate . Even though its not unheard of but I would rather not like a stage five clinger hanging on me like a blood sucking leech . "
Rosalie groaned , rubbing her face with her hands There were so unanswered questions. However, she knew that as much as she liked a quiet and peaceful life , it wasn't on board along with her . Aiden waw right as the Luna it was her duty to hold the inner court while he deals with the outer ones , she can never hide herself for , forever from his pack. And when it had come down to it , she had no other choice but to nod .
He gave her a devilish smile.
"You made a Right choice , wife."
"So when do we do this - mating?"
"before this weekend. I have my meeting with some of my alliances this morning and given how tiring the wedding was , I don't think you're up for it tonight . But then again I will press on how important this is to you and me , and hope you won't back out when I come to claim you " .
She nodded.
" And I would like to remind you it's best not to do anything out of the norm , don't try to run away or hide from me or my pack .I have enough enemies as it is and the territory outside of my pack isn't always safe .I'll give you my number in case there's some issues and you need to get in touch with me, But Try not to use it unless you really , really need to ." He didn't like leaving her alone or to drop the matter of their mating for a good three days . In three days she could always change her mind or even stumble upon the decision that marrying him was the biggest mistake of her life and run away from him .
Again she nodded.
"And as for this deal , you cannot let anyone know , as your husband I should have claimed you tonight whether or not you agreed to it but I'm still giving you a choice . If you tell others , my reputation as an Alpha will be at stake , I'm serious when I say you can't tell anyone, which include that best friend of yours " .
Unfortunately he was right at being afraid of this her best friend, Cecelia was pretty protective of her and yet she had one big flaw .Cece couldn't keep a secret , if she were to be told about this , she will waste no time in telling Adam, her mate and in no time , the entire pack will know about it . Meaning her father will come marching down here the moment he comes to know about it , he let Rosalie marry Aiden not only because he wanted to keep Anna , Rosalie knew that her getting married to Aiden was also because her father have heard about his bloodthirsty reputation , which included the sick tendencies of hitting woman .
Her father believed that it will do her good to mated with someone who had a firm hand. In his eyes her being a recessive was all her fault and that maybe she could use some of the discipline. Maybe he believed that Aiden can be the one who end up managing to teach her the true meaning of respect of an Alpha .
Rosalie knew that if Aiden were to bound her in chains and beat her up her father will be perfectly content with the idea of it , infact he wouldn't even be angry at Aiden for killing her off by mistake just like he did with his previous mate.
Not liking her silence, he spoke up a little more harshly , "I mean it,Rosalie , you have to keep your mouth shut about this. Or it won't bode you well "
She flared up at once at his commanding tone " We should probably clear this up right now, Alpha, I won't be your weak , submissive wife , If you're still hoping for that , then you can dream on " .
However, the word 'submissive' from her mouth had his mind take an overdive in the gutter and images of her tied up, wriggling on this very bed, begging him to take her flashed in his mind.
He couldn't hold back the sadistic smile, and he knew the way her violet eyes flashed with dangerous glint , she knew what was going on his mind .
" We'll see about that wifey " .
" We will see but remember this -if you ever try to cheat on me or tried to have an affair , I will rip your balls off".
The next few days passed by without no particular incidents happening , Aiden has tightened the security of the pack so well that Rosalie felt like she was residing in a military zone . Matteo, Trish and Cole kept an eye on every single pack member only to return disappointed when they got nothing and by the day of battle finally arrived , every one turned so jumpy and agitated that even the slightest ring of Aiden's phone startled them. " Its fine " said Aiden his jaw hardening as he rubbed her nape , then he turned to look at his pack mates and nodded " The alliance members are here " Matteo nodded then brought the enforcers out of the living room. Trish shared a look with Roxanne but the she wold turned her face away coldly without looking at him even once , Jojo on the other hand planted a smooch on her cheek that had Trish growling , Aiden snapped a snarl at both of them . He knew that along with
Rosalie walked back to her room and took a long soaking bath to clear of the scent of blood from her body . After that she sat on the bed determined to wait for Aiden and have a nice conversation once he was calm enough to listen to her reasoning but somewhere around midnight her head lolled off and she nodded off to sleep , this was the problem of taking a nice cozy bath and turning on the air con to full blast . However , when the clock chimed two in the morning, she was startled awake with a soft cooling and numbing sensation on the back of her hand .Her eyes fluttered open and she found Aiden kneeling by the side of her bed , rubbing some ointment on her injuries" You are back ? All done venting your anger ,huh Dr .hulk ? " she asked hoarsely her voice thick with sleep ." Sorry , I didn't mean to wake up up " said Aiden closing the tube and putting it on the bedside table .
" I get it " still clinging on his neck , Rosalie sighed " I know you are hurt and the situation is bad -"" This is who am I " enunciating each word Aiden spoke " You know who am I , what I am . That bastard tried to harm my mate on my own territory and you know that those who touch my bottom line , what am I capable of doing to them . Then don't ask me to do something that's not me , I'm the monster of Crescent moon pack , the blood thirsty Alpha who never thinks before killing his enemies , so don't ask me to be forgiving when I'm not capable of that sentiment , you will only hurt yourself "" I'm not asking him to forgive him , Jeez " scowling Rosalie looked up at his ruby red eyes " I'm asking you to just hold it in for a few days ,After the council's limit is a done deal , you can go ahead and rip his throat into shreds and I will cheer you on for that , I'm just asking you to delay it for a whil
" That stupid little sneak !" snarled Rosalie covering her face with her hands , she should have known as scheming as Griffin was he wouldn't have given up on his plan . She looked down at the small scratches and scraped on her knuckles and palm , the one she got when she was punching and dragging rat eye around the forest and groaned , Aiden will definitely not be happy about it at all , infact she could even imagine what kind of reaction her mate probably will have " call back Jojo and ask him that I'm coming back to the pack hall , he doesn't need to arrange all the enforcers to come and hound me "Roxanne and nodded and punched Jojo's number , the first ring didn't even finished ringing when Jojo picked up " Yeah it me ... no . she is fine ... yeah , I found her ...like I said she is totally fine ...no she wasn't kidnapped .. not exactly " both Rosalie and Roxanne winced when They heard Aiden yelling from some where in the background " Ye
The man was too winded up to speak and Rosalie didn't cared about him either , she knew that the man was here to kidnap her , which probably meant - Her eyes turned dark . While the man tried to recover from her kick , Rosalie used her hand and abruptly choked The kidnapper, cross eyed the man let out a sputter and made a choking sound , he tried to get rid of her clutch on his throat but Rosalie kneed him in his groin and backed away until he was pinned between a tree and her choke hold .She already caught the phone in her hand when she kicked the man earlier , still pinning the man on the tree , she placed the cell phone on her ear and spoke " I know its you , Dear cousin in law Griffin .. care to explain what exactly your man is doing here inside my pack ?"Her voice was coated with honey as if she wasn't choking a man with her hand , Cross eye made a lot a choking angry sound in response as his le
" I - I never thought that someone in your pack will really harm your mate , willingly " said Rosalie sounding genuinely shocked " I mean , a little bit of hate and taunts here and there are completely fine , I even took what they did to my wedding album and whatnot as a prank , something out of anger but to actually harm me ? I don't even know what to say about it "" I know wifey , I don't blame you " said Aiden angry at himself for not protecting her perfectly " who ever did this will be answering me soon, don't you worry "" Worried ? With you here ?"******"I said you are not going , that's it " For the millionth time Aiden declared shoving a mouthful of bacon in his mouth ignoring the glare that she was pointing at him .She knew after what happened there would definitely be some sort of craziness and possesiveness from the guy