Five

CHAPTER FIVE : Catherine's POV 

"I don't know your relationship with Luna Thorne, but based on my past experiences with her, I think it's better we annul this marriage."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I watched him close off completely, I saw the exact moment he decided I was a threat.

"Annul—”

"I'm sorry, but you heard me right." He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking past me, through me. "I don't trust anyone with affiliations with Luna. Even my own child. I avoid him because of his relationship with his mother."

His words echoed painfully in my head.

"She's not—she's—" I couldn't form the words. He thought I was working with Luna. He thought I was part of whatever she'd done to him. "She's not my family either. She—"

"She took you in and raised you. You were going to marry her son." Each word was like a nail in a coffin. "That's enough affiliation for me."

"You can't just decide that!" My voice broke, and I hated that tears were streaming down my face. "Last night you said I was yours. You said—"

"I said a lot of things last night." He moved closer, but there was no warmth in it now. Just cold authority as he crowded me against the sink. I saw his fangs lengthen over his lips—much longer than an average wolf's canines. A reminder that he wasn't just a wolf but  something more dangerous. "Things I say when I don't have all the information."

"I didn't lie to you!"

"You didn't tell me the truth either." His hand cupped my face, and I wanted to lean into it, but his thumb stroking my cheekbone felt distant in a cold way now. "The moment I bit you, the moment you bit me back—yes, you did, check my shoulder—we became mated. In my world, that's permanent."

I touched his shoulder and found my mark. Smaller than his, but definitely there. Proof that I'd claimed him back in whatever drunken haze last night had been.

"Then why are you breaking this?" My voice was small. I refused to beg another Anderson to keep me. "What do I do now?"

"Now?" He pulled back, and I saw something flicker in his eyes—regret maybe, or just annoyance that this had gotten complicated. His phone rang before he could answer.

I stood there, naked except for a sheet, watching him answer with a curt "What?"

The conversation was brief, I watched his face grow darker with each passing second. The easy man from last night who'd whispered that I was perfect, who'd touched me like I was precious—was gone completely.

"Alright. Thank you." His voice was grim as he hung up. He scrolled through his phone, cursing loudly at intervals.

"What—"

"Now we deal with the scandal," he said without looking at me, "because the entire supernatural world knows you married me instead of my son."

"Oh god." I'd forgotten about social media. About the cameras at the wedding. About how interconnected the supernatural community was. "They all know?"

"We're trending on MoonNet as we speak." He still wasn't looking at me, he focused on his phone like it held all the answers. "The headlines are creative. 'Billionaire Alpha Steals Son's Bride,' something like that." His voice was dry as he read them out loud, but there was no humor in it.

"This is a nightmare."

"This is life." He straightened, finally meeting my eyes. The man looking at me now was a cold calculative stranger. Nothing like the person who'd held me last night. "Get dressed. We need to figure out our next move."

"Our next move should be an annulment." I grabbed onto what he'd said earlier like a lifeline. At least if we annulled it, I could disappear. "You said—"

"No."

The word was final.

"Dave—"

"No annulment or divorce. There's no going back." He turned those intense eyes on me, and I saw the ruthless businessman beneath the flirty front of yesterday "What is changing is how we handle the fallout. My lawyer will provide you with a contract for the new terms of this marriage."

He leaned down until we were eye to eye. This close, I could see the exact moment last night had meant nothing. This close, I could see I was just a problem to be managed.

"We present a united front. You and I will present stability and the illusion of a perfect love story. No bad press to ruin my image and business deals."

"But—"

"Get dressed." He straightened and walked toward the bedroom like this was just another business meeting. Like he hadn't been inside me hours ago. "We have a lot to discuss, and I'm going to need coffee for this conversation."

I stood in the bathroom, naked except for a sheet, with a mating mark on my neck and a wedding ring on my finger, married to my ex-fiancé's father in a city I'd never been to before.

"Dave—"

He stopped in the doorway, his back to me. When he turned, his face was completely expressionless.

"Also, it's now Mr. McFanger to you. No intimacy and no sense of overfamiliarity until I uncover whatever evil mission your Luna Anderson sent you to do in my life."