Chapter 1: A Miserable Bride

"You look beautiful," Joan says as she places the veil on top of my head and gently strokes my hair.

"Beautiful or miserable?" I turn toward the mirror, finally seeing myself for the first time today.

Sure, on the outside I look like a normal bride. Red lips, pink cheeks, long, wavy red hair. The makeup artist has done a great job covering the scars on my arms and the one on my chin. No one can see the scars that matter, though.

"Well, as your friend, I try to focus on the bright side of things," Joan says brightly, placing her hands on my shoulders and gently squeezing them. "You'll be fine, Lena. You always are."

The thing is, I don't want to be fine anymore.

For once, I just want to be happy, whatever happiness means. 

And leaving my parents behind could be something to be happy about if it wasn't for the fact that I'm just switching jailors. I don't know a lot about Alpha Jack, but he seems to be the cut of the same tree as my father.

Ruthless on the inside. Nice, upstanding businessman on the outside. They give you a polite smile as they trample over anything and anyone to get what they want.  

"At least you're not marrying Alpha Ronald," Joan continues, leaving my side and opening the curtains. It's dark outside, and all I see is my faded reflection in the clear glass. 

"I honestly thought father was going to sell me off to him after my last stunt," I say, a genuine smile forming on my face for the first time in the day.

Alpha Ronald's wives tend not to last very long. Every three or four years, they mysteriously die or vanish. The last one's private plane fell in the Caribbean sea. That's what my father told me, anyway. 

It's no wonder that of all the leaders and Alphas in the Pack Alliance, Ronald is the one most feared by single women and wayward daughters like me.

"Is that why you're having the wedding here in the countryside?" Joan gasps as her eyes widen. "I thought it was weird you weren't having it in your father's building!"

I shrug, though she's right. A few weeks ago, I scaled my father's building to sneak out and managed to make it to the terrace on the fifth floor before his henchmen grabbed me. I then overheard him speaking to the wedding planner, saying that the wedding would have to be somewhere close to the ground.

He didn't mention that he was afraid I'd jump to my death before he could seal his deal.

"Helena, are you ready?" The door behind us opens and in props my stepmother's coiffured head. "Alpha Jack is here."

"Fifteen minutes," I say, pretending to fumble with my earrings.

"We don't want to keep him waiting," she whispers, scowling at me.

"He can wait fifteen minutes, or is he too old to stand in one place for long?"

She scowls and looks behind her she enters the room and closes the door. From the side of my eyes, I see Joan trying to suppress a giggle. 

"Helena... please. Behave just this once. You'll never have to see me or your father again if you don't want to," my stepmother pleads as I stare at her reflection in the mirror. "You'll be a Luna and manage your own household, and when you have kids-"

"I need to finish getting ready," I interrupt her, no longer wanting to hear the long list of reasons why my wedding to Alpha Jack is supposed to be great for me. I've heard them all before.

The only reason I'm going along with this is that the alternative is to get locked up in a facility.

I've been there before, and it.... isn't the best of places.

"Ok. Fifteen minutes." My stepmother's lips prune up like she has swallowed a lemon, and with a quick, hateful glance, she steps outside. 

"On the bright side..." Joan begins.

I immediately cut her off.

"Joan, I love you, but if you mention a bright side to this whole thing one more time, I might just set the place on fire."

I'm only half-joking. Though they did take care not to place any lit candles near me. 

"I wouldn't put it past you," she says, shaking her head. "I'll give you some time alone. Please don't set the place on fire. Or run..."

There's nowhere for me to run and hide here. There's no knight Alpha coming to my rescue. 

Memories of the past threaten to paralyze me, so I try to brush them off. Once, I had been naïve enough to believe that I would marry for love. Once, I thought life could be like the stories, where love triumphs in the end against all odds. 

That I would be able to spend the rest of my life with... I don't even want to think of him. But the last glimpse I caught of his face before he disappeared out the window, out of my life forever, is one I will never forget. 

I sigh and head towards the door, eager to get the farce over with. There's not much more I can do for my appearance, not that it matters. I could be wearing a clown costume and the wedding will proceed as normal.

The venue is one of Alpha Jack's retreats, and the hallway outside is lined with vines and leaves, like a forest of multicolored flowers. I would appreciate the decor if it had actually been my choice to be here today.

"There she is!" My stepmother rushes towards me, tugging at my father's arm. "I'll go get things started."

My father is meant to walk me down the aisle where an ordained minister is going to perform the ceremony. Among the higher echelons of power in the Pack Alliance, they do things more like humans, to uphold the legal (and business) side of the transaction.

"You look nice," he says, barely even looking at me as he holds out his arm for me to grab it.

I raise my chin and ignore him as I start to walk down the hallway that leads to the main room.

"Helena..." he growls, pulling at my arm and almost making me trip backward. "Why? Why does everything have to be so difficult with you?"

The doors to the main room suddenly open, and music begins to play. All the attendees rise and turn their heads toward us. There must be at least a hundred people here.

I feel my father nudge me forward, and I smoothly slide my arm away from his, quickly stepping away, trying not to step on the dress.

Short of him running after me, there's nothing he could do without messing up the show. Because this is what this is. A display of power and wealth. And I am the puppet, being pulled along by invisible strings. 

I smile, leaving him behind. From the surrounding faces, no one seems to think it's odd that I'm walking myself down the aisle. 

My happiness is short-lived, however. At the end of it is Alpha Jack, looking like a smug frog.

I make it to the front just as the music dies down and I take my place next to Alpha Jack, realizing this is the end.

The threat I'd been hearing my whole life is finally coming true: "I'm going to marry you off for money or an alliance because that's the only thing daughters are good for. That, and having heirs."

I hear my father shuffle in behind Alpha Jack, and I can almost feel him looking at my back with hatred. The doors behind us close, and I feel like it's someone sealing me in a coffin with me alive inside of it. 

The minister gives me and Alpha Jack a brief smile and begins.

"We are gathered here-"

With a loud bang, the doors behind us open, cutting off the minister.

"I'm sorry, are we late?" A tall man in a suit barges in, flanked by dozens of growling wolves. Some people cry out and everyone turns their heads towards the back to take in this stranger who has just interrupted the ceremony.  

"What is the meaning of this?" my father bellows, stepping onto the aisle. "Who are you?!"

The man smiles at him. 

"My boss doesn't like to be kept waiting, and he never got his audience with you, Alpha Conrad. It's bad manners not to receive your guests before your daughter's wedding."

The wolves surrounding him fill up the corners of the room, while more men in their human forms shuffle in behind him. They're definitely not part of the Pack Alliance.

All of a sudden, my father's men shift, causing a commotion among the guests. They all look terrified, scrambling to get away as suits get shredded into pieces, flying all over the place.

"No! No need for that. My boss just wants his audience." The man spreads his arms, gesturing for people to calm down. "Sorry love, the wedding can continue after that."

He winks at me. 

Then he points at the windows, where the dark eyes of more wolves peer inside.

The place is surrounded.