What?

CHAPTER THREE

THE CONTRACT

Sophie’s POV

The pack healer finished examining me, then stepped away from the bed after confirming what I had already known from the beginning. There was nothing wrong with me. I had a few marks on my clothes from being dragged through the forest, but I wasn’t injured, and there was no reason for me to remain there.

I looked toward the man standing near the doorway.

Magnus, he  had barely spoken since bringing me to the healer, but his presence had been impossible to ignore. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, watching everything that happened as though he owned the room and everyone inside it.

I was beginning to understand why everyone here seemed to obey him without question.

I pushed myself off the bed.

“I have been treated, and there is nothing wrong with me, so I can leave now.”

Magnus didn’t move. “You can leave when I tell you that you can leave.”

I stared at him. I had never met anyone who spoke with such certainty about controlling another person’s movements.

“We are here for the final hockey match, and my team is waiting for me. I have already been gone for too long, and I need to return to them.”

Magnus finally turned his eyes toward me. “This is my pack, and the match will be postponed.”

I stared at him. “You cannot just postpone a championship because you decided to.”

“The organizers made an agreement with my pack. We provide the rink, accommodation, transportation, and security for the final. Without my permission, the match cannot happen.”

My eyes widened. “So if I leave, you can stop the final?”

“Yes.”

“You’re seriously holding the championship over my head.”

“I can do whatever I want inside my territory.” His answer left me speechless for a moment.

I had spent the past two days trying to understand the strange rules of this place, but Magnus was making everything even more difficult. He spoke as though the entire settlement belonged to him, and from the way everyone obeyed him, I was beginning to suspect that it actually did.

“I need to go back,” I insisted. “My team needs me, and there are people waiting for me at the guesthouse.”

“Then go back to them.” His voice remained cold.

I frowned. “What?”

“Go back to the people who stood there while the rogue attacked you.”

The words hit me harder than I expected.

My mind immediately returned to the forest.

Rolan’s face came back to me, I remembered the way he had looked at me while the rogue held him.

I remembered him saying, Take her instead. I remembered the other three standing there.

None of them had helped me, none  of them had tried to stop him.

They had simply stepped aside and allowed the rogue to take me.

I looked away from Magnus. “I still need to go.”

“Then go.” His answer came without hesitation.

I looked back at him.

He walked toward me slowly, stopping only when he was standing directly in front of me. “But understand what happens when you leave.”

I waited.

“The championship will not happen again in my pack.”

My eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

“I am saying exactly what you heard.”

“You cannot cancel the entire championship because I leave.”

“I am not cancelling it because you leave. I am cancelling it because I have decided that it will not happen.”

I stared at him.

He was completely serious.

“You are unbelievable.”

“I have heard worse.”

“You cannot use your position to control me just because you are the Alpha here.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I am not asking you to like my decision, Sophie. I am telling you what it is.”

I folded my arms. “Why are you doing this?”

He studied me for several seconds before answering. “Because I want you to stay.”

The answer caught me off guard. “Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It wasn’t meant to.”

I stared at him, trying to understand what kind of man I was dealing with.

He had rescued me from the rogue, but there was nothing gentle about him. He wasn’t asking whether I wanted to stay. He wasn’t offering me a choice.

He was simply making the choice for me.

I shook my head. “I have never met anyone like you.”

His expression remained cold. “You will get used to me.”

I almost laughed at the arrogance of his answer. “I don’t think that is going to happen.”

He stepped closer. “Then you will have to learn quickly.”

I took a step backward. “What exactly do you want from me?”

His eyes remained fixed on mine. “Be my contract wife for one moon.”

I blinked.

For several seconds, I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly. “One what?”

“One moon.”

I stared at him. “You need to use words I understand.”

His expression didn’t change. “One month.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You want me to stay here for a month and pretend to be your wife?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I saved you from the rogue, and you owe me.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You want me to pay you back for saving me?”

“Yes.”

I immediately reached for my bag. “How much do you want?”

His eyebrows moved slightly. “I don’t understand.”

“If you want money, tell me how much you need. I can pay you back, and then I can leave.”

He stared at me. “I don’t want your money.”

“Then what exactly do you want from me?”

“I already told you.”

I stared at him. “You really expect me to become your contract wife because you stopped a rogue from attacking me?”

“I expect you to make a choice.”

“What choice?”

He moved closer again, and there was something about the coldness in his eyes that made me stop arguing for a moment.

“You can stay here for one month and become my contract wife, or you can return to your city without the championship you came here to play.”

My heart sank. “You’re giving me an impossible choice.”

“No. I’m giving you a simple one.”

“You are holding the entire championship over my head.”

“Yes.” He said it so calmly that I almost couldn’t believe it.

“You are seriously willing to destroy the tournament just to force me into this?”

“I already told you that I make the decisions here.”

I looked away.

My mind began racing.

I was the captain. Everyone had trusted me to lead the team into the final.

We had trained for months for this match, and the championship was the reason we had travelled all the way here.

If I walked away now, the entire trip would be wasted.

Worse, I would be the reason my teammates lost their chance to compete.

But then I remembered what had happened.

Rolan had chosen himself.

My boyfriend had looked at me and decided that my life was worth less than his.

The others had done nothing.

I had no idea what would happen if I returned to the city with them.

At least here, I knew who Magnus was.

A controlling Alpha, a cold stranger, a man who clearly believed the entire world should obey him but  he had also been the one who stopped the rogue.

I looked at him again. “You really won’t allow the championship to happen if I leave?”

“No.”

“And you expect me to stay here for an entire month?”

“Yes.”

“As your contract wife?”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t believe I was actually considering it.

Everything inside me told me to refuse.

I should leave.

I should return to the city.

I should put as much distance between myself and this strange settlement as possible.

But then I thought about my team.

I was their captain.

I couldn’t abandon them because I was angry, frightened, or uncomfortable.

I took a slow breath.

“Fine.”

Magnus’s expression remained unchanged.

I expected some sign of satisfaction, but he gave me nothing.

I pointed at him.

“But this is only for one month, and when that month is over, I leave.”

His eyes remained fixed on mine.

“We will discuss the terms later.”

I frowned.

“No. We discuss them now.”

For the first time, something almost like amusement appeared in his eyes.

“You are already making demands.”

“I am not going to become someone’s wife without knowing what I am agreeing to.”

“You already agreed.”

“I agreed to one month, not to anything else.”

He stepped closer until there was barely any space between us. “You should learn something about me, Sophie.”

I looked up at him.  “What?”

“When I make an agreement, I expect the other person to honor it.”

His voice was low and cold. “And when you agree to be my wife, even if it is only a contract, you will follow my rules while you remain in my territory.”

I stared at him. “I have my rules too”

I had a terrible feeling that agreeing to this contract had just created a much bigger problem than the one I had been trying to solve.

And judging from the way Magnus was looking at me, I suspected he knew that too.