CHAPTER 2

MIRA’S POV

“I cannot,” I whispered and shook my head.

Zara was quiet on the other end of the phone for a moment, then she let out a long breath as if she had been holding it since and whispered back, “why can’t you? Mira, you can not stay with a gay husband. A man who treats you like trash.”

I shook my head again even though she could not see me and stammered, “Y…you do not understand.”

“Then make me understand.”

I pressed my back against the door and pulled my knees up to my chest. The floor was stone cold at my feet, but I did not move. “It is more than just leaving. It is more than that.”

“More than what?” Zara asked sharply. I could sense the impatience in her voice with every breath she took. “More than your happiness? More than your life?”

“Zara, please.” I pleaded desperately.

“No. You listen to me.” She was not backing down. “Wait….does Claudia know that her son is gay?”

I hesitated. “I…I am not sure. Or she would not be asking me to produce an heir with him, knowing fully well he is not into women.”

“He is gay, Mira, not infertile. There is a difference.” Zara hissed and took a deep breath. “She might know the truth. Infact, she might have known all along.”

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the door. “I do not know what to think anymore. I just know that if I stay, she will keep pushing me to produce an heir. And if I leave….”

“If you leave, what?” Zara asked quickly. “What will happen, Mira?”

I could not finish the sentence, because the truth was too heavy and too shameful to say out loud.

I remembered the day Aunt Mae sold me.

I was twenty three years old, sitting in her parlor while she paced from side to side in front of me. The room smelled strongly of old perfume and cigarette smoke, and the curtains were drawn so tight that no ray of sunlight could pierce it’s way in.

“You will marry Alpha Declan,” Aunt Mae said and it was not a request, it was a command.

I stared at my hands on my lap and protested. “I can not. I have never met him.”

“It does not matter if you have met him or not.” Aunt Mae barked. “His mother and I have an arrangement.”

“An arrangement?” I looked up at her in shock.

Aunt Mae stopped pacing and turned to face me, with those cold eyes of hers and snarled, “I am giving you to Claudia in exchange for a huge plot of land. Good land and it is very valuable. That plot will secure my position for the rest of my life.”

I could not believe my ears. “You are trading me? For land?”

“Do not act so surprised.” She hissed and waved her hand like she was swatting away a fly. “You have no parents and no one else wants you. I took you in when they all abandoned you, and this is how you will repay me.”

I felt hot tears gathering in my eyes, but I would not let them fall, because Aunt Mae hated tears. She had called them weakness.

“What if I say no?” I asked quietly.

She laughed coldly and asked, “say no? To me?” Then she walked towards me and leaned down until her face was inches from mine and whispered menacingly, “you have no money, no home, no family. If you say no, I will throw you out on the street with nothing but the clothes on your back. And do you think anyone in this pack will help you? Do you think anyone cares about a meet little girl with no name and no power?”

I said nothing.

“You will marry Declan,” she continued, slower this time, like she was speaking to a child. “You will behave and not bring shame to my name. Most importantly, you will never, ever divorce him. Do you understand me?”

I nodded because I did not know what else to do.

She stood up straight and smoothened her dress. “Good. Claudia is waiting for my answer. I will tell her you agree.”

Then she walked out of the room without looking back, and I sat there alone in the dark parlor, staring at my shaking hands and wondering when my life had stopped being my own.

“Mira? Mira are you still there?”

Zara’s voice pulled back to the present and I looked around only to realize that I was still on the cold floor of my room, still leaning against the door, still clutching my phone like it was the only thing keeping me from breaking apart.

“I am here,” I said.

“You went somewhere else. What happened?”

I took a shaky breath and decided to throw away my shame. “I was remembering my aunt. The woman who sold me to Declan’s mother.”

“S—sold you?”

“Yeah, for land. Claudia gave a plot of land, and Aunt Mae gave her me.” The words tasted bitter on my tongue. “She told me I could never divorce and warned me to behave. And she threatened to throw me out with nothing if I disobeyed.”

Zara was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was softer now, but still firm. “That woman is evil. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“And you are still afraid of her?”

I looked around my room, at the expensive furniture and the silk curtains and the walls that had never felt like home. “She is powerful, Zara. She has connections. If I leave Declan, she will come after me. I do not know what she will do, but I know it will be bad.”

“So you would rather stay married to a man who sleeps with his bodyguard? A man who has never touched you in three years?”

I did not answer.

“Mira, listen to me.” Zara whispered urgently. “You deserve more than this. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be touched and loved and wanted. Do you hear me?”

The tears I had been holding since I saw Declan with his bodyguard, finally trickled down my cheeks. “I hear you.”

“Then let me help you. We will figure something out together. But you can not stay in that house tonight. You need air. You need to clear your head.”

“I do not know if I can, Zara.”

“You can, and I will help you. Now get dressed. I am coming to pick you up.”

“I am not in the mood,” I murmured weakly.

“I do not care. You need to leave that house.” She said sharply. “I do not like the way you are sounding. It is Friday. Let us go out.”

The club was loud, dark and full of different people moving their bodies to a music I did not hear.

Zara ordered drinks, but I did not drink. I just sat there, feeling numb and broken. The pain was still there, still pressing heavily against my chest.

Zara spotted someone she knew and excused herself. “I will be right back. Do not move.”

I did not move. I just sat alone in silence as the music banged on, lights flashed and people laughed around me.

But all I felt was emptiness. Then my eyes moved across the club to the far corner, towards the dark side where the lights did not reach, and I saw the shadow of a man sitting alone.

From the shadow, I could not see his face, only the shape of his body, and his form looked strong, broad and still.

He was not dancing, not talking to anyone, and not drinking. He was just sitting still. Watching or maybe just existing….like me.

I did not think and did not plan. I just stood up and walked towards him.