Episode 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

I appreciate you for giving this amazing piece a chance! Please, remember to tell me what you think as you read.

Much Love from this end!

~~~~~~~

On the morning of my wedding, I ran up the stairs to my fiance’s bedroom. After two years of waiting, my wedding day is here.

I push open his door without knocking, ready to jump on his bed and shake him awake.

"Marcus! Wake up, sleepyhead! Our wedding day is here!"

The words die in my throat as my eyes scatter all over the room. My wolf picks up a scent that isn’t his alone, and my heart sinks. His bed is unmade, and his sheets are all twisted around. Yet, what shocks me most is what’s on the floor. lingerie.

The shower is running right where the red lingerie is dropped, and I hear sounds that make my stomach drop. Moaning. Wet slapping. A woman's voice.

"Oh god, Marcus, yes! Don't stop!"

No. This can't be happening.

I walk toward the bathroom with shaking legs. Before I can think about what I'm doing, I pull the shower curtain open.

Brown eyes meet mine through the steam. Eyes I know better than my own.

"Mom?"

Rebecca freezes, water running down her naked body.

"Aria." Her voice is calm, like she's greeting me at breakfast. "You're early."

"Early?" I stumble backward as if I forgot to breath. "Early? What the hell are you doing?"

Marcus appears behind her in the shower. He slides his arm around her naked waist and pulls her against him. The smug look on his face makes me want to throw up.

"Morning, sweetheart," he says to me. "Sleep well?"

"How could you?" The words tear out of my throat. "Rebecca, you're my stepmother. Dad just married you seven months ago. I started calling you Mom because you said you loved me like your own daughter."

Rebecca steps out of the shower, taking her time wrapping the towel around herself. She's not embarrassed. She's not sorry. She's just wet and annoyed that I interrupted.

"And you still will call me Mom, darling. Nothing has to change between us."

"Nothing has to change?" I scream at her, my wolf pushing against my chest. "You're screwing my fiancé on my wedding day!"

"Language, Aria." Her voice gets sharp like she’s scolding her child. "And lower your voice. We wouldn't want the whole pack house to hear you having a tantrum."

Marcus leans against the bathroom doorframe, still completely naked. He doesn't even try to cover himself. "She's right, baby. No need to cause drama."

"Don't you dare call me baby!" I spit at him. "How long has this been going on?"

"Since your engagement party," Marcus says with a shrug. "Your stepmom knows how to please a real Alpha. Who would have thought?"

The engagement party. Six months ago. They've been doing this for six months while I planned every detail of our wedding with my own money. While I gave him access to my trust fund because he said his pack was struggling. While I invested in his businesses because I thought we were building a future together.

"The money," I whisper, the pieces clicking together. "All the money I gave you. The investments in your pack's expansion."

"What about it?" Marcus grins, showing his teeth. "Thanks to your generous donations, the Redwood Pack will be just fine. It's amazing what a lovesick princess will sign over when she thinks she's helping her boyfriend."

The room spins. Every check I wrote, every investment I approved, every time I transferred money from my trust fund because he said he needed it. I gave him everything because I loved him. Because I thought we were partners.

"You used me."

"I used your money," he corrects. "There's a difference."

Rebecca moves closer, leaving wet footprints on the marble floor. "Aria, sweetheart, you need to listen very carefully. This doesn't change anything about today. The wedding is still happening."

"Are you out of your mind?" I back toward the door. "I'm not marrying him. I'm not marrying anyone. I'm going straight to Dad and telling him everything."

"No." Rebecca growls. "You're not telling your father anything."

"You're going to walk down that aisle in four hours, Aria. You're going to marry Marcus and you're going to smile while you do it."

"Give me one good reason why I would do that."

Rebecca's smile is all teeth, no warmth. "Because if you don't, your father dies."

The words hit me so hard I’m certain I misheard. "What?"

"You heard me perfectly. That strong, powerful Alpha you worship? He's been taking his morning vitamins very faithfully. Special vitamins that I prepare for him every single day."

My legs feel weak as she continues proudly. "Wolfsbane extract. Just tiny amounts mixed in with the regular supplements. Not enough to kill him quickly, but enough to weaken his wolf. Make him sick. Make him dependent on me to take care of him."

I grab the doorframe to keep from falling. "You're poisoning my father."

"I prefer to think of it as insurance. He’s been taking them long enough to cause irreversible damage, and I’m the only one with the antidote.’’

Marcus pushes off the doorframe and walks toward me. He's still naked and he knows it makes me uncomfortable. "See, sweetheart, this alliance between our packs is happening whether you like it or not. My pack needs the strength and connections your father provides. And Rebecca needs to make sure she stays married to the second most powerful Alpha in the region."

"You're both sick."

"We're smart," Rebecca corrects. "You'll marry Marcus today. You'll play the perfect little wife for a few weeks, maybe a month. Then you'll have a very public falling out, get divorced, and Marcus keeps everything you've already signed over to him. In exchange, I cure your father and we all go back to our happy lives."

"What if I refuse? What if I call your bluff?"

"Then your father dies slowly and painfully, and you'll marry Marcus anyway. Because I'll make sure he knows with his dying breath that it was all your fault. That you chose your pride over his life."

My wolf is howling inside me, clawing to get out. She wants to shift, to fight, to tear them both apart. But Rebecca is always with Dad. She sleeps in his bed, eats at his table, sits beside him at pack meetings. She has access to his food, his drinks, his medicine.

Marcus slides his arm around Rebecca's shoulders. "You better start getting ready, baby. Wedding ceremony starts in four hours and you don't want to be late."

I stare at them standing there together, water still dripping from their skin, looking at me like I'm just another problem they've solved. My wolf is screaming at me to tell them both to go to hell, to fight back, to run. But Dad's face flashes in my mind. The way he lights up when Rebecca walks into a room. The way he's been healthier and happier in the last seven months than he's been since my mother died five years ago.

If I fight them, he dies. If I run, he dies. If I tell him the truth, he might not believe me. And even if he does, what if Rebecca destroys the cure? What if exposing her kills him anyway?

"Fine," I whisper. "I'll do it."

"Good girl," Marcus says, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "And Aria? Don't even think about trying to warn Daddy or send him some kind of message. I'll be watching you every second until you say 'I do.' One wrong move and Rebecca starts increasing his dosage."

I turn and walk out of the room on legs that feel like they're made of water. Their laughter follows me down the hallway, echoing off the walls of the pack house.

Four hours. Four hours until I have to walk down the aisle and marry the man who's been using me for my money. Who's been sleeping with the woman I've learned to love as a mother. Four hours to figure out how to save my

father's life without destroying what's left of my own.