Chapter Five: Dinner From Hell (I)

Cataleya

Conan Farrow is cold, strategic and ruthless. He’ll do whatever he has to do to get what he wants. More often than not, I have heard him tell Calix that the only way to maintain your grasp on power is to do whatever it takes to keep it.

But then, deep down, I believed that there was a limit to my father’s desperation for more power and wealth.

Calling off my engagement to Zane Van Doren was a harsh reminder of how my father was willing to give up his soul to the devil. When he first imposed the engagement on me, I spent the larger part of my life since then, prepping to become Zane’s Luna.

I had to act in the way an Alpha would want.

I had to look a certain way.

I had to preserve my innocence because according to my father’s conservative traditions, the only man who had the right to get between my legs was my husband.

And for months, it was carved and beaten into me that, that man was Zane.

My hatred for him meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. I believed that in a matter of weeks, I’ll be married to him and he could do whatever he wanted with me.

I think I made my peace with it.

It was horrifying that my father would break off the engagement to Zane, and offer me as some sort of sick truce settlement with the monsatrous Lycan Alpha everyone hated.

Wolves and Lycans never mingle.

My father knows that, but apparently, his morals are far too flawed to be applied in this situation.

I can’t run. I can’t hide. I can’t escape my fate. My father is like a smoke. He traps me so hard in a box. I can’t elude him. It’s pointless to run because he’ll find me.

I’m his biggest investment.

He can’t afford rebellion on my side.

The door to my room creaks open, revealing my mother’s figure. I barely flinch. I look away from her, back to the mirror to see what the maid had done to my face.

The thought of looking dolled up and heading down for dinner with Zane makes me sick.

“Leave us.” She commands the maids in the room and they step out.

She approaches me, plastering a smile on her face, but I can see right through her.

Caitlin Farrow has become a shadow of herself. Sometimes, I don’t even see her when I look at her. I see the ghost of a woman who has lost so much to being trapped with a power-hungry man like my father.

“You look beautiful,” she sits beside me. “You are going to make a very beautiful bride.”

I can’t resist a snort. “There’s no wedding yet.”

“But there will be.”

Something in me snaps. “You are really going to let him do this to me?”

Her eyes flicker with guilt. “Your father wants the best for you.”

“By marrying me off to a monster?”

“His methods are quite…”

“Cruel? Cold? Heartless?” I bark out an array of words that can attempt to describe the insanity that my father is unleashing right now.

“I was going to say complicated.” She clears her throat, reaching for my hands. “Men are quite simple creatures, really. Give him what he wants. Be a good wife to him. Bear his heir.”

“Being stubborn will get you nowhere.”

My breath hitches at her words. I can’t believe she’s suggesting that I go through with it; marry a man who hunts my kind, who has more blood on his hands than all the Alphas in Redwood combined.

“I can’t do it. I can’t marry him.”

“Cataleya—“

“No,” I shake my head. “Don’t let him do this to me. I’ll marry Zane. I’ll be a good Luna to him. Mother, please.”

My voice cracks heavily. I know the hell that Zane is capable of weilding. His horrors are more predictable than that of a man who looks like darkness personified.

“It has been decided.” Her voice trembles as she looks away from me.

I snatch my hand out of hers. “Why can’t you fight him? Why can’t you fight back? He’s selling off your first child and you sit there—“

“Cataleya Farrow!” she yells. “That’s enough.”

A lone tear drips down my cheek. It feels like I can’t breathe for a moment.

Why can’t she see how miserable this will make me?

“I will hear no more of your incessant whining about how awful this marriage is,” she says sternly. “Your father has strived to build a legacy. To give you a good life. This truce could fix things. It can make things better. He…he could be supreme Alpha.”

“Is that what I’m worth?” I whisper. “Me in exchange for power?”

“Stubborn child,” she hisses. “You will do as you are told. That’s what we Farrow women do.”

“Fix this mess,” she gestures to the tears on my face, “and come downstairs. Zane is waiting. Your father has to break the news to him.”

I don’t get time to mourn the freedom I’m about to lose. I touch up my makeup and reluctantly head downstairs where they are waiting for me.

Zane is nestled at a corner with an empty seat next to him. His eyes are thick with lust as they scan my curves in the red dress I’m wearing.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

I’m tempted to roll my eyes as he pulls out a seat for me.

My father sits across me, watching me with cold, dark eyes that constantly remind me to maintain my manners.

“Let’s eat. Shall we?” Zane grins.

My father clears his throat, seemingly edgy.

“There’s something I’d like for us to discuss first.”