Contract Marriage ||

Camille's POV

“M A R R I A G E ?” The word was threatening to choke the life out of me.

This was one thing I had never anticipated. I had made it abundantly clear, even to the men in the pack, that I wasn’t ready to let any supposed ship sail.

The word echoed through my mind, causing a tempest of chaos that made my insides churn. I craved to scream, to lash out, to grab hold of something, anything, yet my feet felt cemented to the floor. My body was unwilling, refused to respond; I couldn’t even feel it anymore.

Opening my mouth to voice a protest, I snapped it shut when no words came out. Why did my tongue always betray me at the most critical moments?

Father was still droning on, but my mind was floating away.

Snap!

Like a jolt of electricity, I jolted back to reality when I felt gentle tremors coursing through my fingers.

“What…?” The word exploded from my lips.

With a quick turn of my head, a derisive snicker escaped my lips. “This is some kind of joke, right, Father?” I declared, seething with mounting frustration.

I looked from father to this breathtaking stranger sitting down calmly, clearly irritating me now with his eye-fu**ing.

His eyes were roaming every curve of my body.

This was normal. I got it all the time.

I had an amazing body. At least the gods had spared me that lot and had ended up leaving me wolfless!

Trade by barter, right?

Even the men in the pack were learning the hard way to keep their lust to themselves.

Two weeks before the academy resumed in the fall, and this is what I get? Marriage?

Was this Father’s twisted form of punishment for my being wolfless?

Rage pulsed within me, hot and furious.

“I apologize for my daughter's unrestrained behavior. She isn’t always this poorly behaved,” Father said, directing his gaze toward Alpha Sigewuf.

He completely ignored me, just as everyone else in the family did—dismissing my very existence like I was nothing more than a ghost.

He passed on his piece, expecting me to choke it down, following suit like a lamb heading toward her own slaughter.

His labored breathing radiated tension, thickening the air around us. While I knew he was desperately trying to rein in his fury in front of Alpha Sigewuf, my own anger was unnerving.

My eyes turned to face the stranger, whose full lips suddenly made the words in my throat choke right there.

Goodness! He was attractive.

Mind you, I had never checked out a man in my entire life and I had no idea why I was doing that now

Why did this one stranger who made my insides tinkle have to also be the reason why an important part of my life was to be snatched away?

He stood up. A perfect 6’3”.

It didn't surprise me he was that tall, almost making my height insignificant.

The packs in the North were mostly lycans. The special breeds.

Lycans were hybrids and higher in the power-ranking. They were more brutal, and their pride—well, it probably would come Summa Cum Laude if it were a person graduating from college.

It was almost like the separation between our districts had been intentional since creation. The southern districts were made up of packs with wolves, while the northern district was made up of packs with Lycans.

Alpha Sigewuf’s tall frame was clearly overpowering and imposing as he stood above me.

A slow, predatory smile unfurled at the corner of his lips. Yanking my arm, he pulled me to himself.

“The gods seem to have taken a liking to you, decidedly choosing you as my mate,” he muttered, placing his face around my neck as he sniffed in my scent.

Mate? A Lycan alpha as my mate?

I wasn't even interested in a relationship yet, more worse, marriage, or finding out who my mate was, which was almost impossible considering my wolfless state.

“With all due respect, I…”

“Shhhh,” he sighed, his hands on my neck again as he pulled me closer to himself, sniffing harder.

Lycan or werewolf, if he thought he could impose himself on me, he had another thing coming.

Pulling away from his grasp, I snapped, “What exactly are you doing?” I looked him in the eyes.

“You can't come here acting like a freak and…”

A flicker of something dark appeared on his face. “Being my mate does not give you the right to speak with such condescending words!”

“Mate?” I scoffed. “With all due respect, alpha, I am no mate of which you seek.”

His lips tilted upward with surprise. “You… you can't pick my scent?”

Suddenly, the chasm between us felt agonizingly small.

What did he mean by pick his scent? Was I supposed to pick his scent?

His presence was suffocating—a heavy, oppressive weight bearing down on me—yet I remained rooted to the spot.

His fingers curled around my neck. The tenderness in his eyes was gone.

“You're wolfless,” he yelled, totally disgusted.

“You're fu*king wolfless!” he snarled, smashing his fist into the wall behind me.

I shut my eyes. I didn't want to see the disappointment I already knew was there.

He figured it out. He figured out I was wolfless, and I didn't want to see the disappointment.

His disappointment of me.