Fighting For The Alpha's Mark

I woke up on my wedding day with a pounding head and a stranger in my bed.

My body jolted. A scream caught somewhere between my lungs and my lips.

No. That couldn’t be right.

I didn’t recall speaking to any man last night. Never in my life would I cheat on Ethan. Especially not the night before our wedding.

I blinked hard, hoping this was some kind of bad dream.

We were in a hotel room. The stranger slept on his back, a wolf tattoo stretched across his tanned skin. His hair was dark and cropped. I wanted to scream, to shake him awake, to demand answers.

But I couldn’t look at his face. I was too scared I’d recognize it.

Trembling, I reached out, just to be sure. My fingers brushed his warm skin. I yanked my hand back like I’d touched a live wire.

My stomach lurched. The room spun.

A sickening wrongness crawled up my spine.

Gathering my bridal shower dress off the floor, I did the coward’s walk of shame and slipped out like a thief, rushing home on autopilot.

My dizziness worsened. Everything appeared in twos, yet I knew my life was already falling apart.

Back home, the cheerful sounds of my wedding morning felt distant, like they were coming from miles away.

My best friend Claire appeared. Her smile vanished, replaced by panic.

“Savannah, what's going on? Where have you been? Why do you look so afraid?”

My legs wobbled. She grabbed my wrist before I could fall and led me to the backyard.

“Something happened,” I whispered, my teeth chattering. She urged me to continue.

“I... I think I cheated on Ethan.”

Her eyes went wide.

“What? How? Weren’t you with him last night?”

I pulled away from her. The cream robe I wore was soaked in sweat. My body felt worse by the second.

“I have to confess to him,” I managed to say, but she grabbed my hand.

“Confess? You can't do that.”

What did she mean? How could I walk down the aisle, look him in the eye, and promise him forever when I had betrayed him?

“How can I not tell him?” I whispered, my throat raw.

“Look at me,” she said, holding my chin. “Ethan will destroy you. He’s the Alpha. He’ll see it as a stain on his honor, and he’ll make you pay. Think about your dad. We’ll figure it out. We’ll tell him after the wedding.”

Her logic came from panic, but she was right about Ethan. He was a good man but raised in dominance and tradition. His temper was notorious. A slight against him was a slight against the pack. And what greater betrayal was there than this?

“Leave it to me,” Claire said. “We need to sober you up and get you dressed. Please stay calm and act like nothing happened.”

Inside the tiny house I shared with my dad, the bridesmaids were chatting and getting ready, unaware that a bomb had just gone off in my life. Claire made me tea, sat me down at the vanity, and tried to hold me together.

The previous night came back in flashes. I remembered the bridal shower she and the others had insisted on. Claire had handed me a colorful drink at the hotel bar.

“Just one, to loosen you up,” she’d said.

After that—nothing.

More confusion swept over me. I didn’t even remember leaving the lobby.

“Why didn’t you check on me?” I whispered when Claire returned to start my makeup. “Why?”

She looked crushed. “I’m sorry, Savvy. I was tipsy from that drink too, and I thought I saw someone like Ethan in the lobby. I never should have let you out of my sight.”

Then, after a pause, she leaned in to whisper.

“Did you see the stranger’s face? Do we know him?”

My memory flashed with fragmented images. I hadn’t seen his face, and somehow that made it worse. The man who took my virginity—something I had saved for Ethan—was a faceless phantom.

I shook my head.

I sat at the vanity, numb, as she and the others fussed over me. When I finally stood in my dress, I felt like an impostor in my own life. The gown was more beautiful than anything I’d ever worn, but it felt wrong against my skin.

About an hour later, my father knocked and stepped into the room. He wore a tuxedo, his first ever. He was proud. He had even borrowed a friend’s car to drive me, wanting everything to be perfect.

“My beautiful girl,” he said, his eyes glistening. “You look like an angel.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from confessing the atrocity I’d committed. Instead, I hugged him and pressed my face into his jacket.

“I love you, Daddy.”

The community center was packed with over two hundred guests. They weren’t my friends or family. These were Ethan’s guests. Calling off the wedding now would be a humiliation beyond imagining.

Bitterness welled up inside me. I hadn’t asked for any of this. I hadn’t chosen that man. I was the victim, and yet I was the one carrying the weight.

Just before the procession began, Ethan’s mother appeared, looking anxious.

“Savannah, dear. We can’t find Ethan.”

I froze. He knew. He wasn’t coming.

I turned, searching for Claire. She was gone.

Minutes later, the coordinator rushed over, headset crackling.

“False alarm! He’s here. Came in through the side. We’re ready.”

Walking down the aisle was the longest journey of my life. My father’s arm grounded me, but my legs shook so badly I feared I might collapse.

Ethan stood at the altar, expressionless. When he looked at me, I couldn’t read a single emotion. Not the joy of a happy groom, nor the rage of a betrayed one.

I felt detached, like I was floating. When the officiant spoke, a chill swept over me.

“Alpha Ethan Blake, do you take Savannah Ross to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, honor, and cherish, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”

Silence followed.

The officiant cleared his throat. “Alpha Ethan?”

Ethan turned to me slowly. His voice was hard.

“No,” he said. “I will not.”

A gasp rippled through the crowd. Murmurs followed.

My father stepped forward, his grip on my arm the only thing keeping me upright.

“Do you have something to say, Savannah?” Ethan asked coldly.

I looked out at the crowd, desperate. Where was Claire? She had said we’d do this together.

Tears slid down my cheeks.

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

The words felt wrong. Ethan's disgusted look made me want to disappear.

“This pretender over here wanted one last night of freedom and crawled into another man’s bed,” Ethan said to the crowd.

The room exploded. Accusations flew like stones.

“Filth!”

“Gardener’s trash!”

“How dare she!”

My father’s face turned purple with fury.

“You’re a liar! My daughter would never—”

“Oh, really?” Ethan sneered. “There’s enough evidence. Shall I show them? Or maybe her best friend can confirm it?”

Claire stepped forward. But she wasn’t wearing her lavender bridesmaid dress.

She wore my reception dress.

I blinked in confusion.

“I’m sorry, Savvy,” Claire said calmly. “I tried to warn you not to be careless. I told you men like that were dangerous.”

My eyes widened.

At first, my brain couldn’t process what she was saying. The shock nearly knocked me off my feet. A sickening realization hit me.

Claire’s concern had been an act. It was a setup from the start.

Ethan’s lip curled. “Even her friend, a woman of morals, tried to save her. But you can’t take the garbage out of a gardener’s daughter.”

His words hit like a slap.

“I was drugged!” I screamed. “She set me up! Claire drugged me!”

But my voice was lost in the crowd’s rage.

One of Ethan’s sisters surged forward and yanked the veil from my head. She placed it on Claire and led her to Ethan.

The crowd cheered.

Claire stood at the altar, smiling triumphantly, crowned in my place.

I tried to move, but the floor gave way, and everything went dark.