CHAPTER THREE

I stood frozen in place. He didn’t come to save me. He came to punish me.

I should have run. I should have begged him to explain. But instead, the only thing I clung to was the truth I’d carried for five years , the one that had burned under my skin every time I closed my eyes and thought of him.

“I thought you felt it too,” I whispered.

Draven didn’t move. Didn’t blink. His jaw twitched once.

“I thought…” My voice cracked. “I thought you knew we were mates. I felt it five years ago.”

His face twisted. Not in confusion but in disgust.

“You fantasized about your stepbrother?” he said, his voice hard, cold. “That’s what this is? You’re still clinging to some forbidden crush like we’re kids?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. The heat that rushed to my face wasn’t from embarrassment.

It was from shame. From the way the pack stared behind him. From the way the woman by the fire looked through me, like I was dirty. Like I didn’t belong.

His pack were listening but he didn’t care.

“You think that’s what this is?” he went on, louder now. “That I bring you here because we’re fated? That I want you because I want you to be my mate?”

I flinched as he stepped toward me. He didn’t touch me.

He didn’t have to.

“I’m only marrying you,” he said slowly, every word a knife, “because my wolf needs you. That’s all.”

My breath hitched.

“M..Marry me?” I stammered.

“Yes I’m still being kind,” he added, stepping back, straightening like a king above a beggar, “because I could’ve left you in that street like a trash.”

His words cracked something inside me but still, I said nothing.

Because if I spoke, I’d scream. And if I screamed, I wouldn’t stop. He turned away again, ready to leave me in silence.

“I want to marry you too.”I said, my voice was broken, barely audible.

Draven stopped mid-step.

I forced the rest out through the storm in my throat.

“No matter what you say. No matter how much you try to hate me. I know you’re my mate. I know it,” I said, louder now, trembling.

“And even if you make my life a hell, I’d rather burn beside you than go back to the Dawsons. At least in your hell, I know what I’m living for.”

His back remained turned but I saw his shoulders tighten. He didn’t answer, didn’t breathe, didn’t move for a heartbeat. Then two. Then, finally, his voice came.

“If hell is what you want,” he said quietly, “then I’ll make sure you feel it every single day.”

“Bring her to her place and you, Liora, Get ready for tomorrow’s mating bond, your first day in hell”

That night, I was given a room. Not a cell, but it felt like one. It was warm, yes, thick wool blankets, a roaring fire but it wasn’t safety. It was a cage made of walls and tomorrow, I’d wear white. Not because I was a bride, but because I choose to live in hell with him.

The next morning, the sun didn’t rise. Not for me.

The world was bathed in gray, and the heavy sky over the trees above looked as if it could collapse.

I stared at the simple white dress laid out on the bed. My hands were trembling. My ribs still ached. My heart was shredded. But I got dressed anyway.

I would not cry and I would not give them that.

When the door creaked open, it wasn’t Draven. It was the woman from last night. Tall. Cold eyes. Lips pressed like a scowl was stitched into her mouth.

“Alpha says you walk to the altar yourself,” she said.

"Okay" I nodded.

She watched me for a beat too long, then turned and left without another word. I tool a deep breath and followed her out.

The “altar” was just a stone circle behind the pack house. Old. Sacred. Probably where their pack rites were held under full moons. Today, it was quiet.

Dozens of wolves gathered in a loose circle. All eyes on me as I walked barefoot across the mossy ground. My white dress dragged through the dirt, soaked from the rain still dripping from the trees.

Draven stood in the center, waiting for me. 

He wasn’t wearing anything fancy. Just black slacks. No shirt.

I swallowed my saliva as I stared his six pack abs. He was so very masculine and handsome. I stared at the boy I once loved and realized I didn’t know this man at all.

But I wanted to. God help me, I still wanted to.

The Elder began to speak, but I didn’t hear a word. My eyes were locked on Draven’s face and he wouldn’t even look at me. Even as the Elder spoke the sacred bond words, Draven kept his eyes ahead on the trees, on the sky not on me.

I swallowed hard, forcing the lump in my throat down. When it was my turn to speak the vow, my lips trembled.

“I accept you as my mate,” I said, my voice barely more than breath. “In this life and the next.”

The Elder turned to Draven.

“Do you, Alpha Draven, accept…”

“I do,” he said flatly, before the Elder finished.

The Elder’s brow twitched but he nodded. “Then by the rite of the Moon and the law of the Pack, you are now mated.”

The circle remained silent. No cheers. No joy. Only judgment.

And then he stepped toward me.

I barely had time to brace.

Without warning, Draven grabbed my jaw not gently, not cruelly, just… firmly. Like he had every right.

My breath hitched. My heart thundered. His eyes locked with mine. Cold. Wild.

Then his mouth was on my neck. I gasped, body jerking as his fangs sank into my skin, right above my pulse.

But beneath it was something deeper. The bond ripped through me like a wildfire.

My knees buckled, but I didn’t fall.

Because he held me there, hands steady, body unshaking as if branding me was the easiest thing in the world.

When he finally pulled back, blood glistened on his lips. He didn’t wipe it and he didn’t speak. Just stared at me like he’d won something he didn’t even want. And then he turned, walking away before I could catch my breath. As if marking me meant nothing. As if I was nothing.

I turned, heart pounding, unsure of what to do.

And then I heard a whisper from one of the wolves in the crowd.

“She’ll be begging to leave within a week.”

Another voice snorted. “She’ll be crawling by the end of the day.”

I turned my face forward and walked after Draven, fists clenched.

Let them talk if they wanted to, and let them watch as much as their petty hearts desired. I would burn if I had to, I would stand in the center of their cruel little world and take the fire head-on. But I would not run, not this time, not from him.

A few moments later, I found him seated alone in a quiet, cozy veranda, his posture relaxed but his grip on the glass tense. A dim bulb hung above him, casting soft shadows across his jaw and the dark circles beneath his eyes. He looked like a man worn thin by silence and liquor.

He didn’t bother to glance up when I stepped into the light.

But even without meeting my eyes, he spoke, his voice smooth and distant.

“You’ve made your choice,” he said, his voice low.

“I know.”I whispered. 

“You think I’ll come around,” he said bitterly. “You think you’ll soften me. Change me.”

I stood there in the doorway, unsure if I was allowed to sit. Allowed to breathe.

“I don’t want to change you,” I whispered. “I want to understand you.”

That got him and slowly, he lifted his gaze. There was fire in his eyes. And something else, it was a Grief. 

“You want to understand?” he said quietly, standing.

“Again, I want you to pay for your father’s sins!” he growled, fury burning in his eyes.

“I’m sorry… if he did anything to you, I swear I don’t know,” I stammered. “He left me in the human world without a reason. He never told me anything.”

“I know you don’t,” he spat. “That’s the worst part.”

He turned away, placing both hands on the mantel, his shoulders tight with rage.

“That sin is unforgiven, Liora,” he said through clenched teeth. “And I’ll make sure you suffer just like my mother did.”

 “I don’t need you to love me,” I said.

“I’m still waiting for you to forgive me, to forgive my father,”I added. 

He didn’t respond at first, then stepped closer and grabbed my hair tightly. The grip was cruel, rough but the scent of his breath made me crazy, weak, and numb.

Even through the pain, something inside me twisted. Our lips were barely five inches apart.