Chapter Five : The Billionaire Alpha’s Wife

Elara's pov 

The man holding our marriage certificate looked as though he wanted to arrest one of us. I could not blame him.

“Kai, I need you to tell me this is some legal maneuver I wasn’t informed about.” He handed the paper back. “Selene Ashford’s father has called me several times.”

“Then you should return his call, Gideon.”

“And tell him what?”

“That the marriage arrangement changed.”

Gideon looked at me again. “Change into whom?”

“Elara Gates,” I said because being discussed as though I were luggage had begun to irritate me.

His eyes returned to Kai. “Can I speak to you privately?”

“You can speak in front of my wife.”

The word still made me feel as though I had borrowed someone else’s name.

Gideon lowered his voice. “The council agreed to Selene because Stoneclaw brings political support. Elder Maren will use this before sunset.”

“I’ll deal with Maren.”

“And Alpha Ashford?”

“Him too.”

I stepped between their sentences before another part of Kai’s life became my fault. “You won’t have to deal with anyone if we annul the marriage.”

Gideon looked relieved.

Kai did not. “Elara, come inside.”

“You keep avoiding the obvious solution.”

“I’m postponing it until you know what I’m proposing.”

Gideon rubbed his forehead. “I’m going to make several unpleasant phone calls.” He walked away.

Kai led me into a private study near the entrance. I stayed beside the door.

“You were supposed to marry Selene Ashford.”

“For one year.”

“And your council approved her.”

“They approved an alliance. I agreed because it bought me time.”

“To do what?”

“Find proof that several elders have been working against me.”

I didn't say anything.

“My parents were murdered when I was young,” he continued. “Their deaths were blamed on a rival pack. I have reasons to believe people inside Blackmoon helped make it possible. I took the Alpha position at eighteen, and some elders have spent ten years arguing that I was too young, too violent, too unwilling to be controlled.”

“So a wife fixes that?”

“A politically useful wife makes replacing me more difficult.”

I folded my arms. “I am the opposite of politically useful.”

“You are.”

“Thank you.”

“You asked for the truth.”

“I also told you I’m wolfless.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“You’re an Alpha. That should matter to you.”

“It matters to people who want to use bloodlines as currency.”

The phrase hit too close to home.

I looked toward the window. “What happens now?”

“We remain married for one year. You live here under my protection. You’ll have your own room, your own money, and freedom to come and go with reasonable security. At the end of the year, you leave, we divorce and I provide a settlement.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“You’ll need money.”

“I can work.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”

“Then I’ll earn my own.”

He leaned one hand against the desk. “You’re arguing about a settlement that doesn’t exist yet.”

“Because I know what it feels like when somebody puts a price on me.”

His gaze stayed on my face.

I wished I had kept that sentence to myself.

“You don’t have to accept the settlement,” he said. “The rest of the arrangement remains.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why keep me when Selene gives you everything you actually need?”

Kai was quiet long enough to make me regret asking. “At the courthouse, you could have left. You signed because you chose to, even though you had no idea what I could give you. Then your mother slapped you, took your marriage gifts for your sister, and told you that you were worthless in front of a room full of people.”

My fingers closed around my sleeve. “I don’t need the list.”

“I’m not giving you one. I’m telling you why I won’t send you back there so I can make my life administratively easier.”

“I wouldn’t go back.”

“Good.”

“I could stay with Nora.”

“You could.”

“Yet you still want me here.”

“I do.”

“What are the rules?”

“You have your own room. I have mine. Neither of us owes the other physical affection. Publicly, we behave like a married couple because my council will exploit anything else. Privately, you can dislike me as much as you want.”

“I don’t dislike you.”

“That may be the first mistake you’ve made today that wasn’t caused by your mother.”

I laughed despite myself.

A knock came at the door. Gideon entered carrying a phone. “Kai, we have a problem.”

“Which one?”

“Stoneclaw knows.”

“That was inevitable.”

“Selene is already on her way here.”

My stomach sank.

Gideon continued. “She’s bringing her father’s legal counsel and two Stoneclaw representatives. She says the marriage is invalid because Elara appeared under false pretenses.”

“I didn’t pretend to be anyone.”

“I know that,” Gideon said. “She doesn’t care.”

Kai took the phone and read whatever was on the screen.

I watched his face. “You should fix this before she arrives,” I said. “If your position depends on Stoneclaw, keeping me makes no sense.”

“My position depends on Blackmoon.”

“You said the marriage was supposed to protect you.”

“It was.”

“And now I’m making things worse.”

“That isn’t your decision to carry.”

“You cannot protect me from every consequence by calling me your wife.”

“No, but I can decide which consequences enter my house.”

Gideon’s phone rang again. He answered, listened, and looked toward Kai.

“They’re at the outer gate.”

“Let them through.”

“Kai?”

“If Selene wants to challenge the marriage, she can do it to my face.”

Gideon left to meet them.

“What am I supposed to say to her?”

“The truth.”

“That I mistook you for an elderly widower my mother was trying to sell me to?”

“That would be memorable.”

“This isn’t funny.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Voices rose somewhere beyond the study.

A woman’s voice carried above the others, controlled and furious. “I don’t care what your Alpha told you. I was supposed to become Luna of this pack today, and I will not stand at his gate while some wolfless nobody sits inside my home.”

My face went hot.

Kai opened the study door. A tall woman with silver hair was already crossing the entrance hall with two men behind her. She stopped when she saw us.

Her gaze dropped to the ring the registrar had given me, then she looked at Kai.

“Tell me she hasn’t touched you.”

Kai stepped beside me. “Selene, meet Elara Draven.”

Selene’s face went white.

Kai placed his hand at the small of my back.

Selene looked from him to me. “You expect me to accept this because a registrar stamped the wrong form?”

“I expect you to speak to Elara with respect while you are in Blackmoon territory,” Kai said.

“I crossed two pack borders because your Beta informed my father that a stranger stole my marriage.”

“I stole nothing,” I said. “Until an hour ago, I didn’t know your name.”

Her gaze travelled over me with deliberate contempt. “That is supposed to make this less insulting?”

“It makes it an accident.”

“To you, perhaps.” She turned back to Kai. “My father’s lawyers will have this annulled before nightfall.”

Kai’s hand remained on my back. “They’re welcome to try. She remains my wife.”