The mongrel bride.

KAEL’S POV

Blood splattered across my boots, a wicked smile playing on my lips as I engaged in my favourite sport…fucking traitors. 

I wiped my stained red knuckles on the collar of the bastard who now lay twitching on the floor. 

Alpha Gregor, a coward, liar, snake. I cracked my neck, fists still burning from the fury.

He was coughing blood, gasping. “P-pozhá-lusta… Ya ne khotél... I didn’t mean to—”

“Ne khotél?” I crouched beside him, grabbing his jaw. “You didn’t mean to cross me?”

His face was a mess, one eye swollen shut, blood dripping down his broken nose. I wanted to do worse. I should’ve done worse.

“You thought you could sell my weapons to rogues?” I growled, switching to Russian again. “Ty dolzhen byl podumat' o posledstviyakh.”

He whimpered. “I’ll make it right—please, Alpha…”

“You won’t make anything right, you know the rules, one strike you're out.”

I let my claws, long sharp silver claws, then I drove them into his chest…slow, precise, right between his ribs. He let out a hoarse scream, his eyes rolling back.

That’s when Viktor, my Beta, walked in. He paused, completely unfazed by the scene.

“The wedding,” he said coolly. “It’s started.”

I didn’t even glance at him. “Then marry her yourself.”

Viktor folded his arms. “The Elders are pissed. You were supposed to make an appearance, it's not called a wedding when the bride is not there.”

I stood, brushing off blood from my coat. “I bought a bride. That’s all they asked.”

“There’s a problem,” Viktor said. “The girl was switched.”

That got me. 

I turned. “Switched?”

He handed me a phone, showing me the picture of the girl. 

“What’s her name?”

“Xena.”

I stared at the image for a moment, something primal stirring. “Her mother surely has a death wish.”

“She’s here. Want to leave this one alive?”

I stepped over Gregor’s bleeding body. “He’s lucky I’m late.”

I arrived late, of course. Let the whole damn ceremony wait.

I pushed the door open and walked in slowly, letting them feel the weight of my presence. 

I was Kael Noirfang, Alpha of the Blood Howl Pack, a Lycan Lord, a god. 

My coat trailed behind me, black leather stitched with red wolfbone, my eyes locked on the lady on the altar. Standing alone in white satin with a veil over her head and she was also barefooted. 

I inhaled deeply, stopping in front of her. Damn, she was… the ugliest bride I’d ever seen. 

I would have preferred my bride brought dead to me than this thing brought to me. 

What kind of suicidal mother swaps a virgin beauty for a pregnant mongrel?

“Well,” I said, voice like steel. “Aren’t you going to say hello to your husband?”

She looked like she wanted to disappear, her lips moved but no sound came out.

I smirked. “I’m Alpha Kael Noirfang. Welcome home, wife.”

Later that night, I found her by the window, halfway out like a damn cartoon.

“Planning your death already?” I leaned in the doorway.

She jumped, turning quickly, shaking. “Please… I didn’t want this…”

“Didn’t want what?” I stepped forward. “You’re not the girl I chose. Who are you? But most importantly who switched you?”

“I'm Xena,” she stuttered, darting her eyes left and right, her body trembling in fear. “Chloe is my younger sister, she couldn't come, she's bethroated to someone else.”

“Where the fuck is your mother?” 

“My… my mother’s dead.”

I grabbed her chin, violently.   “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What your family has done?”

“I didn’t ask to be here!”

“No,” I said coldly, “but you’re here and you’re impure, a dirt to all kinds of non-human beings.”

She froze. “What are…what are you…t–talking about?”

“You can’t hide that stench, I can smell what you are.”

She tried to back away, one hand protectively on her belly.

I scoffed. “Pregnant, too.”

“Please,” she whispered.

I snarled. “Your family will be wiped out for this. That’s my promise. I’ll send you back and let the others do what they were supposed to do with you, it's best you are killed in your pack, trust me, the Lycan ways are very brutal.”

“No!” she begged, grabbing my arm. “Please—I can’t go back…”

“You think I wanted a pregnant mongrel?” I snapped. “The Elders wanted me to marry, have an heir, I bought something good and that was replaced with—” I looked at her belly, unable to believe what was happening. 

I don't think anyone has ever double crossed me the way she and her family did. 

“I swear we didn't know it was you, we thought it was nobody,” she cried.

“Well, I don't think anybody would accept you.”

“I’ll do anything,” she said quietly. “Just… don’t send me back.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Anything?”

She nodded, trembling, she slowly reached for the ties on her gown. Her fingers fumbled.

“I always get my money’s worth,” I warned.

She looked me dead in the eyes. “Then I’ll give it to you.”

She slid her dress off her shoulders, revealing the soft swell of her belly, the bruises and everything. 

I watched her, unable to hold myself from laughing. 

A hundred women would kill to lie in my bed. But none looked like this—worn out girl. 

I stepped back. “I have a thousand prettier girls I could fuck.”

She dropped to her knees. “Then let me explain, please…please, have mercy.’

I paused, listening to her story, even though I wasn't interested.

When she finished, I lit a cigarette.

“Well, looks like the gods are on my side, I didn’t want a child anyway,” I said. “Fate really has a sense of humor, I wanted to marry a person that would play the role of a wife and leave me the fuck alone.’

She stared at me, confused.

I reached down and lifted her chin. “You’ll give birth here, I’ll protect you, feed you but if it’s a boy—he dies, but you can get to keep the role of my Luna…in the house.”

She gasped, tears flowing down. “Please…”

“My mind’s made up, it's either that or you leave… no, I will return you to your pack, get your sister back, it's your choice.”

She crumbled, still clutching her belly. 

Why keep the child of a coward?

“I see that you have made your decision as a little wedding gift, I’ll destroy your family for this,” I added. 

She shook her head fast. “No, don't, not yet…I will destroy them myself.”

I smirked. “You turned down my offer?”

She looked up at me with those fire-lit eyes. “I want them to pay for what they did to my mother and I, I want to get vengeance myself.”

Damn, this was about to get interesting.