Chapter 2

~AURORA~

The hall seemed to spin. Whispers all around us, but they faded into a distant sound.

Seraphina and Vincent. . .betrothed? How had I never known? All those years pining, suffering in silence, and they'd been promised to each other?

I felt like a fool.

He wasn't just someone I'd developed feelings for. No. It was more than that.

He was my mate. He promised that we would marry someday, that he would make me his Luna and eventually reveal our love to my family. His words gave me hope in a life that often felt filled with suffering and disappointment. But today, I discovered that all of his promises were lies. Everything I believed in was false.

I looked at them now.

A perfect match: the princess of the South and the heir to the North throne, destined to rule the kingdom after his father's passing.

Seraphina laughed, a sound that felt like a shoe stomping on my heart. She stepped into his arms without hesitation, pressing her body against his as she tilted her face up.

"I can't wait to be yours completely," she whispered, her hands sliding up his chest. "To stand by your side as queen, ruling your kingdom together."

Then she kissed him. Deeply. Passionately. Right there in the hall, for all to see. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him, his mouth devouring hers with the hunger I'd only glimpsed when he'd kissed me.

No.

No.

Why?

How could he do this? How could he kiss her so easily in front of me? Did it not hurt him? Did he not see what it was doing to me?

I stood frozen, invisible as always. Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them back, do not cry in public, not for them to see.

Everything crashed down on me in that instant.

Vincent's secret kisses hadn't been love; they'd been amusement. A way to toy with the pathetic girl who adored him. And now, he was free to claim his true companion, his perfect future.

It was always her, wasn't it? He'd always wanted Seraphina, and I was too blind to see it all along.

And I. . .I was still the outcast, the substitute bride for a man that didn't want me. Someone who hated my kind with a passion.

Because of my mother's sinful affair that had shamed the Alpha and cost my mother her life, I bore the burden.

Seraphina was meant to seal a fragile peace treaty with the Moon Reapers through marriage, sacrificing herself to end centuries of bloodshed.

But the Alpha King refused to let that happen, he wanted to protect the favored daughter. His princess. Not the child that was never his to begin with.

So they chose me. The disposable one.

Tomorrow, under the full moon, I would be bound to him—a Moon Reaper lord, trained to kill my kind, whose family thrived on our slaughter.

A man who hated werewolves with every fiber of his being. The enemy I'd been taught to fear and despise since a baby.

He would be my husband.

And Seraphina? She would marry my mate. They would have a beautiful life together, and they would be happy.

I swallow the lump in my throat as I head into the garden where Lady Elowen asked me to pick some roses for Seraphina's room.

I wasn't there for long before I felt familiar arms wrapping around my waist. I froze when Vincent started kissing my neck aggressively.

"I am sorry." he apologizes. "I'm so sorry, Aurora. I had no choice. My hands are tied. My father will never approve of us, please try to understand."

I turn to him with tears in my eyes and say, "I trusted you. You had all this time to tell me you were betrothed to her, but you chose to hide it. You made me fall even more in love with you, and now you expect me to be okay with you marrying her."

He looks devastated as he whispers, "I promise you, this isn't easy for me Aurora. You are my mate. My love. Even though she will be my wife, it will be nothing compared to my love for you."

"Stop it," I insist. "I cannot hear this. You knew what I endured from her and her mother. How could you?"

"I am sorry." He apologized. "You do not understand how difficult this is for me. I have a Kingdom to think about. Please try to understand."

Try to understand?

He grabs me by my waist suddenly and pushes me up against a tree as he starts moving his hand up my legs, “I cannot stand the thought of you marrying someone that dangerous.”

He seemed happy about it earlier. Why was he lying? Did he think I was that stupid? Well, considering I believed him all these years, maybe I was.

“I want to be your first," he says. "I do not want a bloody Moon Reaper to be the first to feel your pussy—"

He doesn't finish as he covers my mouth with a kiss. The mate bond pulses alive between us, begging me to accept him, to let him take me. To claim me. I gasp when his finger brushes my panties.

"I want to fuck you Aurora," he tells me as he nibbles on my chest, "let me have you before he does."

One hand covers my breast and squeezes it, while his other hand continues to stroke my pussy.

What was this to him? One last goodbye? For him to have me before the heartless Moon Reaper could? Was that all it meant to him?

I pushed him back angrily, saying, "I won't give myself completely to you until you do what's right. You can't expect me to open my heart and surrender my body when you've already agreed to this marriage with the one person who has made my life miserable all of these years.”

I confided in him. He knew everything Seraphina and her mother did to me, and yet he still accepted the marriage proposal.

He didn't realize how difficult all of this was for me. He was my last hope to escape this life, and now I didn't know what my future would be like anymore.

The tears are flowing now, "I love you Vincent. I've loved you for years. I wanted us to have a family together. A life together. Do you even understand how much this hurts?"

He looks broken but still cannot promise me what I needed from him.

How could I have been so wrong this entire time? I thought he was different. I truly did.

I grab the roses from the ground and rush out of the garden, leaving him behind.

I bounce into Seraphina, who still has that victory smile on her face. "Your groom will be here soon. I hope you are prepared to marry him, Aurora. There is no one to save you from the monster."