"I am not your future bride." I spit in his face. I grit my teeth in anger and try to get up but Xavier hastily dashes towards me and pins me by the arm.
"Not so fast princess." Xavier says winking at me. The force of his hand on my arm is enough to pull me down. I choke out a small cry and yell at him "Let go off me!"
Xavier is about to reply but a small knock on the door interrupts him. We both dart our eyes towards the direction of the door.
"Come in doctor." Xavier yells, the door opens wide and surprisingly Angela steps into the room with a straight face. Oh my goodness, Angela is here. I really hope she is on my side.
"Angela!" I call out her name pausing to sigh heavily at a famliar face and the relief that comes from Xavier taking his hands off my arm.
"Larissa, are you alright?" Angela asks with a concerned look on her face. She slowly walks towards me and I immediately say "Angela please help me. Xavier sent some of his guys to bring me here and he plans to keep me captive for a very long time." I cry out but surprisingly Xavier just bursts into laughter and shakes his head at me.
"You are so hilarious Larissa. What is Angela supposed to do?" He ask pausing to gaze at Angela and back at me. I gaze at Angela and she has a defeated look on her face. Wait, is she really not going to help me? What did I expect anyways? She is only obeying the Alpha's command.
"Wait, you knew all along? My parents never told you? Xavier did." I say as I slowly realize everything that is happened. No one is on my side, in the end, I am all alone. My plan at escaping has failed because Xavier's grip on me is just too firm. I am stuck here forever as Xavier's bride.
"Is she okay doctor Angela?" Xavier asks. For a second, I see that look of concern flash on his face but then it vanishes almost immediately.
"She looks fine. She just seems a bit frightened by all of this. She needs rest so I think you should let her be." Angela says gazing at Xavier with a serious look on her face.
"Let her be? I can not do that Angela. she is my bride to be, we still have a lot to catch up on. Right Larissa?" Xavier gazes at me and back at Angela.
"Get lost. I will never marry a ruthless and heartless soul like you!" I say through gritted teeth. Xavier touches his chest in fake hurt and it makes me wish he would just really get lost.
"I will be off now but I am close by incase you need anything from me Larissa. My big advice for you is to try not to fight it. Just get some rest and see how tomorrow will be like." Angela says, she does not wait for my reply, she bows her head ad a form of greeting to Xavier and slowly begins to walk away.
"Coward." I mumble but she does not hear me anyways.
"I would listen to your friend If I were you, do not try to fight it Larissa. Everything has happened. All you need to do is accept it and move on as my new bride. There are a lot of perks that come with it." Xavier wriggles his brows at me playfully.
He must think everything is a joke. It means Angela lied, Xavier does not look cold, he seems to be enjoying all of this anyways. I hope he enjoys it while it lasts because I do not plan to remain here forever.
"Why me though? If you needed a bride, you could have picked other beautiful ladies to be your bride and I am very sure they would be delighted to be the Luna of the Moonfang pack so why me?
All of people, why me? I have nothing to offer to you, as a matter of fact I am like a burden to you, I do not want to be here." I snap at him but Xavier does not look shaken by my words, not even in the slightest way.
"Is it a crime if I want you?" Xavier asks but in a serious tone this time. His voice is hoarse and deep sending chills down my spine and I feel electricity course through my veins at the sound of his voice.
"It sort of is especially since I wanted you years ago but you pushed me away. You rejected me publicly Xavier and you made it very clear that I was not in your league. You told me I did not stand a chance with you so what in the world do you want now?" I cry out as I slowly remember everything that happened that day, the day I got rejected by Xavier. The day he made it clear to me that I was too weak and ugly for me. He called me bold for thinking I stood a chance with him.
"Larissa, let us not talk about what happened that day. You and I both know how much it hurts you whenever you talk about it. I did what I had to do and I still get to do whatever I want." Xavier says slightly raising his voice at me. I flinch a bit at the harshness that comes from his voice and most importantly the truth that his words hold. Yes, it hurts me whenever I talk about it and even when I do not talk about it, I am still reminded of it and it hurts.
Now I have to face the fact that I will be stuck with him for the rest of my life as his wife. Not even because he loves me but because he probably needs me for something I am getting figured out.
"I hate you!" I yell at him.
"I do not care Larissa. Our wedding is tomorrow." Xavier deadpans.
I can feel the wetness of the wall-stones in my bones. I had not been out of the corner of the cell in hours. I was in pain because my limbs ached, my back screeched in pain and my head was hurting due to the cold. My body was returned to a tight circle, I was enshrouded in arms and knees with open eyes just staring at the wall of the cell . I was not even able to cry. I had lost all the things- tears, dignity, hope.I overheard them at the open bars. The guards. Whispering. Laughing.One of them, with a sneering voice, said “so it had always been true, she was trouble. The beauty and style--all a pose. Guess she flattered him with her sugary eyes to get the man to sleep with her.”“And the way she was found…” another “snickered–Indecently and naked!. A real whore in the robes of Luna.”The laughter between them followed and rebounded off the stone walls and pierced my stomach. My fingers clenched tighter around my arms. I chewed on my lower lip very hard and tasted blood and tried n
Larissa POV**The sun was already high, striking gold rays of light, in my room. I was in front of the full length mirror, straightening up the fabric of the emerald gown that I was supposed to put on during the Moonlight Harmony Ceremony. It was now almost a month since I had been received as a Luna, and, in spite of the shades of the past still remaining, the atmosphere between Xavier and me had become quite gloriously harmonious--even sweet. He was more than my friend.I never saw him smile so much as he did in the last weeks. And he would gaze at me as though all the light his world ever needed had come to me. That was enough to make me feel that all those pains endured by me were worth it.This was a special ceremony tonight. It was a solemn ceremony in which the Alpha and Luna came into the full moon to bless the pack. I had heard it referred to by the old ones as the night when destinies are matched. I was in awe of whether or not I was always destined to be here, but now I fel
Larissa POV Warmth.The first thing I experienced upon waking up was that. My face was lying against something solid but soft. The steady rhythm of a heartbeat against my ear supported me in telling it that I was in Xavier chest. My arm had an exported ownership around me and even in sleep; he held me as an anchor.His smell, wild pine, fresh earth, something darker, trickled into my skin as it was a part of me.I did not want to move away. Not now. Not when he was breathing steadily, his lips closed saving a little, an unusual softness on his normally closed face. I indulged a self indulgent moment and cremated him in silence.Then his hand walked slowly over my naked back. “how long you are going to pretend to be asleep?”, he said in a husky voice.A blush came into my cheeks. “You must have known?”“You had a circle drawn on my chest,” he smirked and still kept his eyes closed.I give a gentle laugh. “You're warm.” “You are warm also, he turned and drew me beside him. And mine.”
Larissa POV The moonlight hard and light, pallid against the stone of the balcony, moved shadows of ghosts behind me. I was sitting in my room alone, in the silence, and the ceremonial dress was yet upon me, like a clot of blood. I was still the same. I had not talked. I had not cried.I merely basically… existed.The things that happened during the binding ceremony were whirling in my head as jagged pieces- the incompleted bond, arrival of Kai, the words of Selene, fury of Xavier.But above it all the gnawing emptiness of not knowing who to trust. Or what I felt even anyhow.There was a light knock.I made no reply.The door opened creaking nevertheless.There was no reason for me to turn because it was him.His fragrance covered me first--pine and storm. Always him. And it is ever still the same.Slowly Xavier took a step, heavily as I had not remembered him. Or it was perhaps because I heard them in a different way now.At first he made no reply. He simply stood behind me with the
The hall was a bomb about to go off--still, but with the promise of eruption in it. Motion was still. Selene held us in a queen of thorns, with curled lips. It was a cool shot, on her part, her red dress--which equalled in ceremonial crimson my own, only that hers was self-chosen. Owned. It was like a burial-cloth to mine. Beside her Alpha Kai was a statue of motionlessness. He had not stirred, but he sank perfume of his presence into the room in the manner of smoke, visited the hearts of all the doers there. A short, shallow breathe burst out of me. My hand was lying in that of Xavier but felt as well as it was tied to a stone. His hand did not tremble, but I caught the vibration through the flesh. Xavier with his growl “Kai,” his voice was husky enough to make the pavement of marble beneath our feet vibrate. “You’re trespassing. This not your pack. This is not where you belong to.” “I was invited, said Kai calmly, Dangerously by someone with greater right than you.” He looked
Larissa’s POVThe air was heavy—so heavy it pressed against my lungs, thick enough to choke on.I stood before the mirror, barely recognizing the reflection staring back at me. The ceremonial dress clung to my body like it had been sewn from my own skin. Deep crimson silk shimmered over my curves, a golden sash knotted tight at my waist, the emblem of the Nightfang Pack gleaming like a wound. My hair was pinned up, too neat, too delicate, with traitorous strands curling around my temples as if mocking me.Behind me, my mother hovered like a ghost.“You look beautiful,” she whispered, her voice scratchy with emotion. “I never imagined it would be like this.”I didn’t turn. Didn’t blink. Just stared into the glass as though I could unmake it all by sheer will.“Neither did I.”A silence settled—uneasy, heavy—until she broke it.“I failed you.”The words stung more than I expected. I almost flinched.“You left me,” I said quietly. The mirror didn’t reflect tears. Only steel. “When I need