Chapter Two - The Marriage He wanted Ended

Vera’s POV

Adrian did not stop walking until we reached his study. He shut the door behind us and crossed to the desk, where a stack of petitions waited beneath a silver paperweight. 

I remained by the door because I wanted him to explain himself before he found another task more important than our marriage.

“How long have you known?” I asked. “Not how long you have been thinking about announcing it, Adrian. How long have you known you wanted Selene?”

“I told you the bond appeared six months ago.” He pulled out his chair but did not sit. “There was no sensible way to tell you without upsetting you, and I had hoped you would make this easier.”

“You had six months to speak to me, and instead you brought her into our home.” I pressed my hands together to stop them shaking. “You let me arrange her rooms and defend her when the council questioned where she came from.”

“She needed protection, and I provided it.” His voice grew impatient. “You would have done the same for any refugee, so do not make your kindness sound like a debt I owe you.”

“I am asking why my husband allowed me to hear about his mate in a room full of strangers.” I took a step toward the desk. “There must have been one evening when you could have spoken to me without an audience.”

Adrian rubbed his forehead. “Because you would have cried, and then you would have begged me to reconsider something neither of us can change. I was trying to avoid an unpleasant conversation.”

I thought of the winter I spent sleeping in a chair beside his sickbed, and the weeks when the border war left him too exhausted to eat without someone reminding him. I had never begged him to love me, although I had made a hundred excuses for his refusal to show affection.

“Is that what you think of me?” I asked. “That after three years of marriage, I am incapable of hearing the truth without humiliating myself?”

“I think you have always wanted more from this marriage than I could give.” He glanced at the closed door. “Selene is my true mate, Vera. The sensible thing would be for us to separate quietly.”

“Separate how?” I asked. “You know the Blackwood marriage law as well as I do, and the elders refused to release even Lady Corinne after her husband abandoned her.”

“I have requested a hearing with Mordecai tomorrow.” Adrian finally sat, arranging the papers before him. “I intend to petition for a divorce, and I expect you to cooperate rather than make an already difficult matter worse.”

“You arranged a hearing before telling me.” I let the words settle between us. “You consulted the elders about ending my marriage, but you did not think to consult the woman married to you.”

He looked up sharply. “I am Alpha of this pack, and I do not require your permission to ask my council for advice. You are entitled to be upset, but you are not entitled to obstruct me.”

“Then tell me what you expect to happen to me.” I pulled out the chair opposite him. “I have no family outside this pack, and every responsibility I have held for three years is attached to the position you want to take away.”

“You will be provided for,” he said. “I have never denied you food, clothing, or a roof, and I am not about to throw you into the forest.”

“You speak as though feeding your wife was an extraordinary act of generosity.” I rested my palms on the desk. “I worked for this pack long before I married you, and I continued working after the ceremony.”

“I did not ask you to fall in love with me.” His expression turned openly resentful. “The elders wanted a Luna, and you were available. You knew it was an arrangement when you accepted.”

“I knew we were strangers when we married,” I replied. “I did not know that three years later you would consider every effort I made an inconvenience you had to tolerate.”

He rose so suddenly that his chair scraped against the floor. “What do you want me to say, Vera? That I can force myself to desire a woman when I have found the one the Goddess chose for me?”

I held his gaze, although I could feel heat spreading across my face. “You do not have to desire me to treat me decently, Adrian, and you never needed a mate bond to understand that.”

His eyes dropped to my dress. “You know perfectly well that you are not the sort of woman I would have chosen for myself. I have tried to be discreet about that, but apparently discretion has only encouraged you.”

I looked down at the green silk gathered over my lap. He had criticized my meals, my gowns, and the way I looked beside the women who visited from wealthier packs, but I had never heard him put his contempt so plainly.

“You could have refused to marry me,” I said. “You were the Alpha's heir, and I was a girl raised among the servants. Nobody would have punished you for saying no.”

“My father had just died, and the council demanded stability.” Adrian turned toward the window. “I chose someone who would not challenge me, and I believed that would be enough.”

“Then you chose the wrong woman,” I answered, getting to my feet. “I will attend the hearing because my future is being discussed, but I will not sit quietly while you and Mordecai decide that I have no voice.”

Adrian reached for the study door, but I moved in front of it before he could summon the guard. 

“You cannot dismiss me and expect me to disappear,” I told him. “You may want another wife, but you have no right to decide what becomes of me.” 

He looked annoyed rather than ashamed. “Then come to the hearing and listen carefully,” he said.

“Elder Mordecai says our laws do not allow a Luna to divorce her Alpha.”