Mating Ceremony

Mariana Rose

I saw how he’s trying to hold himself in by unclenching his claws back and forth and gritting his teeth.

“I’ll pretend I didn't hear that,” he said dismissively.

“But Alpha Rozen,” Jezebel stepped in between us, a triumphant wicked smile playing hideously on the side of her lips, “the marriage alliance between Glenda and Alpha Victor has been approved by your father before he got bedridden. You don’t have the power to suddenly take back his words. Glenda is begging you to marry her because she is of age already!”

The air sparked with tension and Rozen’s face loomed with a dark aura when he shot her a menacing look.

“They said the same thing while I was tearing the necks of the rogue wolves last night. Now if you don’t want to end up like a pulled meat, then you better not bring this back up again.”

Jezebel swallowed hard and pushed me to go run towards him to which I did. I followed him to the arena where Drake left us with a knowing look.

Hanging on the huge wide open-spaced killer den are the conquests of Rozen. Skulls of the alphas he has murdered and some remains of the beasts that he killed.

“A-Alpha R-Rozen…” I uttered while his back was on me. His breathing is fast and shallow like he is trying so hard to control himself. “I meant everything I said. I want to marry Alpha Victor so please let me marry him.”

He turned too fast at me, his hand finding my throat instantly and pinning me on the ground choking me softly, his blue eyes glinting danger.

“If you really want to torture me, then just say so. If you want me to kill someone, then tell me his name. Do not kill me like this, Glenda.”

I gasped when his fingers caressed the sensitive spot on my neck. “We both know you don’t mean that, Alpha.”

He leaned in, giving me a clearer look of looming shadow on his face, his legs holding my body captive. “Just like you, I meant everything I said.”

“I’m sorry but my mind is already made up,” I muttered despite the shaking in my voice.

He was just so huge and powerful and strong against me that one calculated move from him could end me. Completely.

“I told you, you won’t marry him, right? I don’t like repeating myself twice,” he uttered, the nerves on his neck already revealing that his patience is thinning.

“We are a taboo to the world. You are my bro-”

I readily closed my mouth when he hovered closer, our breaths just a few centimeters away from touching.

“We are not blood siblings. You are adopted,” he growled, his hand moved from my neck down to the buttons of my top fumbling at them.

I wriggled out from his burning touch while my eyes were wandering around panicking that someone might see us in this compromising situation.

“Eyes on me!” he commanded, his lips brushing my lower lip.

“Still, I am your sister in the eyes of the pack!” I found my voice after a while. “You should not have manipulated me. We are siblings.”

My words obviously never reached him because he just grinned at me.

“You are mine, Glenda. You are only mine.”

In the middle of the day, for all the people to see, he snatched the first button of my top.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and remembered what Jezebel told me about his mate.

“What you feel for me is just possessiveness, not love so you should let me go, Alpha Rozen. I know you are not going to love me ever. I know you still love her. You will never get over her!”

He froze above me, cold icy fury shooting off his eyes when I touched on his exposed weakness.

“Do not dare speak of her!”

I think I have grown accustomed to the peril my mind brings given the hostile experience inside the prison because despite feeling fear, I still talked back at the alpha.

“I know I will never be your one true mate because we are not fated! Father legally adopted me. A sister cannot be a fated mate to her own brother.” I managed to free myself from him and crawled away feeling relief for a second. “Do not cage me with this kind of fucked up situation. Let me marry Alpha Victor. I do not want to be a dirty secret again!” I said the last word with the bitterest tone I could muster.

“Again?!” he asked in wonder, grabbing my shoulders together. “What do you mean by that?!”

“This is wrong. I should not have fallen for you,” I tactically evaded his question. “You are my brother! We are raised together, Alpha Rozen. Don’t do this to me. Let me have a future with another man.”

He slowly let me go and took in air sternly, his sharp jaws chiseled to perfection clenching against the red patches on his skin.

The alpha is too stimulated. I heard from the warriors that these red things show on his skin when he is on the verge of transforming and he does not just shift into his wolf on any other occasions. It only happens when he is very very triggered and angry and right now I will not be surprised if he tears me into pieces.

“Please set the date of my wedding and do not hamper it,” I said in a small voice when a minute passed but he still did not do anything. Could it be that he loves Glenda so much that he cannot afford to hurt her?

His hand rested heavier against the back of my head, a look of confusion crossed his eyes when he sniffed me again.

“Is this the reason why you ran away?”

I did not answer and just looked down. That’s when he raised my chin using his thumb and squeezed it hard enough for me to flinch in pain.

“I am the alpha of the Silverthorne pack. I claimed numerous wolves and slaughtered people without feeling anything but why can’t I do anything to you, Glenda?” he said more to himself than to me before he walked away leaving me in a state of intense emotional avalanche.

That night, Jezebel got me dressed up for the mating ceremony. She will personally escort me into the field of the pack where I will face Victor Phillips formally handing me over to him.

I do not have anything to offer to him because Rozen barred Jezebel from bringing any gold as my dowry.

“Alpha Rozen, I have to take Glenda to her mating ceremony with everybody,” she said when we met the alpha on the gate together with his entourage of armies.

He’s got blood all over his shirtless body. A stench of a victorious harvest runs through his head. He is fresh from war. Another pack has fallen in the hands of the silent but savage alpha.

But he just walked past us like he heard nothing sparing me, not even a glance.

Jezebel snorted and dragged me to the car.

“You have to shift instantly there. Do not embarrass me, Glenda!”

“How can I do that when you have my wolf hostage?”

She smiled and shrugged. “Just be creative, dear. You got this.”

I could only sigh. Yeah, I have to make myself an embarrassment there.

“Where is Alpha Victor?” Jezebel’s pissed voice cut through the harsh storm air when we arrived in the field without the presence of my future husband. “He should be here to accept his bride!”

“Glenda can shift into her wolf and impress all of us here, Jezebel,” an elder from the Crest pack stepped forward. “The Silverthorne pack is known for being private and secretive. I do not think you would warrant the alpha to be here. Besides, the wedding is going to happen. After all, Margot is dead and Victor needs another woman to fill his side.”

I bit my lips at the mention of her name. 

Jezebel arched her brows but did not say anything at all leaving me at the hands of the woman servants who downed a black veil over my head. 

In the vast courtyard under the moonlight surrounded by the elders of the two packs, their warriors and female werewolves, I stood in the middle with only sheer clothing covering my trembling body. Jezebel’s chosen gown for me was discarded by the elder of Alpha Victor’s pack.

Everyone is staring at me waiting for me to do something so they could criticize me right away. 

Oh, it’s just as hard to be Glenda Ricks!

I know I cannot shift because there is nothing to shift into. Glenda’s is wolfless while mine is bound by the council but I have to do this before Victor would honor the alliance back.

He is not present here for some unknown reasons but the elders from his Crest pack are here.

The crowd began chanting and I began acting to summon the non-existent wolf.