The Lycan Kings’ Captive Mate

I was getting married on the anniversary of my father’s death, and I did not know how to feel about it.

“Girl, you’re glowing!” Alyssa squealed, interrupting my thoughts as she burst into my room with her arms filled with white roses. “I swear you get more beautiful every time I see you.”

I couldn’t help but grin at my best friend’s enthusiasm. “It’s called makeup, Lyss. Lots and lots of makeup.”

“Bullshit. That’s the glow of a woman who’s about to marry the love of her life.” She set the flowers down and grabbed my hands, spinning me around. “Anna, I’m so damn happy for you I could cry.”

“Please don’t cry. You’ll make me cry, and then my makeup artist will murder us both.” But I was laughing, feeling so light, like I was floating.

Alyssa had that effect on me. We’d been inseparable since we were five years old, when she had beaten up three boys who were picking on me for being the Alpha’s daughter. Twenty years later, she was still my protector and biggest cheerleader.

“Okay, real talk time.” She plopped down on my bed, suddenly serious. “How are you feeling? And don’t give me some generic ‘I’m fine’ answer. I want the truth.”

I sank down beside her, smoothing out my silky wedding dress, “Scared out of my mind.”

“Good scared or bad scared?”

“Both?” I laughed shakily. “I love Adrian so much it physically hurts sometimes. Like, I look at him and my chest gets tight because I can’t believe he’s mine. But…”

“But?” She raised a brow.

“What if he realises that I am not enough? He proposed to me too fast. We moved in together just like a week ago and now we are getting married already.” I voiced my concerns to her.

Adrian and I have known each other for a long time. He was my late father’s friend’s son that came to live with us after his father died. I have known him for three years, but we just got together three months ago.

I have loved him for the past three years even though he never noticed until now. He proposed that we got married on the day my father died, just to make the day slightly easier for me.

Of course I agreed almost immediately, but now I was worried that this all happened so fast. I loved him, more than it was even healthy, but I was still scared.

Alyssa grabbed my face between her hands. “Annabel Marie Anderson, you listen to me. That man worships the ground you walk on. I’ve watched him stare at you like you’re the answer to every prayer he’s ever whispered for the last three months. He obviously loves the shit out of you.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so. That’s not something you fake.” She stood up, pulling me with her. “Now come on. Let’s get you married before I have to knock some sense into you.”

I laughed with her before I looked at myself one last time in the mirror, then we headed down to the garden where we were going to tie the knot. The ceremony was everything I’d ever dreamed of.

The garden was oozing with guests, some which I knew from birth and some that were my father’s friends. When the music started and I saw Adrian waiting for me at the altar, my breath caught in my throat.

He looked devastatingly handsome in his black suit, but it was his expression that nearly brought me to my knees. It was of pure, overwhelming love mixed with something that looked almost like… relief? Like he’d been waiting his entire life for this moment.

When I reached him, he took my hands and brought them to his lips.

“You’re so damn beautiful.” He whispered, eyes softening as he studied my face.

“Flatterer,” I whispered back, but my cheeks were burning.

Elder Marcus, the eldest member of the council, smiled at us both before he turned to the crowd. “Dearly beloved, we gather today to witness the union of our Luna, Annabel Anderson, and Adrian Blackwood in the sacred bond of mating.”

“Annabel Marie Anderson,” Elder Marcus continued, “do you take Adrian James Blackwood as your mate, to love and cherish, to stand beside you through all of life’s joys and sorrows?”

“I do.” My tone was steady and sure.

“Adrian James Blackwood, do you take Anna Marie Anderson as your mate, to love and cherish, to stand beside through all of life’s joys and sorrows?”

There was a pause, and it was so brief that I almost missed it, “I do.”

Then his lips touched mine, sealing our bond and I felt my world explode in his arms. I felt our souls connecting, intertwining, becoming something stronger than it was just seconds ago. Adrian and I became one.

“I love you, Mrs. Blackwood,” he murmured against my lips.

“I love you too, Mr. Blackwood.”

After the wedding, we had a reception that consisted of a lot of congratulations and dancing and way too much champagne. By the time we made it back to our room, I was dizzy with happiness and alcohol.

“Finally,” Adrian growled, backing me against the door. “I’ve been dying to get you alone all day.”

“Have you now?” I started working on the buttons of his shirt, my fingers clumsy because of how tipsy I was. “And what exactly did you plan to do once you got me alone?”

“Everything.” His voice was rough with desire. “I want to worship every inch of you. I want to make you scream my name. I want to claim you so thoroughly that you forget anyone else ever existed.”

Heat pooled between my thighs at his words. “Then what are you waiting for?”

He lifted me easily, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carried me to the bed. The room had been decorated with rose petals and candles, but I barely noticed.

All I could focus on was Adrian. His hands on my skin, his mouth on my throat, the way he looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world.

“Are you sure?” he asked as he settled between my thighs, his hardness pressing against my core.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” I whispered, ready to be with him after months of fantasizing over having sex with him.

When he entered me, I felt complete for the first time in my life. We moved together like we’d been made for this, for each other. Every touch sent fire through my veins like lava.

“Mine,” he growled as he claimed me completely.

The climax hit me like a wave, and I screamed his name as my body shattered around him. He followed right after, burying his face in my neck as he spilled himself inside me.

“I love you,” I whispered as we lay tangled together afterward. “More than I ever thought possible.”

“And I love you,” he said against my hair. “More than anything in the world.”

I fell asleep feeling like the luckiest woman alive.

—

The next morning, I woke up to someone speaking on the phone. I frowned as I rolled over to hear who it was, and it was Adrian. My husband. A smile crept to my lips as I raised my head to look at him.

Adrian was standing by the window with his back to me, fully dressed, while talking quietly into his phone.

“Only three months of playing the devoted boyfriend was worth it. She signed over everything yesterday morning,” He laughed, and the sound made my blood run cold. “The pack, the money, all of it. Marcus Anderson’s precious daughter just handed me everything I’ve ever wanted.”

I must have made a sound because Adrian turned around. When he saw I was awake, his face transformed. The first thing I noticed was that there was no trace of the man who had whispered sweet words against my skin just hours ago.

“Good morning, wife,” he sneered, ending his call. “Sleep well?”

“Who were you talking to?” My voice came out as a croak.

“Business associates.” He moved toward the bed like a predator stalking prey. “We have a lot to discuss, you and I.”

“Adrian, you’re scaring me.”

“Good. You should be scared.” He sat on the edge of the bed, and I instinctively pulled the sheet up to cover myself. I was still wearing my wedding dress but the zipper was rolled all the way down. “Do you know what day it is, Anna?”

“The day after our wedding?”

“It’s the day I finally got my revenge on Marcus Anderson.” He smirked, his green eyes darkening.

The name hit me like a slap. “My father? What do you mean?”

“Your father murdered my parents when I was fifteen years old.” Adrian’s voice was conversational, like he was casually discussing the weather. “He slaughtered them in cold blood and left me an orphan.”

“That’s not true.” I shook my head frantically. “My father was a good man. He would never—”

“Your father was a monster. And you, my dear wife, are his daughter.” Adrian reached out to stroke my cheek, and I flinched away from his touch. “I’ve spent three years planning this moment. Three years of tracking down everyone connected to Marcus Anderson and making them pay.”

I was so confused. I tapped my hand to make sure I was awake and sure enough, I was, “The mate bond—”

“Was fake. A little trick I learned from a witch in Chicago.” His smile was cruel. “Did you really think the Moon Goddess would pair me with the daughter of my parents’ killer?”

My world felt like it was crumbling around me. It felt like I was in a dream, but I wasn’t. It was all too real, “But how?” I was at a loss for words. It felt like a prank. Like he was going to laugh and kiss me, then apologise for scaring me like this.

He stood up, towering over me. “You made it so easy, Anna. So desperate to be loved that you believed every word. You even signed over your pack to me without question.”

“I signed those papers because I trusted you!” I yelled. I had given him a share of my pack because I did not want him to feel excluded. I wanted this to be our pack, and not mine alone.

“And that trust just cost you everything. Your father took everything from me. Now I’m returning the favor.”

“Please,” I whispered, tears brimming at my eyelids. “If you ever cared about me, even a little—”

“I despise you.” The words cut deep. “Everything about you reminds me of him. You’re his blood, his legacy, and that makes you my enemy.”

“I had nothing to do with what happened to your parents!” I cried as he approached me, and I suddenly had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

“Go tell that to who fucking cares. But for now, I do not want anything to do with you. So I, Adrian James Blackwood, reject you, Anna Marie Anderson, as my mate and Luna.”

The rejection hit me like a physical blow, tearing through my chest and leaving me gasping for air. I felt our fake bond shatter, and my entire body stung with pain. I fell down from the bed and wrapped my hands around my body as I cried in pain.

“Accept the rejection.” He crouched down to my level and fisted my hair into his hands. “Say it, or I’ll make this so much worse for you.”

“I… I accept your rejection.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth.

Adrian smirked and walked to the door. “Guards!”

Two men entered, and I was surprised to see the pack members I’d known my entire life. Beta Jackson and Gamma Stevens. The two men my father had left to take care of me while I ascended as alpha after he died.

“Take her to the dungeons,” Adrian ordered. “Kill her, torture her, I do not care. Just get rid of her.”

“Adrian, please!” I scrambled up to my feet. “You can’t do this!”

“I can do whatever I want. This is my pack now.” He turned his back on me. “Get her out of my sight.”

The guards grabbed my arms, hauling me toward the door. I fought against them, screaming Adrian’s name, begging him to have mercy on me, but I could have as well been talking to someone deaf.

He did not even look at me. Jackson and Stevens dragged me out and on our way, I heard one of them whisper, “What do we do with her?”

“Well we can’t kill her. She’s got Alpha blood, so she’s valuable. There’s good money to be made at the omega auctions down south. A pretty little girl like her will definitely fetch a high price.” Jackson told him, and my jaw dropped.

I screamed at them to stop, begged for them to remember how much my father helped them, but it fell on deaf ears. I kicked and struggled but they managed to restrain me so much that I could not even move a limb.

As we arrived at the dungeon, they threw me inside and locked the door, and I had to watch as they turned back and left, the two men I trusted with my life sentencing me to a fate worse than death.