5. The Promise

Rita

“Mate?”

He looked as stunned as I was as he raised his brows in confusion, blinking a couple of times as if still trying to comprehend it, before mouthing his disbelief.

The air and the hall fell into a sudden calm… too calm, like the spirits had just stopped to watch. Only the panting hearts of two were heard. My breath and that of Marvin.

“Nooo,” he growled, eyes blazing as they met mine. “No, there is nowhere on earth this could have been possible,” he blurted angrily, trying to drag the cord that intertwined us together as mates, but it bulged and could only be severed if he accepted or rejected me.

“You evil swine, what did you do? Tell me the witch you visited to make this happen. Answer me,” he barked, his eyes burning into mine with rage that he couldn’t control.

“I said answer me,” he roared, and I jerked back, dread and confusion colliding at me. The hate in his eyes, the rage, was second to none. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding with such force that it sent another pulse of fear through me.

“When I speak, I need answers,” he said as he held my wrist fiercely, his claws sinking into my skin and piercing deeply. The pain was sharp and pulsating, forcing a gasp from my lips.

“I… I… I never visited any witch.”

“Liar,” Becky interrupted, voice a mixture of sobs and venom. “You not only tried to kill the Luna, but also want to steal what rightfully belongs to me? How wicked… evil can your hatred be?”

Her rage and words got to me, but not the way they should, until Marvin shoved past me toward her, pushing me off with an intensity that sent me crashing into the hard marble floor like a piece of weightless doll.

“Look at me. There’s no way I’m letting her get to us. We are already mates, connected by the moon, and nothing can change it.” The emotion, love, and care in his voice broke me even further.

I might not have been the one cherished or loved, but I had only ever dreamt, while growing up, of meeting my mate on my eighteenth birthday. I had dreamt of being loved and cared for, and proving to all that I wasn’t really a curse as they had thought. That maybe the mark on my face was for a different purpose. Maybe the moon decided to give me that mark as a blessing.

The sting of rejection hit me so hard, seeing my mate showing that love toward another. Not that I ever wanted Marvin as my mate, seeing how he had treated me over the years, but couldn’t he have politely rejected me instead of branding me of manipulating our bond?

I pushed myself gently to my feet, trying to mask how this affected me and holding back the tears in my eyes. I couldn’t give them that satisfaction anymore.

“I, Marvin Watson,” he turned to me with eyes intended to burn me if they were a furnace, “soon‑to‑be Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, reject…”

“Stop… son,” Alpha Philip’s voice roared, and the crowd gasped.

Marvin turned to his dad in disbelief and confusion.

“Why, Dad? Why did you stop me from rejecting this ugly, cursed swine?” The hatred and irritation in his voice couldn’t be masked.

Alpha Philip shook his head, his expression blank. “You can’t reject her. At least not now. Not while the throne is on the line.”

“What do you mean?” Marvin asked, his gaze burned more intensely.

Alpha Philip shook his head again, pain etched on his features as he looked down. “That I will explain to you later, not here, not now.” He looked up at his son, then at me with that same blank expression.

My heart drummed loudly.

“You will accept her and mark her. That’s what you should do. That’s what’s right for now. For your position as soon‑to‑be Alpha.”

“No!” Marvin growled. “I can’t mark her. I can’t be connected to one cursed by the moon herself.” He paused, making his father see reasons with him. “Don’t you see she manipulated the hate bond? Don’t you see something isn’t right? The moon certainly can’t give me her when they had already blessed me with the rare gift of a healer. Can’t you see the evil this swine is planning to bring upon me and this pack?”

The entire hall that was once filled with loud murmurs and grief suddenly fell into a hush. Even the air seemed against me. It grew so heavy and suffocating.

“I… I never wished to be mated to you,” I said, turning to Marvin. “I never wanted this. If rejection would be the only solution, the only way to claim my innocence and save your pack, then I am willing to accept it.”

I didn’t know what got into me, but for a fleeting second, Marvin’s gaze softened for only a flicker before it disappeared. His hatred and rage slammed back over me.

The crowds buzzed.

“Enough,” Alpha Philip’s voice roared, fixing his gaze on mine, his rage but bruising and electrifying.

“What gave you the guts to speak? What made you think you could outrun the path you have carved? Don’t you know the implications of such demands?”

My breath hitched as my body trembled under his rage.

“Father… I’m rejecting her, and that’s what is right.”

“Then this pack will have no choice but to fall to another… and worse, another Alpha may be chosen from among the crowd.” Murmurs swelled, confusion and shock twisting through the hall. All of this… was because of me. It hurted badly.

“Nooo…” Becky, who had been calm, sobbed out loud, her wails filling that part of my heart that still saw her as my only sister, my twin, my blood, with grief and sorrow.

I could never wish to cause her pain, and right now I felt trembling and sick at the realization and its turns.

“What happens to Mum? What happens to her health and Becky if I accept this bullshit?”

Marvin’s angry voice snapped, and I turned to Alpha Philip, who was trying to hide his vulnerability because Alphas don’t show weakness, but you could tell how utterly this affected him by the way his shoulders dropped and his lips twitched.

“That will be taken care of too.”

The crowd looked thrown off as the murmurs intensified. Marvin stared at his father for a long moment with panting breaths, their minds locked. And where I stood, I could only feel the darkness that loomed over their presence, a promise of something more intense awaiting me.

“Fine. If that’s what you want,” he finally huffed, with a frown, turning to me. His growl was deafening. My knees buckled as his eyes seared into mine, promising me that this path… was only the beginning of the nightmare I never knew was only a prelude.

His claws extended. With a guttural growl, he pulled me forward, tugging my hair brutally, and sank his fangs into the nape of my neck.

Shock, disbelief, and dread filled the hall. Gasps erupted around us.