6: What they wanted

Rita

As he sank his canines into the nape of my neck, I couldn’t hold back the groan that slipped past my lips as the sludge of pleasure mixed with pain washed over me, inching through every nerve in my being and pulling at every weak end in my body.

I straightened, tying my eyes into those bruising blue eyes of Marvin that burned into mine. Clearly, this wasn’t his mind.

He would never have marked me willingly. He never would have accepted this bond if his father hadn’t forced him.

I was only the unfortunate thread caught in the middle of their storm, still unaware why Alpha Philips refused to let him reject me. He had claimed it concerned the pack, the throne, but that explanation felt hollow. There was definitely more, unsaid.

Still, I could only picture this moment as any intense torment burning at my skin, with what Marvin's gaze was doing to me.

It made tears sting in my eyes, but I found it hard to hold them back when the voice of the priest surged again, reminding us to do the needful and stop staring.

I exhaled sharply, not even realizing I had been holding my breath all this while. I looked into my mate’s eyes again, this time pleading for the rejection. What his gaze was doing to me was far crueler than any physical pain. It terrified me. It made my body tremble.

He could still reject me, severing the bond since I hadn’t completed it. His mark would vanish like a mistake erased.

“You don’t have all day.”

Alpha Philips’ voice sliced through the tension. Marvin tore his eyes from mine and looked toward his father, whose jaw was clenched so tightly it seemed carved from stone.

Marvin looked away just in time to hear the growing sob behind me. That was undoubtedly Becky’s voice, and it stirred something in Marvin, because his arms twisted, his eyes broke into a silent sob, and a tear slipped down his chin.

This wasn’t good. I didn’t want to mark him. He clearly wanted to be with my sister, and sincerely, I would accept it. I didn’t mind that his mark was already on my neck. I wanted to set them free from whatever madness they thought I must have started in the first place.

I wished I didn’t have to leave the kitchen to come here. I could only wish I never even had to witness this scene of my mate, the worst betrayal of all, looking at another—my sister—with such affection in his gaze. And it hurt more than ever.

Something else snapped.

All the years of hatred I had endured. The cruel whispers. The cold stares. The endless reminder that I was never wanted.

I sniffed and blinked a couple of times. “I, Rita Maxwell, would only wish for one thing.”

His head snapped toward me. Indifference coated his expression, sharp and cutting.

Yet beneath the deep-rooted hatred was a flicker of… maybe softness and something uncertain that didn’t last long.

But I continued, “…I, Rita Maxwell, reject…”

“Enough!”

Alpha Philips’ voice broke through the air, both stiffening and unbearable, and all heads ducked as the sheer sludge of power slammed into us, tightening the pain and then the hurt.

He moved at lightning speed and stopped where I had dropped to the floor on my knees. His arm lifted my chin to meet his darkened gaze of blue and golden colors.

“You clearly wish for death, don’t you?” he blurted through gritted teeth, and I couldn’t hold back the tears that stung my eyes. My entire body was visibly trembling, and his grip on my jaw only worsened my plight.

His anger was palpable and bruising, commanding and inevitable, and I didn’t even realize it until Marvin’s voice broke through the heated chaos.

“Dad,” he called out, and Alpha Philips’ grip loosened as he looked at his son. By now, the entire hall, which I hadn’t even realized still existed around us, had turned into a heated battleground of chaos, with whispers, loud murmurs, and curses all directed at me exploding at once.

“Now, complete the bond,” Alpha Philips barked, and I sniffed, making the mistake of looking ahead into the crowd. That was when my eyes met with the hurtful, darkened glare of Mum in the crowd.

She stood rigid with arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes carved holes into my body and she was muttering words I couldn’t pick out. It made me imagine if she had been here the entire time to witness this unfolding.

I thought she was warning me not to try to complete the bond. She did shake her head, and it scared me even more, but I couldn’t just dig my own pit with Alpha Philips’ threat hanging over me.

I looked away just in time, my canines already out, about to mark Marvin when Becky’s sorrowful voice rang through.

“Nooo…”

Marvin’s body reacted before his mind did. He moved toward her, desperate, but Alpha Philips’ grip snapped around his arm and held him back.

“No, son, you can’t go after her. Let her be for now until we sort everything out.”

“No, Dad!” Marvin shouted, panic flooding his voice. “Becky will do something reckless if I don’t…”

“Then the guards will handle it.” Alpha Philips interrupted, turning to the guard, who hurriedly left the hall after Becky.

Silence swallowed the hall.

“Dad… please, Dad,” Marvin pleaded, his eyes slowly watering when they met with his father’s, but Alpha Philips didn’t budge. He only tightened his grip on his son.

I sniffed and with trembling resolve, I sank my already elongated canines into the nape of Marvin’s neck, sealing a bond neither of us truly chose.

This was what they wanted.

This was what was demanded.