All Chapters of HER ARRANGED MARRIAGE : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

49 Chapters

Terrible liar

Chapter 021CECILIAMy feet stopped moving on their own.Lila's arms were around his neck; fingers linked at his nape like they belonged there. Her face was turned into his shoulder, close, comfortable, and Cassian's arm was around her pulling her against his chest and he was walking with her like it was the most natural thing in the world.Something slammed into my chest.What is this feeling.I stood there and stared and could not move and could not look away and could not name what was happening inside my ribcage except that it was loud and it was hot and it was making it very difficult to breathe properly.Cassian looked up and saw me.I turned and walked away.Not fast. Not running. Just walking, one foot in front of the other, back straight, eyes forward, the way I always walked when something had hit me somewhere I was not going to show anyone.I sat on the bed that evening and stared at the wall and turned it over and over in my head: Lila's arms around his neck. Her face that

The orphanage and the fight

Chapter 022CECILIAI found Darcy after lunch and pulled her away from whatever she was doing."We have work," I said.She fell into step beside me immediately. "What kind of work?""The orphanage. Cassian assigned it to me in the council meeting. Elder Manon is supposed to show me what needs doing." I stopped at the nearest guard post and told the young wolf standing there to send word to Elder Manon to meet us at the orphanage. He nodded and moved.We walked out toward the eastern part of the grounds and Darcy glanced at me sideways."Did you and Cassian finally talk?""We are going to the orphanage, Darcy.""I know. I am asking a separate question.""Focus on where we are going."She was quiet for exactly four seconds. "He came to find me after Lila left. Asked if you had said anything to me." She kept her voice casual. "He looked genuinely worried, Cecilia. Not in the asking-to-be-polite way. Actually worried.""Mind what we are going to do," I repeated hardly.She smiled to her

The injury

Chapter 023CASSIANMy hands would not stop shaking.I did not notice it until I was already kneeling beside her with my hands on her face, checking her eyes, and she looked down at my fingers and then back up at me with something crossing her features that looked too close to worry for a woman who had just told me she was dying."Are you alright?" she asked.The fact that she was asking me that question while bleeding through her shirt and barely able to hold herself upright almost broke something in me."I am fine," I said. "You are not. Those are two very different things right now."I got my arms under her and lifted her and she made a sound that she immediately tried to swallow back, a short sharp sound that told me exactly how bad the injury was even before I looked at the blood soaking through to my shirt.I carried her inside and stopped at the first guard I passed. "Get the healer to my chambers now."He ran.I carried her up without stopping and laid her down on the bed and

After the injury

Chapter 024CECILIAWarmth was the first thing I registered.Solid and steady underneath me, rising and falling slowly, and my hands were resting on something firm and warm and I was more comfortable than I had been since arriving at this pack. I lay still for a moment with my eyes closed just existing in it before my brain caught up with my body and reminded me where I was.I opened my eyes.I was curled against Cassian's chest, my head right below his collarbone, his arm around me. I lifted myself up slowly, careful of my left side, and looked down at him.He was already awake. Looking straight up at me with those calm brown eyes.Except they were not entirely calm this morning. They were red at the edges, slightly puffy, the kind of eyes that had been open all night and had not done anything about it.He did not sleep.He looked at me for a moment and then the corner of his mouth lifted."Good morning, baby." His voice was rough from no sleep and no water and somehow still managin

The orphanage and the Party

Chapter Twenty FiveCECILIACassian's arm tightened around me before he even spoke."This is not the right time for this conversation." He replied calmly. "You can see I am taking care of my mate. She risked her life yesterday."Marcella's eyes moved to me with an expression that had already made up its mind about what it thought."I did not see Cecilia fighting," she said flatly. "I saw a brown wolf, which was my son. She did not save this pack. She is a useless Luna who ended up injured and needing to be carried inside."I swallowed and looked at the window.Do not say anything. Not now. Not while you are still wrapped in the man's arms recovering from broken ribs.Cassian sat up straighter and when he spoke again the control in his voice had thinned considerably."She was holding this pack together before I arrived." His tone was hard, like he's holding himself from yelling. "She organised the guards, she fought alongside them, she kept those rogues from breaching the packhouse an

The party begins

Chapter 026CECILIA"What are you going to do?" Darcy dropped into the chair across from me and looked at me with that expression she used when she already knew the answer and was asking anyway."Attend the party." I shifted against the pillow carefully. My ribs were still complaining but less than yesterday. "What else would I do.""Stay indoors and recover. Nobody would blame you.""Everybody would talk about it." I looked at her evenly. "I am the Luna of this pack. If I hide in a chamber while Marcella throws a party downstairs it will be the only thing anyone discusses for the next week. I am not giving them that."Darcy studied me for a moment and then stood up. "I will find you something suitable to wear."She went out and I let myself sink back into the bed and closed my eyes.The door opened.I did not need to look to know who it was. I had started recognising the footsteps without meaning to, the unhurried even pace of someone who never walked into a room like he was unsure o

Old Acquaintance

Chapter 027CASSIANHe changed direction.One moment Alpha Louis was moving toward me the way a visiting Alpha should, head dipped in acknowledgment, hand ready to extend. The next he had pivoted completely and was cutting through the crowd toward Cecilia like I was not standing right there.Who is this man to her?I watched him close the distance. Watching his face change the moment he saw her properly, something lighting up in it that was too genuine to be performed. He knew her. Not in passing. In the way that meant time and familiarity and things I did not have the full picture of yet.Cecilia's expression shifted when she saw him coming. Not alarm. She knew him too.He reached her and his arms opened.She stepped back immediately and gave him a look that would have stopped most men cold.It did not stop Louis. He laughed instead, dropping his arms, completely unbothered.I thought they clearly knew each other from before but from where? He thought about countless places Alphas

The Announcement

Chapter 028CECILIAFive hundred pairs of eyes turned to me at the same time after the toast.I felt it before I saw it. My face stayed exactly where I had put it. Every muscle in it is doing exactly what I told it to do.What is she doing?Marcella was still smiling from the platform, glass raised, eyes on me, and I looked back at her and thought about every way this woman had found to make my life difficult since the day I arrived in this pack and I added this to the list and filed it and kept my face still.She planned this. This whole party was for this.The celebration of the rogue defeat was real enough. But this, the toast, the heir, the deliberate look aimed at me in front of every wolf in the grounds and every visiting Alpha who had come tonight, this was not a celebration. This was a message.I was still working out what to do with it when the voice came from somewhere in the crowd behind me."An heir requires a proper wolf." A woman said loud enough for everyone to hear h

Let's blow off some steams

Chapter 029CASSIANDarcy was standing near the garden entrance when I found her."Where is she?""She said she needed space." Darcy looked at me carefully. "I have not seen her since.""How long ago?""Twenty minutes. Maybe more."I turned toward the garden immediately."She usually goes there when she needs to breathe," Darcy called after me. "Check the chambers first in case she went back."I checked the chambers. It's empty. I came back out and moved down the hallway toward the garden path and that was when I saw her.She was coming from the direction of the far hedge, walking steadily, and Louis was one step behind her. Not close. Just behind, like he had been walking with her and was now giving her the natural distance of someone who understood the conversation was finished.He saw me coming, gave a short nod and turned and walked back toward the party without a word.I stopped in front of Cecilia.I pulled her gently off the main path, into the quieter stretch beside the hedge,

The deal

Chapter 030CECILIAWe stood side by side on the line he marked in the sand."On your mark." He looked sideways at me with that expression, the one that was already too pleased with itself. "Get set.""Go." I took off before he finished the word.The sand pushed under my feet and the night air hit my face and for about ten seconds it felt good. Fast and free and like something I had not felt in weeks.Then my side reminded me it existed.The pain pulled through my ribs like a thread being yanked and my pace dropped and I gritted my teeth and pushed through it anyway because I was not stopping. I refused to stop.I glanced back.Cassian had started running and he was not even trying. Long easy strides eating up the ground between us like the distance was nothing. Like he was out for a gentle evening stroll and simply happened to be moving at an unreasonable speed."Stop running so fast!" I yelled."Run faster then." He was barely breathing hard. "Or I am going to catch up."I added mor

1 2 3 4 5

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP