Todos los capítulos de Unexpected Mate: The Cruel Alpha’s Little Wolf: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

I left Kael's office shortly after that. Or at least I think I did. The walk back to my room felt like a blur. My thoughts were too loud. The proposal. The council. Seven days. Aurelia. The word mummy. Everything tangled together until I couldn't separate one thought from another. By the time I reached my room, I was exhausted. Not physically. Emotionally. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. For a long moment, I simply stood there. Breathing. Thinking. Trying not to think. It didn't work. My mind immediately replayed the scene in the study. I don't want you to leave. If you do, it'll look like I lied. I squeezed my eyes shut. Leave it to Aurelia to accidentally break my heart. A small, helpless laugh escaped me. Then faded just as quickly. Because the truth was simpler than that. A few weeks ago, I had been rejected in front of an entire pack. Humiliated. Exposed. And then I had seen her. A little girl being

I thought long and hard about the marriage proposal. For days, I had turned it over in my mind from every possible angle. The council. The pack. The responsibilities that would come with becoming Luna. None of it was a decision to be taken lightly. The truth was, I wasn't walking into this blindly. I knew exactly what I was agreeing to. A political marriage. A marriage born out of necessity rather than affection. A future chosen for me by circumstances rather than desire. Yet despite all that, I found myself unable to dismiss it completely. I had grown attached to Aurelia. Far more attached than I should have. The thought of leaving her hurt more than I cared to admit. Also I had something I hadn't possessed in a long time. Stability. The word lingered in my mind. Not because I had lost it after my rejection. Because, if I was being honest, I had never truly had it to begin with. Growing up under Vera's roof had taught me that quickly enough. I

I woke up early the next morning. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I gave up trying to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I found myself replaying the council's proposal. A wedding. A future I had never imagined for myself. By the time the sun began to rise, I was already awake, staring at the ceiling. Today would make everything official. After this, there would be no turning back. A strange mixture of anxiety and anticipation settled heavily in my stomach. I pushed myself out of bed and got dressed carefully. Perhaps more carefully than usual. As if looking composed would somehow make me feel composed. It didn't. The nervousness remained. Following me downstairs like a shadow. Kael was already there when I arrived. Of course he was. The man seemed incapable of being unprepared. He looked up briefly from the documents in front of him. "Good morning." "Good morning, Alpha." For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then he surprised me. "Did you sleep well?

"It's from your people." For a second, nobody spoke. Agatha's hand tightened slightly around my arm. Enough to remind me that I wasn't standing alone. My stomach twisted. I had known this moment would come. The council had barely finalized the marriage before word began spreading through the estate. Of course the news would eventually reach Vera and Manda. I just hadn't expected it to happen this quickly. "Who delivered it?" Agatha asked. "A messenger," the servant replied. "He requested that the letter be placed directly into Miss Aria's hands." The knot in my stomach tightened. The servant extended a sealed envelope toward me. I recognized the seal immediately. My breath caught. Vera. I hadn't seen her handwriting in weeks. Yet somehow I recognized it instantly. Funny. Some things stayed with you no matter how far away you went. I reached for the letter. For a moment, I simply stared at it. A part of me didn't want to open it. Because

The next three days passed far too quickly. Or perhaps not quickly enough. I couldn't decide. Every time I thought about the upcoming visit to Vera's house, I wished the days would slow down. Every time I remembered that postponing it would only drag out the inevitable, I wished they would hurry. Either way, the days continued moving forward. Uncaring of my feelings. By the second day, the estate had fully embraced the reality of the upcoming wedding. Not in dramatic ways. In small subtle ones. The kind that caught me off guard when I wasn't paying attention. I walked into one sitting room and found several women discussing fabric samples. Another corridor was occupied by servants carrying stacks of documents from one office to another. Twice, I overheard conversations about guest accommodations. Once, I even heard someone discussing floral arrangements. Floral arrangements. For my wedding. The thought was still strange enough to make me stop walking. I stood in the