Deborah Benjamin
The Alpha's Proxy Bride
"You are not my bride."
Four words. That's all it took to turn my life into a countdown to my father's execution.
I'm Scout. The forgotten daughter. The omega nobody wanted, the one my family kept locked away while my perfect sister got the glory, the gowns, the future Alpha. So when Simone ran off with another man an hour before her own wedding, guess who they shoved into that veil instead. Not to save me. To save themselves.
Alpha Nixon doesn't do weak. He doesn't do broken. He built an empire out of iron, discipline, and a body count, and he was promised a prize, not a substitute wearing his enemy's face. The second that veil lifts, his eyes go from hunger to something colder than death.
There's just one problem. The bond the Elder forced on us during the ceremony didn't fail like it was supposed to. It took. And now the man who despises me is the only thing standing between me and a war he thinks I started.
Every lie my stepmother tells sinks the noose tighter. Every hour I stay, Nixon hates me a little more, and wants me a little more, and I can't tell anymore which one is going to get me killed first.
I was never supposed to be anyone's bride. Now I'm the one thing a monster can't stop touching, can't stop hunting, can't stop needing.
He thinks I'm the lie.
He has no idea I might be the only truth left standing between him and the throne.
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