Chapter 51

~Grace~

No, it wasn’t true.

It couldn’t be!

My heart began to race and my head started to spin. I felt myself lose balance and I stepped backwards, grasping onto the railing for support.

It was a lie!

Yes, that’s all it was. A lie.

I took a few deep breaths, feeling myself steady. Christopher had always been a liar. Why would he tell the truth now?

I stood up tall and defiant.

Alex, for some reason, looked more unnerved than I did. Why wasn’t he angry? Christopher was trying to disgrace his name!

The crowd was still whispering to each other, their voices growing to an unsettling roar.

I would not be swayed. Christopher had no power over me, and I was not going to let him ruin my wedding or my life.

I had hoped that he had learned his lesson when he kidnapped me, but I can admit when I’m wrong.

He was just a pathetic scumbag trying to get attention in whatever way he could.

I took a strong step forward, my heel clicking against the ground. The crowd’s voices dampened and I walked toward Christopher, who now looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read. He didn’t resist the Lycan warriors who still tightly held his arms.

Stopping right in front of him, I lifted my chin, staring coldly into his blue eyes.

“You are a pathetic, miserable little man who will never find worth in ruining other people’s lives. What are you doing here? Why not make better use of your time and efforts and actually help people for once?” I hissed, my voice low so that the entire crowd couldn't hear us.

I watched Christopher wince at me.

“I’m glad you’re clear about how you feel about me,” he said, but a smile was tugging at the corners of his lips. “But I promise you, Grace, I am only looking out for you. Alex really did kill your parents.”

Smack!

The back of my hand stung from the strike, but I did not regret it one bit. A red mark began to shine brightly on Christopher’s cheek. He stayed silent, his head to the side, stunned.

“Do not speak lies about my husband,” I snapped.

He took a moment to recover, clearly caught off guard by my strike. “I-I assure you, they’re not lies! I-I know this must be upsetting to hear, but I speak the truth!”

I glared at him.

“Besides, he’s not your husband yet. And I can guarantee you’ll be glad he isn’t once you believe me,” Christopher continued, his voice low.

I curled my lip, anger still hot in my chest. One more vile word out of his mouth and I would make sure he’d never rise above being a pathetic, unrecognised Rogue.

Christopher looked to the warriors holding him, acknowledging them for the first time.

“Fellas, why don’t you let me go for a moment? I’d like to show the lady something, it’s just in my front pocket-”

The Lycan warriors growled, tightening their grip on him so hard it made him wince.

“I’ll get it. Where is it?” I spoke up, my voice firm.

“A-ah, just in my front- ouch! I can feel your claws through my jacket, you know- My front jacket pocket. Inside the lining.”

I moved forward, peeling open his suit jacket with the ends of my nails, not wanting to touch any more of him than I had to. He disgusted me.

I saw the inner pocket he spoke of, and I slipped it out. It was a piece of paper, folded up.

Christopher looked at me expectantly when I gave him a curious look.

“Open it,” he said, sounding a little impatient.

I rolled my eyes, but if this would get him to shut up…

Unfolding it, I looked over the paper. It looked like an official document. A report, actually. It had an official seal on the bottom… of the Black Lycan clan? Christopher must have snuck in and stolen this from Alex-!

Just as anger swelled in me once more, I suddenly gasped.

My heart dropped and my skin ran cold.

This wasn’t an ordinary report… It was a background check. On me.

Reading quickly through the words, I was horrified to find that every detail of my life was listed on this paper, from the day I was born, to the rogue attack where I lost my ability to bear children, to my recent events with Liam.

But the most shocking of all…

I read through my childhood details, all of which were correct.

My parents were in fact killed when I was a young girl. I never knew what happened to them, but in here-

I dropped the paper, and it fluttered to the ground. Time seemed to slow, and the noise of the chattering crowd faded into silence.

No, it couldn’t be true…

On this paper, it listed my parents’ cause of death as… “killed by a Lycan.”

Horrified, I slowly turned around, focusing on Alex, who stood stiffly at the end of the aisle.

Tears brimmed my eyes, but I was too stunned to cry.

He stared back at me, and I could see the guilt on his face.

So it was true.

All this time, Alex knew?!

He knew he had killed a werewolf couple years ago, and he never felt guilty about it? What did they even do? Why had he killed them?

Was he just a cold-blooded killer, or was he on a feral rampage?

There was a reason Lycans were feared by many werewolves and considered them to be our instinctual enemy. They were powerful, dark, and unpredictable.

Lycan attacks had not been out of the ordinary hundreds of years ago, but we were in a progressive era, I thought we had moved past the time of senseless bloodshed!

But I guess for a being as old as the Lycan King, old habits are hard to break, aren’t they?

Even if he hadn’t known that I was the little girl who’s parents he killed when he first met me, he obviously had to have suspected, otherwise he wouldn’t have pulled up this report on me!

He was digging into my past for a reason, and it was because he knew! He knew he was guilty!

And he chose not to tell me! He kept it hidden from me because he knew I would never forgive him if I found out!

Just look at him now, standing there at the altar, not saying a single word to defend himself!

And I thought Christopher was pathetic.

Grief began to wash over me, and my body began to tremble. Silent tears fell down my face, one after the other, like a faucet had just been turned on.

Yet another man I had given my heart to shattered it. I really thought he was so much better than Liam, but I just went from a cheater to a murderer.

I guess I had been wrong about a lot of things lately. Alex was not the man I thought he was, and I wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

Christopher was right. I’m glad I hadn’t just sealed our lives together, now that I knew the truth.

I never wanted to see him again.