Chapter 23

Alaric's POV

The moment’s almost here. I’m about to marry Lilia.

I've always been the calm one, but at this moment...I’m trying to ignore my nervous.

Nothing rattles me.

But for some reason, the idea of getting married without Cara present really has me thrown.

She said she would be here. It was a direct order. She promised.

And yet, as guest after guest arrives at the hotel and finds their seats, there’s no sign of the red headed Beta who’s been at my side since I became Alpha King three years ago.

She’s not here.

I should’ve known from that awkward phone call we had earlier this morning. She sounded… different. Something sounded off with her, something I couldn’t quite place…

“Congratulations, Alpha King!”

“What a lovely day for a wedding!”

I smile politely at the pack members gathered in attendance, their kind words barely registering with me. I shake hands without looking at who those hands belong to.

The guests, dressed to the nines with their glittering jewels, streamed past the grand entrance's red carpet, yet Cara was conspicuously absent from the crowd.

"Cara...” Grey lowly says.

I didn’t have time to look for Cara earlier, I was too busy fulfilling Lilia’s requests.

Lilia is beside herself with anticipation for the wedding ceremony. She wanted a special hot tea from a certain café in town; she wanted donuts from another café all the way on the other side of town. She wanted scented candles from somewhere else entirely.

Lilia wants this… Lilia wants that…

It’s an endless loop of demands.

It’s fucking exhausting.

I guess the waiter messed up and pissed her off by giving her the candle after the tea, and she threw a fit.

“WHAT?! This isn’t what I asked for!! Don’t you want me to have my perfect special day?!” Lilia had screamed at me just a few short hours ago.

When I assure her that it was a harmless mistake, she screeched, “Don’t you want me to be happy?! Why can’t you just do what I ask?! It just not even that hard!”

With each successive mishap, Lilia became more and more angry, and her words got more and more offensive.

I must have looked terrifying at that moment.

Lilia shuddered, but she clutched her wedding gown and continued to scream at me “Are you STUPID, Alaric?! All I ask is that for ONCE, today be about me! What is wrong with you?!”

Very few people have talked to me like that and lived to tell the tale.

...Now I finally know She’s not the kind and gentle she-wolf I thought she was, or at least she’s not acting like it.

She’s selfish and bitter, cold and uncaring.

But scanning the crowd of elders and nobles, low-borns and visitors from neighboring packs, I see there’s hundreds of guests gathered here.

All waiting for me to seal the deal and marry Lilia.

Waiting for me to join Pack DarkWood and Pack BloodyMoon into a formal alliance. Waiting for me to finally end my infamous bachelorhood and appoint a Luna.

Waiting for me to produce heirs to the throne.

I have to marry Lilia today. I can’t back out now. It’s too late.

The thought repeats in my head over and over as my eyes keep scanning the crowd for Cara: It’s too late.

“Alpha King, sir?” I hear someone ask me.

“ hmm?” I ask, distractedly. My eyes are still looking for Cara.

My breath hitches at a flash of bright red. Is it her?!

I look again and realize it was just a noble she-wolf’s red scarf. My shoulders slump the slightest bit.

Not Cara.

“It’s time, sir. We need you at the altar.”

Still no sign of her.

It’s too on late.

Lilia's POV

This is the moment I’ve been dreaming about for my entire life. I’m going to become Luna. I’m going to lead the most powerful pack in the world!

Well, I guess Alaric will be there too, but that’s a minor detail.

Victory is so close I can almost taste it. The throne is almost mine.

Now, if only I wasn’t surrounded by idiots. No one can do anything right today, apparently.

Alaric just looked really terrible. But I'm about to be his wife; how dare he treat me like this?

Thank goodness he’ll have me to mold him. I’ll turn him into the perfect then, obedient Alpha King, or a husband. He’ll do everything I ask, and the pack will be under my full control.

“Any sign of Cara Wilson?” I ask my handmaiden for the tenth time this morning.

“No ma’am. No one has seen her all day,” my servant replies.

“Marvelous!” I can’t contain my gleeful smile.

At least one of my plans must have worked, then. I had several plots against her going at the same time. One can never be too careful.

George is supposed to sabotage Cara’s car then “accidentally” cause a wreck. Just in case she somehow turned up at the wedding anyway, my brothers were assigned to watch the door and intercept her.

I found a nice broom closet she could be shoved into until the wedding was finished.

I put up with that pathetic and annoying Cara. I pretended to care about the useless DarkWood low-borns. I humored Alaric by pretending to give a shit about that stupid free kitchen he’s setting up.

I’ve paid my dues, and now it’s time to collect on what’s mine.

I snatch the bridal veil out of my handmaiden’s hands and place it atop my own head.

“It’s time, ma’am.” The woman tells me meekly.

I smile at her, drunk with the idea of how much power I’m about to have. “Let’s go get my crown!”

As I walk down the aisle, I pass nobles and elders, all gazing at me with approval and admiration. They would kill to take my place; I can smell their envy.

"Oh...the beautiful daughter of the Arbun family! She's elegant and noble."

"How perfectly that wedding gown complements her..."

“The Alpha King's marriage to her must be the best one ever!”

Of course, they should envy me! Who wouldn’t want to be me right now?

I deserve this. I’ve earned this.

I was born to enjoy all of this.

When I look into Alaric’s blue eyes at the altar, I picture the blue gemstones I’m going to have put on my new Luna crown. The smile I give Alaric might be the most genuine one he’s seen from me yet.

The officiant blathers on with the ceremony, talking about silly things like love and commitment and loyalty.

Whatever.

Those things are for suckers.

And I’m no sucker.

“Do you, Alaric, take Lilia to be your wedded wife?” The officiant asks him.

I play my part and give Alaric the most charming, most endearing, sweetest look I can possibly deliver. I bat my beautifully long and thick eyelashes at him.

Just say ‘I do’ and get this over with! I mentally scream at him. Just say ‘I do!’

But he doesn’t.

He’s not saying anything.

Panic starts to rise within me the longer the silence goes on.

...What the fuck is he doing?!