I was sprawled at the edge of the bed. The exhaustion of the entire day was forcing my eyes shut, yet they burned, parched from crying. I knew Chloe wouldn't stay silent. Even if they took her life, that girl didn't know the meaning of shutting up. Her tongue was braver than the most terrifying Alpha. Melanie, on the other hand, detested stepping out of her comfort zone.
Moreover, Melanie suffered from Asperger's syndrome. She couldn't adapt to changing routines. Whenever she felt her soul getting trapped and lost in crowds, she would put on her headphones, struggling to drown out the external world. Sudden noises, crowds, shifting spaces and times—they were all threats to her.
And the most heartbreaking detail was Dominic.
I hugged the pillow, unable to stifle a sob. The thought that they would be extra cruel to him just because he was male set my heart ablaze. It hurt that the most beautiful souls I knew were being used as pawns in this filthy war that wasn't even theirs.
Beautiful souls, sacrificed for me. Was I even worth it?
Perhaps they were my only true family, the ones who tried to do something for me without any ulterior motive. To them, I wasn't a breeder or a key to a prophecy. The maximum benefit they could get from me was making me a sentry to hold their coats and phones in mall restrooms.
I clenched my fists and cast a bitter glance at my dress, which had slipped off my shoulder.
"I bet this isn't how you expected our wedding night to go, Alpha," I muttered.
Varg had spent the entire night gathering allies and crafting siege plans. They didn't know where the vampire clans' "den" was, but he had chosen the search parties with extreme caution.
Varg was consumed by rage. He was even shouting at his own pack. To make matters worse, the wolf tribes had preferred to spend the night in the forest. They refused to stay in the mansion, in Varg's household. They claimed he was an invader and a border-crosser, insisting on fighting separately rather than as a united front.
"Baby," Varg said, taking a long swig of whiskey. "While your stupid human friends are serving as feeding units and blood banks for vampires, would you mind spreading your legs for me? I need to shove my tool into something warm and glide against your walls for a bit. I want to moan your name as I come inside you."
I just stared at him with empty eyes. He was crude. Sharp-tongued. Of all the Alphas I'd seen, none could be worse. He was mocking even this situation.
"Like everything we live through, even our wedding is cursed!" I screamed. "I've brought nothing but trouble wherever I go; even your wedding has turned into a disaster. Do you still think you'll get any use out of me?"
The silhouette I saw in the silver mirror wasn't me. That expensive wedding dress, now stained with blood and mud, felt like a shroud sewn onto my soul. I had trashed the room; silk pillows had flown through the air, and crystal perfume bottles had shattered against the walls. Now, the room smelled like me: a mixture of rage, despair, and a monster terrified of waking up.
"Let me go!" I barked, my voice tearing with that metallic ring in my throat. "You left them in the hands of those parasites, Varg!"
Varg stood in the doorway like a monolith. Half his shirt was shredded, and the blood seeping from fresh claw marks on his chest trickled down like a black river. Yet, there wasn't a single trace of pain on his face.
"And what are you going to do? Search for them in the forest by skipping around like a fawn and singing songs? SIT DOWN!"
He hadn't used his Alpha Voice, but he didn't even need to. His eyes, burning like red-hot irons, swept my panic aside and threw it to the corner.
"Those humans shouldn't have been involved in this matter, Vespera," he said, his voice as deep as a grave. "Now that 'mothball-scented' Lady you mentioned won't show them any mercy. They are nothing but bait now. Do you want to be a stupid bait too?"
I turned to him with fury. For the first time, it wasn't that passive, pathetic freak inside me speaking; it was an executioner. I felt the dark veins flooding my eyes.
"If a single hair on Chloe's head is harmed," I said, my voice freezing the room, "I will rip out those bloodless creatures' non-beating hearts with my teeth! I'll tear them apart one by one and bury them in the deepest pit of Alberta!"
Varg paused at these words. That lustful, dark, and unsettling smirk appeared at the corner of his lips. He walked toward me with heavy, predatory strides. The scent of sandalwood and gunpowder burned my nose.
He liked it when I screamed at him. It was like a secret that fed a hungry, dark hole in his soul, making his pupils dilate irresistibly. He enjoyed being defied. Competition kept his appetite sharp.
"Are we sure your dead wolf wasn't an Alpha, Luna?" he whispered, so close his breath scorched my skin. "This rage, this ambition... It looks like more than an Omega. You're either incredibly stupid, or..."
I pushed him away by his chest. "Then the prophecy changes, Alpha! Go find yourself another freak, another vampire-poisoned Omega! I will not be a piece on your chessboard!"
Varg's eyes instantly turned coal-black. With a demeaning, poisonous laugh, he gripped my chin. His fingers were like a marble vise.
"You?" he said, his voice sharpened like a blade. "Where will you go, Vespera? Will you run into Kael's arms and warm that porcelain prince's bed? Will you continue to be his investment?"
I laughed bitterly, a single tear trickling down, but this time it wasn't from weakness.
"Maybe I was truly born to be a vampire duchess, Varg! Huh? Maybe, as my mother said, I am the mate of a vampire prince who will have me breed armies of hybrid offspring like a laboratory rat! Maybe my destiny lies in a vampire's lap—"
"DON'T YOU DARE UTTER ANOTHER MAN'S NAME EVER AGAIN!"
The room shook with Varg's roar. But this wasn't a normal shout. He had used the Alpha Voice—the one that thickened the air, made my knees tremble, and forced my soul to submit. His authority crashed down on me like a thousand-ton weight; the air was sucked from my lungs, and my spine bent involuntarily. Not my dead wolf, but every cell in my body shuddered from his wrath.
Varg loomed over me like a shadow. The savagery in his eyes was no longer just that of a warrior, but the terror of a man losing his mind over the thought of losing what he possessed.
"Look at me, freak," he whispered into my ear, the echo of his voice still ringing in my brain. "The only man you will be marked by is the one who will burn this world for you. And that is me! I am right here, in your bed!"
As Varg's room-shattering voice rang over me like a sledgehammer, I only widened that poisonous, mocking smile on the corner of my lips. He expected me to be afraid; he wanted me to kneel and swear fealty.
I rolled my eyes and looked at him, pulling back as if he were telling the world's most boring story. If I was going to dance with the monster, I had to follow the monster's steps. If I was going to bathe in the monster's river, I had to harmonize with the rhythm of the flowing water.
"Oh Varg, please..." I said, tracing the lace of my wedding dress nonchalantly. "Drop the 'absolute master' act. When there's Johnny Depp's charisma or Henry Cavill's statue-like stance... Seriously? Am I supposed to endure your jealousy tantrums? Options in the human world are much more... handsome. I find wolves rather primitive."
The blackness in Varg's eyes was replaced by a sea of erupting lava. The animalistic growl from his throat suddenly heated the air. In one step, he closed the distance between us. I was pinned between a marble pillar and his chest. His rough hands cupped my face, and he pressed his lips harshly against my collarbone—my marking spot—not yet sealed, but ready to be at any moment.
I swallowed hard as the heat of his skin stung. My heart hammered against my ribs like the fluttering wings of a bird.
"It's easy to use the Alpha Voice and make my dead wolf kneel, Varg," I said, struggling to keep my voice from trembling. "But I am not an Omega with a shackled soul. I want a man who speaks to my heart. Nothing more, nothing less... And you just keep going on about the prophecy. What am I to you but a key?"
I pressed my lips together; against his breath caressing my skin, my only weapon was the silver strap of my dress slipping off my shoulder.
Varg stopped. His lips were on my neck, his breath hanging over my jugular. For a moment, it was as if the whimper of a wolf who had been alone for centuries passed through that cruel and mocking man.
He lifted his head, his eyes locked onto the false glint in the depths of mine.
"We mark each other to find one another in every lifetime, in all lives, you stupid girl. Remember that when you're comforted by the worthless, lying loves of humans. Our vow is in blood," he said, his voice low this time but just as searing.
"But if I don't see the shadow of another man, another possibility in those eyes... I swear I will sacrifice all my wealth, all my power, and my life for you. Even if you cause me a hundred thousand pains, even if you sentence me to a thousand and one punishments... This Alpha within me will fight only for you, for your honor."
He placed my hand over his heart. I felt how that massive center of power beat erratically. But the monstrous hardness in his gaze returned.
"But even your eyes are liars, freak," he said with a bitter smile. "That mask you wear when looking at Kael, you're wearing it against me now. You're hiding the real woman inside even from me."
The ancient and dark storm in Varg's eyes turned into a sea of lava with my words. I wanted to drive him mad, to shatter that unshakable Alpha mask. This was the price for him shattering all my future possibilities and turning me into a key he kept in his pocket.
"I'm saving my womanhood for a brave Alpha who will bring my friends back to me," I whispered. "When they arrive home safely, I will lie beneath you safely."
"As for the hotties in the human world, Varg..." I said, spreading my voice over his rage like silk fabric. "If I saw you not as Alpha Varg, the owner of this bloody throne in this palace, but as a random stranger on a crowded street... If you weren't a Vandal who kidnapped me in the forest, for instance."
Varg's chest heaved with fury; his gaze remained fixed on my lips.
"And?" he said, his voice coming from deep within like a wolf's snarl.
I narrowed my eyes and placed that most inviting, most dangerous smile on my lips. "When I went to my room... you would be the reason I'd slide my fingers into my honey pot."
Varg paused for a moment. His brain, kneaded with thousand-year-old laws, battle strategies, and blood, couldn't process this modern and audacious innuendo for a second.
"What?" he asked in shock.
I took another step closer to him, my breath grazing his chin.
"I would fantasize about you, Varg. I would touch myself imagining that stranger's hands, the ache that stranger would leave on my skin. I would bury my fingers deep, into somewhere tight and warm, just for you."