(AMARI'S POV)
Alpha of the River Pack?
The pain on my cheek felt numb.
I wondered if the slap had affected my ears. With how hard she hit me... it was possible.
"Please-you've got it wrong." Rudina's scared voice made me jolt back. Tears were streaming down her face as she clung to me.
The scary woman turned to Rudina as if she'd only just noticed her.
Then she flicked her wrist and two men approached. I lunged for my sister but rough hands tore her away from me.
"No. No please. I'm married to a truck driver, not an alpha." I was pushed roughly to the ground while Rudina was held aside, crying in the firm hold of two large men.
Next thing,rough hands yanked me upright, fingers clamping around my throat and I was facing the angry woman again.
"Are you in denial now? Aren't you Amari Daclaw Blackwood? Married to Kaelen Blackwood?" She asked, her voice lower now but sounding more dangerous.
"Yes but he told me he was—" I struggled to breathe as her claws hovered at my throat.
"Proof." She snapped. "Show me. Now... or I kill you." Her eyes turned deadlier.
I had no proof. Kaelen had taken our marriage certificate with him.
My heart was pounding so loudly in my ears that it almost overshadowed Rudina's cries.
"Good. You don't have it!" She spat.
"Pl-please."
"Do you know how many women have tried this?" She said coldly.
I could feel strings of hot pain around my neck. Already—
"Neoma!!" A sharp call made us all freeze. All of us—except Rudina who didn't stop crying.
Then I heard fast approaching footsteps and the sound of wheels against the floor. The grip around my neck loosened. I dropped to the ground.
I couldn't stop coughing and wheezing. My fingers touched my neck. No blood. Yet.
"Let them go now." I heard a woman's commanding voice.
In a split second, Rudina ran to me crying and hugging me. I held her tightly, my breath shaking.
"We must have her thrown in jail, mother! She's a sworn liar who wants to milk the death of my brother! Your son!!" I heard the wicked woman, the one I suspect is Neoma, speak.
"Shut up!" I heard another voice. This one was a cracked female voice.
I looked up.
One woman stood tall-elegant, composed.
The other woman, way older sat in a wheelchair, her sharp gaze like they were commanding everything around her.
"Vanessa see if she's hurt." She instructed.
The other woman stepped forward and I gripped a sobbing Rudina closer to me.
"No, I'm not hurt." I lied.
"Take a look at her! Does she look like someone Kaelen would marry? And in secret?" Neoma's voice made me coil again.
Vanessa turned to Neoma sharply, her brown shoulder length hair bobbed. "Leave. Now. I shall deal with you later."
"But mother—"
"Leave!!" The old woman on the wheelchair shrieked.
Neoma's dark gaze turned on me. Cold. Vile. Then she turned around and left, the men from earlier following her.
"Please." I begged. "I'm not here to deceive anyone. My husband is Kaelen and we got married yesterday. But I don't know any Alph—"
"Hush, child!" The old woman interrupted.
She had sleek grey hair pulled back and she looked small, her folded hands rested in her lap. But her dark eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that made my chest tighten.
Her lips curved in a warm but very light smile as she spoke "She needs rest." She said calmly. "We will talk tomorrow."
"Of course, Mother." Vanessa, said giving a bow to the woman on the wheelchair.
Two suited women stepped forward. They helped Rudina and I stand before leading us away.
"Wh-what's happening, Amari? Who are these people?" Rudina whispered amidst tears but I clutched her closer to my chest.
"It's okay. It's okay." I comforted. My voice sounded way stronger than I felt.
I had no idea who these people were. I had been expecting the police or perhaps some people at the hospital. Kaelen had told me he had no family and that he lived in our Moon Pack's Capital alone.
Did he have some work here, in River Pack Capital? For these people?
My thoughts were so scrambled that I was startled to realize we had arrived at a serene and well-lit bungalow. We walked up the front stairs, the door was opened and we stepped in.
"Leave us now." Vanessa commanded and we were left alone with her.
Rudina's face was buried in my chest as I held this woman's gaze. No one said a word for the first few seconds and I was starting to panic.
She began to walk closer and then stopped, a few steps away. And that was when I noticed, in the brightly-lit room, that her eyes looked tired and swollen.
Her gaze moved over me—my clothes, my trembling hands. Then went back up and lingered on the marks around my neck.She said nothing.
"Did you really marry Kaelen?"
"Yes." I answered wrapping my veil tighter around myself to hide the bruises. "We got married, just yesterday. He was going to come back for me. And then—"
My voice seized. I was speaking in defense until my reality dawned on me all over again. Kaelen's death.
"That's enough." Vanessa said quietly.
Silence.
"There's a bell." She gestured to the table. "Use it if necessary."
She paused.
"If you're lying. Tomorrow will be very unpleasant for you."
I wanted to ask her who she was. Why I was here. I wanted to tell her there might be a mistaken identity somehow. But I was too scared to speak and so I nodded.
She nodded back and left the room.
Once her footsteps faded away, Rudina looked up immediately.
"Amari, what is all this? What have we gotten ourselves into?"
Her eyes were red. So was her whole face, especially her nose. She looked terrified. And I had no answers for her.
"I think there's a mistake of some sort. But let's sleep, okay? We will surely sort this out tomorrow, I promise you." I told her.
But Rudina did not look convinced. "We left our bags in the car. We can't even call mother."
My body weakened at the mention of Elara. She would kill me if she found out that my sister was in danger. All because of me.
"We will call her tomorrow. Now please stop crying." I begged. "Or I shall cry with you."
She complied to that.
"Come on. Let's put you to sleep."
I took her to the first room which was exquisitely furnished, and led her to the bed. In less than five minutes, she was asleep.
But I couldn't sleep.
I tossed and turned, then not wanting to disturb my sister, I went back to the living room where I sank into a cushion.
"What is going on?" I whispered to myself.
My hand went to my neck. I hissed in pain. A reminder that I had almost been strangled for the accusation of being married to the Alpha of River Pack.
"What Alpha?" I whispered into the silent space with a cracked voice.
Almost immediately, like a response to my question, there came a sharp series of knocks on the door. I gasped and rose to my feet immediately, hugging myself in fear as I took steps back.
The door swung open. I stopped breathing.
No… it couldn't be.
"Kaelen?"
He took steps closer.
It was him.
Alive.
Or was it a ghost? Some sort of city sorcery?
I was frozen, unable to move. Then he stepped closer.
Relief crashed into me.
I dropped to my knees and for the first time today, tears that weren't born of sorrow, streaked down my face.
"Thank you Goddess."
He closed the space between us and his hands pulled me up. I lunged forward sobbing.
"Oh thank you G-"
But he caught my wrists, stopping me, and then he pushed me back.
I froze.
Then, I reached for him again.
His hand shot out and gripped my wrist so tight that it felt like my bones ground together.
"Now." His grip tightened. "We need to talk."
I looked in to his brown eyes, they looked different. Sterner.
I suddenly became like a rag doll in a nightmare, limp and weightless, as he led me away. My throat still burned. My cheek still throbbed. But the rest of my body was as cold as the room he pulled me in to.
The door clicked shut. The lock turned.
And then I was alone with him. I pulled my hand free from him and moved back.
He had Kaelen's face—the same chestnut hair and cleft chin—but the man standing before me was a stranger.
His expensive silk shirt was unbuttoned at the collar and neckline, and his eyes…. Kaelen's eyes were warm. The man's eyes looked cold. Calculating.
He took a step towards me and I took many hurried ones back.
He sighed deeply and took quick strides to me. Before I could move, his strong hands held me in place.
"You must listen to me." His voice had softened, only a fraction. A flash of the man I married.
He made me sit on the bed and then crouched before me. I shifted, away from his touch.
"Stop crying."
"They said, you died." I croaked.
"I didn't die." He said calmly, holding my eyes. "But the Alpha, Kaelen did."
My hands tightened in to fists.
"I am Talon. Not Kaelen." He finished.
The room felt colder and more suffocating.
"Are-Are you twins?" I asked, desperate for a break.
"No, he was my uncle."
I squeezed my eyes shut. The words didn't make sense. They couldn't.
"Y-you didn't marry me yesterday?"
He was staring directly at me as he spoke. "I married you. With Kaelen's identity."
Only the sound of the clock ticking in silence.
"You are his widow."
Another moment of heavy silence passed as I processed his words.
My husband was truly dead.
And he was not who I married.