Chapter 4: CLAIMING HIS BRIDE
XADEN'S POV
Xaden and his men stormed the castle with the seven lead members of the wolf council.
He hated this place.
The moment he stepped foot in the moonlight pack, he spat in a corner.
It was blood ground. He could remember coming here as a child.
His mother and father visit frequently.
But they had betrayed them, spilled his father's blood in the soil, cut off his mother's head, pulled out his sister's intestines, and proceeded to kill him before wiping out the entire pack clean.
He would have punished him; he would have made him suffer before he begged for death, before cutting off Bale's head on the war ground and flung it at the feet of his entire family before breaking it apart and using the bones with some diamonds on his throne.
But the bastard had run off to the wolf council and begged for an accord they had given him.
Now Xaden was forced to come to terms with the fucking law.
He could claim Bale's bloodline as his band, and the pack would belong to him.
But according to the Wolf laws, he would spare Bale and his wife until the following purging for a new moon in one year.
Xaden wanted to laugh! He didn't give a fuck about Bale's children! He wanted him! The fucking bastard had to pay for what he had done to him!
As Xaden walked by, the people scurried away, with good reason. The Guards shook at his arrival, fearing him.
He walked up to the throne room and sat down on it. His eyes looked around; he would tear this place down when he was done.
He didn't even give a fuck about this fucking castle.
When he returned to claim Bale, he would tear down the castle to absolutely nothing.
The same way he had done to his own home.
"Where are they?" Xaden demanded. "My patience is trying. I will forfeit the law and murder all of them."
"He will be here soon." One of the Leaders of the wolf council said.
Xaden leaned back in the seat.
He gave them five minutes. Five fucking minutes.
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JASMINE'S POV
Jasmine saw herself in a dress she had never for once in her life thought she would wear.
It was cream, with pearls and outlines made of the most expensive fabric.
It gave a cleavage she had never taken note of, and her long, curly red hair was styled up.
A veil was placed over her head, and she was made up so that anyone would think she was a princess.
She turned to Urma. "What is going to happen to me?"
She was scared of the truth and scared of what she was going to be told. She only knew bits and bits of it.
But she didn't want to be kept in the dark.
Urma turned to look at Luna Maria, standing with the other servants, discussing what jewelry to give.
"This is an accord," Urma whispered to me. "Alpha Bale and Xaden have met an intervention from the wolf council. I don't know the details of this arrangement, but I do know that from the law, Xaden is given a choice to choose, but he cannot choose the Alpha and the Luna until the next new moon. But he can claim anything else."
I blinked. "An accord? Why did they give him?"
"They didn't just give Alpha Bale. He bought it. And only a few Alphas can afford to have an accord. I don't know how he did it, but he did. And that gives you immunity in situations like these."
"Why am I going as his daughter?" I asked Urma.
She sighed. "He doesn't want to lose his daughter. That's why he's setting you up with Alpha Xaden."
I began to feel my heart flutter.
Was I just an animal meant for the slaughter? He had said my husband was waiting for me. Was I going to marry Xaden?
"Am I to wed him?" I asked her.
She shrugged. "That is up to the Alpha's choice. He will decide what he wants to do with you and the rest of us."
The door busts open, and Alpha Bale comes in.
He looked at me and snapped at a servant. "For God's sake, cover that ugly face of hers."
I felt my heart crash instantly at his words.
A servant brought down my veil to hide my face, and I felt ashamed of myself.
I was so hideous my father couldn't even look at me.
"He is already waiting. Fucking bastard is making me be on my fucking toes! Who the fuck does he think he is?!" Alpha Bale barked at no one in particular, then turned to me. "I hope you know how to behave like a princess!"
I flinched.
I didn't know what he was referring to, and he acted exactly like Jessica.
I looked nothing like Jessica, who was beautiful with her flowing blonde hair and thin body.
A woman was not supposed to have as many curves, hips, and breasts as I did.
I was not plump or fat; I just had an hourglass body, and it wasn't in fashion or what I heard the wolves in our pack liked.
"Did you hear me, you daft girl?!" He demanded. "If we fall, it's all because of you! And what I will do to you will be worse! You better pray your curse doesn't follow you today! You better don't mess this up!"
I jumped at how harsh he was at me, and the burning tears began to spring out of my eyes.
Lucky for me, I was wearing my veil so that no one could see my eyes.
"That would be enough," Urma said. "You never treated her like she was your daughter, and one day, do you want her to act like a princess? Jasmine is a good girl. And you don't deserve her."
There was silence in the room.
Everyone turned to look at Urma, even Maria.
Alpha Bale seemed to want to say something but closed his mouth.
"Just because of the past does not give you the right to get away with this." He warned Urma. "I'll deal with you later."
I was scared for her. Why had she done that? Why had she challenged and provoked him so?
She knew what he could do.
Then he spun on his heel and marched out of the room.
Two guards came to my side.
"Don't worry," Urma said. "I'll be watching over you from a distance."
I turned to leave my room.
"Ugly bitch!" Jessica slurred. "She is cursed. Her dean is missing, and now I can't marry him. I hope Xaden does to her what they do to captive women of war."
Then she went to her mother's arms and cried.
I shivered.
What had I done? I wondered as I walked down the stairs in the middle of the guards.
Been born? Had the moon goddess made it my karma in a previous incarnation that I would suffer the life of a miserable wolf?
Born a child who killed her mother? A father who abandoned her? Beatings day and night? Assault? Humiliation? And still be an unshifted wolf?
Why? What had I ever done to be so cursed?
Why was my fate destined to be in absolute misery and unhappiness?
Who was this man I was being sold to now?
What was he going to do?
Behead me? Share me with his men, like the stories of she-wolves from enemy packs who had been captive?
Was that to be my fate?
And then I saw them all.
In the large hall.
Numbers of people.
All the high-ranking members of my father's pack.
Luna Maria walked up beside my father as my false mother.
There were men I had never seen, and one was sitting on my father's throne.
I couldn't see him clearly because I was veiled.
Abel and the other high-ranking members of the pack stood in lines of ten to thirty.
I stood at their front.
The man set his hand aside from the armrest of the throne and rose to his feet. I could hear his boot walk up towards me.
I looked down at the floor, unable to face this man who had us all down on our knees.
He took off my veil, roughy used his finely masculine hands, and caught my jaw, forcing it to look up at him, and I saw the most beautiful man, yet the most terrifying man I had ever met in my life.