"What?!" Suri burst out before she could stop the word from escaping. Over her dead body.
Her father met her outburst with a flat, emotionless stare. "It is not a topic for discussion."
Tears burned at the corners of her eyes. He had already stolen so much from her: her birthright, her freedom, any real voice in the pack. But this one thing, her right to choose her own happiness and the person she would share her life with, belonged to her alone. It had to.
"I refuse it," she said through clenched teeth. "I know the King wants your heir, and I am not that heir. If you force me, I will tell him you are only deceiving him."
Fury flashed in his eyes like lightning. He stepped out from behind his desk in one swift motion and struck her with the back of his hand. Her head snapped to the side. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as her teeth sliced into the side of her tongue.
"You dare defy me?" he snarled. "Your father and your Alpha? For twenty years, I have suffered the affliction of your existence. I will suffer no more."
The words cut deeper than any slap ever could. She was not supposed to let them hurt her, but they did, sharply and painfully. To him, her very existence was a burden, something to be endured. She wanted to scream that it was not her fault her mother had died giving birth to her. She had not even drawn her first breath before her mother was gone.
But before she could speak, her father raised his voice. "Gammas!"
Two of them swept into the room, muscles tense and ready for his command. "Take her to the dungeons immediately," he said, dismissing her without so much as a glance.
"What? Why?" Suri asked, confusion and fear twisting together in her chest as she looked at him.
The gammas seized her arms and dragged her away. The entire pack watched in silence as she was pulled through the corridors like a common criminal. Her father followed at a calm, unhurried pace. Once they reached the cold stone cells beneath the pack house, he ordered the gammas to bind her face down to a rough wooden bench. Then he took a long leather whip from the wall.
"You will marry the King," he said, his voice strangely gentle, almost as if he were trying to comfort her.
"I will not marry him," she answered, holding on to her defiance with everything she had left.
The whip cracked across her back. Pain exploded through her body, and she cried out. Yet her father simply repeated the same words, and she forced out her own in reply: "I will not marry him."
It became a silent battle of wills, his against hers. She refused to let him take the last thing she still owned without a fight.
By the tenth lash, she was sobbing openly, tears streaming down her face, but she would not break. Her back felt as though it were on fire.
By the fifteenth lash, her whole body shook uncontrollably, and warm blood soaked through her dress. Perhaps death would be kinder than giving in. All her life, she had dreamed of finding a true mate, someone who would love her the way she had never been loved as a child. She had never imagined being forced into an arranged marriage. It was so bitterly unfair.
On the twentieth lash, her voice cracked, barely more than a whisper through tears and exhaustion.
"What is so difficult to obey?" her father hissed, frustration sharpening his tone.
He raised the whip again, clearly prepared to continue until she either agreed or stopped breathing. In that moment, something inside her gave way.
"I will marry him," she whispered, the words so faint they were almost lost in the damp air of the cell.
He let the whip fall to the floor with a dull thud. "Shouldn't have taken you this long," he snarled. "Now listen. You are my heir, and you are not forced into this. You understand the price for peace, and you are willing to pay it for your people. Do you understand?"
She nodded, sniffing back fresh tears.
He turned and walked out of the cell without another look. She heard his voice through the bars, speaking to the gammas outside.
"Get some female omegas to take her out of here. Get the pack doctor to fix her up. I need her to be in good shape until King Ragnar arrives tomorrow. And keep a strict eye on the wildcat. I do not want her missing before her marriage tomorrow."
"Yes, Alpha," one of the gammas answered.
The cell gate squeaked open as her father's footsteps faded down the corridor. Pain and exhaustion finally pulled her under, and Suri drifted into darkness.
***
"This is unacceptable," Amanda fumed, her voice trembling with anger as an omega carefully fastened the delicate beige lace gown around Suri's body. The dress was beautiful, too beautiful, for a marriage to the most ruthless man alive.
Suri said nothing. There was nothing left to say and nothing she could do. She could only stand there, letting the anger and misery swirl inside her like dark water.
"What about your education?" Amanda pressed on. "You are a straight-A student. Are you really going to give all that up?"
Suri let out a long, tired sigh. "I am sure I would not," she muttered, barely loud enough to be heard.
"How can you be sure?" Amanda's voice shook. "Suri, we are talking about King Ragnar Wolfe of Dravengard. He is a monster. He has hated werewolves for the longest time. All Lycans do…"
"…prefer humans over us and treat us with suspicion," Suri finished for her friend. "I know, Mandy. But what can I do?"
Tears gathered in Amanda's eyes and spilled over. She knew exactly how much Suri had always dreamed of finding her true mate, of falling in love with someone who would cherish her, protect her, see her for the kind, strong soul she truly was. Suri might carry the Alpha's blood, but only a handful of people in the pack even knew it. To most, she was just the girl who never shifted at eighteen, the one they bullied and mocked without mercy. Amanda had always cheered for her friend to get every happiness she deserved.
And now this? Forced into a marriage with a man who saw werewolves as little more than dirt beneath his boots?
She wished with everything in her that she could stop it, could grab Suri's hand and run far away. But when two powerful men had decided to use Suri as their pawn, what chance did anyone else have? Fear twisted in Amanda's stomach. What horrors waited for her friend in the Lycan territories?
A sharp knock sounded at the door. Luna Amelia swept inside, her eyes narrowing into slits as they landed on Suri. Amanda rose quickly and bowed low, but Suri stayed exactly where she was, lifting her chin and glaring straight back at the Luna.
"The King is here," Luna Amelia announced coldly. "Make sure you do not disgrace your father in that room. I hope the Lycans clip those wild wings of yours."
She flicked her fingers toward the omegas who had followed her in. "Bring her."
They guided Suri down the long corridors of the main pack house. Her heart hammered against her ribs, half from fear, half from fury. The wounds on her back still burned like fire with every step. She was going to die so young, she thought. How could she possibly survive among a people who hated her kind more than anything?
Ever since the death of their former king, King Maurice, who had tried so hard to bring werewolves and Lycans together, the Lycans had turned colder than ever. Suspicion had replaced trust. Hatred had grown deep roots. They barely tolerated werewolves, even at Aethelwulf Centralis, the one place that was supposed to be neutral ground.
When the gammas finally pushed open the heavy double doors, Luna Amelia let out loud, dramatic sobs that scraped against Suri's already raw nerves. Suri wanted to grab the woman by her perfect hair and scream "liar" right in her face, but she held herself still. Too much was at stake.
Then her eyes found the Lycans standing in the room, and at their centre, the man who was supposed to become her husband. She froze.
It was him.
The same man she had seen at the riverbank, the one whose presence had sent terror racing through her veins that moonlit night. The same towering figure who had watched her from the rocks without a word and invaded her dreams.
That man was King Ragnar?
Someone, please, wake her up.