The Lycan’s Substitute Bride

[ Elena ]

I stood by the hospital window, watching my father and step mother through the glass. They were seated around Sophie’s bed where she was lying unconscious. The both of them looked fine except for a couple of bandages and plasters here and there. 

Valerie had her head on my father’s shoulder weeping softly while he comforted her with his hand smoothening her back gently. 

From what the nurse had told me earlier, Sophie was the only one who had sustained serious injuries and was now in a coma because of that. According to her, she was going to wake up but they weren’t sure when. 

I wasn’t allowed inside the hospital room when I came. My stepmother had made that clear when I arrived. 

“We don’t want you around here, Elena. You’ll only bring bad luck. Who knows if you’re not the one behind our accident.” She had hissed at me with a glare. 

So, I stayed in the hallway, silently observing and feeling sorry for Sophie. As much as I disliked her, I didn’t want this for her. 

“What is going on?” I heard a deep, low, honeyed voice come beside me and I turned my head immediately to see the last person I expected to turn up here.

Lycan Nikolai.

His tall frame was wrapped in a dark coat and his height and masculine build carried an air that made me feel so small before him. His black hair was slightly tousled and his sharp jaw was clenched as he stared down at me with those golden, amber eyes that was both piercing and mesmerizing. Enough to weaken my knees. 

My breath caught at once and I immediately lowered my head before him. My heart was beating fast in my chest and I figured it was because I had never stood so close to him before. 

Damn, he looked like a god, standing before me. His aura was so otherworldly. 

“My King.” I could hear a slight tremble in my voice. But he didn’t respond. He simply stood beside me, his gaze fixed on Sophie through the glass. 

Slowly, I straightened my posture again to see his eyes still on Sophie. His eyes held no emotions. It was as if he was watching a boring scene from a movie. 

“My king!” Valerie exclaimed as soon as she sighted Lycan Nikolai and rushed out of the room with my father at her heels. They didn’t mind that they were limping or covered in bandages. If anything, their grief seemed to evaporate the moment they saw him and it embarrassed me greatly. 

“My King.” My father bowed low before him. “Thank you for coming. We…”

“What happened?” Nikolai’s deep voice silenced my father instantly.  

Valerie stepped forward, her voice shaky as she explained.

“It was an accident, your Majesty. We lost control of the car and Sophie got hurt badly. But the doctors said she will recover soon. She is strong, just like you need her to be.”  

Lycan Nikolai’s expression did not change. His eyes were still devoid of emotion as he stared at Sophie through the glass. 

“When will she wake up?”  

“Soon, my king. Very soon.” My father jumped in and replied, his voice thick with desperacy. 

There was a long pause, before Lycan Nikolai’s gaze finally shifted, landing on me.  

“You.” His tone was cold and commanding as usual. “You will be my temporary bride and Luna until your sister awakens. Keeping the Luna’s throne empty is a risk to the pack.”

I blinked, unsure if I had heard him right. He wanted me as a temporal Luna? Me?

My father froze, his mouth hanging open, while Valerie’s face turned an alarming shade of red.  

“My King…” Valerie stammered, her eyes filled with panic. “Elena is not… she is not suitable.”

She glanced at me, her lip curling. “She is weak and sick. Cursed too. You deserve someone worthy. Someone like Sophie. How about you wait just a little? Sophie will be awake. I promise you…”

Lycan Nikolai turned to her, his expression even colder now. 

“I did not ask for your opinion.”  

Valerie fell silent, her mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. My father tried to step in. 

“My king…” 

“Enough.” Lycan Nikolai hissed at them, the amber shade of his eyes now a bright glow as if it were in flames. I gulped in terror and the hallway fell deathly silent. Valerie and my father exchanged scared and nervous glances but didn’t dare speak again.  

Lycan Nikolai turned his attention back to me, his eyes returning to their natural shade as they bored into mine. 

“You will follow me now. The maids will prepare you for the mating ceremony tonight. We cannot waste any more time.”

My heart felt like it had stopped at once. 

Tonight? Oh my god! The mating ceremony was tonight?! 

I felt the urge to protest but the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. I was crippled by fear. Arguing with Lycan Nikolai was literally the same as asking for your head to be snapped off your neck.   

Nikolai didn’t wait for a response. He turned and began walking away with his guards, his steps echoing in the long hallway.  

Before I could follow him, a hand clamped down on my wrist , yanking me back. My heart caught in my throat and I snapped around to see Valerie’s face twisted in fury. Her nails dug into my skin as she hissed at me, her eyes heavy with hatred.  

“Don’t think for a second that this is permanent. You are just a placeholder, you pathetic thing. The moment Sophie wakes up, you’ll be out of that throne so fast your head will spin.”  

Her grip tightened around my wrist, her nails biting deeper. I winced at the pain and tried to wriggle free from her but she held onto me even tighter. 

“And if you even think about playing smart, if you think for one second that you can take what belongs to Sophie permanently, I will eliminate you.”

I glanced at my father’s direction, a small part of me hoping he would step in and stop Valerie. But his face was just as passive as ever and he glared at me like I was the most irritating being he had ever come across.

“What? You think your father can save you?” Her lips curled in a wicked smile. “No one can save you from me, Elena. Just one wrong move, and I will make sure you join your pathetic mother in the land of the dead before you even realize what’s happening.”