THE WEDDING DRESS

Rachel's POV

There I was, standing in front of the mirror, trying on the wedding dress. The rehearsal was just a few days away, so of course, my mother insisted on making sure the dress fit perfectly. I thought maybe it wouldn’t, that some miracle would save me from wearing this whole frilly prison—but no such luck. The dress fit perfectly.

And I had to admit, I looked… beautiful. Like, really beautiful. It was one of those dresses that makes you feel like a fairy princess caught up in a dreamy ballad. Lace everywhere, shining fabric catching the light, like a cloud of pure elegance. I could have been on the cover of one of those bridal magazines. But here’s the thing: my near tears had nothing to do with how lovely I looked.

No, I was on the verge of tears because this wasn’t my dream come true—it was my nightmare. I wasn’t some dress-loving, wedding-obsessed girl who dreamed of a big white wedding. I’d never even liked dresses. And here I was, about to marry James Nighthawk, the son of our Pack’s Alpha. The next Alpha, to be precise.

And, of course, this was all thanks to my mother. She was the most ambitious, self-absorbed woman I’d ever met. In her mind, this wedding was the ultimate upgrade—for her, mind you, not for me. She had her reasons, which she’d laid out with all the drama of a soap opera monologue. “Rachel,” she’d say, “James Nighthawk will secure your future. You’ll live in luxury, and it’ll be what’s best for you.” As if I didn’t know she was only thinking about herself.

The truth was, my mother was still hung up on her ex—my biological father—and had never hidden it, not even from my stepdad. But just in case she needed some kind of fallback if her marriage fell apart, she decided I could be her safety net. That’s why she pushed me to marry James. If things went south with her husband, she’d have me, the pack’s new Luna, to keep her comfy and maybe even help her crawl back to my dad. That was her whole plan: if she couldn’t eat her cake, she’d make sure I’d bake her a new one.

And where did that leave me? Nowhere good, let me tell you. This wedding would cement everything people already whispered about us. Because of how my stepdad married my mom, the pack already saw us as a couple of gold-diggers. My stepdad never treated us that way, but my stepbrother, Jeremy, made it his personal mission to remind me of my “place.”

Naturally, Jeremy was thrilled about this whole situation. At the military academy, I’d been at the top of the class, and he hated that. He’d wanted to be Beta, but he couldn’t beat me—until now. Because Lunas don’t go off fighting wars; they stay at their Alpha’s side, which meant I had to quit. So, while I watched my dreams crumble, Jeremy was getting everything he wanted handed to him on a silver platter.

“Come on, Rachel,” my mom said, snapping me out of my thoughts. She adjusted a strap on the dress, smiling like she’d won the lottery. “What more could you ask for? He’s handsome, wealthy, and he’ll be Alpha.”

I kept my mouth shut, but my heart felt heavy. My pulse raced with anxiety. Sure, I looked stunning in this dress, but to me, it was just a reminder of everything I was losing.

I was a tomboy, through and through.

Most days, you’d catch me in jeans, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap, with boys tripping over themselves despite my zero effort. But now? Now I was wearing this flashy dress, and it didn’t feel right. Not at all.

“Rachel, you’re turning blue. What’s wrong?” My mom looked at me, a little worried.

“I need water,” I mumbled, suddenly feeling dizzy.

She rushed out to get it, leaving me alone to face myself in the mirror. I slumped into a chair, thinking. I’d worked hard to be who I was, worked for everything I had. Every rank I’d earned at the academy was mine, achieved through grit and determination. All I wanted was to rise above the reputation my mother had created for us. I thought that if I worked hard enough, I’d make a name for myself, something my mother hadn’t dirtied.

But now, instead of following my dreams, I was becoming James Nighthawk’s “trophy.” He’d had a crush on me since the academy, so of course, he was all too happy to marry me. My mother had turned me into a prize to be won, and all that I was supposed to do now was stand next to James and look pretty.

The truth was, I hardly knew the guy. Rumor had it that he was the kind of guy who liked to keep a long list of “conquests,” and I was about to become his latest addition. I was twenty-one, my life was just starting, and now it felt like my mother had slammed the brakes on my future.

And my mother? Well, she’d been gone for way too long with that glass of water. I could practically picture her bumping into her friends and bragging about my “incredible match, her daughter, the new Luna.” She was more excited about my wedding than I was, Honestly, sometimes I thought she wanted to marry James herself. I’d overheard her bragging to her friends the other day that this wedding was her “greatest achievement.” Imagine—my mother calling my wedding her achievement.

Her selfishness had stolen my future, twisted it to fit her own plans. Her big accomplishment here wasn’t my wedding—it was stealing my destiny. But that’s who she was: a woman who never did an honest day’s work in her life, who loved two things—money and my absent, deadbeat dad. She lived off others and didn’t care who got hurt along the way. If she could spend her life in luxury, she’d use any means necessary to stay there.

A knock at the door brought me out of my spiraling thoughts. I called for them to come in, half-expecting my mother to waltz back in with a lecture about “gratitude.” But instead, it was my stepdad, holding a bottle of water. I didn’t realize how badly I needed that moment of kindness until then.