Chapter 4

~Sara~

Bride??

Future Luna??

Marriage..??

I'm getting married?? A forced marriage to a man I don't even know? A man I don't even know his last name.

"No." Father stopped pacing and snapped his head towards me, his eyes turning red in anger. "No, I'm not getting married to him. I'm barely 8 months from finding my mate-" The remaining words hung in my throat as he swiftly grabbed my neck, pinning me roughly against the wall. I gasped, the impact of the push knocking all air from my lungs.

"Don't you even DARE put up a fight, Sara! I swear I'll kill you if this doesn't go as planned."

"Then kill me, I'd rather die than get married to someone who isn't even my mate." I managed to speak through his tight grip on my neck. My reply seemed to anger him the more because his grip tightened, and I felt his claw piercing into the soft skin of my neck. Blood trickled down my neck to my chest, my dress absorbing the liquid.

Abruptly, the door flung open and Adam stepped in with a scowl on his face.

"Being an ungrateful bitch? Just what I thought." He hissed, shutting the door behind him.

Father released his grip on my neck and I inhaled heavily, trying to take enough air into my lungs.

"You don't have a choice here, Sara, you will be his bride." Adam spoke, walking further into the room and resting on the wooden table. "You should be happy you got a huge chance to be a Luna, even though you don't deserve it." "You either accept to be his bride or we wait till you find your mate and I kill him with my bare hands. What do you think?" He smirked.

"You can't do that!" I gasped, my eyes widening in disbelief.

"Of course I can. I'm an alpha. So you either accept to be Rhett's bride and reject your mate when he comes, or refuse to be Rhett's bride and get your mate killed. His fate rests in your hands." He shrugged nonchalantly, like all he said now were mere jokes. I think I forget how ruthless he was every time. And how father, and Luna, always thought his cold, inhumane attitude was something to be proud of. Something to embrace with open arms.

Adam moved away from the table, drawing closer until he was just a few inches away from me, his right hands resting on the wall behind me. My fingers trembled, reminding me of how much I feared him, even more than our father. "So, what do you think, Sara?" I watched his lips curl in mischief from the corner of my eyes. He already knew my answer.

He knows damn well that I wasn't as ruthless as he was, or that killing my mate won't be the only punishment I would face for ruining whatever deal they could get with the alpha sitting in the living room.

"I thought as much." He chortled at my silence response, patting my left shoulder. Withdrawing a white handkerchief from his pocket, he used it to wipe the blood off my neck and folded it neatly, pushing it back into his pocket.

"Come on, let's go make this right." Yanking me away from the wall, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pushing me with him to the door. I felt my skin crawl at the feel of his arm on my shoulder.

Thick lumps formed in my throat and the back of my eyes stung with tears as we approached the staircase. I felt Adam shift his gaze to me before saying. "You have no idea how lucky you are."

*****

It's been half an hour since I accepted to be Luna of an alpha whose full name I now knew to be, Rhett Carter.

A maid stood in front of my wardrobe, arranging my clothes into a small suitcase. Just the perfect size for the number of clothes I have. Although, this maid didn't even try to hide her displeasure, murmuring and hissing at every instance.

I paid her no attention, fixing my gaze on the window as several thoughts ran through my head. I rubbed my trembling hands together, feeling them become sweaty. My heart began racing faster, and my breaths became even more rapid. I shut my eyes quickly, breathing slowly and heavily, trying to calm the anxiety rising in me.

A few moments later, I felt my body relax, and I stifled a whimper into my palm, exerting as much effort as possible to stop myself from bursting into tears. Everything suddenly felt too overwhelming, the weight of the unexpected marriage was suffocating me. I was weak, tired, and hungry and all I wanted to do was bury my body into the bed and hope this was all a bad dream. But the faint red marks on my wrist from pinching myself too much were a reminder that all of this was very much real.

My gaze kept shifting to the door as I wished the one person who could help me through this phase would show up and whisper in my ears that all of this would be fine. That would wrap his arms around my shoulders and tell me to look on the bright side and ignore those bad thoughts forming in my head. But it hurts even more knowing there's someone in his life that would stop him from bothering about miserable me. Someone a part of me believes he deserves.

I sniffed, wiping the single bead of tear from my cheek, my attention shifting to the maid standing a few meters away from the wardrobe with a frown on her face.

"It's all ready now, all your..." She trails off, letting out an almost silent scoff.

"My trash. All my trash." I helped her complete her statement, knowing that was what she had in mind to say. I never had maids help me in whatever way ever since I turned five, so this was all just a play pretend to not make Alpha Rhett suspect a thing.

I stood up from the bed and exhaled heavily, looking around the room. As much as I hated this place, I wasn't ready to leave. It still felt a little safe, but like father and Adam said, I didn't have a choice here. And since Rhett had decided to let the marriage take place in his pack, all of this was even scarier.

I walked down the stairs a few moments later, the maid scurrying behind me with my suitcase. Father and the rest of my beloved family stood outside the house, right beside a truck that would transport us to the Crescent Moon Pack.

Just as I stood beside the truck to get it, Adam swiftly blocked my way, raising an eyebrow. "You're riding with Alpha Rhett." My breath hitched, and I turned to stare at the other fleet of cars around us. An unfamiliar guard stood beside an SUV truck with his gaze fixed on me. Obviously, he was waiting for me. "It should be enough time for you to get along with him. Go."

'He's not that bad. He's probably better than them'

I tried to convince myself as I walked towards the vehicle. With his actions last night, he seemed too good to be that bad. Only if last night was just a play pretend on his part.

As I approached the truck, I braced myself, exhaling a long, calming breath. It's just a four hour drive, I could survive that.

To my relief, his gaze was fixed on the window, so getting it wasn't as awkward or uncomfortable as I expected. I placed both hands on my laps as soon as I was seated, waiting for the ride to start.

A few seconds later, we were driving out of the pack house into the empty streets. I fixed my gaze on the window, pretending to watch the passing view, while my heart was racing a thousand miles per second.

"They suck at it." I turned my gaze to him when I heard him speak, his deep alluring voice somehow had a calming effect, dispelling the storm brewing in me.

"Huh?" My brows furrowed in puzzlement.

His gaze met mine, his emerald eyes piercing into my ugly brown ones. "They suck at pretending, it's embarrassing."