HERLO: Living With Him

I shuddered at his touch.

This man spun me around and grabbed me by the arm to drag me back, further to the very center of the hall where all eyes stayed on me, unblinking. I couldn’t breathe, everything felt suffocating and my vision was growing fuzzy.

“Did she really try to run?” they murmured.

“She did, she did. No one has ever done this sort of thing before, I think she’ll be killed.”

My father stood watching with a stone-cold face as if he didn’t know me. And Emilia, she stood behind him, smiled spitefully at me, clearly enjoying the entire thing.

What I would give to drop dead at that very moment.

I was forced to my knees by Romare, the hatred brewing from this man very clear to me. His touch, his hateful stare, it all pierced through my skin like needles.

Alpha Elliot stepped toward me and grabbed my chin with a disgusted look that seemed as if he was touching dirt. He tilted my head from left to right, examining me, and suddenly took a step back. A sigh fled from him and he took a long look at the crowd before turning his back on me.

He was going to have me killed, there was no other choice. I could be shot dead, I mean, there was no way he would be kind enough to simply send me out of the pack, out of their race.

“You’ll live.”

The two words flew out of nowhere like an arrow and I quickly raised my head to meet his gaze. Alpha Elliot was staring down at me, almost as if he could see through my soul.

“Dad!” Romare turned to the man, his knuckles growing white the tighter he balled his fist. “What do you mean she’ll live?”

Alpha Elliot sighed again. “Don’t you want this? I’m sure you don’t want her killed.”

“What does that mean? Do you think I care?”

“You marked her, didn’t you?” he asked. “I don’t understand—“

Romare snarled at him. “It wasn’t my will. I don’t know what happened, I have no idea why I did it. I couldn’t control myself.”

Alpha Elliot frowned. “You didn’t want to bite her?”

“Of course, I didn’t. Why would I have anything to do with something like her?” He made a harsh noise at the back of his throat. “I have no idea why I did it. It was out of my control.”

The two argued with each other as the crowd and I watched.

“Wait.” Alpha Elliot suddenly put a hand up. “What did you feel before you did it?”

Romare’s eyes swept back and forth as his frown deepened. “A pull. To mark her, to take what was mine before any of these alphas in here would put their hands on her. To…”

“To what?”

“To mark a territory. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking. I didn’t feel like myself and—“

“I get it.” Alpha Elliot’s voice was flat and emotionless as he turned to stare at me. “She’s your mate.”

Romare went unnaturally still.

“Impossible!” he dismissed, voice menacingly low. “This was a mistake, something I lost control of and—-“

“Romare, she’s your mate, whether you believe me or not.”

“But she doesn’t have a fucking wolf! How is that even possible?”

“That, I have no answer to.” Alpha Elliot pinched between his brows. “Listen, she can’t be killed and she can’t be punished either, not yet.”

“Why?” Romare demanded. “Goddammit, what is going on?”

“Killing or punishing her will affect you, Romare,” the alpha said. “This is your first bite and so is hers. Those times are very delicate, the pain could be excruciating, you might even lose your mind and I can’t let that happen. Here is what we’ll do.”

Romare stared at him in heavy silence.

“A mating mark wears off in three months, and since you two can’t be separated during such times, she’ll have to stay with you. Once the mating mark wears off, you can decide what to do with her. Kill her, let her live, discard her out of our race, It will all be up to you.”

“But there is one more thing?” Alpha Elliot said.

“What?”

“You’re going to have to marry her.”

Romare huffed out a laugh. I looked at him, shocked to the bones. We had rules whereby an alpha must marry an omega or beta who he marks. No one was above that law, because marking an omega, but leaving her unmarried, was nothing short of a taboo to us. Marking was intimate and done with consent and Romare…he never did it with my consent. Not that they probably cared.

“No,” he spat with vitriol, like he’d gravely been insulted. “I can’t do that.”

“You’ll have to son. You are not above the law, you set an example,” Alpha Eliiot sighed. “There are too many eyes on us and if you do otherwise, you are giving leeways to those that might rebel. We don’t want to have alphas forcefully marking omegas, do we? But you don’t have to worry, like I said, this will only be for three months, so once the mark wears off, you can get a divorce and do what you will with her, you have the right. So, what do you say?”

Romare glanced at the crowd whose intent gazes were fixated on him and slowly turned to look at me with a burning desire for something reflecting in his dark green eyes. He looked…possessed, like a mad man.

I was done for.

He will kill me.

Marry me or not, I would never escape this, not while he had me in the very centre of his hungry gaze.

Romare tipped my head up slowly, thumb trailing against the edge of my jaw. His right hand cupped my face and the corner of his lips dipped with cruelty.

“Fine, I’ll marry her. But when this is all over…” He looked at his father dangerously. “…she’ll be all mine to deal with.”