Chapter 1

“The decision you make today will define your life tomorrow”

Nova’s pov

There has never been a time in my life where I felt like the ground should open up and swallow me than now. My eyes burnt with tears and my hands balled into a fist in anger and pain. Just a week ago, I was just a carefree young lady, living life like a normal young adult would, and today, here I was getting dressed in a fine signature wedding dress from the Lycan pack.

A wedding dress that wasn't meant for me, but it was my fate to wear it.

Every lady's dream was to get married to that one person they loved dearly but in my case, it wasn't a thing. I dreaded the thought of getting married to that bloodthirsty beast, and the thought of mating with him brought tears to my eyes.

“Should I fix your makeup now, Princess?” Shayna, my maid asked for the second time and I moved my face to meet with her gaze. As I had thought, she had a faint smile on her face and I couldn't believe it.

It seemed like I was the only one who wasn't happy about the whole thing.

“Does it looks like I could wear makeup like this?” I asked in disbelief, pointing at the stream of tears that wouldn't stop rolling down my eyes.

Shayna must have understood what I meant because the faint smile disappeared from her face, almost immediately. She sighed and dropped the brush on the table. She exhaled before moving her hand to my face.

“Princess, I know how hard it was for you and your family, but I want you to believe in the plan and everything will be fine.” balls of tears rolled down her eyes as she said those words, and she cupped my cheeks in her palms, brushing away my tears with her thumbs while she let hers fell freely.

“Everything will be fine?” I scoffed and nodded as if there was anything that four words could do. “Aren’t you people tired of saying those words, when it's obvious it wasn't doing anything to make me feel better?” I arched my brows which made Shayna clamp her mouth shut.

“I’m sorry, Princess,” Shayna mumbled and I felt guilty for raising my voice at her when she didn't do me any wrong.

I didn't mean to shut her up because I enjoyed hearing her voice, her voice soothed me a little but I couldn't just keep up with those words.

“Shayna. Can you just…”

“Princess, Alpha and Luna are here. I shall open the door for them.” came from the guard that was guarding my door.

I exchanged a knowing look with Shayna and she wiped off her tears.

“If that will be all, please excuse me.” she closed the makeup kit, bowed and rushed out of my room.

“Greetings, Alpha. Greetings, Luna.” I heard the faint voice of my maid greeting my parents, followed by the opening and closing of the door.

I sighed sadly when I heard the approaching footsteps of my parents.

“Novalie dear,”

“Princess,”

“Mom. Dad. Please I don't want to do this.” I busted into tears and Mom rushed up to my side.

I did not know what that was for. Was it because I suddenly want to back out of the plan or because I was crying? Because of this whole thing, I wasn't able to read my parents’ emotions anymore and it was frustrating.

“Novelie…” Mom sighed, she crouched beside me and took my hand in hers. She shut her lid and let out a sigh. “I also wish I could stop you from going. But you know better than anyone else, we don't have any power to go against him.” she let out and I forcefully withdrew my hands from hers.

“Dad?” I raised my eyebrows at Dad who hasn't said a word since they got here, he seemed taken aback at the mention of his name and he coughed slightly.

“I’m sorry, Princess. No one has ever gone against him before.” Dad facepalm as he said those uncourageous words to me.

I turned away from them and rested my head on the furniture.

“Get out!” I didn't know why I was getting mad at my parents when they weren't the cause of the problem, but I had to take out my anger on them because they were the leaders of the pack and their species were the ones who committed a crime I was going to pay for.

“Leave! The both of you should get the hell away from my room!” I picked up a wine glass from the table and threw it in their direction.

Mom jumped in fright when the glass fell on her toes, she jumped and fell into Dad's arms.

“Why is this happening to me? Why?” I yelled at my reflection in the mirror. I gripped my sleeve and went down on my knees.

“What have I done wrong to deserve this?” I cried out, the tears were just too heavy for me to keep in so I let them out.

I heard muffled cries beside me and then I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders. Pulling me for a hug.

••• A WEEK EARLIER •••

I watched my father from the dining room as he sat across the Royal messenger in our living room. There seemed to be a warning notice from the Lycan King and my father was signing some documents with a shaky hand. He glanced over at my sister, Tamsyn, and shook his head before handing over the documents back to the Royal messenger.

“Since you've agreed to the conditions I shall take my leave.” said the aged man, he stood up from the settee and marched out without waiting for my father's response.

Mom scurried out of the dining room to my father who was staring into space. She got to him and sat on the edge of the settee Dad was sitting on.

“Darling, what was the letter about? What did the Lycan King say?” Mom asked, running her thumbs on the back of Dad's palms in the hope of calming him down.

“There’s no point in watching from here, let's go to them, let's hear what happened,” Tamsyn suggested, she grabbed my arm and pulled me up from the seat.

“Nothing good ever comes from the Lycan King. Everything about that beast screams ‘horror’,” Tamsyn mumbled to herself and of course, I heard it.

“Why are you not saying anything?” Balls of sweat has started to form on Dad’s forehead by the time we got to the living room.

Upon seeing us approaching them, he stood up to his feet and pulled Tamsyn to his side, he pulled her in for a hug and broke down in tears.

“I’m so sorry, Tam, I'm so sorry that I agreed to his condition,” Dad said amidst his cries which made me pull a sceptical look at him.

“Can you please calm down, Randale?” Mom moved closer to Dad and freed Tamsyn from his grip. “If you continue to be like this, how do you expect us to know what happened and how to address the issue?” fear was written on her face as she spoke, she took Dad’s hand and escorted him back to the settee.

I pulled Tamsyn by her sleeve and we sat on the settee across from our parents, where the Royal messenger was sitting, a while ago.

“Just take a deep breath and tell us what happened.” Mom kept on nudging him to tell us what the Lycan King said.

“Um,” Dad looked over at us, and when his gaze met with Tamsyn, he looked away in guilt. “The Lycan King found out about the treason our species caused and he…”

“He did what?” mom couldn't bear with the tension anymore, she tugged at his arms and made him looked at her. “I don't care about how he got to know about the treason that was committed in our pack. Tell me, what does he want?”

“As you know, the leaders are the ones he usually punished for the crime committed in the pack.” Dad gulped, he shrugged his shoulders, freeing himself from Mom’s grip. “He decided to punish this household by having Tamsyn…”

“Tamsyn for what?” Mom howled, standing up to her feet to have a clear view of Dad.

“As his… Wife!”

“What!” Mom gasped in shock.

Tamsyn ran out of the living room before we knew it. I ran after my sister just in case she tried to do anything stupid to herself, there, I met her in her room, her face buried in the toilet sink, puking out her lungs.

“Tam, please calm down.” I rushed up to her and sat down beside her on the cold floor.

“How can I calm down?” She shrieked and I moved away from her while still sitting on the floor. “How can I calm down when the ruthless Lycan King want me?” she broke down and sobbed like a child.

“Ahh,”

“You wouldn't understand, Novalie, you aren't in my shoe so you wouldn't understand me.” she sniffed and rubbed her stomach through her thin clothes.

“What is there to not understand?” I sighed, and moved closer to her, I moved my palm to her back and rubbed her back gently. “The beast everyone in the nation feared the most want to have you as his wife, I clearly understand how you feel.” I never knew I was at the brink of tears until I felt water fell on my lap.

Tamsyn sighed and dropped her face in her palms. “As I have said, you can't understand.” she insisted that I didn't understand when I clearly understood her hatred for the Lycan King.

“Is it about your best friend that the Lycan King slaughtered because she impeded his practice?” I asked to be sure I wasn't a novice to the Lycan King’s malfeasance.

Tamsyn chuckled weirdly and I stared at her in shock, nothing was funny and I wondered why she was laughing.

“My mate has marked me and I'm with his child!” she shrieked and I held my chest in shock.

••• Present •••

“Please you have to be strong for us, else he's going to kill us all.” Dad caressed my hair as I had my head buried in his chest.

Mom wouldn't stopped crying and I couldn't stop my tears from falling, either.

“Please you have to be strong for your sister.” mom sniffled back her tears.

“Everything will be fine.” Dad kept caressing my hair which did nothing to help me with the pain I was feeling.

Just when I thought we were the only ones in the world, there came a honking of car horns from outside, indicating the arrival of the Lycan King’s men.

“It’s time for you to leave, Princess.” Dad notified me and I clutched tight at his shirt.

“Please, Dad I don't want to go. Please command those bastards to go back to their pack.” I cried heavily and I felt Dad’s hard grip on my shoulder, pulling me away from him.

“Please do this for your sister.” He said without sparring me a glance. He pulled me by my wrist and began to drag me out of my room.

“Dad. Mom please tell Dad to stop this madness.” I yelled over to Mom who wouldn't raise her face to look at us.

“Dad!” I kept hitting his arm but my fist had nothing on his strong arm. “Dad please don't take me to them, I want to stay here with you and Mom.” I cried bitterly as he wouldn't stop dragging me with him.

His grip on my wrist was so strong that it began to hurt me. “Dad?” I cried out for him to know that he was hurting me.

“I’m sorry, Princess.” He turned around and pulled me to his chest, there I felt his hot tears fell on my arm.