9

Scarlett

“Scarlett.” My stepmother’s voice echoed. I struggled to stand on my feet. My conversation with my father last night hadn’t gone smoothly; it didn’t favor me. So he’d made sure to assign guards to monitor me all night to prevent me from running.

“Scarlett.” The voice came again. This time, I was already on my feet. I opened the door.

“Good morning, Luna,” I managed to greet her.

“What the heck are you doing?” she asked with a scornful expression.

“Nothing,” I replied weakly. “Do you need something?”

“Yes,” she said, brushing past me without waiting for an invitation. She settled into the chair by the window, her movements graceful, every part of her natural appearance screaming authority. My stepmother was the Beta’s daughter from the neighboring pack—a detail she reminded me of daily.

“Do you know what today means?”

I shook my head. “No, Luna.”

She smiled sweetly, making my skin crawl. Even when she tried to smile genuinely, it screamed “fake.” Everything about her was fake. The woman in front of me hadn’t always been this way; she used to treat me like her own child. But everything changed when she became pregnant with Nina.

“Poor child,” she murmured, with a look that made me feel small and foolish. “You should start preparing. Today, you’re meeting your husband.”

I froze. Time seemed to stop as she dropped those words like a nuclear bomb. I stayed still, trying to digest what I’d just heard.

“I don’t want to,” I whispered. “Why should it be me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Who else should it be?” Her voice held that familiar disdain. “Perhaps Nina?”

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate. “She’s also the alpha’s daughter.”

A cruel smile played across her lips. “Nina deserves a true mate bond, a gift from the Moon Goddess. She’ll live happily with her fated mate. But you? You’re destined for something different.”

“And what about me?” I asked. “Do I deserve nothing better? I have a mate out there too.”

“You don’t,” she replied, her voice low. It was as if she’d been ordered not to hit me, but I could feel the anger radiating from her as she struggled to control herself. “My husband told me he rejected you. You’re nothing but a broken, rejected omega left carrying a burden no one wants.”

“He didn’t. I love him, and he loves me as well,” I tried to defend, knowing it was a lie. He hated me. My mate wanted nothing to do with me, all because of him—my hateful father.

“Stop lying to yourself," she sneered, cutting me off. She stood up and approached me with a smile. “You should stop loving someone who hates and rejects you. I guess...” Her eyes roamed my body, finally landing on my belly. “He rejected you because of your filthy blood. An omega’s blood that runs in your veins.”

“No,” I said, a bitter scoff escaping as my hand dropped to my stomach. “It wasn’t the omega blood. It was my father’s cursed blood.” I allowed a twisted smirk to break through, savoring her shocked expression. “That’s why he rejected me.”

“What!” she screamed. Her face went pale.

“I’d rip that blood out of my veins if I could,” I added, feeling the words rise from somewhere deep, dark, and broken inside me. “I’d gladly give up being his daughter.”

I knew it was a lie. He’d hated me long before he knew whose daughter I was. He hated me for being an omega, but he despised me even more for being my father’s daughter.

“You dare—” She lifted her hand, fury twisting her features, but a voice interrupted her mid-swing.

“Stop,” my father ordered, approaching us. “I already asked you to bear with her until she leaves.”

“Honey,” she purred, running to him. He pulled her into a hug. “But she…”

“She’s still pregnant, Elena. We don’t want to leave any marks on her that might affect the deal.” He looked at me with that same cold detachment, as if I were nothing more than a commodity. “Besides, she’s too dim-witted to understand that she’s already worthless.”

“But she claimed you forced her mate to reject her,” she tattled, as if it were a petty offense.

“What else do you expect from her, my dear?” He turned his gaze back to me, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “She’s foolish enough that she didn’t even know her mate’s name.”

“But…”

“We should focus on giving Nina the best,” he muttered, watching me as if trying to gauge my reaction. He wanted to see me sad, but instead, I smirked.

“You both should focus on finding a perfect husband for her,” I announced. “I give her my blessing.”

Their eyes widened in surprise, and I felt a flicker of satisfaction at having caught them off guard. My father’s face quickly morphed into a smirk.

“You should be grateful he married you, despite all the whores he has in his harem. Grateful for being chosen at all—damaged goods as you are, pregnant with a bastard child.”

“My child is wanted,” I corrected.

“Uh,” he scoffed. “You should be grateful.”

“Oh. I should thank him, then,” I sneered. “For marrying someone who had a mate and is pregnant with someone else’s child.”

“Hehe,” he laughed. “You aren’t pregnant with someone else’s child, daughter. I already sold both you and your child to him. You both belong to him.”

“What? What do you mean? You sold my child as well?”

“Yes, that’s the deal. Who would marry a broken omega like you as a wife? So I sold both you and your child.”

“My mate won’t let you get away with this,” I said, the words more hopeful than I felt.

My stepmother laughed beside him. “Your mate? What can a lowly omega even do to an Alpha? Face it, Scarlett, you’re nothing but an alpha’s servant now.”

I tried to act brave, to stand tall, but their words made me tremble. Each word tore me apart.

“Monsters,” I spat, my voice trembling. “I hate you both.”

They laughed as if my hatred were some trivial joke. “Don’t worry, dear,” my stepmother muttered, waving dismissively. “You’ll have plenty of time to feel that in the Northern Pack.”

I was trembling.

“Go get dressed. I’ll ask the guards to escort you to your new pack,” my father said, wrapping his hand around Luna’s waist. “Consider it a parting gift.”

---

The grand hall of the Northern Pack’s mansion felt more like a mausoleum than a home. My wedding dress—chosen without my input—felt too tight around my chest, though I knew it wasn’t just the fabric constricting my breathing. The whispers of onlooking pack members followed me like shadows as I approached my soon-to-be husband.

Alpha Dickson stood like a statue carved from ice. His dark suit, impeccably tailored, did nothing to soften the hardness in his glacier-blue eyes as they swept over me with clinical detachment. Not once did his gaze linger on the slight swell of my stomach, visible only to those who knew to look for it.

“So this is the damaged goods I’ve been promised.” His voice carried across the marble floor, deliberately loud enough for others to hear. Several pack members snickered, and I caught sight of a woman in a blood-red dress smirking from her position near his right hand. The mistress, I realized, my cheeks burning with humiliation.

“Alpha Dickson,” I managed, forcing myself to bow my head in the traditional gesture of respect, though every instinct screamed to run.

He grabbed my chin, fingers pressing hard enough to bruise. “Let’s make one thing clear, little omega. This arrangement isn’t a marriage—it’s a transaction. Your father needed an alliance, and I needed a legitimate heir someday. That thing you’re carrying?” His lip curled in disgust. “It means nothing to me or this pack.”

The woman in red sauntered closer, her perfume overwhelming my sensitive nose. “Don’t worry, darling,” she purred, running a perfectly manicured nail down my arm. “You won’t have to trouble yourself with actually being his wife. That position is already... well-filled.” She laughed, a sound like breaking glass.

I tried to step back, but Dickson’s grip tightened. “Going somewhere? You should know there are guards at every exit. Your father was quite thorough in describing your... flight risk tendencies.”

“I won’t run,” I whispered, hating how my voice trembled.

“No,” he agreed, finally releasing me. “You won’t. Because if you do, I’ll make sure every pack in a thousand-mile radius knows exactly what kind of worthless omega you are.” He straightened his jacket, that cold smile never reaching his eyes. “Now, we have a ceremony to perform. Try to look less pathetic—you’re about to become an Alpha’s wife, after all.”

As he turned away, his mistress deliberately bumped my shoulder, hard enough to make me stumble. “Better get used to it, sweetheart,” she whispered. “This is your life now.”

I stood there, surrounded by strangers who saw me as nothing more than a pawn, one hand protectively cradling my stomach. My child kicked, as if sensing my distress, and I drew what little comfort I could from that small sign of life. We would survive this somehow. We had to.

The wedding march started playing, its cheerful notes mocking the prison sentence that awaited me at the altar.

“We are here to witness the wedding of our Alpha, Alpha Dickson, as he takes Scarlett Blackstone as his wife.”

Dickson sneered, cutting him off. “Skip the ceremony. We don’t have time to waste.”

“Yes, Alpha. Scarlett Blackstone, do you take Alpha Dickson Brown as your Alpha and husband?”

I was about to respond when I heard a growl beside me. A dangerously low growl that made me tremble.

“Why wouldn’t she accept me?” he growled, baring his teeth at the priest, who trembled in fear. He was every bit the tyrant they called him. “You should be directing those questions toward me.”

“I am sorry, Alpha,” the priest apologized. “Do you accept Scarlett Blackstone as your wife and Luna?”

With a smirk plastered on his face, he responded, “Yes, I do.”

I swallowed my tears as the priest turned to face me. “Do you accept the Alpha as your Alpha and husband?”

I fought back the tears, swallowing them down. “Yes, I do.”

“Then, Alpha, you may kiss the bride.”

I tensed, fully aware of what awaited me. My stomach tightened in dread, but I raised my head and forced myself to meet his cold eyes.

“Skip that,” he declared, his voice thick with hate.