Chapter 3

I will make sure my stepfather pays for what he has done for me, together with my mother. They didn’t even look at me when I was dragged away from my house that night. I was screaming and crying for help. 

“Please… please, please, I don’t want to do this!”

“You don’t have a choice, sweetheart,” his beta named Caleb said and smiled at me sweetly. In return, I shook my head violently and tried to get away from his grip, but he just tightened my hold. 

“Margareth!” I heard a familiar voice of a girl was heard before I got inside Lycan King Thomas’s fancy and shining black car. Beta Caleb halted for a moment and turned his head to my best friend, Zen, who was crying and running towards me. 

“Z-Zen…” I whispered, shocked because she got here at the right time. Terrified, because she would be in trouble because of me. 

“What’s happening!” Zen screamed my name, like she was petrified of losing me once she didn’t. I saw fear in her eyes when she looked at someone behind me – Lycan King Thomas. He must be watching this.

I wonder if he likes it when he senses fear in his surroundings. 

Caleb summoned the other two men in black suit to stop my best friend from holding me. “No!” I screamed when I saw the two of them pulling out their guns while they were holding my best friend.

“Don’t hurt her! Don’t hurt her!” I swear after this night, I’m going to lose my own voice. 

“Margareth! I will come and get you out of that cruel Lycan King!” My jaw felt open when she said that her finger pointing at the man behind me. 

I nodded, laughing without humor, because I know it’s not going to happen. There is no way Zen could get me out in this shitty situation. But still, she tried to soothe my soul for tonight, and so, I nodded and looked at her with a small, reassuring smile that I believed her. 

“Of course, of course you’re going to,” I whispered. 

It’s only a matter of seconds before Caleb opened the door for me. I didn’t notice Lycan King Thomas was already inside the car. He didn’t wait for anyone – for me. He just doesn’t care. That’s the last thing I should think of right now. I was lucky enough they didn’t hurt my friend. 

I sat at the backseat of the car, beside Lycan King Thomas, who was busy looking at his phone. My face damp with tears, and my heart beats like crazy because of Thomas’s presence. He just makes me feel weak and powerless and useless. 

He scares me. 

Caleb, on the other hand, was smiling at me while he maneuvered the car away from our mansion. I glared at him. He nodded at me and looked away. Maybe he finds Zen funny. I could sense it. I couldn’t care less of what he thinks. 

The drive was too long, and I felt like I’ve got a taste on what hell is like. Lycan King Thomas was busy on his phone the whole drive, and when I glanced at it, he was zooming in and out of someone’s tits. Big breast. I figured that’s just his type. 

He is desperate. He wants a virgin to produce his offspring, but he’s busy gawking at someone’s lude image of a woman. Why don’t he marry that woman on the screen?

I don’t know what I’ve got into. Am I jealous? Yes, it’s because of the mate bond.

What would happen to me when he finally gets what he wants? Maybe he will toss me aside when I’m useless. My heart breaks into pieces of thought. Different ideas ran through my head about what he’s going to do to me. 

Right now, he’s acting like a complete dick. I should already figure this out. A tear escaped again in my eyes, and I brushed it off with my forefinger. What a pity. I guess I will never have a loyal husband. Back when I was still naïve, I dreamed of marrying someone I would love eternally. I will give him every piece of my heart, every part of my soul, every inch of my skin and body. That was when I was still naïve, not knowing what reality is, and I got slapped by it until now.

It will never happen. 

I just knew it when Caleb starts telling me the contract my stepfather signed earlier. Lycan King Thomas acted like I didn’t exist inside the car. Caleb told me that his boss, Lycan King Thomas, wanted an offspring of his kingdom. He wants to have a son – an heir. Just to be prepared – according to Caleb. I found out Lycan King Thomas doesn’t have a family. He cut off ties with them. 

The reason why the Lycan King wanted to have a son is that he was cursed by the Moon Goddess to not bear a child, so he wanted someone who could fix that for him.

How foolish! 

Is he defying the Moon Goddess’s order?

He thinks he can break the curse by having me.

Once I give birth to his son, I will get out of the contract to do whatever I want in my life. The King really doesn’t have an interest in having a Luna because he doesn’t need it. They are useless – according to Caleb, again. 

“Yup, I think I’m done telling her the basics, boss,” Caleb said and stopped the car. That was the only time Lycan King Thomas stopped looking at his phone and glanced at the rearview mirror. I never looked at him. I just looked at the huge and luxurious looking mansion in front of us. It’s ten times wider and bigger than Cullen’s mansion. 

Rumors about Lycan King Thomas was right. He’s not only drop-dead gorgeous looking like a Greek God, but he’s also filthy rich. He got wealthy. He’s powerful. I get it why women thirst for him in the party even though he looks like someone who would thrash your life. I get where his confidence is coming from. 

A minute of silence wrapped around us. Lycan King Thomas’s baritone voice breaks that when he says, “The contract is confidential. Don’t tell anyone about the contract. If you do, you know what happens to them.” Right after he said that he got out of the car and left me behind. 

Of course, I get what he meant to say. 

They will be killed. 

***

I fancied the interiors and the ceilings of Lycan King Thomas’s house. This is not a house, actually. It is like a castle from the 1700’s with a touch of modern design. This is nothing compared to our mansion. Now that I think about it, we’re not really rich. 

We are nothing compared to Lycan King Thomas’s wealth. I understand why my father behaves like that around him. With money, you can have power and everything. 

Lycan King Thomas and Caleb went straight to a room with a wide and wooden door. Someone blocked my way, and I almost jumped when I saw a middle-aged woman smiling at me widely. “Hello dear, you must be Margareth.”

“Y-Yes…” I said, scared because of the ambience of this hallway. It’s dark. The light illuminates the woman’s face. She looks kind, but I don’t trust anyone inside this house. Not Lycan King Thomas’s underlings. 

“Let me accompany you in your room.” 

Her name is Cina. She’s the oldest maiden of Garcia’s mansion and she rules all the household chores. Everyone respected her. She told me she was happy about Thomas and me. My eyes squinted at that. 

Shocked because they didn’t know about Thomas and I’s situation. This is just a forced marriage for his own interest, and I was ostracized to play my part. I didn’t have a choice. My stepfather chose a path for me that I didn’t want.

I took a deep breath and sighed. I guess I have to play along with my role as Lycan King Thomas’s future wife, huh? 

“Thomas may look cold and brutal, but he’s actually sweet! I remember back when he was a child…” She starts telling me a narrative about how she nursed Thomas all her life. I know what she was doing. She was trying to convince me that my husband isn’t that cruel. I wasn’t listening to her entirely. My head was swaying will all the details I had to memorize when I started living inside this big and eerie castle-like house – the restricted places, the rules in this household. 

Everyone in this household felt warm. Mostly, the ladies were smiling at me, but I figured they were told to or else they would be dead. The men in black guarding the mansion acted invisible. They were just doing their job. 

Thomas, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. We have separate rooms. Every night, it’s so cold. My room is bigger, nicer, and comfier than my attic room. However, why do I still feel so lonely? It’s still the same. 

Someone knocked on the door. I thought it was just Cina bringing my dinner, but when I opened it, my heart dropped its beat. My knees started wobbling, and I was lucky I was holding the doorknob for full support.

Lycan King Thomas entered the place as if he owned them. It’s actually true. He owns the room I am staying in.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him. It has been three days since we first met. I’ve never seen him walking in his own house. He’s probably out to manage his business.

“Are you comfortable in this room?” As if you care, I wanted to tell him but didn’t have the courage to do so. I nodded submissively and closed the door. 

He heaved a deep sigh and nodded, acknowledging my response and took something out from his pocket. “Give me your hand.” 

Confused, I still followed his order and showed him my hand. I gasped when he grabbed my hand and put a ring on my finger forcefully.

The ring looks expensive, and I just found out it’s from an expensive brand. There is an infinity symbol on it. If someone who loves me dearly, and someone whom I also love the most, gives me this ring, I would cry and blush in glee.

But it’s Lycan King Thomas who gave me this ring. 

He doesn’t love me. 

We’re just doing this for his own benefit. And I have to oblige or else I’m going to get the rest of my family killed. 

“Don’t lose it,” he whispered while looking at my eyes intensely.

My hands started shaking. He noticed it because he was still holding my hand. I couldn’t read what’s on his mind. 

I wonder if he could read mine.

We are mates, but maybe because I didn’t have my wolf was the reason that I couldn’t read his mind. His expression is cold, yet he was staring at me intensely. Was he waiting for an answer? Because I’ll give it to him. 

“I won’t,” I said before pulling my hand from him. He tore his eyes from me and shut the door closed, leaving me breathless for an unknown reason, and shaking in fear.