Chapter 3
- Jaxon’s POV
- “You’re telling me she just vanished into thin air, Kaelen?” I growled, slamming my fist onto the mahogany desk in my private study. The wood groaned under the pressure, a hairline crack splintering through the polished varnish.
- Kaelen, my most trusted Beta fixer, didn't flinch. He stood perfectly at attention, though his scent flared with a trace of nervous sweat. “The real Lady Vivienne slipped past her guards at the airport hotel six hours ago, Alpha. She had a forged passport and a disguised scent. By the time my trackers realized she was gone, she was already on a flight to the southern continent.”
- “Fucking coward,” I spat, pacing the length of the room. The fire in the hearth roared, casting long, predatory shadows against the stone walls. “Her father begs me for an alliance to save his pathetic pack from bankruptcy, promises me his eldest Alpha daughter to solidify our northern borders, and she runs like a frightened pup.”
- “We had to move fast, Alpha,” Kaelen explained, his voice low and urgent. “If the High Council finds out the Moretti bloodline broke the betrothal treaty, the northern alliance collapses. The bloodpacks in the valley will see it as a sign of weakness. They will attack the borders by sunrise.”
- “So you found a stray,” I said, turning to glare at him. My inner wolf snapped its jaws, furious at the insult of being handed a fake bride. “A street Omega. You brought a gutter rat into my fortress, stuffed her into an Alpha's silk dress, and expected me not to notice?”
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- “Her physical match to Vivienne is ninety-nine percent accurate, sir,” Kaelen argued, stepping forward. “And the amber elixir I gave her is masking her true biology perfectly. Even your top guards couldn't smell the difference. To the rest of the world, she ‘is’ Vivienne Moretti.”
- “But she isn't,” I hissed, my golden eyes flashing in the dark room. “The scent is a masterpiece, Kaelen, I’ll give you that. It smells of royal blood and arrogance. But when I put my hands on her jaw in that ballroom corner, when I looked into her eyes... there was no royal pride there. There was only the raw, vicious survival instinct of a creature that has spent its life bleeding in the dark.”
- “Did you kill her?” Kaelen asked bluntly.
- “No,” I murmured, looking out the narrow gothic window at the misty mountains surrounding my estate. “I didn't kill her. I told her she’s going through with the wedding.”
- Kaelen’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re going to marry a nameless Omega? Alpha, if the elders discover her true rank during the bonding ceremony, they will call it a desecration of the bloodline. They will demand her execution, and your removal.”
- “Then we make damn sure they don’t find out,” I growled, turning back to him. “The real Vivienne is gone, and I don't have time to hunt her down across two continents before tomorrow morning. This street girl, Rhea... she has steel in her spine. I saw the way she looked at me. She was terrified, but she didn't drop to her knees. She didn't beg.”
- “She’s a survivor, Alpha. But she’s also a wild card,” Kaelen warned. “She only agreed to this because I offered her a million dollars and protection from her old pack. If she panics during the vows, or if the elixir wears off early…”
- “If she panics, I’ll handle her,” I interrupted, my voice dropping to a deadly, absolute whisper. “Go secure the perimeter. Increase the guard around her chambers. If so much as a single rogue approaches her door tonight, I want their heads on the estate gates.”
- “Understood, Alpha Jaxon,” Kaelen said, bowing his head before slipping out of the study, leaving me alone with the crackling fire.
- I looked down at my hands. My palm still burned from the memory of touching her jaw. A street Omega pretending to be a royal Alpha. It was madness. It was treason against the High Council.
- But as my wolf roared inside my chest, a dark, dangerous thrill ran through my veins. Tomorrow, the whole world would watch me claim a phantom.
- *****
- Three hours later, the castle was buzzing with the suffocating scents of a hundred visiting noble wolves. I stood outside the heavy oak doors of the bridal suite, my acute hearing catching the sound of an absolute disaster unfolding inside.
- Smash!
- The sound of priceless crystal shattering against the wood echoed through the corridor.
- “Go to hell, Kaelen!” a female voice screamed from within. “I’m not coming out! Tell your psychotic Alpha that the deal is off!”
- I gestured to Kaelen, who was standing down the hall looking pale, his scarred eyebrow twitching with sheer stress. He rushed forward, flanked by two massive guards in black armor, and clicked the lock open. I stepped into the shadows of the doorway, watching the chaos unfold.
- The girl… Rhea, was pacing the room in a silk bathrobe, her hair a wild, beautiful mess. Her chest heaved with pure, unadulterated panic.
- “The deal is not off,” Kaelen said, his voice shaking with a mix of anger and genuine fear as he tried to manage her. “You don't dictate terms to Alpha Jaxon. Do you have any idea what he will do to my team if you ruin this ceremony?”
- “I don't care about your team!” she shouted back, her eyes wide. “He knows, Kaelen! He knew the exact second he touched me! He called me a stray dog! He looked at me like he wanted to eat my soul!”
-
- “Eat her soul?” I suppressed a dark smile. My wolf stirred, listening intently to her raw, undisguised voice. It lacked the polished, fake mask she had worn earlier.
- “But he didn’t kill you,” Kaelen pointed out, stepping closer and waving the guards to stay by the door. “Which means you are still useful to him. If you walk out now, my men won't just let you go. And Alpha Vance’s trackers are still waiting outside the estate grounds. You have nowhere to run, Rhea.”