HER ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Chapter 004

The Mating Ceremony and the Last Step

CECILIA

Three days passed and I did not participate in a single preparation.

I spent every morning and afternoon on the training grounds, pushing myself and whoever was willing to come at me until my body had nothing left to give.

It was the only thing that made the time feel like mine. The moment I stopped moving, reality crept back in, and reality was something I was not ready to sit with.

But time did not care about that.

The morning of the ceremony arrived grey and cold, the sky flat and sunless, and I stood at the window of my room watching it and thinking that at least the weather had the decency to be honest.

They dressed me in white virgin silk. It clung to every line of my body and left my shoulders bare, the traditional dress of an unmated female surrendering to her male. I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself for a long moment.

I had worn battle armour my entire life and never once felt exposed in it. This dress made me feel naked.

I said nothing and walked out.

***

The throne room had been transformed overnight. Flowers and white ribbons covered every surface, villagers packed every available space, and the noise of five hundred wolves settled into a low hum the moment I walked in. I kept my eyes forward and my chin up and did not look at any of them.

Cassian was already standing at the front when I arrived. He was in a dark formal attire, straight posture, those calm brown eyes finding me the moment I entered. He did not smile. He just watched me walk toward him with an expression I could not read, which was already irritating.

The priest began.

He spoke about unity and partnership and the sacred bond between mates, and I stood there and let the words wash past me like water. None of it landed. None of it was real.

This was a transaction dressed up in silk and ceremony, and I was the currency being exchanged.

"Do you, Cecilia, Alpha Queen of the Greenville Pack, take this man as your mate and husband?"

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tear this dress off and walk straight out of this room and let the consequences fall where they would. I felt the words sitting in my throat, ready.

Then my eyes moved to the crowd and found Lila.

She was standing near the middle, dressed modestly, her expression full of careful sympathy. She met my gaze and gave me a small, gentle smile.

The image of her wearing my crown hit me so hard and so fast that I almost flinched.

"I do," I said. The words tasted like ash.

"And do you, Cassian, Alpha of the Redwood Pack, take this woman as your mate and wife?"

"I do." He agreed easily, like this was the easiest thing he had ever agreed to.

"Then by the power vested in me," the priest continued, "I pronounce you mated and wed. You may now shift and exchange marks to seal the bond."

The room went very still.

I did not move.

The silence stretched. Around me, I could feel people holding their breath. Whispers began at the edges of the crowd, soft at first and then louder.

"Alpha Queen?" the priest said carefully.

"No." I kept my voice clear and steady. "We will not shift and mark. The exchange of vows and rings is sufficient."

The gasps that followed were immediate. I heard them ripple across the room like a stone dropped in still water. This was unheard of. It was an insult to tradition, to the ceremony, to the man standing beside me.

I did not care.

Then my father stood up.

Bonn rose from his seat at the front of the room, and when he spoke his voice cut through every whisper and every gasp and silenced the hall completely.

"The bond will be sealed now and in the old way." His eyes found mine across the room. "Shift."

The hall went so quiet I could hear my own breathing.

I turned to look at him. "You would not dare command me—"

"I just did." His jaw was tight, his gaze harder than I had seen it in years. "Refuse in front of this pack and every wolf here will know their Alpha Queen fears her own mate. Shift, Cecilia. Or Lila takes the crown tonight."

The whispering erupted again, louder this time, spreading fast through the crowd. I felt it rising around me like heat.

My claws pushed through my fingertips before I could stop them, and then my wolf came forward in a way she had not in longer than I could remember, not with power but with rage so deep it burned.

The white dress shredded. Red fur spilled across my shoulders as I held the half-shift, my body trembling with the force of holding it there. The crowd recoiled in one collective movement.

Cassian shifted a heartbeat later. A huge brown wolf with gold eyes that stayed completely calm. He lowered his head toward me, not in submission, but in offering.

I wanted to tear him apart.

Instead I lunged.

My fangs sank into the muscle between his neck and shoulder, hard enough that blood hit my tongue immediately, hot and sharp. He did not flinch. He did not make a sound. He just held my gaze with those steady gold eyes while I marked him, and that stillness made me angrier than pain would have.

Then his head moved and his teeth closed over the claiming spot on my throat.

Not savage but possessive in a way that left no room for argument.

The bond snapped into place between us like something locking shut. I felt it in my chest, in my bones, sudden and undeniable, and I hated every single second of it.

I tore free with a snarl and shifted back. Naked, bleeding at the throat, shaking with rage.

Cassian shifted back beside me, blood running freely down his chest, and looked at me without a single trace of shame or apology.

The blood dripped from his chest onto the white marble floor in slow, steady drops. He did not wipe it away. Instead the corner of his mouth curved, just barely, a small and private smile that only I was close enough to see, and then he turned to face the crowd and inclined his head like a man who had just been given exactly what he came for.

I wanted to hit him so hard his ancestors felt it.

The priest fumbled through the closing words, clearly shaken by everything that had just happened. "Then I present to you Alpha Cassian and his Luna, Cecilia."

Applause followed.

I turned to face the crowd with my chin lifted, blood drying at my throat, and stared back at every single person who was staring at me.

****

I had barely made it through the first hour of the reception when she appeared.

Cassian's mother, Marcella found me near the far end of the hall, away from the main crowd.

She was tall and composed, silver streaked hair pulled back severely, dark eyes that moved over me the way someone looks at something they have already decided they do not want in their house.

"I want to be direct with you," she said, keeping her voice low enough that only I could hear. "You are not what I wanted for my son. You come from a pack that is drowning in debt, you have no wolf to speak of, and everything about this arrangement smells of desperation." She held my gaze without blinking. "You are not welcome here. Not by me."

I looked at her for a moment.

Then I smiled, and it was not a kind smile.

"Let me be direct with you as well," I started. "I did not come here for your son. I came here to keep my throne. That is the only reason I am standing in this hall in this dress with his mark on my throat." I tilted my head slightly. "So your feelings about whether I am welcome here mean very little to me. You can kiss my ass for all I care."

Her eyes went wide. The composure cracked just enough to show the fury underneath it.

She turned and walked away without another word, her back rigid, her steps sharp against the marble floor.

I turned back to the room and reached for the nearest glass of wine.

"Cecilia."

I turned.

Lila was standing behind me, dressed simply, her expression warm and open. She stepped forward and took both my hands in hers, squeezing gently.

"Congratulations," she said softly. "Truly. I am so happy for you."

I looked at her face. The smile was perfect. The warmth was perfect. Everything about it was exactly right.

Except her eyes.

Her eyes were flat and careful and watching me in a way that had nothing to do with happiness.

"Thank you, Lila," I said.

She squeezed my hands once more and moved away into the crowd, and I watched her go and filed that look away in the same place I kept everything else she had ever given me.

****

The final toast came at the end of the reception.

My father rose from his seat, raised his glass, and smiled at the room with the easy confidence of a man about to deliver news he had already decided on.

"To the alliance," he said, loud enough for every wolf in the hall to hear clearly. "And to the heir that will be born within the year. The council has ruled. If no child is conceived by the next full moon cycle, the marriage will be declared void and the Greenville crown will pass to a new bloodline."

The room stopped.

Glasses froze, cnversations died. Five hundred pairs of eyes turned to me same moment.

My father's gaze found mine across the hall. "Tonight begins the count."

The wine glass in my hand shattered.

Red liquid ran down my wrist and dripped onto the floor and I was already moving, claws pushing through my fingers, crossing the hall in three strides with nothing in my head except the image of my hands around his throat.

Two guards stepped into my path before I reached him.

Then Cassian's arms locked around my waist from behind, solid and unyielding, dragging me backward while I snarled and bled and fought against his grip with everything I had.

His mouth dropped to my ear.

"One year," he said, so quietly that nobody else could have heard it. "I will give you an heir, Cecilia. And when I do, you will beg me to mark you again."

Then he released me and walked away.

I stood there, chest heaving, blood on my hand, the bond he had put in my throat still humming with a warmth I absolutely refused to acknowledge.

And underneath all of that rage, somewhere I did not want to look, something else had started burning.

I hated him for that most of all.