THE COMATOSE ALPHA'S PROXY LUNA

"Sign it, Evangeline. Or your dad dies in the dark mines." Beta Thomas did not even look up from his screen. He slid a thick black folder across the smooth table. It stopped right at my fingers. I looked down at the bright gold letters on the cover: The Silver-Crest Pack Marriage Contract. My hands shook so badly I had to hide them under the table. I felt a hot flash of anger in my chest. "This is not a real marriage, Thomas. You are just buying me." "We are saving your family from starving," Thomas said. He leaned back in his big chair and crossed his arms. He looked so smug I wanted to slap him. "Let's be real, Evangeline. A low-level omega like you has no choices. Your family owes five million dollars to the pack council." "But Alpha Dominic..." My voice broke. Fear hit my stomach as I stared at the folder. "He does not even know me, He is in a deep coma, He has been brain-dead for six months!" Thomas let out a dry, mean laugh. "Yeah. He is a vegetable. His wolf is totally asleep, He won't check your past, and he won't sleep in your bed. Just sign it." Panic gripped my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to throw up from the stress. "Then why do you need me? If the great Alpha Dominic is just a breathing corpse, why do you need a poor omega bride?" Thomas stopped smiling. The room suddenly felt cold. He leaned way over the table. His heavy, scary alpha smell filled the air. It made it hard to breathe. "Because the world does not know he is dying," he whispered, his eyes turning mean. "The enemy packs don't know either. If the business world finds out the Lycan King is brain-dead, our whole money empire crashes by morning. His greedy brothers will tear this pack apart. They will start a bloody war for the crown." A chill ran down my back. My face went pale. "So you just want a puppet." "We need a proxy," Thomas said with a nasty smile. "A fake Luna. Someone to sign the papers, sit in the meetings, and look pretty for the cameras. Someone we can throw away if things go bad." "And if he wakes up?" I whispered. I was so scared to hear the answer. "He won't." Thomas tapped the paper with his nail. The sound clicked like a clock. "The poison in his blood is dark magic, It is too strong. He is just a breathing corpse. Now, sign, I am out of patience, Evangeline Brooks." I looked down at the heavy pen. My heart beat against my ribs like a trapped bird. I felt stuck in a corner with a knife at my throat. If I walked out, my dad would die working as a slave in the mines. If I signed, I was jumping right into a trap full of monsters. I swallowed my fear, gripped the pen until my fingers turned white, and wrote my name: Evangeline Brooks. "Good girl," Thomas smirked, He snatched the folder away before the ink was even dry. "Welcome to the family. Let’s go meet your new husband." The walk down to the secret medical wing was awful. Every step felt like walking to my own death. Two giant guards walked right behind us. Their heavy boots clicked on the stone floor. It reminded me that I could not run away. The air got very cold. It smelled like bleach and old blood. Thomas pushed open a thick metal door. "Don't scream. Keep your mouth shut and stay calm." I stepped inside, and my breath stopped in my throat. In the middle of the room, hooked up to a lot of blinking machines, lay Alpha Dominic. He was absolutely huge. Even under the white sheets, his chest and shoulders were giant. He had messy dark hair on his forehead and a sharp, rough jaw covered in stubble. His skin looked tan and healthy. He did not look like a dying man at all. He looked like a sleeping king waiting for a war. "He's... beautiful," I whispered before my brain could stop me. A strange pull hit my chest. My inner wolf let out a small whine. "He's a weapon on life support," Thomas snapped, walking to the screens. "The wedding is easy. Put your hand on his chest. Say the words of the pack oath. The magic will lock your name into the system." I walked to the side of the bed. My knees shook so much I thought I would fall. "Just touch him? That's it?" "Do it now. We don't have time for your fear." I swallowed hard, reached out my shaking hand, and placed my palm on his bare chest. The exact second my skin touched his, a big, painful shock of electricity zapped right up my arm. "Ow!" I gasped, pulling my hand back. My skin stung badly. "Don't move!" Thomas yelled. He grabbed my arm hard and forced my hand back down on the Alpha's chest. "Keep your hand down! Hold it!" Dominic's skin was not cold. It was burning hot. It felt like touching a hot stove. Panic exploded in my chest as the heart machine started going fast. Beep-beep-beep! Suddenly, the machine went totally crazy. The lines jumped up and down, and a loud alarm shrieked, Red lights flashed all over the walls. "What's happening?" I screamed. Tears of pure terror filled my eyes. I tried to pull away, but Thomas held me down. "Is he dying?! Am I killing him?!" "Hold on to him!" Thomas shouted over the loud noise. His face went totally white. "The pack magic is locking in! Say the words, Evangeline! Now!" "I... I take you, Dominic Silver-Crest, as my Alpha," I choked out. My voice shook badly as the heat from his chest burned my palm. "I accept the bond. I accept the mantle of Luna." A deep, angry, scary growl shook the whole room. Thomas froze, The two guards pulled out their swords and stepped back. The sound did not come from any of us. It came right out of Dominic’s chest. "His eyes!" a guard screamed, pointing his blade at the bed. "Look at his eyes!" I looked down, and my breath stopped. Dominic’s eyes flew wide open. Underneath, his eyes were glowing a bright, scary blood-red. It was the mark of a true Lycan King. Before I could even move, his huge hand shot up from the bed. His big fingers locked around my wrist like iron cuffs. He squeezed so hard I felt my bones grind together. I let out a cry of pain as he pulled me down hard. He dragged my body over the bed until my face was just two inches from his. “Mine,” a voice boomed. Dominic's lips did not move. The sound did not come from the room, It exploded right inside my own head, loud, heavy, and scary. “You are mine.” "Get her off him! Cut his hand!" Thomas roared, rushing forward with a needle. But before anyone could touch us, a massive blast of dark energy shot out from Dominic’s body. The medical screens and glass bottles smashed into a million pieces, raining glass on the floor. The force of the blast knocked Thomas and the guards straight off their feet, slamming them into the wall. I screamed and closed my eyes, waiting to hit the ground but Dominic’s grip stayed tight around my wrist. He held me safe against his chest while the glass flew everywhere, even as his eyes closed again and his body went totally still. The alarms kept screaming, the broken glass crunched under the groaning guards, and I lay stuck against a sleeping monster. I was trapped and married to a monster, married asleep to the world but completely awake inside my mind.