FROSTBOUND

10 — Benefit Us

~Adrian~

My shoulders pressed against the wall, a bottle dangling lazily from my fingers. More bottles lined the floor, scattered and toppled. Some with a stubborn inch of whiskey left, some empty, reflecting the life I couldn't recognize anymore.

The room was dark, the air suffocating. Dust floated lazily in a spiral, light faintly illuminating the dark room from an old bulb that hung loosely on the ceiling.

The room smelled of alcohol, of grief lingering in every corner.

I tipped the bottle back and swallowed. The liquid sloshed, a hot burn sliding down my throat that did nothing to ease the pain in my heart.

I didn't hear the door creak as Mother came rushing into the room.

"Adrian," She ran to my side, eyes sweeping over the mess of bottles. "Son, you need to stop locking yourself up in this attic. Stop doing this to yourself." She reached for the one in my hand, gripped it firmly, and pulled it away.

"Stay away from me and give that back to me." I slurred, my voice thick and jagged with hurt as I went for the bottle, but Mother threw it farther away, reeking more alcohol in the room.

"I'm not leaving you here," She insisted, kneeling beside me. She tried carrying me up, but my weight was too much for her shoulder and we both ended up wobbling back to the floor.

I let out a bitter trembling laugh that sounded more like a sob. "Just get away from me mother, I don't want you." My head fell onto my knees and for a moment I shook.

"No Adrian, you must fix yourself. Get your acts together. You must remember that you're the alpha of this pack. You must not let this ruin you. There is still someone in there who will help you get through this," She urged, and then my eyes suddenly snapped at her as if I was seeing a total stranger.

I jerked away.

Her presence repulsed me now that I felt the need to get so far away from her; like she had contracted a disease I was wary she might inflict on me with just her presence.

And maybe she had. Because she couldn't insist on calling that woman Juliana.

"Where did you get that woman from and why does she have the face of my dead wife?" The bitterness in my words made the room feel charged, dangerous in a way that she paused, and her voice shook as she spoke,

"She's... From... She..."

"Speak!" My jaw tightened, nostrils flaring.

She halted on the spot, looking at me as though my words were like a piercing arrow, shooting right into her chest where it pierced and shredded every part of her heart to pieces.

"Her name is Melissa. She's from... She was lost in..." She rambled, her voice trembling. She quickly brought out a document from her jacket pocket and handed it to me to read the details myself.

I tried to stare at the words, to read something from the papers, but everything blurred with the power of alcoholic rage in my eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I threw the documents and the papers shattered. Mother hurried and picked the papers up, tucking them back in a safe corner.

"Who is she? Tell me, I want to hear it directly from you and not the papers."

She took a forced breath, hands quavering by her side.

"Her name is Melissa. My friend told me about her just a month ago. She lost her parents in a fire accident and on the course, she had also sustained a head injury, leading to her loss of memory. She had no one to take care of her or even take her to the hospital. Everyone was afraid of taking her because of the expenses. So I...took the chance..." She stopped, as if the next word was too heavy to say.

"Don't keep me waiting, Mother,"

"So.... I... took her instead. Paid for her medical bills. I saved her Adrian. I saved her and I thought she could save you too. I'm sure when the time comes for her to recall her past she will be able to understand what I did for her. But for now, you need her, Adrian."

She panicked.

"A month before your wife died, I knew very well she wouldn't survive the accident. You and I knew. So I did what I did on that woman's face to be able to save you. If everyone finds out that your wife is dead, you know the kind of doom that will befall you. You know what will happen to you, Son, and I don't want any of that for you."

"You can't be out of your mind with what you're saying, Mother. This is impossible. It can't be." I shook my head.

"There's no way you'll take a stranger barely a week after I buried my wife, and you ask me to take her as my wife? As my mate. As the Luna? You had another woman go through cosmetic surgery to replace my mate? So you have even started this before her death. Like... How mother? How could you think of replacing my wife so easily?" I couldn't get it.

"You didn't even consult me when you were planning this, and now you ask me to accept your plans with open arms? At the expense of my dead wife?"

Everything was totally driving me insane.

"Adrian, listen to me. This is something that will benefit both of us. You have to comply with this."

"Comply with what? Wait, what exactly has gotten over you? What's this you're even telling me?"

"So–Son, you will get us in trouble with your voice so loud." She panicked.

"In trouble? Are we not in trouble already?" My fingers curled by my side, fighting to bridge the gap between anger and wistfulness.

How could Mother think of this? To so easily replace my wife as if she meant nothing.

"Yes, but it will get worse if anyone hears it before we can even get out of the trouble. You know what will happen to us if they learn the woman in there is not your wife. You know what will happen if they find out that their real Luna is dead." Her hands were now clenched so tightly by her side.

"We're talking about the pack, we're talking about the company. This is about everything we're going to lose because of it, including you, Son. That's why I have to put that woman through that to save you. I saved her, Adrian. If not for me she would have been dead by now, so it's also right that she saves you."

I stared at my mother saying those words as if she were reading a rehearsed script.

She brought another woman, made her have my late wife's face, and asked me to take her as my wife. Pretend I had been married to her.

All because she wanted to save me?

No. This—Wasn't making sense at all.