The Alpha's Proxy Bride

Chapter 6

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice the difference the moment I touched your skin?"

The words left my lips before I could stop them, cutting through the stunned silence of the ceremony hall. I stood at the altar, my hand still locked in hers, the ceremonial cord binding our wrists together. A moment ago, I had been the happiest Alpha in the world, believing the Moon Goddess had finally gifted me a mate to secure my legacy before my mother’s final days.

Now, I was a laughingstock.

Scout’s face drained of all color. She stared up at me, her mouth slightly parted, eyes wide with a frantic, pulsing terror that slammed into my senses through the bond. It wasn't the triumphant smirk of a schemer. It was the look of someone trapped in a nightmare they didn't understand.

"I... I don't know what you mean," she whispered. Her voice was thin, trembling like a leaf in a gale.

I let out a harsh, jagged breath. Across the aisle, the chaos was absolute. Simone, the woman I was actually meant to marry, had been dragged away after collapsing from a head injury. Her mother’s wails still echoed against the vaulted stone ceilings. The guests were a sea of shifting bodies and angry murmurs. My own warriors were already on their feet, their hands resting on the hilts of their blades, waiting for a single word from me to paint this floor red.

"You took her place," I snarled, pulling the binding cord taut. I wanted to see her flinch. I wanted to see the mask slip. "You knocked your sister unconscious, locked her in a closet, and walked down that aisle in her wedding dress. Do you take me for a fool?"

Scout’s hands shook against mine. Through the bond, I felt a sickening wave of vertigo and genuine bewilderment. There was no trace of calculated ambition. There was only fear - a sharp, stinging cold that crawled up my spine.

Stop it, I commanded silently, trying to wall off my own mind from hers. I won't let you manipulate me.

"I didn't," she breathed, her gaze darting to the crowd as if looking for an exit that didn't exist. "I was told to stand here. My father... he told me it was my turn to serve the pack."

"Your father?" I barked a bitter laugh.

The Alpha of NeonViper, a man whose spine seemed to have turned to water, took a hesitant step forward. He looked like he was watching his own funeral procession.

"Alpha Nixon, please," the older man rasped, his face pale and sweating. "We did not know. This was not the plan. There must be some mistake."

"The mistake was coming to this pathetic excuse for a pack," I spat.

I looked back at Scout. She was hyperventilating now, the bond between us screaming with her distress. Every time I felt a flicker of sympathy, I fed it into a furnace of rage. I would not be played. I would not be the Alpha who fell for a parlour trick.

"She is an Omega," one of my guards shouted from the back of the hall. "She has defiled the ceremony! Kill her!"

The room went deathly quiet. Scout gasped, a sharp, choked sound. She didn't try to run. She didn't try to fight. She simply slumped, her knees knocking together, her entire being radiating a desperate, hollow resignation.

The bond pulsed. It wasn't trying to trick me; it was mirroring her complete and total collapse. It felt like standing in the middle of a collapsing building.

"Silence!" I roared.

The command sent a ripple of power through the hall, forcing everyone to their knees. Even the elders bowed their heads, their faces twisted with uncertainty. Scout clutched at the cord, her knuckles white.

"You think you can bind yourself to me through lies?" I leaned down, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl near her ear. "You think a fake bond will buy you a seat at my table?"

"I never asked for this," she sobbed, the tears finally tracking through her makeup. "I just wanted to be enough."

I pulled away, my disgust turning into a cold, hard knot in my gut. I didn't want her excuses. I didn't want her tears. I wanted this nightmare to end so I could return to my mother and explain why the wedding had failed.

"Elder Zoya," I called out, not taking my eyes off the woman trembling before me. "Step forward and break the bond."