My Alpha Drugged Me to Marry Another Woman—So I Chose His Rival

Chapter 3 Only Her Fright Concerns Him

Three days before the wedding, rogues attacked the sixth outpost.

A silver bullet tore into my left shoulder and lodged against the bone. Poison burned through my veins. My claws forced out, white smoke curling from the wound. Patches of silver-gray fur spread across the back of my hand.

I killed the man who shot me.

When I searched his body, I found a white rose embroidered inside his cuff, the emblem of Ivy's mother's clan.

I returned to the valley with the evidence, only to find an order suspending me from command waiting on the council chamber table.

"The wedding is three days away, and you haven't exactly been yourself lately." Adrian's gaze lingered on the blood soaking through my shoulder. "Until the blood moon is over, Kyle will take command. I won't risk you mobilizing the border forces over some personal grievance."

Kyle refused immediately. "I'm not taking her command."

Adrian's face darkened. He crossed the room and tore the silver command insignia from my uniform himself.

I laid the scrap of cloth embroidered with the white rose on the table.

"The man who shot me was wearing this. It belongs to Ivy's mother's clan. You can suspend me if you want, but at least investigate where he came from."

Ivy's eyes filled with tears.

"My entire family was slaughtered by rogues. How could you use something like this to accuse them, Mara?"

Adrian knocked the cloth off the table.

"That's enough. Apologize to Ivy."

The bullet was still buried in my shoulder, hidden beneath blood and torn fabric. Adrian hadn't even asked how badly I was hurt.

Ivy shed one tear, and somehow she was the one he thought needed protecting.

An investigator brought over a vial of silver-salt solution to test the fabric.

Ivy reached for it.

As she took the vial, she pretended to lose her balance. But I saw her wrist turn toward me.

The scalding solution poured straight into the open wound in my left shoulder.

Pain exploded through me.

White smoke billowed from the bullet hole, and my knees hit the floor before I could stop myself.

Ivy screamed and stumbled backward.

Adrian stepped right over me to catch her.

"Did it get on you? Let me see your hand."

"I didn't mean to..." Ivy trembled against his chest.

Only after checking her hands and making sure she wasn't burned did Adrian finally look down at me.

"You've survived worse than this, Mara. Stop acting like you're dying."

Silver-gray fur crept farther across my hand.

Before I could force myself upright, Rowan rose from the far end of the elders' bench. He crossed the room, shrugged off his coat, and draped it over my ruined shoulder.

Adrian's Alpha scent surged through the chamber.

Several lower-ranked guards instinctively backed away.

"You're here as White Ridge's ceasefire envoy. You have no right to put your hands on a Blackwood officer."

Rowan pressed his palm over the bleeding wound.

"So you do remember she's one of your officers." His voice was cold. "For a moment, I thought she was just a hunting hound you'd thrown to your new Luna for sport."

Adrian's claws extended.

So did Rowan's.

I caught Rowan's arm, used it to pull myself to my feet, and stepped between them.

"Enough." Adrian stared at me for a moment before tossing my command insignia toward Kyle. "Go back to your quarters. Until the wedding is over, you're not allowed to go anywhere near Ivy."

As I passed Kyle, I lowered my voice.

"Don't fight him. Take the volunteers out through the old tunnel at midnight."

*****

Rowan took me to the infirmary.

Once the door closed behind us, he looked at my shoulder.

"Let me get the bullet out."

I nodded and pulled off what remained of my burned uniform.

The moment the fabric slipped from my shoulders, I instinctively raised an arm to cover the old scars across my back.

"Don't look."

Rowan's hand stilled around the forceps.

"Mara, we've spent ten years trying to kill each other. Do you really think I haven't seen such scars?"

I looked over my shoulder.

There was nothing resembling disgust in his eyes.

"Adrian looks at them and thinks of corpses," Rowan said quietly. "I look at them and wonder how many times you nearly died with no one there to save you."

The way he looked at me made my breathing hitch.

"Is this how you charm everyone who's going to your side?"

"Only you."

He leaned closer and began working the bullet free.

His breath brushed the side of my neck, and my claws instinctively pressed against his stomach.

Rowan chuckled under his breath.

"You haven't changed. The more pain you're in, the sharper your claws get."

I glanced back at him.

"You remember that?"

"I remember more than you think. Three times during the war, I ordered my men to retreat because you'd already sent your wounded soldiers back and stayed behind to hold the line alone."

The bullet shifted, sending another bolt of pain through my shoulder.

"One more push from my side, and you would've died there for Adrian. I wasn't willing to be the one who made that happen."

Once the bullet was out, Rowan left an antidote beside me and settled his coat back over my shoulders.

Just then, the infirmary door swung open.

Adrian stood outside in the rain, a medical kit in one hand and a cup of warm laurel wine in the other.

His eyes went first to Rowan's coat around my shoulders.

Then to the blood staining Rowan's fingertips.

His expression slowly darkened.