Alpha Valtor's Substitute Bride

chapter Two

Astrid

My reflection in the mirror is dull, the girl staring back at me has a melancholic expression on her face. The girl in the mirror looks like me but nothing about her says Astrid. It feels like I'm staring at Bryn. Well, the makeup is supposed to paint me into looking like her so already the first phase of the plan is successful. I just have to wait until Thane arrives before celebrating.

I let out a low exhale before leaning over the vanity. I have never dreamt of settling down before and now that I'm forced to, it has to be under false terms. I feel like a felon. I'm going to take on my sister's name, I'll have to forfeit everything that I have ever truly loved.

The door creaks open and my mother's flowery scent hits my nose even before she opens her mouth to speak.

“Astrid?" Her voice is an almost inaudible whisper. My name is gone, and now I'm Bryn, outside and inside the walls of our fancy house. It's been five days since the night I saved my sister from my father's unforgiving wrath, and when he called me Bryn last night at the dining table, I flinched and refused to answer. And he had slapped me so hard I couldn't see the meatballs on my plate.

“You should come downstairs. Have you been crying?" She asks, coming behind me to hold my shoulders. I stiffen under her soft palms.

“What does it matter now?" I ask her in return.

“You and Bryn have the same soft hazel brown eyes, so you don't have to worry about that." She is merely trying to assuage my fears but I hate that she thinks all of it is so easy. Look like Bryn, talk like Bryn, laugh like Bryn, Bryn Bryn. How much time has she even spent with the Wulfgar Alpha that I have to alter myself completely?

“I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Alpha is here." Bryn's voice floats into my bedroom.

I want to scream, I want to shout at her to not just stand there and pretend that everything is going well as planned, but I let mother steer me away from the mirror and out of the bedroom.

I don't meet her eyes as I walk past her, and I can hear the screeching of tyres as cars drive into our compound. They sound chaotic, and I realize Thane must have come with his escorts. A dead weight sinks into my stomach, and even though I don't feel like it, I take Bryn's hand when she offers it. I cannot continue to stay mad at her or blame her for any of what has happened. Destiny has a way of claiming you even when you're not trying. But is this my destiny? To marry a man I do not love? A wolf shifter? Alpha of the Wulfgar pack?

We descended the stairs slowly, my heels clicked softly against the marble tiles. Mother instructs Bryn to stay away from the sitting room until I'm gone to avoid anyone noticing the wrongness in the air. But just as Bryn is turning to climb back up the stairs, light fills the hallway and three stocky, stoic faced men march into the house like they own the place. Escorts. They look ready to punch a fist through a wall and…..

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa….Is that him? That is Thane? “

I must have voiced out my thoughts aloud because my mother pins me with a hard look before murmuring a yes. He pauses in his majestic strides to lift his head in our direction. His perfectly chiseled jawline is set, and his frosty glacier green eyes find mine and hold my gaze hostage. His nose looks unreal, as though he could have been a reference for a medieval painting but it is slightly crooked in a rugged way that causes something to jump in my stomach. The sleeves of his white shirt are rolled up, as though he thought of looking formal but couldn't bother with actually looking the part. Tattoos swirl around his wrists and up his elbows and something tells me they climb up to his biceps. His shirt is pressed tight against his taut stomach in a way that leaves little to the imagination, or it could be that I'm the only one noticing these things.

Something is crackling in the air, as if the world has shrunk into itself to accommodate only the both of us. There's a strange energy pulsating in the air, an invisible force forming a blanket over us, or it could just be the dress I'm wearing. The corset is top tight and my breasts are nearly touching my jawline.

Just as I'm beginning to come undone under his intense gaze, he turns his head away. My father is the last to step into the hallway. He looks lost and small sandwiched between Thane’s escorts. I have no doubt that they are all shifters.

“There is dust in New York, a rival pack has murdered one of our own. The mating ceremony will be held off a little longer but we'll have our Binding Test in the next half-crescent moon.” The rich baritone of his voice stirs something buried deep within me. The feeling makes me dizzy.

His eyes are on Father as he speaks, and it delights me to see my father cowering in the presence of a man whose power transcends human comprehension. A man I’m destined to spend the rest of my life with—if I survive the Binding Test, or whatever it is he mentioned.

"That is all right, Alpha. We have no objections.” I snort at my father's exaggeration. As if he would ever muster the courage to object to a powerful shifter like Thane.

I feel like an object, just standing on the stairs next to my mother who is equally silent. Thane turns his head our way to focus his intense gaze on me. The rich black hue of his hair causes it to ripple in the soft lights of the hallway.

Father beckons to me to complete my descent down the stairs, and suddenly, I can't find the will to move them. But I force them to work anyway. Fate's clock is ticking and I can't stop it.

His men avert their eyes when I reach him, and I pause so I'm standing four feet away from him. The air is hot and thick with something I can only classify as ethereal. He steps forward with a fluid grace that is rare for someone with his towering height and build. The man doesn't look like he has an ounce of fat on him!

His hand reaches out in a swift motion and it takes me a moment to register the feel of his hand on my injured arm.

“Who did this?" He growls, as though he cannot stand the thought of harm coming to me. His fingers are drawing circles around the spot, and the sensation chases away every single thought in my head.

“Who did this?" His growl this time is deeper and fiercer. I immediately start to stutter.

“Bryn here is a wee clumsy little thing -"

“I wasn't speaking to you." He snaps at my father, whose shoulders immediately go limp.

“Now, who. did. this?" He draws out each syllable like it's an ominous threat.

“Him…” I jerk my head towards my father. Disbelief spells out on his features. Thane drops my arm gently, then in a blur, goes to grab my father by his throat. My mother's eyes widen, and instantly my heart goes out to her.

"I should call this off for that mark on her skin, you heartless woman beater. She is my property, the moment I announced my intentions to claim her she became mine. What fed you the courage to lay your cowardly hands on her?” I flinch at his language. Property. Mine. It leaves a sour taste on my tongue. I should not have said it was Father who did it. After all, he had not exactly picked up the glass to carve the wound.

"I am deeply sorry, it wasn't my inten-"

Thane drops him so he slumps gracelessly to the floor.

Without meeting my eye, he says to his escorts, “Let's get out of here."

Inwardly, I wish that he would forget me and leave without me but nothing like that happens. The men divide themselves. Three escort him out of the hallway while the remaining two take up flanking positions beside me.

This is it. I can decide to foil my father's plan, but after seeing Thane's palm wrapped around my father's neck over a wound on my arm, I'm not sure I can handle what will follow next if I back out of this arrangement.

I give my mother one last look before finally letting Thane's men lead me out. I would have loved to give my sister a hug before saying goodbye to the life I've known for twenty-two years.

I'm Bryn now. I hated my life when I was Astrid. I hate it even more now. Bryn. The Alpha’s mate. The new bride of the Wulfgar pack. None of it is true.