My Replacement Groom Is the Lycan King

Chapter 3 The Man He Called an Actor

Three days before the bonding ceremony, the Blackpine Pack threw a banquet to welcome Chloe.

She hadn't been formally invested as Luna yet, but she was already standing at Damian's side as the lady of the house. The Blackpine Luna insignia that should have been mine was pinned to the neckline of her gown.

I showed up on time—not as Damian's ex-fiancée, but as the chief financial adviser who'd run the pack's books for eight years.

"Evelyn, perfect timing." Damian came over with a wineglass in hand. "Introduce Chloe to a few of our most important allies. She's young, she doesn't know how to work a room like this yet. Once you've shown her the ropes, you can stay on the council and keep helping me. Same title, same salary."

He said it like the whole thing was already decided.

For eight years I'd brokered the Blackpine Pack's first mining alliance and locked down Damian's council seat with one painstaking financial report after another. Now he wanted me to hand Chloe everything I knew and then quietly disappear into her shadow.

"I'm moving north after my wedding," I said.

Damian swirled his wine, amused. He hadn't taken a single word seriously.

"North? Where's some rent-a-groom going to take you? Evelyn, quit pushing this. You're making Chloe uncomfortable."

Across the ballroom, Chloe stood in the middle of a knot of young socialites. She lifted her wrist so the moonstone bracelet caught the chandeliers. When someone asked about me, she put on a pitying little face and dropped her voice.

"Poor Evelyn. She gave Damian 10 years of her life and she can't even shift. I couldn't stand to watch her leave with nothing. Even if she has to hire a man and stage a fake ceremony just to save face—Damian and I are behind her."

A ripple of muffled laughter went through the group.

I set down my soda, pushed open the glass doors, and stepped out onto the terrace. The cold air cleared the ballroom's stuffy heat out of my lungs. As I leaned on the railing, I caught Damian behind me, talking to a friend.

"You're not worried Evelyn actually marries someone else? I saw her in a new ring the other day."

Damian took a pull on his cigarette, the ember glowing in the dark.

"She doesn't even have a wolf. This whole wedding is just an excuse to put on a dress and feed her vanity. No pack would take a defective human—except mine. Her whole world runs on me."

"Ten years together and you're really willing to toss that?"

"I never said I was letting her go." Damian clapped the guy on the shoulder, all confidence. "I'll set her up with an estate, a trust fund, a seat on the council. Once this blows over, I'll make time for her again. Evelyn's smart. She knows that without me, she's nothing."

My phone buzzed.

Soren had sent a photo of Pine Creek Church. White cushions were already laid out along the pews, and in one corner of the altar stood a bouquet of white bellflowers.

At that banquet three years ago, I'd mentioned exactly once that their scent was the only piece of my mother I had left.

He'd remembered.

Evelyn: See you tomorrow.

When I came back inside, Damian cut me off at the end of the corridor. His eyes dropped to my right hand, and his brow pulled tight.

"Where's the silver ring I gave you?"

"I threw it out."

His face hardened. He reached for my right hand.

"Who gave you this? Where'd you dig up this man you hired?"

I stepped back, and his hand closed on nothing.

"He's my groom," I said, even.

"Enough." Damian's voice dropped to a hiss. "I'm letting this farce play out because I respect our 10 years. I don't want you humiliating yourself. Stop dangling some other man to get a rise out of me. I don't like it."

Chloe rushed over and wound herself around his arm, her eyes going red.

"Is Evelyn still upset with me? If she is, I don't have to come to the ceremony."

"No—you both have to come." I looked at their linked arms. "It'd be so much less entertaining without you."

Damian sneered and pulled the wax-sealed groom's invitation out of his suit pocket.

"Fine. I'll take the front row. I want a good look at whatever trash you managed to scrape up. When it's over, I'll have my driver run you back to the estate."

"That won't be necessary."

I walked past him and pushed open the heavy ballroom doors.

"Bring a crowd tomorrow."

On the day of the bonding ceremony, every pew in Pine Creek Church was full.

Damian sat in the front row in a black formal suit, one hand resting loose on his knee, like the whole thing revolved around him. Chloe sat beside him in a dark green Luna cloak, her moonstone bracelet clicking against the edge of the pew every time she moved.

"They put in some real effort to sell it," Damian remarked, glancing around.

Chloe leaned into his shoulder with a soft smile. "As long as Evelyn's happy."

The church bells started to toll at noon.

The doors swung open, and an icy gust sent snow skittering across the red carpet. My arm linked through George's, I walked down the aisle one measured step at a time.

For a second Damian stared at me in white like he'd forgotten how to breathe. His hand drifted up toward his bow tie on its own. It wasn't until Chloe tugged his sleeve that he caught himself and looked away.

The doors opened all the way.

At that same moment, the huge black drape above the altar dropped, uncovering the Silvermoon royal crest carved into the stone wall—two overlapping silver leaves ringing a crescent moon.

Soren came down the long carpet, every step measured. With each one, a heavy pressure rolled through the air. The instant the seven northern elders knew him, they rose from their pews as one, pressed their right hands over their hearts, and bowed.

The church went so quiet there was nothing left but the wind.

Damian's smile froze. He looked from the standing elders to Soren and back. His fingers dug into the back of the pew until the knuckles went white.

"Soren Black…" He lurched up, knocking his chair over with a harsh scrape. "That's not possible."