Bride For The Feral Alpha

#10: Duty and Desire

Inside the red curtains, it was easy to forget that there were dozens of men beneath us ready to watch their Alpha Prince bed me.

Lord Aubrey lay idly on the bed, his eyes trained on a far distance once again, as though he had utterly forgotten the reason we were here.

My feet would not lead me back outside in front of all those people who expected so much from me, and my feet would not take me to the bed to join Lord Aubrey, so they remained in one place—allowing the harsh stones on the ground to create new homes in their skin.

“Come here.” The order was direct and immediately shifted my concern from the stones on the ground.

“Do we really have to do this? I… I… never wanted any of this…” I whispered, my eyes burning with unshed tears with every second that went by.

The expression on Lord Aubrey’s face remained bland. Unreadable. Bored if anything.

He sat up and ran a hand through his hair before he released a deep breath. “Look…Feywin, lady, human… wife.”

I could have sworn my heart dropped when he called me 'wife’ so much so that it was even enough to distract me from everything.

“The faster and sooner we get this over with. It would be better for all. You might not know your family history, but I have spent my entire life studying it and the Aubreys and Feywins that came before us. It’s either you get into bed now, or you allow my father to parade you around the pack like he initially planned before he decides to bed you himself. Now, tell me, Feywin, which do you prefer?” Each word he uttered was the equivalent of a knife driving itself into my chest. It was nothing short of a wonder how he managed to keep a calm face through it all.

My feet worked faster than my mind, and in less than a moment, I found myself in his bed.

He released a breath. “Good. Now, lie down.”

My mouth fell open, and when I saw how rigid his jaw was set, I complied.

There was really no getting out of it, was there?

A day ago, all I wanted was to perform the marital act, and now, lying beside who I once believed to be a handsome stranger that escaped my journal, I was mortified. The marital act was the one thing I suddenly never wanted to take a part of again.

Lord Aubrey settled over me, and my eyelids shut in an instant. While his musky leather scent was nearly enough to take me back to the tavern where things were simpler, I could not shake the fact that he was the monster I had just married, and now there were about a dozen men not so far from us waiting to watch everything this man was going to do to me.

I was ready to keep my eyes shut during the entire ordeal until I began to hear noise and… music?

The sounds filled the air, and my eyes flew open in an instant.

Much to my misfortune, I was still in the monster world, and Lord Aubrey was still shirtless and on top of me. Nothing had changed.

I swallowed.

“Is this a part of your ritual?” I murmured, my heart still banging in my chest.

“Now, listen to me very closely, because I cannot repeat myself under any circumstance.”

I nodded, fear still coursing in my veins.

“They can hear us. They can smell us. They will know if I bed you or not, and the last thing I will do is forcefully take a woman. So I need you to work with me, please,” he whispered, his voice more pleading than instructing, and for the first time this night, his mask fell.

Gone was the statuesque man I was forced to navigate this monster world with. On top of me, a gentle man with eyes that said too little and too much all at the same time had taken his place.

I released a heavy breath and nodded.

“But can’t they still hear us now?” I asked in the same quiet tone he used earlier.

He shook his head.

“That’s why we are going to be as quiet as we possibly can and why I arranged for music. We’re up here, and with the music, they can’t hear whispers. But they’ll smell… after. They’ll know if we—” He stopped. “We have to make it convincing. There is still so much about werewolves you have yet to learn, Feywin.”

I nodded once again, afraid to use too many words and get us caught.

“What do I need to do?”

He got off of me and stood. Lord Aubrey placed his hand on his belt, and for one small moment, I was taken back to the tavern. I had forgotten that there was a monster underneath all of this.

With one click, he unbuckled his belt, and his trousers came off soon after. A gasp escaped my throat, and my eyes remained trained on that one part of masculine anatomy that landed me here in the first place.

“Your turn.”

I swallowed, and my head spun.

As though he could read my mind, he turned towards where the crowd downstairs could be watching us, and I shut my eyes once more.

If the Lord struck me down at this moment, I wouldn’t even complain.

Standing up, I began taking off my clothes, knowing these people expected a show. I was disappointed the ritual dress was so simple. There was no corset and no layers of petticoats. Just the thin red fabric. I would have liked more time. More barriers to remove. More delay before I stood naked in front of them.

Completely bare, I turned to look outside, wondering what the spectators thought, even though I could hardly even see their heads.

“Don’t look at them. Focus on me.”

I turned my face toward him. His eyes were dark, unreadable, but not cruel. Not like his father’s.

“We have to make this convincing,” he murmured. “They’ll smell… they’ll know if we don’t…”

I understood. My face burned.

He leaned down slowly, giving me time to pull away. I didn’t.

When his lips met mine, I remembered the tavern. The freedom. The escape.

This wasn’t that. But his mouth was gentle despite the performance. Despite the audience below.

His hands moved over me. They were careful. Deliberate. Creating the friction, the heat they’d expect to scent.

I told myself it was just survival. Just necessity.

But when he touched me there, my body didn’t know the difference between duty and desire.