Our love was meant to save me
1232 Words
"What do you mean you are being sold to Alpha Caspian?" He stared wide-eyed at her.
"Carter, I am just at a loss as to what to do." Micah heaved in exasperation. "I was informed out of the blue yesterday, and the Rite of the New Moon is in two days! Two days!"
Micah could feel the raw pain swirling in his silver eyes.
“I had always loved you since I was a little wolf. You seemed unattainable with the bevy of women vying for your attention. But yet you protected me from the bullying of my peers.”
Unlike them, she had not found her wolf at sixteen when they were already summoning theirs and running berserk through the Ember forests. For that, she had been deemed an outcast in her pack.
She had planned to surprise them at the Rite of the New Moon when she would officially be mated to Carter. When her wolf first met Carter and she purred, "Mine," it was the most heavenly feeling that settled in her belly.
But instead of being mated to him, she was now to be wedded to the Alpha King—the biggest surprise of all.
He gently took her hand and affectionately rubbed her pale knuckles, bleached from all the scrubbing she did around the house.
"I’ll find a way out of this, I promise."
"Micah!" A voice resounded. It was Carter's mother. She was the pack’s mistress, hired by Alpha Caspian to tailor her wedding dress. "It’s time for your measurements."
Micah stood in the middle of the room as Carter's mother measured her, Carter watching quietly.
"He wants you in a corset," she told her. "A flowing gown with plenty of frills, studded jewels—coated in extravagance. The wife of the feared Alpha King."
Micah scoffed. "The one hundred and thirty-sixth wife of the feared Alpha King, you mean."
She laughed heartily. "It cannot be that many. Disregard the rumors." Her voice took on a tinge of sadness. "He’s looking for his reincarnated mate, Micah. That’s why he takes and discards women."
Micah frowned in disbelief.
"I work for his court, so I know what I'm saying. Funnily enough, she died the day you were born, so I think you should cheer up. You could be his reincarnated mate."
"The Moon Goddess should be the one to find a new mate for him, and he should stop trying to do it by his own means," Micah grunted.
"He’s a desperate wolf, Micah. No woman can bear a child for him except his True Mate. And without an heir, the monarchy will pass to another bloodline." She beckoned for Micah to stretch out her hands so she could measure her wrists.
"Is he as dastardly as the rumors say?"
"That, I cannot tell." She chuckled. "I have never seen him before, but his court carries an aura. You step into his mansion, and you'd tremble at the sheer magnificence of it."
Five minutes later, the measurements were done.
---
"Carter, I can't do this," Micah said, deflated.
Her house was at the other end of town, and he was escorting her back.
"You don't have to. We can run away," he suggested. "In the night, when everyone is sleeping and unaware, we pack our bags. Or we don’t. We run across the forests like free wolves."
"I don't know. My stepmother has been watching me closely," Micah’s voice trembled. "She has promised to ruin me if I try to run away. She’s not going to let me leave just like that."
"We have to try, Micah. Look at the crazy things our Alpha has done because his wolf is bereaved of his mate! I can't stand and watch you be wedded to another man!"
"It’s not that I don't want to run away and leave everything behind." She stopped walking and stared into his troubled eyes.
"But I don't want to desert my younger brother—to leave him in the hands of a father who no longer cares for him, a stepmother who hates his existence, and a stepsister who would walk over him every time and anytime."
Carter took her hands into his. "Micah, we have to try. We have no other option. When the scandal dies down, we'll come back and get your brother. But it's better to try than to resign ourselves to whatever happens."
Micah gulped and nodded. "I agree. When do we do it?"
"Tomorrow evening. Inform your brother, calm his fears, pack what's essential, and act normal."
They reached her front door. Micah could feel her heart pounding excitedly.
"I just hope this works out."
"It will." He kissed her gently on the forehead.
---
Her ‘lucky’ quartz stone, a locket with a picture of her dead mother, a lock of her brother’s hair, cash she had pickpocketed here and there from the house. She bundled it all in her favorite scarf.
Her brother was in tears.
"I have to do this, Gary. Now, while no one is around. I'll come back and get you, I promise."
He nodded, his little face red with emotion as she slipped out of the house into the dusk breeze.
She met Carter's mother bustling out of the door. "I have to take these gown measurements to the Alpha for approval," she was saying.
‘A gown for a wedding that won’t happen.’ She scoffed inwardly. ‘Because Carter and I are leaving now.’
"Take the food in the kitchen to Carter. He hasn't left his room all day," were her last words as she left.
Micah took the tray of food to his bedroom. She was in the middle of the hallway when Crispy began to lull.
"My mate. My mate. My mate."
"Calm down, Crispy," Micah chuckled. "I can feel him too."
Her heart skipped a beat in anticipation. She approached his door, and Crispy began to sing even louder.
She knocked twice, but there was no response. Concerned, she pushed open the door.
The scene before her made her eyes spin, and the tray in her hands crashed to the floor.
Four empty bottles of wine sprawled across the floor. Pieces of male and female clothing were scattered all around the room. And in the middle of it all—Carter, lying nude in bed with another woman.
Not just any woman.
Her stepsister. Lena.
Her heart shattered into a million shards of hurt and grief. Crispy howled in pain. Micah felt a wave of dizziness wash over her.
Triumph danced in Lena’s eyes, and a victorious smile swept across her face.
"Carter," Micah heard herself whisper. Her hands would not stay still. They were shaking in shock.
His eyes met hers, and his expression darkened.
"Micah," he said, his voice lifeless. "You cannot be here."
"What’s going on?" she whispered. "This was not the plan." She stood frozen, her body trembling.
"Oh, and about that..." Lena tutted. "He told me all about your pathetic schemes to escape."
Her voice hardened.
"No, Micah. You will not be selfish. You will not run and leave me in the hands of that wicked king. I will not allow it."
Micah shook her head repeatedly, tears spilling down her cheeks, unable to believe what was unfolding before her.
Carter sighed irritably.
"I, Carter Magnus, reject you, Micah Ash, as my destined mate."
- Writer
