The Dared Vow
When I saw my most vulnerable moment being displayed by the man who professed to love me and even went ahead to make me his wife a week ago, it destroyed me. I stood there, watching how his friends laughed at our intimate wedding night, and I shattered into pieces. I didn’t know he had a video in the room recording what I thought was a special moment between us. It was my first time, and I had been totally vulnerable to him, and his friends watched and laughed at me.
I had never felt my heart break the way it did—not even when my own family detested me because I was wolfless, instead of protecting me. I thought I had escaped the pain of a loveless family and the pain of never being loved.
They didn’t know I was there, watching them—my husband at the middle of it all, controlling the remote.
Why was he doing this?
I had planned to surprise him with big news, so I decided to come home early from work in the human sector. Seeing this rocked me to the core.
I could not take it anymore, so I ran upstairs with shaky legs. I could still hear the echo of their laughter taunting me in the bedroom. I was wallowing in pain when I heard a noise in the bathroom.
“Who is there?” I asked, a little bit terrified.
I couldn’t defend myself against a werewolf, so I took a thick book so I could use it to defend myself against the intruder.
I opened the bathroom door and saw my best friend, Melissa, holding my pregnancy test. I had forgotten it in the bathroom sink. I wondered if Darius saw it.
“What are you doing?”
“You are pregnant?”
“Umm, yeah… what are you doing in our bathroom?”
“Oh, I came to check on you. I didn’t know you were not around. Congratulations on the baby,” she said and hugged me tight.
“Thank you, but you do know I go to work at the human district.”
“I don’t know why you work with people lesser than us. I mean, just because you are wolfless does not mean you are one of them.”
“Well, I enjoy it, okay? And we both know nobody wants to employ a wolfless she-wolf,” I replied.
She looked around the room and saw my disheveled bag on the floor.
“Eden, are you okay?”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her what was happening downstairs. I had just dropped the bag haphazardly on the floor.
“I am fine,” I replied.
“Okay, I guess I will see you later,” she said and waved at me.
I sat down on the bed, placing my hands on my belly.
“No matter what happens, I promise to protect you,” I said.
Later that night, Darius came to the room. I couldn’t look at him. The hate in my heart for him at that moment was overwhelming.
How could he do this to me?
“Hey, when did you come in?” he asked, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Not too long ago,” I said, still avoiding his eyes. I was never going to tell him about the pregnancy. I just hoped Melissa would keep quiet about it.
He came behind me and hugged me. I stiffened, not wanting his touch at that moment. I loved him with all my heart, but after what I saw, all I felt for him was irritation.
I moved away from him, and I just couldn’t keep it in anymore.
“I saw you.”
“What?” he said.
“I saw you and your friends… watching us.”
I noticed the moment he understood what I was saying. At first, he looked remorseful, then his expression changed so drastically to a chilling look.
“We were having fun, that’s all.”
“Are you joking right now? Having fun? How could you? I gave you everything. I thought you loved me.”
“Love you? You literally threw yourself at me. You confessed to loving me, and I took pity on you. I mean, who would love a wolfless she-wolf?”
That cut so deep.
I had professed my love to him. I didn’t want to, but Melissa encouraged me, and I did. He had told me he loved me too and wanted to spend his life with me.
“Honestly,” he continued, “marrying you was a dare with my friends, and I don’t lose out on truth or dares. Just forget about it. We are having fun.”
“Fun? Having a video of us making love is so horrible, not to talk of showing it to your friends. You think it’s fun to play with my emotions and make a commitment to spend the rest of your life with me?” I burst into tears, unable to hold it in anymore. “Why, Darius? Why?”
“Don’t be such a crybaby. It doesn’t fit you,” he said.
“I want a divorce since this was a game anyway, and I don’t play such games.”
He got closer to me.
“You can’t leave me. You leave when I want you to.”
He then kissed me harshly. I tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge. When he did, I slapped him, forgetting that he was a werewolf and I didn’t have my wolf.
He held his face and turned it to me. His eyes had changed color to his wolf’s, and his canines were visible. He held me by the throat with his hands, his claws digging into my neck. He lifted me up like I was nothing but paper.
“How dare you?” he said. “Count yourself lucky I do not want to stain my hands with your filthy blood, wolfless bitch.”
He threw me across the room, and I angled my body so I could protect the life in me. Then he left the room.
I lay where I was—broken, hurt, and utterly shattered, unable to stop my tears.
***
I woke up the next day, still lying where I had cried myself to sleep. My phone had woken me up..I crawled to where it was and opened it.
It was a message from the Luna telling me my presence was needed at the Alpha house immediately.