Betrothed to the Alpha

CHAPTER 2

Oh my word Monica, you look wonderful”

Monica had lost count of the lofty remarks she had been getting all evening. She hadn’t even been to The Hall yet for the town folk to see her. It was just from her family and she was exhausted.

In fact, lately almost everything exhausted her. Even the fact that she was getting engaged tonight did not excite her even a little bit. For one thing she had been expecting the day since she could talk.

You see it was tradition; for generations, the Ryder family had always produced wives for the heirs to the Sullivan’s.

And Monica was the eldest daughter and this was all just duty. She didn’t seem to have much choice.

She was sitting in front of a mirror, in a corner room that was attached to The Hall. She stared at her face and saw her entire life and tears stung her eyes.

“That Derrick boy would be down right smitten”

Monica stared at her mother through the mirror. She was pretty in her own way even though she was close to 60. She was more beautiful in a way that was more powerful than frail. She was a pretty wise woman too and monica was more grateful to her than she’d openly admit.

At this point a tear drop burst through the barricades of Monica’s eye and uneventfully rolled down her cheeks. Monica tried to quickly brush it away before her mom would see but couldn’t do it quick enough.

“oh dear..”

Mrs Ryder turned Monica around in the chair to face her and gave her a hug that seemed to weaken the barricades in Monica’s eyes a little more.

“I know dear, I know.”

She pulled away from Monica and wiped the tears with her own white and black dress.

“I remember when I was given to my betrothed. I hated it so much. I was furious at my parents, then at the world, then at my self for going along with all of it. I was a terrible wife for the first couple months. I may not have appreciated the route life gave to me but it was from it I got you and your siblings. Life taught me to be happy. You’ll be fine my Moonstone.”

“Mom I need to tell you s….”

Just then, Grace, the Ryder family Help, burst in the doors.

“Ma’am, Mr Derrick has arrived and they’d be needing us to join the party now”

“Oh thank you Grace, we’d be out in a second”, Mrs Ryder said without regarding the intrusion.

She stood up straight and arranged her dress

“I guess, you’d have to tell me later darling. Firstly let’s go meet your husband to be.”

The crowd was silent as Mr Sullivan gave a rousing speech, highlighting and appreciating the sense of community and togetherness that had held Acorn grove for generations and how the culture was continuing with the union of his son and the Ryder’s first daughter.

As heartwarming and moving as the speech was most people kept on chattering away mostly because the soon-to-be husband and wife were taking up more attention than the speaker.

Derrick and Monica sat side by side to the left side of the mayor as everyone sat for dinner In the hall. Monica was so engulfed by the items on her plate that she might have been absolutely all alone in the hall as far as she was concerned. Derrick did not very much mind. He wouldn’t admit it but he had been scared of this day even though he had probably been waiting for it for as long as he could remember. All he did was occasionally steal glances of her.

And for the first time, he could see how beautiful she was. Her eyes, her lips, her skin were nothing short of perfect. And he was consciously restraining his hands from reaching out and feeling her long silky black hair.

Even though they had both known that they were ‘destined’ for each other from birth, they never really knew each other and never tried. For the most part their supposed relationship was ceremonial and as far as they were concerned was something that was supposed to happened at some point . There was no need to push it. Even their parents apparently thought so.

“How’s the food Monica?”

“It’s good”

There was a short stretch of silence.

Then Derrick tried again.

“Your dress is really pretty”

“Thank you”

Another stretch of silence

“if you need anything else I can make someone get it for you”

“I’m fine”

Derrick looked at her for a bit and wondered. He expected it to be a little weird. What he wasn’t expecting was for her to be cold as ice. He was used to attention from girls.

Then he tried for the last time.

“so, you ever been married before or is this your first time?”

She did not reply but he was visibly satisfied with the expression he got out of her. So he went on.

“no need to be alarmed, it’s my first time too.”, he smiled

Monica put that her cutlery and wiped her mouth and made to get up

“Excuse me, I need to meet up with my friends for a bit”

“Hold up a minute “, Derrick subconsciously reached out and grabbed her hand.

For a brief couple of seconds, the din of the crowd and the music ceased to exist and it was just the two of them.

“Honestly I detest this gatherings and I’m only here for as long as I absolutely have to be.”

Monica sat back down calmly. She seemed to find something about his voice quite soothing.

“…But since we have to do this we might as well get to know each other and get as much fun out of this as we possibly can. So how about a walk by the lake tomorrow 7pm?”

“That would be… nice… I guess.”

“I guess I’ll see u then.”