The Alpha's Cruel Contract.

Chapter 3 - You Were Going To Lie To Me?

Aria's Pov.

"Tell me you didn't sign it." Ryker's voice was low and dangerous, as he stood in the doorway of our private quarters.

His golden amber eyes, which were usually so warm when they looked at me, were hard as stone.

The contract sat on our bed between us like a coiled snake.

I hadn't heard him come in, I hadn't even sensed him through our bond because I had been blocking it, trying to figure out how to explain the unexplainable.

"How did you…" I started, but he cut me off.

"Darius intercepted the courier." He moved into the room with predatory grace, his wolf Obsidian pressing close to the surface.

"He brought it to me before it reached you. So I'll ask again, did you sign this?" He asked, his voice rising a little bit.

I could see that the contract was open to the first page, Kaden's elegant signature already scrawled across the bottom in black ink but my signature line sat empty.

"I haven't signed anything," I said carefully. "But Ryker, the pack…"

"f**k the pack." He yelled.

I flinched. In three years together, I had never heard him use that tone.

Never seen this particular brand of rage simmering beneath his carefully controlled surface.

"Everything in this contract," he continued, his voice getting quieter, which was somehow worse than shouting, "says you'll pretend to be Kaden Blackthorn's mate. Attend events with him and let people believe you reconciled.”

“Do you understand what that means, Aria? Do you understand what he's asking you to do?"

"Pretend," I said firmly, moving around the bed toward him. "It's just appearances, Ryker. Three months of public functions, and he fixes everything he destroyed. Our debts disappear, our contracts…"

"I know what the debts are!" He slammed his hand against the wall, and I heard the stone wall c***k.

"I've known for two weeks. I've been meeting with Council representatives, negotiating payment plans, calling in every favor I've earned in ten years of building this pack.”

“And yes, it's bad. Yes, we're struggling. But we would have found a way that didn't involve you selling yourself to the Alpha who broke you!" He continued.

The words hung between us like shattered glass.

"I'm not selling myself," I said quietly. "I'm making a strategic alliance to save our pack."

"By lying to me." His eyes found mine, and the hurt there cut deeper than any feral bite. "That's what this is, isn't it? You were going to take this deal and lie to me about it.”

“The contract says you'll tell me you accepted a 'temporary liaison position with Silver Hollow for inter-pack relations.' Were those going to be your exact words?" He asked.

My silence was answer enough.

Ryker laughed, but it was hollow and broken.

"Three years, Aria. Three years I've loved you, protected you, helped you find your wolf when you thought she was gone forever. And the first time things get hard, you were going to lie to my face and run back to him."

"That's not fair…"

"Isn't it?" He pulled out his phone and threw it onto the bed beside the contract. "Read the messages. Go ahead."

With shaking hands, I picked up the phone. The messages were from Darius, sent over the past week.

Screenshots of official documents, the same debts and contract cancellations I had seen on Kaden's tablet. But these had additional notes, meta data showing when they were filed.

Every single one had been submitted seven days ago. The same day Kaden's delegation had requested permission to enter our territory.

"He manufactured the crisis," Ryker said, his voice dead. "Kaden used his Council connections to create debt out of thin air, to flag our contracts as 'unstable,' to make it look like we were failing.”

“Then he swooped in with his perfect solution, knowing you would be desperate enough to accept."

The room spun before me "But the Council seals…"

"Are real. Because he has that kind of power." Ryker's hands clenched into fists. "His father was Alpha King before the heart attack. Kaden still has loyalists on the Council who'll do whatever he asks.”

“He didn't just find leverage, Aria. He created it. He systematically destroyed our pack's standing so he could force you into this contract."

I sank onto the bed, the full weight of Kaden's manipulation crushing down on me. "Why? Why would he go through all this?"

"Because his wolf is dying, and he needs his true mate to save him." Ryker's voice softened slightly, but the anger remained.

"Storm is going feral from the rejected bond. Without you, Kaden will lose his wolf and his Alpha position.” he continued.

“This isn't about love or regret, Aria. It's about survival. You're the only thing that can keep him from becoming the monster he sent to attack you." He added

My head snapped up. "What?"

"The feral rogue." Ryker pulled out another document, this one stamped with Darius's enforcement seal.

"We analyzed the collar. The blood binding wasn't meant to kill you, it was meant to scare you. To make you vulnerable right when Kaden showed up to play hero, to remind you what it felt like to need an Alpha's protection." He explained.

The pieces clicked into place with sickening clarity.

The perfectly timed attack. Kaden's immediate knowledge of feral venom protocols. His blood, his bond, his scent overwhelming my senses right when I was most vulnerable.

"He planned everything," I whispered with realisation.

"Everything," Ryker confirmed. "And it almost worked. If Darius hadn't intercepted that contract, you would have signed it.”

“You would have lied to me. You would have spent three months pretending to be his mate while I waited at home like a fool, trusting you completely."

Tears burned my eyes. "Ryker, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking clearly. The debts, the pack, I just…"

"You didn't trust me." He said it so simply, like a statement of fact rather than an accusation. "When things got hard, when you needed help, you didn't come to me. You were going to handle it alone, even if that meant lying to your mate."

"That's not…" But it was. He was right, and we both knew it.

Luna whimpered inside me, feeling Obsidian's pain through our bond. The connection between us, the bond that had saved me, that had given me back my wolf and my life, felt strained and fragile.

Ryker moved to the window, his back to me. "I need you to understand something, Aria. When I found you in that human diner three years ago, broken and wolfless, I didn't help you because I felt sorry for you.”

He paused “I helped you because I saw someone who refused to stay broken. Someone strong enough to survive what would have killed most wolves."

"I know.. "

"I'm not finished." His voice was as hard as steel. "I awakened your wolf through our bond. I made you my Luna not because you needed saving, but because you deserved to be loved by someone who saw your worth.”

“And I have loved you. Completely, without reservation. Even knowing you carried another Alpha's rejected bond, I chose you. Every day, I chose you."

The past tense he was using, made my heart c***k. I had hurt him so much and right now I feel so bad about myself.

"But love requires trust," he continued. "And the moment you considered signing that contract without telling me, you broke that trust.”

“You decided I wasn't enough. That my love, my protection, my partnership wasn't sufficient to face this challenge together."

"Ryker, please…" I stood, moving toward him, but he raised a hand.

"I'm not saying we're done. But I need time to think about what this means. About whether you will ever truly be mine, or if part of you will always belong to the Alpha who rejected you."

Before I could respond, his phone rang and Darius's name flashed across the screen.

Ryker answered, listened for exactly five seconds, then his expression went from hurt to pure rage. "When?"

He hung up and turned to me with eyes that had gone completely wolf. "Another contract just got canceled. Our medical supplier, the one that provides sixty percent of your healing clinic's resources.”

“They cited 'concerns about pack stability' and gave us forty-eight hours to clear our outstanding balance."

"But we don't have an outstanding balance…"

"We do now. As of twenty minutes ago." He showed me his phone.

A debt notice for seventy-three thousand dollars, dated today, stamped with Council approval.

My phone buzzed, it was a text from the same unknown number as before.

*Tick tock, Luna. Twenty-three hours until moonrise. Every hour you delay costs your pack more than you can afford. Sign the contract, or watch everything burn. Your choice.*