The Alpha Who Never Marked Me Begged Me Back

Lila's POV: "It snows there for half the year. I'll die if I go!" Daphne Sinclair shoved the marriage contract away and threw herself into Ian Rhodes's arms. Ian steadied her and turned to my father, Cedric Sinclair. "Please, think of another way. She's only 18. She's never even left Silverpine." I was Lila Sinclair, Daphne's older sister, and I stared at Ian's hand as it rested protectively at her waist. Only a moment ago, that hand had been drenched in blood. Ian had collapsed in my arms, clutching Daphne's necklace and begging me to let him go in another life. In my previous life, he had accepted that fated mates were meant to marry, and he agreed to wed me. Then Daphne died on her way to the alliance marriage. He regretted it ever afterward, saying that if he had chosen her sooner, she wouldn't have died. So I waited eight years. I never received his mark. In the end, all I received was, "The debt is repaid." When I opened my eyes again, the contract was unsigned, and Father was still alive. "Blackthorn guards the mountain pass. Our grain wagons need to cross it, and they need our trade route for their furs." Father pressed his fingers to his brow. "The marriage was agreed upon two months ago." "But Malcolm Fenwick hung his own uncle's head above the gate!" "The man was stealing military rations and letting bandits into the villages." Daphne wouldn't listen. Ian wiped her tears away. "I'll find a way." He was Father's chosen successor, and the mate the Moon Goddess had chosen for me a month earlier. I had believed he would love me eventually. "Father, I'd like to speak with you alone." Ian frowned. "We need to settle the alliance marriage first. We can talk about us later." Father sent them out. The second the door closed, I picked up the contract. "I don't want to marry Ian anymore. Let me go north in Daphne's place." Father gripped my shoulders. "Did he upset you again?" I touched the gray at his temples. In my last life, after he died in battle, all anyone sent back was a bloodstained cloak. "I've thought it through." "Malcolm is only a year older than you, but the Northlands are poor. He took over his pack at 17 and has been fighting ever since. He may not know how to look after someone." "The Northlands asked for your daughter. They didn't say it had to be Daphne. Please, Father. Let me go." He was silent for a long time before he finally picked up his pen to write a letter. "You leave in five days. Sign the final page after their reply arrives. You can change your mind anytime before then." I nodded, then covered his pen with my hand. "Miranda Sinclair has refused to return the wooden sword and boxes left by my mother, Judith Sinclair. Can you help me get them back?" Father's expression darkened. "She said she'd give them to you when you married. I thought you knew." "I've asked for them. She wouldn't even let me in." He called for the steward at once, ordered an inventory, and had the keys given directly to me. Ian was still waiting in the hall when I came out. The moment he saw me, he hurried over. "Well? Did Alpha agree to let Daphne stay?" "Father already agreed—" "Go talk to him again," he cut in. "Lila, she's afraid of the cold. How is she supposed to survive in the Northlands? Don't refuse to help just because she's close to me." The words I hadn't finished died on my lips. So, in his eyes, Daphne hadn't been allowed to stay because I was standing in the way. I glanced at Father's closed study door. If he hated the thought of losing her that much, he could worry beside her for a few more days. "You're so concerned about her. Go ask him yourself." I walked past him and returned to my room to pack.