Betrothed To The Alpha, Fated To The Beta

Chapter 6

“So, how did the meeting go?” Ria asks, helping me slip out of my dress. My wry gaze sets on her and I sigh before I shake my head. I don’t even remember half of what was discussed at the council meeting.

The only thing I could focus on was Alec’s cold gaze during the whole meeting and how silent he was. Even when it was imperative for him to contribute, he merely did with single words or gestures.

I know he’s still mad Andre forced him to be his beta but I can’t shake the eerie feeling budding in my heart whenever I remember what he had said earlier when it was just the two of us in the great hall.

“Jas, wanna talk about it?” Ria asks, holding my arms and making me look at her, her face flushed with concern. Ria might be my handmaiden but she’s also my best friend, the only friend I’ve ever really had and she knows almost everything about me.

We were both five when she became my handmaiden. Even if I wasn’t born royalty, being born as a betrothed to the Alpha’s son meant I was raised like one. My father was a rogue wolf and before I was born, he had saved the late Alpha and both his newly born sons from an ambush, risking his life in the process.

As a way of showing gratitude, the Alpha betrothed his first son to my father’s unborn daughter, if he eventually had any. It was a few years after bringing my father to his pack and making him a member of this pack that father met mother and I was produced.

My mother was a witch but she was mated to a werewolf. Something as rare as the moon shining during the day. Father said it made me special. I never met mom. Unfortunately, she died giving birth to me and my father never liked to talk about it before he met his own cruel end but after father died, I moved into the Alpha mansion and was raised as an Alpha’s daughter would have been.

“I’m fine Ria, I just need to rest. Can you run me a bath, cold please,” I reply in a sullen tone, not wanting to burden her with the details of everything just yet. It’s not even clear to me.

“Whenever you’re ready to–”

A sharp knock on the door of my room makes her halt her words and she opens it, bowing instantly.

“Alpha,” she bows to Andre, before curtseying to his companion, Lexi.

I squint at the couple standing by the door, feeling a tinge in my slowly racing heart. Did he not say Lexi left, so what’s she doing here and why are they in my room?

“Leave us,” Andre orders Lexi who bows again and hurriedly leaves, shutting the door behind her but I do not miss the look of disgust in her eyes as they flash past Lexi and I’m not surprised, I told her everything that transpired the previous night.

“Jasmine,” Lexi steps forward, her eyes sullen, her hands clasped together in front of her thighs as she approaches me, “I’m sorry for the way I acted yesterday, especially when I called you a w***e. I’m terribly sorry…You’re right that none of us had a choice in this but you don’t know how it feels like to have imagined life with your mate only to wake up one day and have it torn from you, to witness him being joined to another woman before your very own eyes,” she sobs, a stray tear running down her cheek and Andre gently puts his arms around her shoulder, pulling her into his embrace.

“We’re going to have to find a way around this Jasmine,” Andre continues from where she stopped, “I know as Alpha, I have a duty to my people and to you, my Luna but I also have a sacred duty to my mate. She’s the goddess’ choice for me. She was created with my essence and that means everything.”

“You can go ahead and mark her. You have my blessings,” I reply in a nonchalant tone, keeping my expression blank despite the slow undercurrent of pain flowing through my heart.

I know that’s why they are here, to get a faux permission from me to go ahead with this anathema. I know I’ll be a laughingstock after this, not just within the pack but in the realm as a whole.

A Luna whose Alpha does not deem worthy to bear his mark.

“I’m not going to mark her,” he replies sharply and my heart races. I try my best to keep my face stoic, “I’m not going to mark you either,” my heart sinks and my face twists in confusion unable to hold up its stoicity.

Andre looks at the woman clutched in his arms with so much tenderness than I ever thought could exist before he looks back at me, the tenderness evaporating from his gaze as quickly as it came.

“Marking you would hurt her and marking her would dishonor you. Lexi understands this and agrees, I hope you can do the s—”

“Just get straight to the point Andre,” I cut him off, grinding my teeth, holding down the bitterness simmering inside me. He has already dishonored me by bringing her here and making it look like he is married to the both of us.

I understand that she is his mate but being his wife means something, being Luna means something. If not to him, definitely to me.

“I want an open marriage,” he blurts out promptly and I scoff in disbelief.

There’s no way he’s being serious right now.

“I’m going to keep Lexi as my mistress and if you also find—” he hesitates, the reluctance in his speech matching the one in his gaze as he averts it from my eyes.

“If I what?” I demand curtly, feeling my heart pound. I hope he’s not about to say what I think he is because if so, then he truly has no regard for me.

Lexi digs her elbow into his ribs and when he looks at her, she widens her eyes at him with a frown, gesturing towards me with her head.

Andre sighs, a deep one. “I don’t think I have to spell it out. You can keep a man too if you want.”