Claimed By My Mate's Brother

Episode Two:The Wedding

Nyx’s POV:

The morning of my eighteenth birthday dawned gray and cold, as if nature itself was mourning the choices that had led me here. I stared at my reflection in the bridal suite's vanity mirror, hardly recognizing the girl who stared back. Three days had passed like a fever dream since I'd accepted Elara's devil's bargain, and now here I was, about to marry a man whose reputation made my skin crawl.

Everyone in the surrounding packs knew about Theo Sterling's... proclivities. The whispered stories of ex-girlfriends who'd mysteriously transferred to distant packs, the rumors of his violent temper, the way young she-wolves avoided his gaze at pack gatherings. But I'd made my choice. Mom's latest scan had shown improvement after just one round of the new treatment, and that made it worth it. It had to.

And it saddens me that even if this was a sham, I had always dreamed of my mother being by my side on my wedding day. But instead, she is being replaced by one that has no single care for me. When my mother later finds out about this deadly deal I made, I hope she will be able to understand why I had to go to such great lengths. I simply just can’t lose her.

"Stop fidgeting," Elara snapped, yanking a little too hard as she wove white roses into my dark hair. "And for Moon's sake, try to look happy. This is supposed to be the best day of your life."

I bit back a bitter laugh. The best day of my life was being spent deceiving an entire pack and signing away my freedom to a monster. Happy birthday to me.

The wedding dress felt like a prison uniform, despite its delicate lace and floating silk. Elara had chosen it, of course it has to be something that would make me look as much like Delilah as possible. I'd spent the last three days learning to walk like her, talk like her, even mastering her signature scent-masking perfume. The ultimate irony? Theo had only met his intended bride twice, too busy with his "entertainments" to bother with courtship.

A sharp knock at the door made me jump.

"Fifteen minutes!" called the wedding coordinator.

My stomach lurched. Fifteen minutes until I sealed my fate. Fifteen minutes until—

‘Mate.’

The voice in my head was so unexpected, so foreign yet familiar, that I nearly fell off the vanity stool. My hands gripped the edge of the marble counter as my vision swam.

‘Finally! You can hear me!’ The voice was distinctly feminine, tinged with excitement and relief.

"Nyx?" Elara's voice sounded far away. "What's wrong with you?"

‘I'm Eva,’ the voice continued. ‘Your wolf. And our mate is here.’

My heart stopped. Then started again at double speed. My wolf? But that was impossible. I'd never shown signs like other young she-wolves that I was going to have one. There were usually early symptoms that were to come around two years before one reaches eighteen so I had written it off as yet another thing my human blood had denied me. And now, on my wedding day of all days, she decides to wake up?

Or was it because today is my eighteenth birthday?

‘He's close,’ Eva urged. ‘So close. Can't you feel it?’ She said, not paying attention to stormy questions swirling in my head, but I didn’t get to wonder for long because I instantly felt what she was talking about.

‘Can you feel it?’ She asked again, her voice tinged with excitement.

And I could. A pull like a hook behind my belly button, drawing me toward... something. Someone.

"I need air," I gasped, stumbling to my feet.

"You most certainly do not," Elara hissed, grabbing my arm. "The ceremony starts in—"

But I wasn't listening anymore. Eva's presence surged through me, lending me strength I didn't know I possessed. I yanked free of Elara's grasp and threw open the suite doors, following that invisible pull down the corridor.

‘Left,’ Eva guided. ‘Now right. He's in the main hall.’

My feet moved of their own accord, my heart thundering in my chest. This couldn't be happening. Not today. Not now. I had a plan. I had a purpose. I had—

I rounded the corner and time stopped.

Everything froze. And it was just me and him.

He stood with his back to me, tall and broad-shouldered in a perfectly tailored suit, dark hair just brushing his collar. Even from behind, something about him radiated power, authority, danger. Then he turned, probably sensing my presence just as I'd sensed his, and our eyes met.

Green. His eyes were the deepest green I'd ever seen, like forest pools after a storm. And they were widening with recognition, with the same shock and awe and terror that I felt coursing through my own veins.

Because I knew who he was. Everyone knew who Xander Sterling was. The future Alpha of Stormfang Pack. The most eligible wolf in three territories.

Theo's older brother.

‘Mate,’ Eva purred, while every other part of me screamed in panic.

"You," Xander breathed, taking a step toward me. The word carried a weight of wonder and confusion and something else—something that made my knees weak.

I backed away, my wedding dress rustling traitorously against the marble floor. This couldn't be happening. The Goddess couldn't be this cruel.

"Wait," he called, his voice carrying that unmistakable Alpha command that made my wolf whine in submission. But I wasn't just my wolf. I was also human, and that part of me knew I had to run.

I spun on my heel and fled, my carefully arranged hair coming loose, rose petals scattering in my wake like drops of blood. I could hear him behind me, his footsteps quick but measured, like he was trying not to frighten me more than he already had.

"Please," he called after me. "Just wait. Let me—"

"Nyx!" Elara's shrill voice cut through the moment like a knife. "What in Moon's name are you doing? The ceremony is starting!"

I froze, caught between Elara's approaching clicks and Xander's presence behind me. Between duty and destiny. Between the deal I'd made and the mate the Goddess had chosen.

‘Don't run from him,’ Eva pleaded. ‘He's ours.’

But he wasn't. He couldn't be. In less than fifteen minutes, I was supposed to marry his brother in an elaborate deception that would now be so much worse because my mate—my true mate—would be standing right there, watching it happen.

I turned slowly, meeting those forest-green eyes one more time. The recognition in them had turned to something else now; suspicion, confusion, a dawning realization as he looked between me and the wedding dress I wore.

"You're the bride," he said slowly, his voice dropping to a dangerous octave. "You're Delilah."

Except I wasn't. And in that moment, as Xander Sterling stared at me with growing comprehension, I realized that Elara's plan had overlooked one crucial detail: what happens when you try to deceive not just any wolf, but your own fated mate?

The answer thundered in my chest like a death toll as his eyes narrowed, piercing straight through every carefully constructed lie.