The Lycan King's Discarded Bride

#2

Selena.

I ran.

The moment my legs remembered how to move, I turned and fled down the hallway, white dress billowing behind me like a surrender flag.

I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. If I saw them still joined together, still staring at me with that cruel satisfaction, I would shatter completely.

I feared what I would do out if anger.

Pull out her hair from her scalp?

Kick him where the sun does not shine?

I had to leave before I end up killing them both. I raised the heavy wedding dress and took to my heels.

My heels caught on the carpet. I kicked them off without slowing down. One shoe flew into the wall; the other tumbled down the steps as I burst through the side door and into the chilly night air.

Bare feet slapped against the stone pathway, then the rough gravel of the driveway. Sharp edges bit into my skin.

I felt the scratches open, warm blood mixing with dirt, but the pain was distant. Everything was distant except the roaring in my ears.

Memories slammed into me with every step.

Faelen kissing my forehead after pack meetings and telling me I was the only one he would ever want.

Faelen holding my hand under the table during dinner while Jesse sat across from us smiling like a saint.

Faelen refusing to go further than kissing because he “respected me too much” and wanted our wedding night to be perfect.

Faelen standing in front of the entire pack three months ago and declaring that I would be his Luna.

All of it had been a performance and I had been the fool who believed every word.

Tears streamed down my face, hot and endless. I could feel my makeup running.

Black streaks of mascara, ruined foundation, the careful contour Jesse had helped me apply that morning while laughing and calling me sister.

I definitely look hideous.

A broken bride with smeared lipstick and bloodied feet, running barefoot down the long private road that led away from the pack hall like some tragic ghost.

I didn’t care where I was going. I only knew I couldn’t stay there.

I couldn’t face the whispers, the pity, the laughter that would come the second someone opened that storage room door and found them.

My lungs burned. My feet hurts but still, I kept running.

I didn’t notice the black car until it was almost on top of me.

It stopped so abruptly that gravel sprayed across the road. The engine purred, low and expensive.

I stumbled to a halt, chest heaving, staring at the sleek vehicle like it had appeared out of thin air. The back door opened.

A man stepped out.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit that looked like it had been stitched directly onto a body made for sin.

Every line of him was sharp, controlled, lethal.

Dark hair fell slightly over his forehead. His face could have been carved from marble—beautiful in a way that felt dangerous rather than kind. And his eyes… ice and something mysterious....Hypnotising.

He walked toward me without hurry, as if he had all the time in the world and I had already been claimed by it.

I should have stepped back. I should have run again. Instead I stood frozen as he stopped in front of me, close enough that I caught the faint scent of cold air and cedar.

One gloved hand rose. Long fingers caught my chin and tilted my face up with firm, unyielding pressure, forcing me to meet those hypnotizing eyes.

His expression was pure ice. No softness. No pity. Dangerous and so certain.

He looked like the devil parents tell their children about during bedtime stories.

“You’re mine,” he said in his low, husky voice.

Something inside my chest—something I had never felt before—surged awake with a violence that stole my breath.

A low, possessive growl echoed through my mind, my wolf jumping in excitement, chills running down my spine.

At the same moment I felt his presence slam into me. Powerful. Dominant. Undeniable. Two wolves that had never met recognized each other in a single heartbeat.

Mate.

My wolf screamed, making all the hairs on my body stand in high alert.

His gaze dropped to my neck, to the unmarked skin that should have carried Faelen’s bite by now.

He stared at it for a long second, jaw tightening almost imperceptibly. Then those cold eyes lifted back to mine.

He took a single step back, letting go of my chin in his hand. The loss of his touch felt like falling.

I didn’t think. I couldn’t afford to think. If I let this moment pass, I would be left with nothing except the image of Faelen buried inside Jesse and the sound of her laughter.

I would go back to being the discarded, the pathetic who had believed in forever.

I stepped forward before he could retreat further.

My bloodied, dirty hand reached for his. I caught his wrist, guided his palm to my cheek, and pressed it there, holding him against my ruined makeup and tear-streaked skin.

His fingers were cool...Like he was an alien to the feeling of warmth.

Fuck them all, Faelen, Jesse and My parents who never seemed to care about me at all.

I looked into those winter eyes with every broken piece of determination I had left and spoke the only words that made sense.

“Do it.”