Too Late, Alpha. I Made Your Rival My Mate

Chapter 4

The emergency room lights blazed all night. When the doctor popped my dislocated shoulder back into place, I bit down on a towel, cold sweat beading across my forehead.

After treating the silver poisoning and bandaging my wounds, the doctor warned me, "Don't shift for at least a month. Your shoulder won't be able to handle it."

He studied me with a deep frown. "Why did you wait so long to come in?"

I glanced wearily at the marriage contract lying on the chair. I didn't even have the strength to explain.

At 6:00 a.m., I emerged from the examination room with my left arm in a sling, just as a black SUV pulled up outside the hospital.

Caden climbed out carrying Selena in his arms. Felix followed with her coat, while Aiden hurried ahead to open the glass doors.

"Where's the director? Get him down here immediately!" Vincent barked into his phone.

Yet all I could see on Selena's ankle was a tiny patch of gauze.

"It's just a blister from her heels," a nurse said as she approached them. "Please register at the front desk first..."

"She has a low pain tolerance," Caden interrupted, his brow furrowed with concern. "Get your best doctor down here."

I stopped in my tracks.

Selena noticed me first. The moment she spotted my sling, her eyes filled with tears.

"Kenna, you really were hurt? If I'd known the crown meant that much to you, I never would've worn it yesterday. But why did you have to hurt yourself?"

Behind her, Aiden went pale.

Caden's gaze lingered on my sling, but he didn't ask whether I was in pain.

For a moment, I'd wanted to ask if he finally understood what had happened.

Now, even an argument seemed pointless.

Selena suddenly gave a soft gasp.

"Kenna, I heard Dad's already chosen a new mate for you. Is the wedding really in three days?"

Caden's head snapped up. "Three days?"

Only a few hours had passed since Father had tried to force me to sign the contract, yet Selena already knew everything.

Caden handed her over to Felix and crossed the distance between us in a few strides.

"When did I agree to a mating ceremony?"

I met his gaze, my voice flat. "It's not with you."

Silence fell over the waiting area.

Vincent was the first to laugh. "Using another man to provoke your own Alpha? That's quite a gamble, Kenna."

Caden wasn't laughing.

His eyes flashed wolf-gold, and a low growl rumbled in his throat. Every young werewolf in the waiting area lowered their head, afraid to meet his gaze.

My knee still throbbed, but I stood my ground.

"Tell your father to withdraw the announcement," Caden ordered.

"There's no need."

He seized my chin, forcing me to face him.

"My scent is still on your neck. Every pack in the eastern territories knows you belong to me."

He released a soothing scent, his thumb brushing the side of my neck out of habit.

Selena's sweet orange perfume mingled with his familiar cedar.

My wolf growled in irritation, and I turned away from his touch.

"That's just your scent lingering from our engagement. You never marked me," I said. "I can end our engagement whenever I choose."

"An Alpha needs a way out too." That was what he'd told me when he refused to mark me, as though it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

But now that I was choosing to take that way out, his expression darkened.

"Without Blackrock's support, how do you expect to stand up to your father?" he demanded. "Kenna, don't try using the negotiation tactics I taught you against me."

I stepped back. "Then I'll manage without Blackrock."

"What?"

"Caden Yolland, our engagement is over."

My eyes still stung with tears as I slipped the ring off my finger. But I still placed it on the registration desk and pushed it toward him.

Caden stared at it in disbelief. "Take it back. Put it on!"

I'd already turned toward the exit.

"Kenna!" he shouted after me. "Once you walk through those doors, don't come crawling back and begging me to protect you!"

The automatic doors slid open, and I stepped into the cold morning wind.

Once I was in the car, a message from Father appeared on my phone.

Father: Choose your groom by tonight. Otherwise, you'll marry the man I've selected.

By the time I returned to the estate, wedding banners had already been hung.

I lowered my gaze to a number I'd saved in my contacts six months earlier.

Caden was convinced no Alpha would dare marry me.

But he'd forgotten there was one man in the North whom even he had to yield to.

In three days, they'd all see the groom I'd chosen with their own eyes.