He Shamed Me Publicly, I Married Rival Alpha

Chapter 4

He paused. Then a short, scornful laugh broke from his throat.

"Not me? Then who? Be reasonable. I don't have time for tantrums. I told you,I'll hold the joining ceremony with you. I just need time."

"Everyone's having a good night. Don't ruin it. We can talk about the ceremony when we're back."

"It really isn't going to be you."

I unlocked my phone and pulled up the digital contract. I held it out to him.

"It's the Alpha of the Shadowfang Pack. Kane."

Alpha Ethan glanced at the screen.

The black document with its gold lettering. The fierce wolf-head seal of a hostile pack.

He looked at me, then back at the screen.

A laugh of pure disbelief escaped him.

"Iris. You actually went and forged something like this?"

I leaned in. There was nothing wrong with the document at all.

Alpha Ethan jabbed a finger at Kane's name and sneered.

"To force my hand, you forged a contract with an enemy pack? Have you ever heard of a wolf storing a real, official document on a public app like this? It's an image file. You made it. You're trying to threaten me,pretending you're going to bind yourself to a rival Alpha,to scare me into giving in."

"Alpha Ethan."

"Enough!"

He ripped the phone from my hand and slammed it down onto the cardboard box beside us.

A dull, ugly sound.

The screen splintered. A few flickers of light. Then darkness.

He stared at me, his eyes blazing with fury and something I had never seen in him before,disappointment.

"You know how I feel about being cornered. I told you,I'm not refusing to bind with you. Why are you doing this?"

"If you're so desperate for a mate, fine,go pick out anyone you fancy and drag them home, mate them, do whatever you want. But I am not binding myself to you tomorrow."

"Alpha Ethan!"

He didn't listen. He turned and ripped the door open. It crashed against the wall,bang,the sound echoing through the empty corridor.

I clamped my teeth down hard. My eyes burned.

He'd rather believe I had forged a contract than believe I was actually leaving.

I sank down and gathered the broken phone from the floor. It didn't matter.

The contract existed in the elders' system. The phone had only ever been a backup.

The party was winding down. Wolves were drifting out in twos and threes.

He was gone. So was I.

When I returned to the firelight, the crowd had moved on to a game of truth or dare.

Cora and Alpha Ethan had been jostled together, side by side, with a glass of wine in front of each of them.

"Linked-arms toast! You have to drink linked-arms,it's the Moon Goddess's command!"

"You two are going to do the binding ceremony tonight, right here, for everyone!"

Cora was bright pink, protesting weakly, her body angled deeper into Alpha Ethan even as her lips formed the word no.

Alpha Ethan laughed and raised a hand to wave them off.

"All right, all right, you've pushed it too far. We'll just drink. That's plenty."

He lifted his glass to drain it.

"I'll take Cora's portion as well,she..."

He stopped mid-motion.

Some flicker of awareness made him glance toward the corner,and find me standing there.

The hand he'd raised in refusal slowly lowered.

He picked up Cora's glass instead. Looked me dead in the eye, in challenge.

"Then we drink the oath cup together."

"Yes! The oath cup! Bond eternal! Drink!"

"Oh stop it, you're awful."

Cora was nudged sideways into him. Her smile was radiant. She tilted her body, fitting herself into the curve of his shoulder.

Phones flew up around the circle, snapping the moment.

"Yes!"

A confetti cannon cracked open. Streamers rained down on their heads.

From somewhere, the women had produced two leather collars stitched with strands of gold thread,the keepsakes our pack used as bonding tokens between mates, etched with the old wolf-glyphs. Heirlooms passed down from couples long since bonded.

One was thrust into Cora's hand. The other into Alpha Ethan's.

"You drank the oath,now exchange the collars! Bonded for life!"

"Mate-collars exchanged, lifetimes shared!"

Alpha Ethan shook his head, laughing. "You've all gone too far."