Left at the Altar, Alpha King Backs Me Up

Chapter 4 Wedding Customs

“Finally, you’re making some sense. What’s yours is hers - that’s what sisters do. Just consider it her wedding gift.”Rebecca broke that silence with her usual nonsense and drama filled words.

My mouth pulled up into a sweet smile. “If that’s the case, then I should give her one more gift.”

“What?” Rebecca asked, her expression changed to one of confusion.

“A coffin,” I said. “It should be at the end of the aisle near where they’ll speak their binding vows during the ceremony. It’s only fitting.”

“Aurelia!” Rebecca shouted, her face turning a deep crimson.

Though it pained me, I kept my tone polite and sincere. “I heard my grandmother mention it once. Some brides get coffins on the day they mate. Well, technically, Trystan should have one too, so that way they are truly bound for life under the Moon Goddess. She will bless their union once she sees how committed they are to the eternal part.”

My logic was flawless. For years, they had taken advantage of me and when I was younger, I couldn’t fight back. Now the tables were turned.

Rebecca was shaking with anger, “Get out!” She screamed, pointing at me with one long finger. When I didn’t move, she turned to my dad. “Are you just going to stand there and let her speak to Laura that way? ”

“Apologize to your sister!” My father roared, his teeth changing into fangs. His hand went over Trystan’s shoulder as he pointed to me. “Make her Alpha. She should be punished.”

I didn’t even blink. “For what? You are being ignorant about how to properly bind yourself at a mating ceremony, but I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less. Look at what you did.”

He lunged over Trystan, swinging at me. The alpha held him back, but on the next swing, it hit Trystan and was so forceful that it knocked him aside, his hair falling to the side.

Laura shrieked from her chair. “Dad! What are you doing? Stop this!”

Trystan looked dazed, blinking hard as he kept himself between me and my father. “Mr. Barker, violence doesn't solve anything. This is my fault and I should have handled things better. Just give me time to fix it.”

My father, red-faced and wheezing as he glared at me. “You can deal with that insolent woman,” he spat at Trystan, but missed. “If this happens again, then I will have to question if you really are our alpha. I’ll break her legs until she learns to be obedient.”

Trystan nodded, then turned to face me, his voice low. “Aurelia, let’s go outside to talk.”

"I have nothing to say to you."

I turned to leave, but he grabbed my wrist, holding me back. "This attitude won't help. We're family now. Can't we just talk this through?"

Family? The word made my skin crawl. "You don't deserve to call yourselves my family." I yanked my hand away from his grip. "Let go."

"Just hear me out—"

"I said let go!" I twisted free and before I could stop myself, slapped him across the face. My claws dug through flesh, leaving streaks of blood dripping down his cheek.

Laura burst into tears, her hands coming up to her face to hide her shock. "How dare you hit him? He is our Alpha and what you did can’t go unpunished. If you’re angry, then take it out on me. I’m the one who asked him to mate with me.”

I glanced at her, smiling coldly. "Since when do I need a reason to slap a cheating bastard wolf? As for you..." I shrugged. "The underworld's already handling that for me."

Before they could react, I turned and slammed the door behind me. Outside, I stood frozen for a moment, waiting for my thoughts to settle. They were my family by blood, and that thought hollowed me out.

I had believed that Trystan was my escape and that loving him would heal the wounds they had given me. But I was wrong. He became the one who hurt me the most. Every sacrifice I had made for him, every drop of blood I had given him to keep him alive, made me feel hollow.

And then my phone buzzed in my pocket. I had forgotten I shoved it in there when I left my room at the packhouse.

It was my friend Sarah.

“Hello? Did you forget our lunch date or has Trystan locked you up somewhere?” She asked, jokingly, completely unaware of what had just transpired.

I frowned. With all the chaos, I had completely forgotten that we were supposed to discuss the mating ceremony today.

“I’ll be there soon.”

There was no longer a need to discuss anything. Not with me, anyway. But there was still a need for explanations.

With that thought, I headed to get my keys and got the car, then headed to town to the restaurant where we planned to meet. Sarah took one look at me the moment I walked into the room and knew that something was very wrong.

"What's wrong? You look like hell. Did something happen with your family again?” She asked, knowing good and well about my home life.

Instead of answering, I said flatly, "Sarah, there's not going to be a mating ceremony.”

She paused, a coffee cup in her hand. "What? What do you mean there's not going to be a mating ceremony?”

"Oh, the mating ceremony is still on," I said, smiling faintly. "Just not for me."

Sarah slammed her coffee mug on the table and reached across the table to feel my forehead as I sat down. “You can’t be serious? Are you sick? What happened?”

I pulled her hand away and looked into her eyes, hoping that she understood what I was about to tell her. So, I laid it out. The full story of how I was dumped and how everything was stolen from me.

Her eyes widened at first. Then her mouth fell open in shock. And her face went pale.

“What the actual — Trystan has lost his mind! Laura might as well have ‘home-wrecker’ tattooed on her forehead. Does he not care that everyone is going to lose respect for him? If he wants to ruin his alpha status, there are easier ways than taking your mate to be’s sister.”

Her voice carried over to the rest of the restaurant as she picked up her phone. “I’m going to call him right now and give him a piece of my mind. This is ridiculous.”

And true to her words, she actually reached for her phone and started dialing his number.

I was too exhausted to stop her, and looked up right as the server delivered a cup of coffee for me. So I sipped it slowly, watching her face turn red.

“Trystan Hart, has Laura put some kind of spell on you? Since when is her leukemia your problem? Aurelia has spent eight years with you. Eight years of helping you through the alpha trials, giving you blood when you were gravely injured, and trained to be a Luna. Without her, you would be dead,” she said, sucking in a breath to have another go at him. “And since when did you and Laura get so close? Have you already slept together? I’ve seen trash before, but you? You’re an entire new level of disgusting–”

Sarah ranted at him nonstop for a solid five minutes, only stopping when a server nervously asked her to lower her voice so as to not disturb the other customers.

Embarrassed, I grabbed her phone and hung up before she could continue. "Let it go. We're causing a scene here."

When she finally looked around and noticed their stares, Sarah took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

"What is Trystan even thinking?" Sarah gulped down some hot coffee, then suddenly asked, “Does he even know Laura and Lyle are your half-siblings?”

"Not sure. I never told him. Maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't."

Our family situation wasn’t exactly something we talked about. Even with someone you loved, some truths were better left unsaid and that one I hadn’t said much about. Because I knew if our love ever died, then those secrets could become weapons.

"He doesn't know?" Sarah smirked, clearly not taking my answer as an absolute. "Well, I can't wait for the day Trystan finally sees Laura for what she really is. He'll be on his knees, begging for forgiveness."

I didn’t respond. Even if he were to regret mating with her one day, it was no longer my concern. She was his problem now.

After our lunch, Sarah tried to comfort me. “At least you got money out of him. He’s just a piece of trash and they come and go. Now you can focus on other things.”

Her words reminded me that there were still some things left to take care of.

After parting ways with Sarah, I texted Trystan to tell him to meet me this afternoon to handle some paperwork. He agreed without hesitating.

The hours passed after I returned home and then I went to meet with him in his office. When I saw him, the marks I had left earlier across his cheek were still healing.

“Hurry up,” I muttered as he looked through the papers on his desk. “After this, we’re getting an official divorce.”

We had technically been legally married for a month. We just hadn’t gone through binding our wolves at the mating ceremony, which makes it fully official for werewolves. If I had known how this would end, then I wouldn’t have wasted my time going through the legal process of getting married.

Trystan looked at me with sorrow in his eyes, his lips parting as if he wanted to say something, but no words ever came.

We headed straight to Werewolf City Hall. That was when we learned the unpleasant truth about our divorce. It required an appointment first with one of our lawyers. Then, after submitting any documentation needed, they required a cooling off period of thirty days. If we still wanted out of the legal part by then, we could escape being together and finalize parting ways.

I looked through the appointments, trying to find the earliest slot available, only to realize the next available date was two weeks away. Which meant that when Trystan went through with the mating ceremony with Laura, I would still legally, in our society, be his wife.

What kind of sick joke is this?

Noticing my fury, Trystan lowered his voice. “There’s no rush. Laura isn’t pushing me about this part of it.”

My head snapped up so fast he flinched. "She's not pushing you? Is she that confident she'll live long enough for that? I thought the pack doctor said she had three months?”

His face went rigid. Though our divorce process was simpler than most, it was still tedious. If I dragged my feet, I could make it last for months. Laura might take the mating ceremony this month, but legally, she could never be his wife as long as I was.

Trystan didn’t answer. Instead, he took a step closer and spoke with a soft voice. “Then let’s not get divorced. It will save us the trouble of going through this later and we can have our mating ceremony. It will be easier that way.”

I gaped at him, completely stunned. Even now, he genuinely believed that I’d take him back after Laura’s death.