I threw the tablet at him. Hard. Aiming for his smug face.
He didn’t even try to catch it. Just watched it sail past his shoulder and hit the floor of the limo with a dull thud. The screen went dark.
We stared at each other. The silence in the car felt thick enough to choke on.
“Pick it up,” he said. His voice was calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that came before violence.
“No.”
“Pick it up, read it, and agree to the terms before we get to my territory.” He leaned forward slightly, and those silver eyes pinned me in place. “Because I won’t be as civil once we’re there.”
“Civil?” The word came out as a laugh. A harsh, broken sound that didn’t sound like me at all. “You call this civil?”
“Compared to what I want to do to you right now?” His smile was sharp. Cruel. “Yes.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. The mate bond pulsed between us, and through it I could feel his anger. His disgust. His complete and utter contempt for my existence.
“You want to treat me like a breeding mare,” I said. The words tasted like ash. “You want to humiliate me. Break me. Make me regret ever existing.”
“Now you’re catching on.”
“For something I didn’t do.”
“So you say.” He tilted his head. “But the evidence suggests otherwise.”
“The evidence is a lie.”
“And yet here we are.” He gestured around the limo. At the space between us. At the bond tying us together. “Married. Mated. Bound by the goddess herself whether either of us likes it or not.”
I wanted to scream. To cry. To throw myself at him and make him understand that I was innocent. That I’d been set up. That the real enemy was sitting back in Silver Creek right now, probably celebrating with Milo while I was dragged away to my own personal hell.
But I looked at his face and knew it wouldn’t matter. He’d already decided who I was. What I’d done. No amount of truth would change his mind.
“Pick up the tablet,” he said again. “Read the contract. Sign it. Or I’ll make your life at Skollrend so miserable you’ll beg me to reject you within a week.”
My hands curled into fists. “I already am begging you to reject me.”
“Not yet you’re not.” His smile widened. “But you will be.”
The limo turned. I felt the shift in direction, felt us heading somewhere new. Somewhere I didn’t want to go. Toward a life I never asked for with a man who hated me for crimes I didn’t commit.
I looked at the tablet on the floor. At the contract that would seal my fate even further than the wedding already had.
Then I looked at Cian. At the cold satisfaction in his eyes.
And I realized that no matter what I did, no matter what I said, I’d already lost.
The only question was how much more I’d lose before this was over.
But I was no man’s bitch.
“No.”
CIAN
I heard the word “no” and something in my chest went cold.
The driver’s hands jerked on the wheel. Just a twitch, but I noticed. The whole car noticed. You didn’t say no to me. Not in Skollrend. Not in Silver Creek where I’d just collected my unwanted bride. Not anywhere that mattered.
The air in the limo changed. Got heavier. Thicker. Like the oxygen had been sucked out and replaced with something that made it hard to breathe.
Fia’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. The driver stared back at her for half a second before remembering himself and dropping his gaze. Smart man. He knew what happened when I got angry. He’d seen it before. One too many times.
I picked up the tablet from where it had landed on the floor. The screen had a crack running through it now, splitting the contract in half. Fitting. This whole situation was broken anyway.
I set it on the seat beside me. Right in the space between us. Close enough that she could reach it if she wanted to. Far enough that she’d have to make the choice to take it.
“If you want to enter my pack territory,” I said, “you will sign this.”
My voice came out flat. Matter of fact. Like I was discussing the weather instead of her entire future.
She stared at the tablet. At the cracked screen. At the words that would bind her to me in ways that went beyond whatever the goddess had decided to do with that bond.
“You will not strip me of my dignity.”
Her voice shook when she said it. Not from fear though. From rage. This girl was furious, and part of me almost respected that. Almost.
“You had no dignity when you did what you did.”
I let the words hang there. Watched her face twist with something that looked like pain. It felt good to see in real time. She should hurt. She’d hurt her sister. Attacked her own blood. Schemed and manipulated her way into my life, and now she wanted to act like the victim.
“I did have bad ideas,” I continued. “About what I wanted to do to you.”
That got her attention. Her eyes snapped to mine, and I saw the fear there underneath all that anger. She was scared. She should be.
“But then there’s that bond.” I gestured vaguely at the space between us. At the invisible thread the goddess had decided to tie us together with. “And of course, the rumors about the kind of man I am.”
I’d heard them all. The brutal Alpha. The one who ruled with an iron fist. Who showed no mercy to those who crossed him. Most of the rumors were true. Some were exaggerated. All of them served their purpose.
“I do not want to go overboard.”
Fia’s hands curled into fists in her lap. Her whole body was rigid with tension. Like a bowstring pulled too tight.
“There is nothing you can do to me if I do not allow it.”
The words came out defiant. Challenging. Like she actually believed them.
My knuckles cracked when I clenched my fists. The sound was loud in the quiet of the limo. I looked at her sitting there with her chin raised and her eyes blazing and I wondered how the hell I was supposed to present this woman to my mother. To my pack. To anyone who mattered.
She was supposed to be a Luna. A leader. Someone worthy of standing beside me. Instead I got this stubborn Omega who couldn’t even follow simple instructions.
“Stop the car.”
The driver hit the brakes immediately. We slowed to a stop on the side of the road. Trees lined both sides of the path, their branches creating shadows that fell across the windshield.
I turned to the sentinel sitting in the front passenger seat. Garrett. Good man. Loyal. Did what he was told without asking questions most of the time.
“Get this woman out of my car.”
Garrett turned around in his seat. His eyes went wide. “Alpha Cian – “
“Perhaps a little sun on her head and some time alone would do her good,” I said. My voice stayed calm. Reasonable even. “While she reconciles her situation and comes to her senses.”
Garrett looked out the window. Then back at me. I could see the conflict on his face. The war between following orders and whatever misguided sense of honor he had about how to treat women.
“This is private territory, Alpha Cian.” His voice was careful. “And there is still plenty of ground to cover. Is it not unsafe – “
“I do not remember asking for your opinion.”
The temperature in the car dropped another ten degrees. Garrett’s face went pale. He knew he’d overstepped.
“My apologies, Alpha.”
He turned to Fia. Reached for her arm.
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