The Alpha’s Unwanted Bride

I chewed my fingertips in anxiety, trying to remember if he had actually seen my back.

It was something I did when I was anxious and scared. 

The slap came unexpectedly. 

First, my hand was smacked off, and then a slap was thrown on my face. 

Because of how weak I was from my assault, I fell to the floor. 

"You idiot!" Luna Maria screamed. "My daughter does not chew her fingertips like a goat! If you want to act like her, then you better do it wisely."

I could feel the blood in between my legs begin to drip down my leg, and my face seemed dizzy. 

"Stand up!" She ordered me. 

As I struggled, I fell down on the floor again. 

Everything seemed blurry. 

"She is such a clumsy fool!" Luna Maria snapped. "Look at her! She can't even stand on her two legs. She will give the excuse that it was because she was raped! As if she is the first person to be raped!"

I looked up and saw the anger in Alpha Bale's eyes. 

No, I couldn't let him be angry with me. 

I would shame and disappoint him. I wanted to prove that I was not useless and that I was more than a slave. I was his daughter.

I wanted to make him proud of me. 

So I placed my hand on the wall, and with all my strength, even though my head was spinning and my heart was racing, I got up to my feet.

Then I looked down at my hands in shame. "No, he did not see the marks on my back."

There was silence. 

"It's good he didn't see it." My father warned. "If he had, then it would have been all your fault. It is your fault that you're a latent wolf. You can't heal! If you could heal, then none of this would happen."

I choked down on the tears gathering in my eyes.

"Make sure he does not see those marks on your back!" He warned me. "Urma said they have a week to disappear. So you better do something smart about it!"

I nodded hastily. 

Then someone came in, and my father turned to see them.

I saw Luna Maria looking out through the window. 

I knew she was grieving for the loss of her son. 

I walked up to her and touched her shoulder.

"Your majesty. I am so sorry for your loss." I said. "I can't understand the pain you're feeling. Abel didn't deserve that."

She froze, and then she turned to face me. 

Her face was written with complete shock, and then it screwed up in rage. 

She flung my hand off her shoulder. 

"Don't touch me, you prostitute!" She screamed.

I was taken aback.

I only meant to tell her how sorry I was. Why was she so angry? 

"What is it?" I heard my father ask from behind. 

"This bastard of yours just told me the reason why Xaden was furious when he left the room." She said. "She isn't a virgin."

I gasped. 

"She has been sleeping around with men in the pack. Something my own daughter, who she has been an impostor of, would never do!" She screamed. 

"That's not true." I managed to speak up.

But then the slap came against my face.

It was my father who hit me; he had never hit me once in my life. 

But Luna Maria had just lied, and he had believed her bluntly. 

She had lied because I told her that I was sorry for the loss of her son. 

Was it guilt? That she had always been so bad to me, and now I was being kind to her? 

I felt my head spin. "You can't even close your legs! And you're here crying that he raped you!"

This was from my father. 

I began to weep. 

Then a shadow was in the doorway. 

"What's going on here?"

It was Xaden.