ADRIANA CROSS

“...You may now kiss the bride,”

My body stilled as I shifted a glance at Dimitri. His dark eyes were on me, and he wasn't even hiding the rage in his eyes that he didn't want to kiss me.

I felt sick in my stomach; I was about to look away when, without warning, I felt his arms around my waist, and he crashed his lips on mine. I wasn't prepared for the emotions that exploded within me and the electrifying sparks that shot a wave of pleasure through my body.

He released a loud growl at the back of his throat before he pulled away like my entire body had somehow burned him.

We walked out of the courts and straight into the Black limousine that had been waiting for us outside.

The trip to Dimitri's mansion was quiet. Neither of us said anything. Frankly, there wasn't much to say; we had said everything we wanted last night as we finalized the deal.

I would be staying in his place in the course of these six months, playing the role of his wife while from today, Zoey had been transferred to the best medical facility in New York for her surgery.

We drove through a black gate and stopped right in front of a beautiful mansion.

I stepped out of the car along with Dimitri, who didn't even spare a glance my way as he entered the mansion. I followed behind him, walking past the many guards who bowed to us.

We headed inside towards the large main living room when a woman rushed down the stairs and went straight into Dimitri's arms, and her lips pressed against his.

I froze as shock rocked through my spine.

“What the hell is this, Dimitri?” I said in rage as Dimitri pulled her out of his arms. “Who is she?”

“Sabrina Brooke, Dimitri's lover,” She introduced and my angry gaze moved back to Dimitri.

I don't know why, I felt an instant rage burning through me at her words. The last time I felt this much rage was on that cruel night fourteen years ago.

I turned around, heading out of the mansion, ignoring Dimitri's call behind, when suddenly I felt him grip my wrist, turning me around. His hand on my wrist ignited sparks.

“What do you think you are doing, Adriana?”

“Going far away from you, if you had a lover then why did you marry me?” My question startled him and his eyes darkened.

“Don't forget we had a deal. You can't just leave, think about your sister,” His words made me remember why I had agreed to this marriage. I didn't know why I cared so much about him having a lover when I shouldn't. “I'm throwing an after-party tonight. Your dress has already been arranged so be down on time,”

“Is your lover going to be there?”

“Adriana—”

“So you want to humiliate me in front of your guests while you flaunt your mistress. I'm not attending Dimi—”

Before I could finish, I felt my back against the wall, and Dimitri's body pressed against me. I felt electric shocks all over my body at our closeness, and our lips were almost touching. I let out a whimper as his hand on me burned me with desire. Dimitri's eyes darkened and his eyes fell on my lips. He was about to lean closer when we were interrupted by a young woman.

“Alpha— Mr. Dimitri, you called for me?”

“Zena, see my wife in her bedroom and ensure she's down early for the party,” He said, before leaving us.

Zena showed me to my bedroom which I would be sharing with Dimitri. Strangely, that again angered me. I couldn't help but imagine the nights he had fucked Sabrina within these walls. I picked up the dress Dimitri had chosen for me for tonight's party.

It was a beautiful black dress.

I was already dressed and ready by the time the guests had arrived.

Zena had told me Dimitri had already requested I join him downstairs. I was about to leave when Sabrina strutted in.

She eyed me up. “Don't delude yourself into thinking you're special. Dimitri doesn't care about you. Once your contract comes to an end, he'll discard you like that trash you are,”

I was shocked to find out she knew about our marriage contract, but then again it didn't surprise me.

“It doesn't matter if this is all fake or not, the real truth is, I'm the one Dimitri's married to, not you. I'm the one he's throwing a party for, not you. And I'm the one who would sleep next to him tonight, and not you. So if you would excuse me, I have a party to attend to,” I walked out of the room.

I saw Dimitri waiting at the button of the stairs for me. His eyes darkened as they trekked down my body, sending heat between my legs.

As I reached him, he took my hand and led me to the large and quiet crowd eagerly staring at me with curious eyes. Everyone looked weird in one way or the other. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was some kind of initiation or something.

Dimitri introduced me to a few people and among them was a woman he called Agatha. She seemed so familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen her before.

Dimitri looked anxious and like he was in some kind of pain, emotionally and physically, as he handed me a drink and called the attention of everyone.

“Thank you, everyone, for joining us to celebrate tonight. We all know how special tonight is for us all, so we make a toast to our future. And to our freedom,”

“To our freedom,” Everyone raised their glasses, and I did too, even though Dimitri's words and everything seemed strange.

I finished my wine, suddenly feeling a sharp pain at the back of my head, and then everything went black.

DIMITRI VALEQUEZ

I chugged down the remaining whiskey in my glass as I leaned back into the sofa, my gaze not moving from Adriana who was still asleep on the bed. She has been sleeping for many hours now since she fell unconscious last night after drinking from the wine the head witch Agatha had prepared.

I ran my thumb across my bottom lip, pulling up from the sofa, and ambling to the bed. I pulled back the strands of hair that covered her face, trailing my fingers on her smooth pristine skin. She was helplessly beautiful.

My fingers moved down to her arm which the pack doctor had covered with some bandages. Because of the bonding ritual last night, Adriana now bore the mark of the crescent moon on her arm just like every member of my pack. She was human and couldn't heal as wolves did, so in the meantime, it would feel like a deep wound until her body healed up at its human pace.

I knew she would have a lot of questions when she woke up. Last night, after she had fallen unconscious from Agatha's concoction, we had completed the necessary rites to bind her to our pack as my mate.

I had binded Adriana to us without her consent. I had no choice, it was necessary for the survival of my people. And now we were bound together by the moon. I could feel her emotions and whatever I had felt for her had strongly intensified.

I knew this was the effect of the mate bond and with what happened last night, our bond just got stronger.

Oh goddess, I hated feeling this way.

This marriage was supposed to be a win-win. I got what I wanted, and she got what she wanted. Money for her sister's surgery. I shouldn't feel this way but I did.

Even though I hated doing any of these to her, I had no choice. I was responsible for the survival of the entire werewolf kind. We had to break the curse before the next blood moon or we would all die.

Last night was also Adriana's Luna ceremony, and she wasn't even aware. With the bonding ritual, she was now linked to me and my pack. It was necessary for the Blood Moon ritual to break the curse Asula placed on us.

Asula was a dark witch, and once a member of the circle of witches. All Asula wanted was more dark magic, death, and chaos. She had wanted to be the Luna Queen of the werewolf kind, but Alpha King Magnus, my grandfather and head of the Council, had refused her.

It hurt Asula, and suddenly, she vanished, only to be back a few years later with a drive for vengeance. She had killed Alpha King Magnus' mate and placed a curse on my grandfather and the entire wolf kind. A curse that can only be attempted to be broken on the day of the blood moon.

Over the years my father attempted to break the curse with the help of some witches after finding his mate, but there was no witch strong enough to anchor the ritual except the Halo clan of witches. They were direct descendants of the goddess herself, and for many years, everyone thought they were extinct, but my father found one, Esther Blackrose.

Only a Halo witch with the mark of the goddess could break the curse. Esther had agreed to help us, but on the night of the ritual, the vampire king, Nikola Vladimir had waged war on the entire supernatural kind. It was a massacre, he wanted to eradicate every one of us. He had attacked the fae, elven, and the dragon kingdom. Including the witches, and the demon realm.

He attacked every supernatural kind. He also had help from dark witches. That night we weren't prepared for what hit us. I was just fourteen and had lost not only my parents but almost the entire wolf kind.

Every supernatural kind was forced into hiding. I had to live like I didn't exist for fourteen years until I could find wolves that had survived the massacre by Nikola and rebuild our pack again. I also reached out to other supernatural kinds that survived and wanted to join me and my people to take revenge on Nikola.

But through it all, the witches and I couldn't find the last living Halo witch from the Blackrose bloodline. Esther had died during the attack saving me. The witches and I also found out Nikola had attacked the Blackrose coven as well. Esther's husband, who was also a wolf, her sister, and her eldest daughter had died that night as well, but her youngest daughter survived.

We had searched for her for years, not only because I needed her to break the curse before we could battle Nikola but because I promised Esther I would since Nikola was desperately searching for her too. And I had a feeling we'd find her soon.

This morning, the head witch Agatha had left to meet one of her witch friends who had Esther's belongings, and with that, the witches could do a location spell to find the last living Halo witch.

My thoughts were cut off as Adriana stirred on the bed, her perfect long lashes pulled apart and her eyes fell on me.

She jerked up from the bed, suddenly wincing from the pain coming from her arm.

“What happened to me last night?” She brought her hand to her arm as I took in a deep breath.

Even though I hated what I was doing to her, I couldn't tell her the truth. Adriana was human and I didn't know how she'd react if she knew about the existence of a world of the supernatural completely different from hers.

Besides, it was best she didn't know anything. That way, it would be a lot easier for her to walk away from all of this when it finally came to an end. Even though my wolf, Ryker, was completely against the idea, I was glad we didn't have to mark her, otherwise there was no way she'd walk out of this mess even after the curse was broken.

Adriana's blue eyes pierced into mine, and I read every emotion on her beautiful face. I could tell from her face she knew something was wrong, but it didn't matter, Agatha used magic to ensure she never remembered what happened last night, and I wanted it to stay that way.

For her sake, and mine as well, because she was starting to make me feel all the things I shouldn't.

ADRIANA CROSS

“You slipped during the party and injured your arm. Don't you remember?” Dimitri's words couldn't stop echoing in my mind all through the day.

Dimitri had told me earlier this morning when I woke up. I had drank too much wine, and slipped during the party, injuring my arm.

I heaved a sigh, bringing a hand to my arm. The wound was still a little fresh and I could tell it would leave a weird scar when it's all healed up. I couldn't clearly remember what happened last night, but for some reason, something about everything seemed strange.

Whenever I try to remember something from last night all I kept seeing was a flash of several faces, including Dimitri's and the woman who looked familiar last night, Agatha. It was as if there was a powerful force ensuring I didn't remember.

Absent-mindedly, my hand touched the ruby bracelet on my wrist. I could try to figure out what happened last night but it was very risky. I hadn't taken off the bracelet since that cruel night fourteen years ago when I watched my entire family die at the hands of Nikola just to save me. I was only ten and all alone in a world I had to escape to survive those who wanted me dead or wanted to exploit my powers for their selfish greed.

The truth was, I was far from being human. I came from a world where the supernatural exists. My mother was a Halo witch from the powerful Blackrose bloodline and my father was a wolf. After the massacre of my family by the vampire king, I was forced into hiding but the bastard was still searching for me.

There were times I wanted to go back for revenge, but I couldn't. I promised my sister before she died that I would survive at all costs, and that was what I had been doing all these years. Surviving. I had binded my wolf and cloaked myself and contained my magic using the ruby bracelet on my wrist.

I kissed Zoey's sleepy figure before I left the VIP ward and found two of Dimitri's bodyguards waiting for me in the black Mercedes outside the hospital.

I got in, and the car drove off. We were already halfway when I got a text from Dimitri asking me to meet him somewhere and it was urgent. The text wasn't from his saved number on my phone.

I showed the text to Rick, one of the bodyguards and the car turned around, heading to the location he had sent.

After some minutes, we were almost at the location but something was strange. The location Dimitri had sent was far ahead in the woods, located near the mountains.

We were still moving when Rick turned to me. “Are you sure, Mr Dimitri wanted you here?”

Something was wrong and I knew it in my bones. I was about to put a call through to Dimitri when, from nowhere, four figures rushed out from the woods, and they ran straight into our car, flipping it over, causing an accident.

The deafening sounds of the car glasses shattering against the ground pierced my ears as I had hit my head against the shattering window and a huge shard of glass had pierced through my stomach. I was upside down in the car, bleeding profusely from my head and stomach.

“Luna, stay with me, are you alright?”

I heard Rick's voice in a blur, as I tried to fight the pain and dizziness that shook my body.

Luna?

I tried to keep my vision steady, but it was of no use; I could feel my body giving up.

Swiftly, Rick ripped off the door to the passenger seat, and he got out of the car, unscathed, along with the driver, who charged against the four figures approaching us.

Before I could blink, three of the figures shifted into wolves.

I felt the blood that rushed to my head turned cold. They were fucking wolves.

My mind raced with so many questions as dear paralyzed me. They all smelled like rogues. Had Nikola sent them? How did he find me?

I tried to get the door open but it was stuck, and I could barely move from the glass inside me. Rick hurried to my side, ripping off the door, about to pull me out, when from behind, one of the wolves lunged at Rick, and the next thing I heard was a loud growl from Rick, and just like the others, he shifted into a brown wolf.

Shock numbed my bones and I couldn't believe it. They were all wolves.

I was still frozen in shock when one of the figures grabbed a handful of my hair, forcing me out of the car. My hand instinctively fell on the ruby bracelet on my wrist. I could easily tear it off and access my magic, ripping every one of these bastards in shreds. Or, worst-case scenario, my wolf, Naya, could take over finishing them off. Suddenly, both ideas seemed so dangerous.

I hesitated as indecision shot through me, but then I thought of Zoey; she still needed me, well and alive, and by the looks of things, these bastards wanted me dead.

I was about to rip off the bracelet when a terrifying, angry growl rippled through the air, and a jet-black wolf dipped from the sky in his full elaborate beauty, looking as pissed as hell. He didn't waste any time as his teeth grabbed the man that had flung me and with a hard pull, he detached the man's head from his body.

I froze as blood splattered around us, tainting the trees and ground. I watched in horror as he moved swiftly and ripped the remaining two wolves in pieces, leaving just the driver's unconscious wolf and Rick's wounded wolf.

The black wolf stood in the middle of the bloodbath for a second, his eyes watching me and right before my eyes, he shifted into a man.

Not just any man.

But my husband, Dimitri. He was covered in blood, and very much naked before me.

Oh, goddess!