My heart stopped.
Was I going to be his bride? This very same man who had beheaded my brother and castrated and decapitated Jessica's mate.
I swallowed, terrified of taking the hand that was open for me.
I turned and saw my father.
His face was filled with demand.
He didn't care what happened to me; I had to do it.
I looked back at Xaden, and then I gave him my hand, and he led me up the few steps to the throne.
I had never stood on the throne leverage in such a way.
It had always and only been too clean.
And even at that, for the enslaved people, we were not allowed to stand on the ground of the thrones.
We were to crawl up and do the cleaning.
We were only allowed to stand when we had descended the four steps that separated the thrones from the regular floor.
We weren't fit enough to even stand with the Alpha.
But now, here I was.
He pulled me to his side.
One of the members of the Wolf Council came to stand between us with a book and started reciting it.
I knew what these vows were.
I had never attended a wolf ceremony except when it came to serving the Hugh-ranking couples in the pack.
And I was always sent off once my job was done
They were my binding to him for life.
Wolf bond.
In cases where the wolves getting married weren't mates, a divorce could be possible.
But for Mates, once bonded, it was for life. No matter what.
I looked up at him; his face was expressionless, emotionless.
There was nothing on it.
Just a handsome man with no heart.
I looked down at my feet, unused to staring at anyone.
The older man recited the vows and picked out a sacred dagger. "Elinn veer gumi wurx iq xenni." I knew what that meant.
"A blood together for one always." The man said.
He picked out my hand, and then he cut it with the dagger.
I cried in pain, and then he did the same for Xaden, who looked like nothing had just happened.
Then, my hand was set against Xaden's—the open wound meeting with mine.
There was a light glow from our hands.
It took me aback.
"The marriage has been bonded." He said.
I slowly took my hand away, looking at my palm and wondering where the light had radiated.
Then Xaden caught my arm and pulled me as he led the way.
He stopped at one of his men.
A man with blonde hair. "Behead all the high-ranking male wolves. All of them."
Then, the man turned to the men who had been standing waiting for their sentences.
I was confused.
What was going on, and where were we going?
I fidgeted as his grip tightened on my arm.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked as he dragged me along through the halls and up the stairs
Confused.
"Are you going to kill me too?" I asked him.
Then he spun me around roughly to face him.
"Kill you?" He asked me. "Goddess, no. What I have in mind for you so far is much better than what your brother got."
My eyes widened, and I realized I was already at the door.
He kicked it open and pushed me in.
I fell to the floor, confused.
I saw that I was in a very lavish bedroom.
One that I had never cleaned in before.
"Get up." He ordered.
I did as I was told.
Then he took off the front bodice of his armor and his leather shirt.
I started breathing heavily.
My eyes widened.
I tried to run away, but he caught me and pulled me back to him.
There were barely any few inches between us.
"Do you know what your father did to my mother?" Xaden asked me.
I looked at him, and our eyes made contact. There was an instant and sudden shock of electricity that I had never felt before.
It was scary and confusing.
He frowned as if he had noticed it, too, but his face crossed back to being terrifying.
"When your father betrayed my family." He explained. "He brought my mother to this very room and forced himself on her."
My whole body shook.
I had never heard of this before.
"But you married me." I managed.
He threw his head back and laughed.
He was so handsome only if he wasn't a monster.
"I married you because I want to have a lifetime of making you suffer." He said.
I shrunk.
"Get on the bed." He snapped, cocking his bed to the wide bed that lay in the center of the room. "Let's consummate our marriage. And when we do, everyone in the pack would hear how I am fucking Bale's precious and spoilt daughter."