What did he mean when he said I was better suited for the Supreme Alpha?
Sylvia had never wanted to marry him.
She had made that clear from the beginning.
She had cried, begged, and repeatedly told our father that she wanted nothing to do with the man everyone feared.
And now, instead of forcing his beloved daughter into the marriage, he had decided to send me.
Of course.
The realization slowly settled over me, leaving behind a bitterness that was almost harder to bear than the pain in my back.
This had nothing to do with me being suitable for the Supreme Alpha.
My father simply didn’t care what happened to me.
If sending me away meant protecting Sylvia, then he wouldn’t hesitate to do it.
After all, sacrificing me had never been difficult for him.
If marrying me to a man everyone called a cruel villain meant preserving the Mills family’s reputation, then I was apparently the perfect choice, the perfect chess piece to move.
I had spent twenty years being sacrificed for the sake of his legitimate children.
Why would this be any different?
I lowered my gaze as another wave of pain moved through my back, but this time, the pain wasn’t what frightened me.
It was the future waiting beyond those mansion gates.
I had a little more than six months left, and before I had even decided how I wanted to spend that remaining time of my life, my father had already decided my fate.
He was sending me away to become the bride of a man I had never met—the Supreme Alpha, the most feared Alpha in the country, and apparently, the man who would soon become my husband.
Before I could say anything else, two servants approached and seized my arms, dragging me away from the entrance toward the bedroom my father had ordered them to prepare.
I didn’t have the strength to resist after the beating, and every step sent another sharp wave of pain across my back, forcing me to grit my teeth and silently endure it.
When the servants finally pushed open the bedroom door, I instinctively stopped.
I had never seen a room like this before.
It was larger than the entire servants’ quarters where I had spent most of my life, with elegant furniture arranged throughout the spacious room, expensive curtains framing the tall windows, and a massive bed standing against the far wall beneath an intricately decorated headboard.
Everything, from the polished floors to the delicate ornaments, spoke of a level of wealth I had never been allowed to experience.
This was a room meant for someone important.
Someone like Sylvia.
Not me.
I had always lived in the servants’ quarters, where my small room contained little more than a narrow bed, an old wardrobe, and a wooden table.
I had never been permitted to occupy one of the luxurious bedrooms reserved for my father’s legitimate children, so standing inside one now felt almost unreal.
However, I didn’t have time to admire my surroundings because the servants immediately began preparing me for the journey.
They carefully removed the bloodied clothes clinging to my body and cleaned the wounds across my back before helping me into another dress.
A wedding gown.
The moment I saw it, I knew exactly who it had been made for.
Sylvia.
Although we were similar in height and build, Sylvia had always been slightly fuller than me, and the dress sat noticeably loose against my body.
There was no doubt that it had been tailored for her, not me.
I lowered my gaze and studied the gown, trying to comprehend what was happening.
Was this really happening?
And why was the wedding dress black?
The dark fabric was decorated with delicate embroidery along the sleeves and waist, giving the gown an elegance I couldn’t deny, yet there was something deeply unsettling about wearing it under these circumstances.
A black wedding dress seemed more appropriate for a funeral than a marriage.
Perhaps it was fitting.
This wasn’t a wedding.
It was a sacrifice.
Before I could dwell on the thought any further, the sound of helicopters suddenly echoed through the estate.
The noise grew louder with every passing second until the windows trembled beneath the force of the approaching aircraft.