AYLA
"Alpha, is there a problem?" Alpha Rowan, who stood in one corner observing the ceremony, quickly asked.
Alpha Ezra stared at me for a long moment before shaking his head. "No."
My eyes remained on Alpha Rowan, though. Something knotted in my stomach as I stared at him. There was a pain lodged deep inside me that I couldn’t decipher.
Alpha Ezra suddenly leaned in and whispered into my ear, "Were you so terrified of marrying me that you tried to kill yourself?"
My eyes shot open in perplexity, confusion surging through me.
Before I could say anything, Elder Elowen, the officiant, spoke, her voice carrying across the room.
"We are gathered here today to witness the joining of two souls, the Lycan King and the Gemini Wolf. Two powerful beings."
She turned to look at the groom. "Alpha Ezra, do you fully consent to this bond?"
He stared at me for a long second before nodding. "Yes."
Elder Elowen looked at me. "Do you, Calista, consent to this bond?"
I opened my mouth to say yes, but something tightened in my throat, trying to force me to reject the mate bond.
"Calista..." Elder Elowen called again.
Against my better judgment, against the hammering feeling deep inside my subconscious, I nodded. "Yes."
An Omega stepped forward carrying a knife on a tray, and Elder Elowen took it. She held out her hand, requesting Alpha Ezra’s. He gave it to her, and she sliced through his palm.
There was no reaction on his face. His golden eyes remained fixed on me, burning into my skin. Blood trickled down his hand, but the wound started healing almost immediately. Elder Elowen quickly cut through my own palm, then took our hands and clasped them together.
"By the power bestowed upon me, I pronounce both of you chosen mates," Elder Elowen declared.
Then something hot slammed into my chest, and I felt the mate bond wrap itself around Alpha Ezra and me as our souls began merging.
"You may mark the bride," Elder Elowen announced.
The mate bond would only be completed after the female had been marked. Then, after the couple had sealed the bond with sex later that night, she would mark him. That was how it was done.
If there was no sex to seal the mate bond after the female wolf had been marked, she would become miserable and crave it as though it were heroin. She wouldn’t be able to function properly or think about anything else, while the men remained perfectly sane since they had not yet been marked. And I was sure the Lycans had even greater control over things like this. Low-key, I thought the system was rigged in favour of men.
Anyway, the thought of having sex with the dangerous man standing before me terrified me.
I froze when Alpha Ezra slightly lifted my veil, just enough to expose the curve between my neck and shoulder. Without hesitation, he sank his fangs into my skin, and an overwhelming heat exploded within me.
After he straightened back up and the heat finally died down, I lifted my eyes to his, and they were still as cold as ever. There was a promise to make me suffer hidden beneath them. My insides knotted.
"You may now kiss the bride," the officiating elder said.
Alpha Ezra reached for my veil and slowly lifted it, revealing my face.
As he leaned in to kiss me, gasps echoed throughout the entire room.
"Ayla!" Father growled, shock evident in his tone. "What are you doing here? That’s supposed to be your sister, Calista. What did you do to her?"
I looked at him in confusion.
"What is going on here?!" Lycan King Ezra growled, his voice carrying across the room.
"Alpha!" A maid rushed into the hall, looking panicked as she bowed before Alpha Rowan. "Calista... Calista... Calista..."
She seemed too stunned to speak.
"Speak!" Rowan growled in a commanding tone.
"Calista... I just found her lying in her room in a pool of her own blood. Before she passed out, she said that her sister, Ayla, had stabbed her and twisted the dagger in her stomach so she could take her place as the Lycan King’s Luna," the maid said in a shaky voice.
"Where is she now?" Mother quickly asked, panic evident in her tone.
"The guards have taken her to the infirmary," the maid answered.
Without hesitation, Mother turned and raced out of the hall.
"Hold her down. This heartless creature must not escape!" Father yelled, pointing at me before following Mother out of the room.
Before I could even blink, two guards seized my arms and started dragging me away.
What was happening? Why was everyone calling me Ayla? And why did the maid accuse me of trying to kill myself? I was Calista, not Ayla.
"Stop!" Lycan King Ezra growled, his eyes flashing with fury, and the guards released me immediately.
"Lycan King, we apologise. She acted entirely on her own," Alpha Rowan quickly said, bowing before him. "Please spare the pack."
"Give me the details!" King Ezra growled.
"The woman standing there," Alpha Rowan said, pointing at me, "is not Calista, the Gemini Wolf, but her sister, Ayla, the weak, wolfless girl."
Something twisted in my chest at his words. Were they all hallucinating?
"I am Calista!" I screamed. "I am being framed. I swear I did not do it. I did not stab Ayla."
If someone truly had been stabbed, then it would be Ayla. Who could have done it? We had been walking here together, but she excused herself. Perhaps that was when she was attacked. The thought of losing Ayla made fear knot painfully in my stomach.
"How is Ayla the one standing here and not Calista? And this wasn’t discovered until after the mate bond had already been formed?" Lycan King Ezra growled.
"We have all been deceived," Alpha Tobias chimed in. "Please, have mercy, Alpha!"
He snapped his gaze towards me, his terrifying eyes settling on mine. "Throw her into the dungeons until the real bride wakes up!"
"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "You are all mistaken. I am Calista!"
"Shut up and stop bringing more trouble upon this pack. Your cover has been blown!" Alpha Tobias growled.
I screamed, begging for mercy, begging to be heard and believed. I didn’t do it. I was Calista. This was all so strange. Why did they all think I was Ayla? Was this their twisted way of abandoning me?
If I truly were Ayla, then Alpha Rowan wouldn’t have stood by while I was being accused like that. They had been in love since elementary school. He would’ve defended Ayla with his blood.
Fear. Raw, suffocating fear, tightened around my throat like invisible shackles as the strong, pungent stench of the dungeon filled my nostrils. The guards dragged me through its dark corridors before throwing me into a cell as though I had been cast into an abyss.