Chapter 4: Not A Virgin

​Olivia’s POV

​"What?" The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

​Lucian didn’t blink. His face remained blank. "You heard me," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Undress. We have a marriage to consummate, or have you forgotten why you were sent here? You are my wife."

​"No..." I gasped, stumbling a step backward. "Please... I can’t..."

​His eyes narrowed slightly. "You can’t?"

​"I... I don’t—"

​"Have you forgotten why you’re here?" he cut in.

​My lips parted, but no words came out. The panic hit me like a wave of freezing water. How could I have been stupid enough not to think about this? The wedding dress. The veil. The treaty. The room they had sent me to. I had been so terrified that Lucian would discover I wasn’t Annabel that I hadn’t allowed myself to think about what would happen if he actually believed I was.

​Lucian watched my hesitation with total blankness. "If you do not want this marriage, you are free to leave," he said casually, stepping aside and gesturing toward the heavy wooden doors. "I am not forcing you, Annabel. Walk out right now, go back to your palace, and tell your father you refused."

​For one foolish second, relief rushed through me. My eyes darted toward the exit. Was he serious? Could I really just walk away?

​Then Lucian returned to his desk and picked up his glass.

​"By sunrise tomorrow, my warriors will cross the border. I will rain down a war on your people that will leave nothing standing."

​The relief vanished. "What?"

​He took a slow drink. "I will consider your refusal a rejection of the peace treaty. The choice is yours."

​"No... please," I choked out. "Thousands of people could die!"

​"I’ll love that more than anything in this world," he said flatly.

​The words struck me silent. Lucian didn’t even flinch.

​Tears instantly burned my eyes. He wasn’t giving me a real choice at all. If I ran, my pack would burn. Every person I loved back home would die because of my cowardice. Beta Levi’s final warning flashed in my mind: You do this to save us.

​A single tear escaped before I could stop it, rolling down my cheek. Lucian’s cold gaze followed its path, but he showed no pity. He turned his back on me, walking toward the window.

​"Undress," he repeated, his voice cold and final.

​My lower lip trembled. Technically, he was right. Nothing was physically stopping me from walking out that door. But the cost was too high. More bodies. More mothers burying their children. All because I couldn’t do the one thing I had been sent here to do.

​Slowly, with trembling fingers, I reached for the back of my dress. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely undo the fasteners running down my spine.

​You can do this, Olivia, I told myself, closing my eyes tight. Just get through tonight.

​As the heavy gown slowly loosened, I swallowed hard against the dryness in my throat. This was never how I had pictured my wedding night. When I was younger, I had always dreamed of a gentle mate—someone who loved me, someone who would hold my hand with warmth and kindness. Even after what happened four years ago, I had always hoped that if I ever chose to be with a man again, it would be different. I would know him. I would trust him.

​Instead, I was standing in the study of a monster who hated my very name, stripping off my clothes just to keep my kingdom alive.

​The final piece of fabric slipped from my trembling fingers and fell to the floor. The cool air of the room brushed against my skin, making me shiver uncontrollably. I immediately covered my chest with my arms, my face burning with deep embarrassment.

​"I’m done," I whispered, my voice barely audible.

​Lucian didn’t turn around immediately. For several terrible seconds, there was only the quiet crackle of the fireplace. Then, he slowly looked over his shoulder.

​His storm-gray eyes landed on me, moving across my bare skin with heavy, sharp focus. I lowered my gaze instantly, feeling more exposed and helpless than I ever had in my life.

Why wasn’t he doing anything?

Not that I wanted him to.

Goddess, no.

But somehow waiting was worse.

​"Come here," he commanded.

​My legs barely worked, but I forced my feet to move. I took one short step, then another, until I stopped right in front of him.

​Lucian reached out and grabbed my wrist. The instant his warm, calloused skin touched mine, I flinched. He didn’t say a word, leading me toward the soft leather sofa near the fire. He pushed me backward onto the cushions, and I gasped as my back hit the leather.

​Before I could recover, Lucian leaned over me, his massive frame blocking out the faint light of the room. I immediately squeezed my eyes shut, my fingers digging into the leather.

​Ten minutes, I repeated silently in my head. I can survive ten minutes. Just endure it for ten minutes. It’ll be over soon.

​My entire body was rigid with fear, waiting for the painful moment to begin. But nothing happened.

​One second passed. Two seconds. Three seconds.

​"Are you untouched?" Lucian’s deep voice suddenly cut through the quiet room, hovering right near my ear. "Your father assured me that his daughter was untouched."

​My eyes snapped open in sheer terror. Everything inside me stopped beating.

​No one had warned me about this. Beta Levi had told me to act like Annabel, to speak how she would speak, to walk how she walked, but he had never told me this.

Of all the instructions Beta Levi had given me, make sure you have the same sexual history as the dead princess had somehow been left off the list.

​Four years ago... the night my wolf vanished... the night my entire life fell apart... I had given myself to a stranger in the woods—a man whose face I had never seen, whose name I had never known.

​Lucian’s eyes narrowed. "Answer me, Annabel. Are you a virgin?"

​I couldn’t breathe. Hot tears gathered in my eyes and spilled over my lashes, pouring down my temples. I couldn’t lie to him—not about something he would discover in a matter of seconds anyway.

​"No," I whispered, my voice breaking.

​Lucian went completely still. "What?"

​"I’m... I’m not," I choked out, my voice breaking into pathetic sobs as I looked up at him. "I’m not a virgin."

​The little warmth that hadn’t even been there in the first place disappeared entirely. The air in the room turned violently cold. Something changed in his face. His jaw clenched, and before I could understand what was happening, he turned and drove his fist straight into the wall.

​The impact cracked through the wall.

​I screamed and scrambled backward, frantically pulling the throw blanket over my bare chest. When Lucian pulled his fist away, blood streaked across his knuckles, but he didn’t even look at it.

​"Your father lied," Lucian murmured, his expression twisting into pure contempt. "He promised me an untouched daughter, and he lied to my face." He gave a bitter, humorless scoff and turned away from me. "Of course he did. So you are nothing more than a whore. A spoiled princess passing herself off as pure."

​"Please—"

​"Shut up."

​I flinched, pressing my back against the arm of the sofa, clutching the blanket to my neck as tears streamed down my face.

​Lucian turned away, dragging one bloody hand through his hair before suddenly sweeping everything from his desk. Papers, books, and the glass of wine crashed violently onto the floor.

​I curled against the sofa, clutching the blanket tighter.

​"First your pack puts my sister in a coma," his voice had dropped dangerously low. "Then your father crawls to me begging for peace. And now he sends me a bride while lying about what he’s giving me?"

​"I didn’t—"

​Lucian spun toward me. "Did I give you permission to speak?"

​My mouth snapped shut. He wiped the blood from his knuckles against his black trousers as though the injury meant nothing, looking down at me as if I were something disgusting he had stepped on.

​"Cover yourself," he ordered, disgust clear on his face. "I had no plan to touch you in the first place. The marriage papers are already signed, so on paper, you are my wife. But there will be no wedding ceremony. No celebration. You will not be my Luna, and you will never stand beside me. Your father sent you here as payment for peace, and that is all you will ever be."

​Tears blurred my vision. "Alpha, please—"

​His hand slammed against the back of the sofa beside my head.

​I screamed.

​Lucian leaned down until his furious gray eyes were level with mine. "You haven’t seen cruelty yet, Princess. But keep lying to me, and you will."

​He straightened, turning his back on me as he walked toward his desk.

​"Get your clothes on," he ordered, his voice flat and full of disgust. "Get dressed. Now."

​I scrambled frantically for my wedding gown, my hands shaking so badly I could barely hold the fabric.

​"And get out of my sight," he added, his tone merciless, "before I decide your father’s peace treaty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on."