Chapter 66: Vows From The Heart

Tessa’s POV

They say never give up. What you most expected might still come true.

That was the truth in my own case.

Lucian didn’t speak to me. He couldn’t even face me, let alone call me his own. But that didn’t matter anymore, because I was getting married to the wolf I loved ... the one I had always loved. The one who had taken my virginity.

It was everything I had fought for. Everything I had held onto when every sign told me to let go.

Just as the elders had decreed, I was going to become his Luna. The position I had been betrothed to from the very beginning.

I had done many abominable things in my life. Killed people I wasn’t supposed to kill. Been falsely accused of others. But that was the life of a strong woman ... you did what you had to do and you kept standing. I stood my ground. I didn’t stagger. So when an outcast from Bloodmoon thought she could walk into Winterwood and take what was mine, she had to have been stupid. Truly, deeply stupid.

She was not my enemy. She had never been formidable enough to earn that title.

I had gone toe to toe with people Lucian himself called enemies. That was a pretty impressive track record for a twenty-four-year-old female wolf.

Selene couldn’t have withstood a fraction of what I had been through. When my father died, I picked up his strength and stacked it on top of mine. I moved with the mentality of a winner because that was who my father was ... right up until the moment he was defeated unexpectedly. I told myself that whatever brought him down would never bring me down.

Marrying Lucian, despite every obstacle thrown at me over the years, was proof of exactly that.

I wished I could have seen Selene’s face as we completed the first rights of the marriage.

Lucian frowned through the entire ceremony.

I wanted to be happy ... genuinely happy ... but his expression wouldn’t let me concentrate. It sat on the edges of every beautiful moment and poisoned it.

"The first rights have been completed," the elder in charge announced. "You will be officially married by tomorrow morning."

In Winterwood, a marriage was sealed through signed legal papers, initiated by an appointed lawyer, witnessed by the pack. Once both parties signed, the union was binding. The only grounds for annulment were proven infidelity.

I had no intention of being unfaithful. I loved Lucian with everything I had. That thought didn’t even deserve space in my mind.

When the time came, they brought the papers forward.

Lucian looked at me the way a man looks at a burden he hadn’t agreed to carry. I watched him stare at the document for too long.

"Lucian, what is the issue?" I asked.

"Do I remember my signature?" he said.

I knew exactly what he was doing. Sarcasm wrapped in a smile, designed to irritate me and everyone else in the room.

"You must be joking," I said flatly.

He signed it after a long, deliberate pause ... as if every second of hesitation was a message he wanted me to receive loud and clear.

But we were married in the eyes of the law now. The vows before witnesses were all that remained.

Lucian pulled me into a private room at the registry before that could happen.

"I know we’re married in the eyes of the law," he said, his voice low and direct. "But between you and me, we are not married. And you know it. I just want to make that clear."

My heart started pounding. Not because I didn’t already know ... but because hearing it out loud was something else entirely.

"What are you trying to say, Lucian?"

"I’m being truthful with you. I can’t pretend ... this is a husband and wife we’re talking about. My heart will never belong to you. Stay on your side and mind your business while I mind mine."

I burst into tears.

I was getting married to a man who didn’t love me. He was mine on paper and nowhere else.

"What have I not done for you, Lucian?" My voice broke as I said it. He turned his face away from my tears like they were an inconvenience.

He didn’t answer.

"I have loved you. Stood by you. Supported you through everything. And this is how you treat me? All I’m asking for is the smallest piece of love. Is that not even in your vocabulary?"

I was wearing a bride’s gown. He was in a suit. And he was determined to make me the most miserable woman alive ... and he succeeded.

"I don’t want you," he said. "You’re being forced on me."

"But I want you, Lucian. No one else. You were my first. My heart has never belonged to anyone else." I kept sobbing, unable to stop myself.

"I hope you stored everything I just said in your memory," he replied, "because amnesia will do you no good in the days ahead."

Then he left the room.

I cried harder. It didn’t touch him.

Thankfully, no one came to check on me. I stayed in that room alone for an extra fifteen minutes, letting myself fall apart before I had to put myself back together.

Love was not my fate.

Marriage was. Luna was. Power was.

And I was going to claim every piece of it.

There was no time wasted moving into the public vows ceremony. The foremost elder of the pack presided over it. People gathered in masses to witness.

I spotted Selene from across the space ... looking so utterly hopeless. She had actually come to watch her own defeat. Bold, I had to admit. Stupid, but bold.

I didn’t obsess over my appearance that day, but my makeup artist was genuinely the best in the territory. My attire was impeccable. I was a bride the entire pack celebrated ... everyone, except the one man I was marrying.

A few ladies from the pack walked me down to the podium where Lucian already stood. White suit. Black tie. Infuriatingly beautiful.

The elder opened his book.

"Goddess bless this couple today." He turned to Lucian. "Please repeat these words after me, groom. I promise to love, cherish, and stand by this woman before me. I will be with her through every season. I will forbear and endure beside her. I will not know any other woman until I draw my last breath."

Lucian repeated every word. I wondered if he knew what he was saying ... because the man who had just spoken to me in that registry room had no concept of commitment.

Then it was my turn.

"I promise to respect my husband and honour his guidance. I will stand by him through thick and thin. I will not know another man until I breathe my last breath."

I meant every word. Every single one.

"You may kiss your bride."

We kissed ... not deeply, but enough to seal the covenant between us.

"You are now husband and wife. Congratulations, Luna and Alpha."

The crowd erupted. Clapping, cheering, flowers coming at me from every direction like a river that wouldn’t stop flowing. For one moment ... just one ... I let myself feel it. I was Luna. I had won.

We were about to step down from the podium when a man rose to his feet.

"Hello, Winterwood."

We stopped.

He was striking ... gold hair, a face that commanded attention without asking for it. But it was his eyes that made the room go still. They burned like open flame, the kind of heat you felt before you saw the fire.

"I am William Steelborn," he said, his voice carrying across the entire space without effort. "Remnant of the Icefang pack. I am here to claim my mate."

The elder frowned. "The Icefang pack has been extinct for decades. Who exactly is your mate?"

He didn’t hesitate.

"Selene Ironheart."

The crowd gasped in one collective breath. Every eye in the room swung to find her.

What in the entire world of Winterwood was this?