Willow
Having sex with Reuben for the first time in six years had already been an unexpected turn of events in my life but being marked by him was something I never expected to experience. Perhaps I was the only she-wolf in the realm that was in love with Reuben and willing to stay with him until the end of our lives without being marked. Our love was unconditional, yet when he had marked me, I found myself feeling complete in every way. He held my hand but did not force me to follow him right away. He did not ask me to mark him as well. He was ready to wait patiently. He had chosen a path with no retreat, his unspeakable commitment to me was greater than any other promise he had made me. He had made me his.
Lured by his continuous seduction, his rut, and provocation, I found myself spreading my legs for him, letting him take me whenever he wanted. It was a hot wild night where I forgot any semblance of shame and surrendered to him completely. Since his rut had been awakened by my heat, it didn’t last as long as usual, but the frequency of his arousal and the number of times he took me drained the energy from my body.
Under the blanket of the night, I found myself curled up against his warm chest, sleeping deeply. I was so tired that even lifting my eyelashes felt like a battle, but that didn’t mean I didn’t sense Reuben leaving me for a time. After dressing me warmly, he had left my side. I didn’t know how long he had been gone, but when I stirred in my sleep, I found myself back in his warm embrace once again.
The next morning, I woke up to find myself in a car that he was driving, heading back to Emerald Bright Pack. The drive was so quiet that my presence in the car felt like a looming question when I was doing everything to ignore him. Memories of our steamy night had thrown me into a pit of shame, while his continuous smiling glances only continued to add layers to that shame. How could I be the one feeling this way when he seemed to be enjoying it? It was like the exact feeling you get when you hook up with your ex only to end up messing things up for yourself. But in my case, I had hooked up with my ex fully aware of the situation and had even enjoyed it more than he had. I still remembered my moans and demands for more. The greedy and impatient side of me that had been hidden for six years was revealed to Reuben that steamy night. He was undoubtedly happy, but I was nothing but ashamed!
Ignoring him in the car was a battle in it of itself. I answered him with a nod or a shake of my head when he asked for water and food that he had bought in advance, I wasn’t sure when. I ate in silence, keeping my eyes fixed outside the window the entire time but that didn’t mean I failed to notice something black in Reuben’s hand.
Staring at the blackness in his hand with mixed feelings for a couple of seconds, I shifted my gaze to his face, only to realize what it exactly was. By midnight, Reuben hadn’t disappeared. Instead, he had gone back to the burnt house. There, he closely investigated the surroundings and ashes, only to discover that the fire did not have natural causes; it had been ignited by petrol. That meant it was a conspiracy that someone else had hatched.
A scheme that took place without the knowledge that I was not alone in that house, Reuben was there with me. It was clear that whoever it was intended to kill me as the tire tracks of their cars had followed mine. After listening to Ella’s panic and her failure to deny the incident when Walter had made the connection between the house fire and her uncle, it became crystal clear that the person that wanted to kill me was none other than Alpha Adam.
Ella’s face turned pale at the sight of me and Reuben. I wanted to blame the mate mark on my neck for her face turning white, however, the fear in her eyes was not due to anything other than Reuben.
It was not only her, my heart shook violently in my chest when Reuben passed by me and advanced toward Ella. If there was one thing more dangerous about Reuben than the rest, it was being able to anticipate his next move. He was so unpredictable and violent that sometimes it even scared me. Now that he had learned that it had been Alpha Adam behind the attempt to kill me in that fire, he was in his most dangerous state.
“Reu… Reuben…” Ella stammered in alarm as Reuben stood face to face with her remaining silent. She stepped back until her back hit Walter’s chest. Frozen, she looked up at him only to realize he had never moved away from her. Why was he still there? Turning back to Reuben, she found him staring into her eyes with his wolf’s, his gaze bloodthirsty.
Meanwhile, Bix looked most alarmed by Reuben’s anger, and Oran appeared disturbed by it too. Both of their eyes darted between Ella and Reuben while everyone’s heartbeats pounded loudly, even Walter’s, surprising me.
Sensing a potentially bad ending to this confrontation, I took a few steps forward and gently grabbed Reuben’s hand. “Reuben…” I couldn’t let him raise a hand against a woman, no matter how angry he was. While he had never raised a hand against a female before, his anger could be riled too quickly for me to remain calm.
Reuben did not pull his hand away, but he didn’t look at me either, indicating that his thoughts were unchangeable or possibly worse. Suddenly, I noticed pack members in their wolf forms appearing in the clearing.
“Drag Alpha Adam back here in front of me in nothing but his skin,” Reuben ordered his wolves in a low voice, causing not only Ella but me to flinch as well.
“Reu…” Ella’s eyes widened upon hearing Reuben’s command, she obviously wanted to say something but not a single word came out of her mouth. If only she knew that it had only just been the beginning.
“And make sure to burn the entirety of the Opal Moon Pack to the ground. Burn everything, living and nonliving alike,” Reuben added, staring deep into her eyes before turning on his heels to leave, his sharp aura compelling the wolves to follow his orders.
“No…” Ella shook her head as she watched the wolves leave the pack following Reuben’s orders. Despite her pack’s power and favor with the royal family, Ella was aware that even the royal family couldn’t stop Reuben from taking Alpha Adam’s life in his hands at this point. He was a living monster with no emotional attachment to others when it came to someone that had hurt me. “NO. NO. NOOOO!!!” Ella screamed, clearly envisioning the demise of her uncle and pack. The pack was her home, her life, and her future. “Please listen to me.,Reuben!!” she yelled, trying to run after him only to be grabbed by Bix in time.
“Don’t go after him!” he tightly grabbed her arm and made her face him. “It’s no use, Ella.”
“What the hell are you saying?!” she shrieked, her eyes red with panicked fury. “Did you not hear the order he just gave? If I don’t stop him, he will kill my… Uncle and pack…” She struggled violently in his hold. “Let me go! I need to talk to Reuben. I will…”
“You can’t stop him!” Bix yelled, gripping her arms tightly to knock some sense into her. “Reuben will kill you, Ella. He will kill you too. So don’t do it,” he added in a low tone that Ella was all too aware of. There was no such thing as forgiveness in Reuben’s world.
She miserably broke down into tears. “Why..” she buried her face in his chest, sobbing loudly.
For some reason, my heart grew heavier at seeing her in such a poor and broken condition. She knew that her family and pack were going to die but she could not do a thing to save them. She had to just wait and watch them dying. If I was in her place and it was my family that was going to die then I would have lost my grip on reality.
“I can’t lose my uncle. I can’t lose my people and pack,” Ella cried, clenching at Bix’s chest. “Please someone stop him. Please someone…
“Calm down,” Bix put his hand on her back and took a deep breath, “I will go and talk to Reuben,” he said, surprising everyone in the clearing.
Ella lifted her head to look up at him with wide eyes, “You… you will go…”
Bix nodded, “Reuben is furious but I believe that he will hear me out. Someone should be able to manage asking him not to kill Alpha Adam and your pack,” with that he pulled away from her ready to enter the packhouse to meet with Reuben.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?!” Oran barked, grabbing Bix’s arm at lightning speed.
“No, I have my full wits about me,” Bix replied dryly, his expression emotionless.
“No, you do not fucking have your wits about you! You must be on fucking drugs, that’s the only reason I can think of for why you are going to Reuben to ask for forgiveness on behalf of Alpha Adam after what he fucking did! Reuben will fucking kill you,” Oran growled. Even though I had been standing there silently, I had to agree with him. At this point Reuben was not even going to listen to me.
“I will still go,” Bix remarked, causing Oran’s eyes to turn red.
“Over my dead body!” he growled, getting dangerously close to Bix’s face.
Bix stared at him for a couple of seconds and said, “Then you can stop me over my dead body,” his eyes were clear and confident which irritated Oran to no end. Knowing Oran would not raise his hand to him, Bix passed by him only to be pulled back by Oran again.
“What the…” Bix grew angry but his head was quickly grabbed by Oran who pulled him closer to his face, squeezing his head in his hand.
“This is the last fucking time I am going to tolerate your stubborness, Bix,” Oran growled dangerously close to his face. “I swear it is the last time…” he added and let go of his head with a growl and snapped, “I will fucking go to talk to Reuben,” with that he turned to leave.
“What?!” Bix panicked and held his arm, “Why the fuck are you willing to go?”
I clenched my fist at my side, having had enough of this craziness. If any of them went to talk to Reuben at this moment the consequences would grow further out of proportion. So I decided I should be the one to go talk to Reuben by myself. “Guys, stop it…”
But before I could say another word, Ella passed by me heading towards the packhouse on her own, her intention clear. Before she could take more than three steps, she halted at the sight of Alpha Adam’s bloody body being dragged by wolves.
“Uncle!” she screamed dashing over to Alpha Adam’s unconscious body that looked more like a half dead carcass than a human. Following Reuben’s orders, he really had been dragged to the pack naked. Ella shoved the wolves’ snouts away from Alpha Adam and started checking his wounds in a panic. “Uncle, what happened to you? Uncle….” she cried non stop until Reuben’s footsteps echoed in the surroundings.
Seeing Reuben approach, Ella knew that he had every intention of killing Alpha Adam and intercepted Reuben before he could get closer to her uncle. “Reuben, please stop. I beg you, don’t kill my uncle or destroy my pack!” She held her hands up to stop him but he continued staking towards Alpha Alpha, his expression blank but his eyes were blood thirsty. “Reuben please!!” she cried one the last time, tightly grabbing his arm.
“I had marked your last stunt down as your first and last mistake Ella. It would appear as if you did not take my warning seriously. The wolf that spread false news about our impending marriage date was a member of your pack that tried to separate Willow and I. Not only that, you were the one who spread the news that I had a fiance in the first place all those years ago,” Reuben remarked.
Ella had done that? My eyes immediately went to Ella whose face had blanched further than before now that she had been exposed in front of the other pack members who had long gathered in the clearing. “As to your fucking uncle, he tried to kill my soulmate,” Reuben shoved her out of his way. Ella stumbled and was barely able to stop herself from falling, she immediately upon righting herself she found Reuben stopping a hand away from Alpha Adam’s fainted bloody figure.
Ella raced over to stand between her uncle and Reuben, “Reuben, kill me but please forgive my uncle and don’t destroy my pack!” she screamed, crying her eyes out before Reuben could reach Alpha Adam.
I knew her love for her uncle and the pack knew no bounds. Alpha Adam was like a father to her and Opal Moon Pack was the culmination of her dead parents’ hard work that she refused to let go under any condition. To save those two things she was even willing to die.
“Your life is of no use to me,” Reuben took a step closer to her tucking a paper in her hand.
I cocked my brows confused as to what those papers were but when Ella saw them it was as if she had seen a ghost. “Our marriage contract?” she murmured under her breath lifting teary red eyes up to Reuben in disbelief.
Marriage contract? My ears perked up and my heart grew uneasy at the mention of it.
“You know what you have to do right?” Reuben coldly stared at Ella.
Ella bit her lip, tears flowing down to her cheeks non stop. She looked at her bleeding uncle on the ground then back at her marriage contract. She had to make a choice. After a couple of silent tears, she sent me a hate filled glare then turned back to Reuben before she raised her hand and tore the marriage contract into pieces.
“I, Ella Martin the Alpha’s daughter of the Opal Moon Pack, break my engagement with Alpha Reuben Emerald freeing you from our marriage contract,” she declared, dropping the torn pages on the ground.
I froze in place as I listened to Ella. It turned out that only Ella could break the marriage contract with Reuben, not Reuben. I could not help but turn my attention to Reuben who stood in front of me holding my hand.
“Let’s go home, Willow,” he began leading me towards the packhouse.
Blinking, I looked down at his hand in mine then up at his face. My heart skipped a beat when I realized Reuben had done all of this for me. He had ended the marriage contract with Ella in front of the pack and was officially bringing me into his home. Walking side by side, I loosened my grip on his hand, interlaced our fingers, then clasped our hands together.