Chapter 4: The Mark and the Mask

<Cassandra>

Getting married, it turned out, felt a lot like being rejected.

He lifted the veil from my face with one hand, and I finally saw him clearly, his enchanting silver-gray eyes, the chiseled jawline that made him look incredibly handsome, his broad shoulders and muscular form that stretched the already tight fabric of his suit — and I want to be completely honest about what happened in that moment, because I think it matters.

Absolutely… nothing.

His eyes gazed into mine the exact way you would look at a chair in a room you've been inside a hundred times. There was no intrigue whatsoever, or even a slight shift in expression. All he did was stare soullessly at me, then turn to face the officiant once again.

The ceremony began almost immediately.

I stood very still beside him and listened to the officiant speak, and I did something I had gotten very good at over twenty-one years of being someone nobody particularly wanted in the room — I made myself small and quiet, and I paid attention.

Although it wasn’t as easy as I would have liked. I tried my best to keep my eyes forward, fixed on the officiant, and not on the man standing beside me, whose presence I could feel against the side of my face even when I wasn't looking at him. 

But it felt like I was standing next to something that generated its own gravity. And the more I tried to pull away, the harder it pulled me back in.

Then the officiant reached the part of the ceremony I had quietly been bracing for, and Dominic finally turned to face me.

He reached out and moved the hair from the right side of my neck… and before I knew it, his teeth were at my neck.

They pressed against my soft flesh, causing a ripple to run up and down my spine. While I was still stunned into silence, they broke my skin, and I felt the warmth of my own blood drip down to my collarbone.

Then a stinging pain radiated from the place of contact, and I felt my skin sizzle as the mark of the Luna was burned onto my neck.

The crowd erupted in cheers. I exhaled slowly through my nose and said nothing, keeping my eyes fixed on the middle distance while the cheers got even louder.

'That's it then,' I thought. 'I guess I’m married.'

From being rejected and cast out of the Bloodwyn pack, nearly dying in the forest, and somehow surviving one of the worst mights of my life, to becoming the Luna of an even greater pack.

'You really cannot make this up,'

I touched my chest and reached inward on instinct, searching within myself to find the new bond, and I felt something pulse deep inside of me.

It was there. It was really there.

It wasn’t what I had imagined. But then again, absolutely nothing about today had been what I imagined.

I let my hand fall back to my side, and the crowd descended on us before we even made it down the steps.

That was when he changed.

I was standing directly beside him, near enough to feel the warmth of his arm against mine, when it happened; Dominic's hand found the small of my back, making me flinch slightly in surprise.

When the first wolf reached us with arms outstretched and congratulations already spilling out before they'd even fully arrived, Dominic turned toward them and became someone else entirely.

I don't mean that as a figure of speech. I mean that the man who had looked at me at the altar the way you’d look at a dusty old piece of furniture became, in the space of a single breath, remarkably warm. 

His mouth pulled into a smile that reached his eyes with just enough softness to be completely convincing, and he turned toward the approaching wolves with the ease of someone who had been doing this his entire life.

He was sweet, and attentive, and charming. He even said my name once to a cluster of elder wolves who had gathered close, with a strange softness that almost made me forget that I hadn’t even told him my name yet.

“How did you—” I started, the second we were alone.

“Jasper told me.” He answered before I could finish, and quickly pulled me closer to him just seconds before an elder wolf appeared before us. 

The elder wolf was gorgeous in the way fine wine aged beautifully. She had sharp cheekbones, dark brown hair with slight streaks of silver, and dim silver eyes to match. Behind her stood a beast of a man who was also up there in age. He had huge, broad shoulders, with a gray-salted beard and the kind of face that had genuinely seen it all.

The elder wolf pressed her hand to her chest and gave a wide grin. “You both look absolutely marvelous together. May the goddess shine upon you and your family, Luna.”

I smiled and thanked her, tucking my hands neatly together in front of me.

Her gaze then traveled from me to Dominic, and it softened just a little bit, “And I’m glad you finally decided to settle down, son.”

For the first time since I’d met him, which was just ten minutes ago, Dominic’s facade wavered slightly, but not long enough for anyone else to notice. 

He gave her a quick bow and said, “Thank you, mother.”

Only then did it click in my head, and I realized who the elderly wolf before us was. She was his mother, the matriarch of the Blackthorne pack.

She gave us both another warm smile and was quietly led away by the man behind her, who — from the looks of it — was not Dominic’s father.

When the matriarch left, more wolves swarmed us yet again, and it didn’t take even half a second for Dominic to revert back to his cheerful and perfect self.

'He's good at this,' I noted, watching the side of his face while he shook another hand.

Better than good, honestly. He was extraordinary at it. And the most unsettling part wasn't the performance itself, but how easy he made it seem. How he completely inhabited a version of himself that had no visible connection whatsoever to the man who had placed a mark on my neck roughly ten minutes ago.

I didn't know which version was real. But to be fair, I didn't know this man at all.

Yet another wolf I didn't know appeared at my other side with a wide smile and a warm voice and said something lovely about what a beautiful couple we made.

'Couple,' I repeated internally, nearly laughing.

"Thank you," I said, meaning none of it, but smiled anyway.

*

<Dominic>

The last of the guests filtered out well past sundown. I shook the final hand, giving what I hoped was the final smile of the day, and the moment the outer gates closed, I rolled my neck to the side and let the performance disappear.

Jasper materialized at my elbow.

"Smooth. Very smooth," he said.

"Was there any doubt?" I smirked.

"From you? No." He paused briefly, letting his eyes travel a little. "She held up pretty well though."

I nodded gruffly as we moved back toward the Manor through the now-empty grounds, and I let my eyes run the perimeter, more out of habit than anything else. The guards were in their positions. Torches were still burning at the eastern wall. And there was a line of servants carrying things back inside without so much as making a sound.

Everything was in perfect order, just the way I liked it.

"The Council looked pleased," Jasper said.

I scoffed, "The Council is always pleased when they get what they want."

"And what about Alice?"

I didn't answer that immediately.

Alice had spent the evening exactly where I expected her to — far enough away that no one would think to look twice, but close enough that I could feel her eyes on the back of my neck every time I wasn't looking in her direction.

We hadn't spoken a word since, but then again, we didn’t need to. She knew this was all a ruse to get the council off my back and finally ascend the throne of Alpha Blackthorne.

"What about her?” I repeated his question back, “Alice is fine."

Jasper said nothing, which meant he disagreed and had simply chosen not to say so out loud. ‘Smart man.’

We reached the Manor steps, and I stopped.

I don't know why I stopped; there wasn’t any reason to. The night was done, the deed was finished, and the thirty days the Elder Council had hung over my head like a guillotine had been successfully and efficiently resolved. There was nothing left outside to look at.

And yet… I turned back toward the grounds.

Cassandra was still out there.

Standing near the far edge of the ceremony space with her back half-turned and her face tilted up toward the sky. The torchlight moved across the gown. One of the flowers from her hair had come loose and was pressed against her cheek, but she hadn't bothered to fix it.

She looked almost ethereal under the moonlight. Standing there, completely still, with her brown eyes staring at the stars in the night sky, and I had the sudden, distinct sense that I was watching something I wasn't supposed to see.

I looked away.

"Let’s head inside," I said to Jasper, and took the first step up.

But then the mark on her neck pulsed, and I felt it inside of me — moving through my chest like a second heartbeat — making me stop mid-step and keeping me there with one hand braced on the doorframe, and the breath I had just drawn completely gone from my lungs.

I had placed forced marks before.

Sure, never on a mate, but I understood the mechanics of it. Every Alpha did. A forced mark produced a master/servant binding between the Alpha and the marked wolf, like a chain around the ankle. 

‘It definitely shouldn’t have such an effect on me.’

My jaw tightened, and behind me, I heard Jasper go still.

It seemed he had felt the shift in me. Twenty years of running alongside each other had made him something close to fluent in my behaviors.

"Dominic." His voice was careful.

I didn't answer him.

I turned back toward the grounds slowly, and my eyes locked onto hers. She still hadn't moved, and the warmth in my chest pulsed again.

'That's not possible,' I thought.

A forced mark, on a wolf I had met once. In a ceremony that was never supposed to be anything more than a quick solution to a problem.

'That is not possible.'

The fire torches crackled in the wind, and her mark pulsed a third time…