CHAPTER FOUR

Sizzling hot sparks erupted wherever their flesh came into contact and Esme gazed at the king in sinking horror.

No… no… this couldn’t be happening to her. How could this man be her mate? The man that had killed her father in cold blood, destroyed her entire pack in one night….

Esme’s hand slid on the king’s chest and for a moment her head was swam with pleasure, her body humming. Her eyes strayed to his lips.

Startled at the direction of her thoughts, Esme shifted, while the king pushed her away from him like he had been burned.

“What the fuck? This better be a joke!” The king growled. “You are my mate?”

Hearing the truth spoken out loud made Esme want to scream. This couldn’t be happening to her.

“Of all people, I’m mated to a fucking banshee.” The Lycan cursed.

His words made Esme open her eyes in anger. He was so arrogant. “I don’t want to be mated to you either! You might think you’re the best thing to ever happen to any woman, but to me you’re nothing but a wretch. A lousy, cruel wretch, got it?”

His eyes narrowed, but Esme was just warming up.

“I don’t want anything to do with you, you hear me?” She yelled. “I, Esme Meadows, reject you as my mate!”

At her heated words of rejection, a tense silence enveloped the whole yard. No one, not even the wind made a single noise.

Esme tensed, expecting the pain of the rejection to swamp her body but nothing came. Then the king laughed. A soft mocking laugh.

“You really don’t know anything, do you?” He said mirthlessly as he knelt before her. “The rejection will never work.”

“Why?!”

“Because, my dear Esme, lycans mate for life. And even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t accept your rejection anyways.”

“Why?” Esme was frantic. “I thought you hated me.”

If Esme was expecting any words of sudden unrequited love, it was quickly blown away by his cold laugh.

“Make no mistake about that, I do despise you and your family.” He said chillingly. “But the goddess has just dropped a scape goat into my lap. Who am I to refuse it?”

Standing, he faced Slade who was not happy about this turn of events. “Bring me their chief priest. I want to have the mating ceremony before I leave here.”

“No…. I failed….” Catherine groaned incoherently as Isabella sobbed beside her, “No. Why is this happening?”

The alpha arched a brow. “It seems like your mother is against our mating.”

Esme recovered from her shock. “You must be going mad, if you think I’m ever going to marry you. There’s no way you can ever force me into spending the rest of my life with you.”

“Oh yes I can.” The king informed silkily. “You will do whatever it is that I tell you to do or else, I’ll slaughter the rest of your family and hang them just like I did to your father.”

Her face whitened. “You wouldn’t.”

“Won’t I?” The king's voice was dry.

Esme realized now that she was well and truly trapped. If she wanted her remaining family to survive, she would have to do whatever the king wanted her to do. 

“You’re a monster and I despise you.”

The king smiled coldly. “Rest assured, princess. The feeling is mutual.”

The hasty mating ceremony took place later that night. Esme was hurriedly dressed in a white dress and headdress and made to stand on the stage with the king who was entirely shirtless and looked formidable in the firelight.

The atmosphere was solemn as the surviving pack members all stood watching, as their alpha’s daughter married the one responsible for their destruction.

“You may now open the veil, y-your highness,” the chief priest said, stammering slightly.

Esme was glaring daggers at him as he lifted the veil and his lips tipped up in amusement.

“Lovely.”

Esme scoffed inwardly. She’d refused to rub any makeup on her face, coming as she was with the mark of her dad’s hand on her face and marks on her neck. Let him see it and squirm.

His hand came up to her cheek and he frowned. “Who hurt you?”

“It’s none of your business.” She spat.

“Was it Slade?”

“And if it was? Isn’t that what you Barbarians do? Destroy and kill anyone that stands in your way?” 

A nerve ticked in the king’s jaw but other than that, he showed no sign of reacting to her taunt.

When the time came for them to cut their hands and seal their bond, Esme pleaded one last time.

“Don’t do this. Please just let us go.”

The king hesitated at the pool of tears shining in Esme’s eyes. Then his eyes hardened. “I’m a barbarian, remember? I have no heart.”

Then he used the silver blade to cut his palm, then hers and joined it together so their blood mingled and flowed together.

“As your blood now flows in each other's veins, so has your lives become entwined. You are now one being, two halves of a whole. I now pronounce you mates.”

At the chief priest’s words, the Lycan king smirked, claiming her in front of everyone. “No, not mate. You’re my war prize.”

Esme looked away in fear, pulling her hands from his.

Dear goddess, what had she gotten herself into?