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Home / Werewolf / Unexpected Mate: The Cruel Alpha’s Little Wolf / Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

All Chapters of Unexpected Mate: The Cruel Alpha’s Little Wolf: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

73 Chapters

Chapter 21

Seven days. The words seemed to echo through the room. Seven days to decide the rest of my life. I stared at the floor. At the edge of Kael's desk. Anywhere except at him. Because every time I looked up, I remembered the proposal. The council wanted us married. Not because we loved each other. Not because we had chosen each other. Because it was politically convenient. Because it solved a problem. My chest tightened. I hated how familiar that felt. A bargain. An arrangement. A decision made by other people. The silence stretched between us. Neither of us seemed eager to break it. Finally, I laughed softly. The sound was hollow even to my own ears. "Do you know what's ironic?" Kael didn't answer immediately. "What?" I swallowed. "My mate rejected me because I wasn't good enough to stand beside him." The words hurt less than they once had. Not because I had healed. Because I had become used to the pain. Now I was simply stating a

Chapter 22

I left Kael's office shortly after that. Or at least I think I did. The walk back to my room felt like a blur. My thoughts were too loud. The proposal. The council. Seven days. Aurelia. The word mummy. Everything tangled together until I couldn't separate one thought from another. By the time I reached my room, I was exhausted. Not physically. Emotionally. I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. For a long moment, I simply stood there. Breathing. Thinking. Trying not to think. It didn't work. My mind immediately replayed the scene in the study. I don't want you to leave. If you do, it'll look like I lied. I squeezed my eyes shut. Leave it to Aurelia to accidentally break my heart. A small, helpless laugh escaped me. Then faded just as quickly. Because the truth was simpler than that. A few weeks ago, I had been rejected in front of an entire pack. Humiliated. Exposed. And then I had seen her. A little girl being

Chapter 23

The council meeting should have made things clearer. Instead, it left me with more questions. Did I really want to go through with this? Every elder had been polite, and respectful. Which only made it worse. Not one of them had asked what I wanted. They had spoken about duty. About stability. About the future of the pack. About Aurelia. About Kael. About the position of Luna. Everything except the one thing I actually wanted to discuss. Me. By the time I returned to the estate, my head was pounding. I wanted silence. A locked door. Maybe several years to think. Unfortunately, none of those things were available. The moment I stepped through the front doors, I noticed something was off. Servants who usually greeted me without hesitation now paused slightly before speaking. A few bowed lower than usual. Others avoided my eyes entirely. It was subtle. Careful. Like everyone was trying to follow a rule that hadn’t been fully explained yet.

Chapter 24

I thought long and hard about the marriage proposal. For days, I had turned it over in my mind from every possible angle. The council. The pack. The responsibilities that would come with becoming Luna. None of it was a decision to be taken lightly. The truth was, I wasn't walking into this blindly. I knew exactly what I was agreeing to. A political marriage. A marriage born out of necessity rather than affection. A future chosen for me by circumstances rather than desire. Yet despite all that, I found myself unable to dismiss it completely. I had grown attached to Aurelia. Far more attached than I should have. The thought of leaving her hurt more than I cared to admit. Also I had something I hadn't possessed in a long time. Stability. The word lingered in my mind. Not because I had lost it after my rejection. Because, if I was being honest, I had never truly had it to begin with. Growing up under Vera's roof had taught me that quickly enough. I

Chapter 25

When we reached her door, Kael knocked once before opening it. Aurelia looked up immediately. The moment she saw us, her entire face lit up. "Aria!" She jumped from her chair and ran straight toward me. Her small arms wrapped around my waist. I hugged her automatically. Laughing softly as she squeezed me with all the strength a six-year-old could manage. “I missed you,” she said simply. Something in my chest softened immediately. “I missed you too, sweetheart.” Only then did she pull back. And her attention shifted past me. “Daddy!” She ran toward Kael next. He caught her easily, lifting her up as she reached him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, settling into him like she had done it a thousand times before. Then she turned her head slightly, still holding on to him. “Aria came with you!” There was a small pride in her voice, as though she was announcing something important. Kael’s hand rested briefly on her back. “Yes,” he said simply.

Chapter 26

I woke up early the next morning. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I gave up trying to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I found myself replaying the council's proposal. A wedding. A future I had never imagined for myself. By the time the sun began to rise, I was already awake, staring at the ceiling. Today would make everything official. After this, there would be no turning back. A strange mixture of anxiety and anticipation settled heavily in my stomach. I pushed myself out of bed and got dressed carefully. Perhaps more carefully than usual. As if looking composed would somehow make me feel composed. It didn't. The nervousness remained. Following me downstairs like a shadow. Kael was already there when I arrived. Of course he was. The man seemed incapable of being unprepared. He looked up briefly from the documents in front of him. "Good morning." "Good morning, Alpha." For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then he surprised me. "Did you sleep well?

Chapter 27

The strangest part of everything wasn't the realization that I would be married in three weeks. It was the way people looked at me afterward. As though I had become someone else. Someone important. Someone worthy of respect. The irony was almost laughable. Because inside, I still felt like the same girl who had spent her life being tolerated rather than chosen. The same girl who had learned not to expect too much. Not from people. Not from fate. Not from life. Yet now servants stepped aside when I passed. Some smiled. Others bowed their heads respectfully. A few even greeted me with a formality that made me glance over my shoulder to make sure they weren't speaking to someone else. It was unsettling. Nothing about me had changed. I was still Aria. Still the girl who wasn't entirely sure she deserved to be here. And yet everyone else seemed determined to treat me differently. I had barely reached the main corridor when a young maid carrying folde

Chapter 28

"It's from your people." For a second, nobody spoke. Agatha's hand tightened slightly around my arm. Enough to remind me that I wasn't standing alone. My stomach twisted. I had known this moment would come. The council had barely finalized the marriage before word began spreading through the estate. Of course the news would eventually reach Vera and Manda. I just hadn't expected it to happen this quickly. "Who delivered it?" Agatha asked. "A messenger," the servant replied. "He requested that the letter be placed directly into Miss Aria's hands." The knot in my stomach tightened. The servant extended a sealed envelope toward me. I recognized the seal immediately. My breath caught. Vera. I hadn't seen her handwriting in weeks. Yet somehow I recognized it instantly. Funny. Some things stayed with you no matter how far away you went. I reached for the letter. For a moment, I simply stared at it. A part of me didn't want to open it. Because

Chapter 29

After leaving Aurelia and her bakery behind, I headed straight for Kael's office. The letter remained folded in my hand. I had read it three times already. The words hadn't become any friendlier. If anything, they seemed harsher every time I looked at them. I knocked on the door. "Come in." I stepped inside. Kael was seated behind his desk, reviewing what looked like another mountain of documents. For a moment, I wondered if the man ever truly stopped working. His eyes lifted the second he noticed me. Then they shifted to the letter in my hand. "A message arrived." Not a question. A statement. I nodded. "From my people." Without another word, I crossed the room and handed it to him. Kael took the letter and read it. Once. That was all he needed. His expression remained as unreadable as ever. A skill I was beginning to suspect he had spent years perfecting. Finally, he placed the letter on the desk. "She's unhappy." A short laugh escaped me. "That's one way of

Chapter 30

The next three days passed far too quickly. Or perhaps not quickly enough. I couldn't decide. Every time I thought about the upcoming visit to Vera's house, I wished the days would slow down. Every time I remembered that postponing it would only drag out the inevitable, I wished they would hurry. Either way, the days continued moving forward. Uncaring of my feelings. By the second day, the estate had fully embraced the reality of the upcoming wedding. Not in dramatic ways. In small subtle ones. The kind that caught me off guard when I wasn't paying attention. I walked into one sitting room and found several women discussing fabric samples. Another corridor was occupied by servants carrying stacks of documents from one office to another. Twice, I overheard conversations about guest accommodations. Once, I even heard someone discussing floral arrangements. Floral arrangements. For my wedding. The thought was still strange enough to make me stop walking. I stood in the

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