Chapter 254 Chapter 254
Chapter 254 Chapter 254
BRAD
The council and the rest of the pack have finally gotten what they want.
The announcement of Ariana’s coronation and wedding to me quickly spreads around the pack like wild fire and the only place that isn’t jubilant about it happens to be the pack mansion itself.
The omegas and guards go utterly silent and the house suddenly feels it has been stripped of its very life. Everyone, including Andrew, notices it almost immediately.
Outside the mansion, there’s jubilation amongst everyone. The elders had even insisted that we bring the wedding as close as possible, meaning I am getting married to Ariana tonight.
Andrew takes care of my suit and Lucian is in charge of the hall planning. Esme vehemently refuses to partake in any of the preparations, especially when it has to do with helping Ariana get ready.
Unlike other days have done, today drags by pretty quickly, much to my disappointment. The house is frantic and buzzing with omegas running helter skelter and I simply stroll to the garden with a pack of cigarettes in my pockets and a lighter.
Esme, who is already seated on a garden bench, glares at me. I deliberately sit down on the same bench and she inches away from me with a frown. Silently, I pick out a cigarette and when I hold the lighter to its butt, she explodes.
“It’s going to affect my lungs more than yours,” she snaps coldly, “to think you never used to smoke with Bella. What a great influence the distance has been.” She says flatly.
I let the lighter linger around the cigarette’s butt and with a sigh, I turn it off. I breathe hard and stare ahead, watching the silhouettes from the boisterous pack house as the sun fades from the sky, leaving a bleeding shade of red behind.
“Bella never complained about the cigarettes, you know,” I reply, “but I just got the feeling that she wouldn’t have liked it. So, in every little way I could, I tried not to hurt her more than my supposed ignorance already did.”
She shrugs, her eyes cold and indifferent, “She should have hated you, but she did it. The death of a child would do it for anyone, and that only made me hate you even more.”
“Justifiably so.”
She scoffs bitterly, “You’re a bastard, Brad and a hypocrite—everyone in this pack is.”
Her words only scrape the surface of the damage my conscience has spent two years inflicting on me. I smile at the mansion vaguely and in a soft voice, I decide to finally speak to someone.
“Ariana looks like Bella, but in many ways, Bella’s beauty was incredulously distinct. She carried a certain fire I have never seen in another woman before,” I confess and right before my eyes, my mind forms an enchanted image of her beautiful face. “You also saw the light in her, Esme, but we both know that I was too much of a coward to capitalize on it. I chose being a good leader over being a good lover.”
“You mean being a good person.”
I look at her sharply, my eyes bloodshot and fierce with the agony slicing through my heart. “I thought I could make things right before she delivered the child. I wanted to please both the pack and clear Bella’s name too. That’d cost me everything, Esme—everything.”
For the first time in years, she doesn’t look at me like a monster. Her eyes soften slightly, but that anger still lingers beneath her careful compassion.
“Others will come at us if they sense our pack is vulnerable,” I say and rise to my feet, “I have to make this pack stable and as long as the Luna’s seat remains vacant, I can’t give our rivals that impression.”
“That impression?” She asks, a confused expression on her face.
I look at her and scoff, “I feel nothing for Ariana. When Bella denounced me as my mate, my wolf felt torture and it has been in that state of agony every single day until now because I have refused to accept her rejection. That pain will only die when one of us does. Bella is still alive and I know it. Should she choose to return someday, I do not wish for her to come back to ash and ruin.”
She sighs and her resolve finally breaks down completely. She stares down at her feet and shakes her head, then calmly mutters, “Seeing Ariana where she used to be will feel like ash and ruin to her.”
I nod slowly, “I know…but all I really need is an opportunity to make things right, Esme. And the first step towards that is making sure she has a home to come back to.”
A huge bell suddenly rings and I glance back at her with a pale smile, “Time for my wedding.”
She doesn’t say a word as she watches me leave. I stroll back into the mansion and it feels like I am walking into a pit. My duty to the pack has always come first, but this time, at least it feels like I am working towards an end of my own making.
— — —
Andrew adjusts my tie one final time and steps out of the way so I can look into the mirror. I stare at the reflection that looks back impassively—certainly not the face of a man on the night of his wedding. Andrew hasn’t smiled all day and he currently shoves his hands into his pockets with an indifferent look on his face.
“Not even a congratulations?” I tease, trying to lighten the suffocating atmosphere.
He rolls his eyes and looks away, “They don’t congratulate a dead man at his funeral, do they?” He retorts coldly.
I smile and turn away, “Right, they don’t.”
As we get to the door, a sharp pain suddenly slices through my spine, forcing me to my knees. I groan in pain, gnashing my teeth as the searing sensation cuts deeper into my flesh.
“Brad!” Drew exclaims, “what’s wrong?”
My head swarms with the frantic growling of my wolf, an uncontainable, uncontrollable sound that makes me wince in agony. “It’s my wolf! It's gone crazy!”
The door suddenly bursts open and Lucian rushes into the room, his eyes wide and buzzing with
shock.
“You wouldn’t believe what I have to tell you!” He yells.