***Adrian's POV***
Laughter boomed across the lounge, but to me, it sounded like chains clinking in a cell.
My bachelor's eve. That's what they called it. But I didn't know most of the men here except that they were strangers laughing too loudly, drinking like it was their celebration and not mine.
I just turned twenty one a few weeks ago. Because of my father whose wealth rivals nations, I have everything others envy, everything apart from my own freedom.
I didn't even have the freedom to choose my own marriage. Tomorrow I'm going to be married to a girl I've only heard her name. Not because we love each other, but because our families can offer each other the most profitable business alliance as well as a temporal stop to the enmity and rivalry between our packs.
My father doesn't care who I like. Not that I liked anyone. He doesn't even care that I'm not attracted to women. Though I can't entirely blame him. As no one knows I'm a closeted. Homosexuality is deeply frowned upon in packs.
And for my father, the heir to a billion-dollar corporation being gay would be a devastating scandal. Not just for his pack and business. I can't even fight him and I've never done so because he has every say in my life.
To me it doesn't matter who I marry anymore, it's all the same.
I gripped the stem of the wine glass the bartender handed me and swallowed it down in one go. The taste burned, even though the wine was sweet. I wasn't a drinker. Never had been. But tonight, I needed it.
"Don't embarrass me today, Adrian. You've already done enough damage to my reputation since the day you were born. Stay low until the wedding is over."
My father's words from this morning still clanged in my head. I clenched my jaw, walked back to the passing tray and snatched two more glasses. One after the other. Swallowed until the world blurred at the edges.
"While other Alphas had Alpha sons, the moon goddess disgraced me by giving me a weak and pathetic beta as one. This is your time to redeem that stain you've brought to my name all these years" the words kept replaying in my head.
This wedding wasn't mine. It was his arrangement. His bride. His alliance. The powerful Alpha of the Crimson Moon Pack didn't leave space for my say in anything. I knew better than to disobey him—my disfigured left index finger was enough reminder of what happened when I tried.
"Loosen up, Adrian! It's your bachelor's eve!"
I heard a voice saying and when I turned saw that it was Lucas. My secretary. The pity in his voice scraped against my skin like sandpaper. I hated it. I hated that he felt sorry for me, the Alpha's heir, future Alpha myself. His pity was the last thing I wanted.
I pressed my lips together, bitterness coating my tongue thicker than the wine. Around me, the music thumped, bass-heavy, the kind of sound meant to make people feel alive. But all it did was pound against the back of my skull.
They were celebrating me.
But I was just a shadow on the wall.
I hadn't even met her yet. Didn't know her full name. Only that she was a "suitable match." A daughter from a respectable Alpha bloodline. A bandage for my father's reputation—one more way to fix the problem of having a son presumed gay by the media tabloids.
"You'll meet her tomorrow. Stop asking questions, Adrian. You're lucky I still have the patience to fix what you've ruined." He'd said.
What I'd ruined… I had only existed.
My chest burned as I shoved through the crowd, up the staircase, gripping the railing tight. I didn't want to be around my secretary or the me celebrating a prison I was going to be thrown into. I wanted to disappear.
Each step dragged at my legs, the alcohol buzzing and fogging my head. Upstairs, it was quieter. Dim sconces glowed against the walls, soft shadows replacing the noise and stink of cigars below.
I pressed against the wall and dragged a hand over my face, my skin clammy and hot. Years of swallowing myself down, pretending to be what he wanted me to be. The good son. The straight son. The Alpha-in-waiting.
A bitter laugh clawed up my throat. I didn't even like girls. Never had. The first time I told my father, I was eleven. His slap had sent me spinning to the floor, my jaw aching for days. My heart even longer. After that, I stopped explaining. What was the point?
Blinking hard, I reached for a door—one of the guest rooms. I just wanted to lie down. Maybe cry where no one could see.
But then I heard a moan.
I froze. One might think I haven't heard one before because of how I did. But I've watched far too many erotic movies to know that the moan I had heard deserved that reaction.
Another followed, sharper this time. Breathless. The sound carried down the hall from a door left half-ajar at the far end. A thud followed, the knock of a headboard against a wall.
Curiosity or maybe the alcohol pulled me forward. My hand curled around the knob, every instinct screaming to walk away. But my chest ached, my heart twisted and I opened it anyway.
There was no one working for my father here to find me, and he wasn't even in the bachelor's eve, what's there to be shy about?
I had told myself but my world tilted when I saw two bodies tangled together on the bed, half-dressed and lost in each other.
At first, I thought it was a man and two woman. That would've been easier. That would've been normal.
But it wasn't.
The one beneath him had a cock too. I saw how it was jerking in the air as he was being pounded by the second man.
My breath caught and I felt my feet rooted to the floor. I should have backed away. Closed the door and pretended I hadn't seen anything.
But I couldn't.
They weren't drunk and they weren't hiding. They were free. Free to moan, to kiss and to want their desires without shame. Without fear. Without the cage I'd been trapped in all my life.
And it hit me like a blade to the chest.
It wasn't just shock. It wasn't disgust.
It was envy.
Envy of their freedom. Of the way they touched without hesitation. Of the life I wanted, but was never allowed to live.
Should I walk away? Should I take this chance? The questions hammered in my head.
But then I thought, I had a few more hours before I accept the life binding vows that will chain me to the woman my father chose as my bride. I could have this night with them. I could spend this as my free day, loosing myself in what I've always denied for so long.
No one will know I was here. I'm not sure they might remember me after either. I will just be us, and pleasure.