★Nuel's Pov★
Appeasement offering? His words gnawed at me like claws against my bones.
It couldn't be. My parents had said I was to be the replacement tribute bride. Not… this.
But then again, since when had my parents ever told me the truth?
Since when had they spoken to me like I mattered? Even the message of my departure had been sent through servants, as though I were a plague they couldn't risk breathing the same air with. An omen. An inconvenience.
"I asked you to strip. Why are you still clothed?" His thunderous voice snapped through my thoughts, shattering the haze.
I hadn't even known when he walked in nor had the time to gather my thoughts after what I'd seen. But the hearing the truth from him, the objects at the table and coupled with now my parents had sent me here instead of my sister, it all seems to be making sense.
I recoiled instantly, my body sliding back across the cold stone floor, away from his fingers that had tilted my chin moments ago. Away from him.
No. He can't know.
What about the rogues? Where were they? Why didn't my father tell me how they were supposed to come? How they were supposed to rescue me? Why hadn't anyone told me the plan? If they were meant to rescue me, why was I staring at him instead of them?
My mind spun in chaotic shambles.
"Strip, Nuella, or I will force you." His command cut through me again, sharp as a blade.
I scrambled to my feet, staggering back. Sweat pooled across my forehead, sliding down my temples. He couldn't know. If he succeeded in what he demanded, if he stripped me bare then my secret would be exposed.
"Do you think your body is so precious that you can deny me?" he sneered, a cruel smile tugging at his lips. "Perhaps I should make it a nightly performance. Every evening you'll strip naked before my pack in the square to entertain us. But first, you will bare yourself before me."
His voice thundered again.
"Strip or I'll have the guards do it for you!"
Strip. Strip. Strip. As if that was the only word they knew. I'd heard it echo all evening, not once nor twice now, slithering from every mouth in this cursed North like a chant.
I was so consumed by my thoughts I didn't notice him moving until his presence swallowed the air between us. By the time I realized, his hands were already on me, tearing at the fabric of my dress while I fought to hold it together.
My strength was pitiful against his. His power dwarfed mine.
With a vicious rip, the dress split open across my chest.
I froze, clutching desperately at the sheets from the bed, pressing them to my chest as I turned my head away. My heart thudded in my ears, bracing for the worst to come.
But instead of advancing, he stopped.
Motionless. Silent.
His gaze burned into me with something something darker and heavier than how I'd seen him in the hall earlier after he killed two of his pack members.
He stared at the ragged scrap of fabric he had torn from me. His face twisted, confusion and fury colliding in his eyes until at last the storm broke.
"A boy?!" The roar shook the chamber.
The fake lingerie clung awkwardly to my broad chest, the ridges of my ribcage clear even through the disguise. My secret lay bare under his piercing gaze.
I said nothing, watching as he struggled, his fury rising with every second.
I knew what he saw—the resemblance that fooled him. My hair, my face, my eyes—they mirrored hers perfectly. I was the image of the woman in the photograph. But beneath it all, I was a man. That truth, I could see, unsettled him more than anything else.
He turned abruptly and stormed from the room, the door slamming shut with a violent thud.
I exhaled shakily, throwing the sheet back onto the bed. My hands trembled as I ripped the silicone breasts from my chest and hurled them aside.
This was my chance. If I was quick, I could escape before he returned. If I found the rogues, if I could just make it to them, I'd finally be free. If only I had my wolf, I would sprint and vanish into the wild faster beyond his reach.
I dashed for the door.
But before my fingers grazed the knob, it flew open, slamming into me with brutal force. The impact hurled me backward. My skull cracked against the floor, blood spilling hot and sticky down my forehead, blurring my vision.
The Alpha strode in, his fury a living storm. He yanked the blonde wig from my head, revealing the short black hair beneath as if the absence of the false breasts I had yanked off hadn't already betrayed me.
"He's a man, Thor!" he bellowed, his voice shaking the chamber. "A man! How could you fail to confirm the gender of what you were bringing me from the West?"
The one called Thor kept his head bowed, saying nothing. He was the same man who sat next to me in the car and took me to the hall. I was only realizing now what his name was.
I barely heard them again as my mind began spinning, the blood in my eyes stinging, my breaths shallow. I only wanted to leave.
"Send word to the West," the Alpha roared, his voice echoing like thunder. "Have them here by the howl of the wolves tomorrow morning. Call the Alpha Council! How dare they mock me this way? I'll burn their pack to the ground!"
I heard him, though my vision swam. My ears caught every word even as the room tilted around me.
"As for him—" his voice sharpened, cruel and merciless.
"Throw him into scalding water. Leave him there till morning. At dawn, I'll execute him at the pyre before the one who dared send him to me."
I tried to hold on, but the dizziness was a merciless tide dragging me under. His words became echoes, distant and muffled. My body sagged and the last thing I knew was the heat of blood soaking down my face, the world slipping into black but his words still in my head.
"Throw him into a scalding hot water....."