FIA
The morning sun painted everything golden, and I should have been happy. My half-sister Hazel was supposed to marry Alpha Cian Donlon today. The Skollrend pack had traveled from three territories over, bringing their finest warriors and elders. Our small pack territory buzzed with excitement we hadn't felt in years.
I smoothed down my pale blue bridesmaid dress and checked the time. Twenty minutes until the ceremony, and the guests were already seated in neat rows outside. Children from both packs chased each other between the chairs while their parents exchanged pleasantries and business talk. This wedding meant everything to our pack. An alliance with Skollrend would secure our borders and bring prosperity we desperately needed.
Alpha Cian stood near the altar, his dark suit pressed perfectly, but his eyes kept darting toward the main house. He ran a hand through his black hair and checked his watch again. The man looked nervous, which wasn't like him. I'd only met him twice during the courtship negotiations, but he struck me as someone who never showed weakness.
"Where is she?" he asked his Beta, loud enough that I caught the words from my spot near the flower arrangements.
Good question. I hadn't seen Hazel since yesterday evening. She'd been quiet during the rehearsal dinner, picking at her food and giving short answers when anyone spoke to her. I thought it was just wedding nerves. Every bride got nervous, right?
The crowd started murmuring. Heads turned toward the house, then back to the Alpha, then to each other. Someone coughed. A baby cried and was quickly hushed. The longer we waited, the more restless everyone became.
Alpha Cian walked over to me. "Have you seen Hazel?"
"Not this morning. She might still be getting ready with Mother." I gestured toward the house, though doubt crept into my voice. "You know how long these things take."
His jaw tightened. "The ceremony should have started ten minutes ago."
Fear sprouted in my chest, small but insistent. "I'll go check on her."
I hurried toward the main house, my heels clicking against the stone pathway. The closer I got, the more my stomach churned. Something felt wrong. The air itself seemed heavy, like a storm was coming.
I found Isobel in the small anteroom adjacent to Hazel's bedroom. My stepmother sat in a chair, her face pale as morning mist, staring at a piece of paper in her trembling hands. She looked up when I entered, and I saw something I'd never seen before in her eyes. Pure terror.
"Mother? What's wrong? Where's Hazel?"
Isobel held out the paper without speaking. Her lips moved but no sound came out.
I took the letter and recognized Hazel's handwriting immediately. My eyes scanned the words, but my brain refused to process them at first. I read it again, slower this time, hoping I'd misunderstood.
Dearest Mother and Father,
By the time you read this, I will be far from here with the man I truly love. I cannot marry Alpha Cian when my heart belongs to another. I know this will cause problems, but I cannot live a lie. Milo and I have been planning this for weeks. We are going somewhere no one will find us. Please forgive me, but I had to choose love over duty.
Your daughter, Hazel
The paper slipped from my fingers and fluttered to the floor. "No. No, no, no. This can't be real."
But it was real. I looked around the room and saw Hazel's wedding dress hanging abandoned on its hook, the pearl buttons catching the light. Her shoes sat empty beneath it. The veil lay crumpled on the vanity next to her unused makeup.
Milo. My fated mate. The man I'd loved since we were teenagers. The man who'd told me just last week that he needed time to think about our future together. The man who served as a sentinel in our pack.
My phone was in my hands before I realized I'd pulled it out. I dialed his number with shaking fingers.
"Fia?" His voice sounded different. Guilty.
"Tell me this isn't true. Tell me my sister didn't run away with you on her wedding day."
Silence stretched between us like a chasm.
"Milo, answer me!"
"It's true." His words hit me like a physical blow. "I'm sorry, Fia. I never meant for it to happen this way."
The room spun around me. I gripped the back of a chair to keep from falling. "How could you do this? Today of all days? What happens now? What happens to us?"
"There is no us anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm rejecting our mate bond, Fia. I'm sorry, but Hazel and I... we're meant to be together."
The pain hit me like lightning, starting in my chest and spreading through every nerve ending. The mate bond stretched thin, then snapped like a broken guitar string. I gasped and doubled over, clutching my ribs as agony flooded my system.
"What happens to Alpha Cian?" I managed to ask through gritted teeth. "What happens to our pack?"
"I'm just a sentinel, Fia. My choices are my own."
Just a sentinel. Like that made it acceptable to destroy everything. "He'll be humiliated in front of the other powerful pack in the region! This will wreck us!"
"I have to go. We're already hours away. Don't try to find us."
The line went dead. I stared at the phone, waiting for him to call back and tell me this was all some sick joke. He didn't.
"Fia!" Isobel grabbed my shoulders. "We don't have time for this. Look outside."
I stumbled to the window. The guests had begun standing up from their chairs. Some pointed toward the house. Others checked their watches and whispered among themselves. Alpha Cian paced near the altar like a caged wolf.
"The ceremony is already late," Isobel said. "If we don't produce a bride soon, Alpha Cian will know something is wrong. When he finds out what Hazel did..." She covered her mouth with her hand.
"What do you mean?"
"Think, Fia! This isn't just embarrassment. This is a broken contract between two packs. When the Skollrend wolves realize they've been insulted this way, what do you think will happen to us?"
The truth crashed over me like ice water. Pack alliances weren't just political arrangements. They were sacred bonds sealed in ceremony and witnessed by both groups. Breaking one was considered an act of war or at minimum, grounds for severe punishment.
"Alpha Cian could demand compensation," I whispered. "He could claim our territory. He could have Father imprisoned."
"Or worse." Isobel's voice cracked. "He could have us all killed for the insult. Hazel didn't just abandon her groom. She spat in the face of his entire bloodline."
My legs gave out. I sank into the chair Isobel had vacated, my head spinning with implications. Our small pack had maybe fifty adult members. Skollrend had over two hundred. If Alpha Cian decided we'd dishonored him beyond forgiveness, we wouldn't stand a chance.
"There has to be something we can do," I said. "We could explain. Tell him it wasn't planned. That we had no idea."
"You think he'll care? His pack traveled days to get here. They brought gifts. They arranged business deals contingent on this alliance. And now what? We tell them sorry, the bride ran away with another man?" Isobel laughed bitterly. "We might as well dig our own graves."
Outside, Alpha Cian's voice rose above the murmur of the crowd, though I couldn't make out his words. Whatever he was saying made several Skollrend wolves stand up from their seats. The tension was building like pressure in a kettle.
"Maybe we could offer something else," I said desperately. "Money, part of our territory, anything to make up for this. We have to tell father about this!"
"What do we have that they want? Our pack is barely holding together as it is." Isobel walked to the window and peered through the curtains. "Oh god, he's coming this way."
Heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Alpha Cian's voice carried through the door, though he was trying to keep it low. "I need to speak with my bride immediately."
Isobel spun around, her eyes wild with panic. She looked at me, then at Hazel's abandoned wedding dress, then back at me. I saw the exact moment the idea formed in her mind.
"No," I said, reading her expression. "Whatever you're thinking, no."
She moved to the dress and lifted it from its hook. "You're about the same size as Hazel."
"Mother, no. That's insane."
"Is it more insane than letting our entire pack be slaughtered?" She carried the dress toward me. "You could walk down that aisle. Complete the ceremony. No one would know until it was too late to back out."
"Alpha Cian would know! He's courted Hazel for months!"
"From a distance, with formal visits and chaperoned meetings. How much time have they actually spent alone together? How well does he really know her face?"
The footsteps in the hall stopped right outside our door. "Mrs. Hughes? I need to see Hazel now."
Isobel grabbed the wedding veil from the vanity and shook it out. The delicate lace fell in layers, thick enough to obscure someone's features if positioned correctly.
"This is madness," I whispered.
"This is survival." She held the veil toward me. "Please, Fia. Save us. Save your father. Save everyone you've ever cared about in this pack."
"Mrs. Hughes?" Alpha Cian's voice carried a warning now.
My hands shook as I stared at the veil. Everything in me screamed that this plan would never work. But what choice did we have? If we opened that door and told Alpha Cian the truth, we'd all be dead before sunset.
I thought about my father, who'd worked his whole life to keep our small pack together. I thought about the children playing outside, innocent of all this adult scheming. I thought about Milo and Hazel, already hours away from here, safe while the rest of us faced the consequences of their choice.
The door handle turned.
"Put it on me," I said.