The Wolf's Bride (Pause)

Chapter 3

Dinner was to be taken in the salon, the maid that was stuffing my breasts into that wretched corset said. When I entered the room, Elia wasn't there, nor was my mother. Only my father, the foreigner and the damned corset squeezing the life out of me. The two guards were once again at the entrance. The growing feeling that something was wrong started gnawing at me. Maybe the guest realized what I had been trying to do and I was about to receive punishment for that. Or perhaps... Was my sister simply running late and making herself prettier for this moment? Was the stranger going to propose to her? Had he already done it?

It was harder to breath, harder to think as I looked behind me only to see the guards making a slight step into the door. A conversation was about to happen, and I was going to sit through it whether I wanted or not, or stand, since no one invited me to sit just yet.

My father finally turned his eyes from the guest to me, the expression on his face more foreign than the guest and his guards. There was no emotion on his face, no smile to tell of a great deal being struck, no sadness or anger at said deal falling through. Just calmness, for the fact that the deal was still pending. The plates of food were untouched as well, merely for show, merely an excuse. The cutlery clean as the day it was acquired.

"Has he made a proposal towards Elia yet?" I forced myself to ask, just to push away the thoughts swarming in my head.

The stranger turned too, turning the chair with him, those green eyes fixed on me still, like they had been when he first entered the house, when he requested that he see the library. My fists clenched on the folds of my dress.

"Our guest is not here for Elia." my father spoke, shattering my heart.

"And what of your business deal?"

"It's done." the stranger answered now, his eyes glinting with something I could understand, arms crossed around his chest.

Without even realizing it, I took a step back, the movement hurting my feet and back, the corset digging into my skin, clenching around my ribs, my lungs, my heart. It was me. It had always been me. The unlucky one. The less fortunate one. The uglier one. Always me getting the shorter end of the stick.

The guards took a step closer, I wasn't yet sure if they were really going to constrict my movements, but it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. There was on detail that made it all click into place. The lack of gloves on their hands, too big hairy hands with longer nails than a man usually wore, claws. They were going to force me in one place if I tried running away. I looked at the stranger again, to see his white teeth flashed in an arrogant smirk, as if he knew he had won already. What bothered me most about it was the elongated canines. Fucking animals! And everything made sense. Why I was watched so carefully, so territorially. Why there seemed to be something off, why I was so irritated. Why I couldn't calm myself down because I knew next to nothing and couldn't connect any pieces.

"I'm not marrying a fucking werewolf!" the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, before I could push them back down.

Neither my dress nor my heels had been a mistake, a harmless mishap. They had been rightfully chosen so that in this very moment, when I needed it most, I wouldn't be able to run. I stepped back once again. The guards moved too. But they didn't move when I stepped forward, towards the dinner table. So they were only acting if I was trying to run. Fine by me.

My father looked in no way shocked by that information. He just kept staring at some papers in front of him. He knew. The power hungry bastard knew. Everyone knew, from the very start, and they didn't tell me. Not even Elia. Not even her...

"He offers me an opportunity to make trade with the werewolves. A market where I would have no competitors, you must know how good a deal that is." he simply said, not bothering to lift his eyes from the papers that no doubt contained more information on what he was being offered, all the things he'd get just for seeling off his daughter like a mere cow.