I look over my shoulder where Adrian is standing with Freki by the bridal table. His eyes aren’t on me, but I just know he’s listening in.
I exhale sharply, shaking my head. “I don’t want to stay with him.”
“You’re married now, Alicia,” Mom says with sad eyes as she tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “That’s what husbands and wives do. You’ll be okay. I know you will.”
Of course, I knew this was how it worked. But everything has happened so fast that a part of me hasn’t accepted it yet.
In a perfect world where there was no hatred or tension between us, I would be jumping at joy at the prospect of spending the night with my husband, my fated mate. But this is my reality. I will be spending the night with my husband who hates me and wishes he had never married me.
I slowly say goodbye to my parents, trying to drag it out for as long as I can before I’m left with no choice but to follow Adrian to his black Porsche parked near the wedding venue.
Neither of us say a word the entire drive to the Greenwood compound. The radio is the only relief I get from the suffocating silence filling the small space.
Adrian wastes no time turning the car off and getting out. I huff when I realize he doesn’t wait for me, making his way up the steps to the front door. I hold up the fabric at the bottom of my wedding dress as I slowly follow behind him.
There aren’t many lights on in the house, as most of the other people living here have likely gone to bed already.
I chew on my bottom lip as I walk across the wooden floorboards and follow Adrian up multiple flights of stairs.
He pushes open the door to his bedroom.
My eyes gaze around the room as I enter, taking in the black paint on all four ways, the king bed sat in the middle of the room, and the multiple bookcases lining the right side of the room filled to the brim with classic books and some titles I’ve never heard of.
There isn’t much in here that can give me a sense of who Adrian is as a person, other than he likes to read and enjoys having the walls in his bedroom painted black.
I stand awkwardly just inside of the doorway, nervously fiddling with the fabric in my hands. I was so preoccupied with how frustrated I was with Adrian that I completely forgot how the rest of the night would progress.
I watch Adrian from across the room as he kicks off his black leather shoes, shoves off his suit jacket, and loosens the black-tie from around his neck. He pauses when he feels my eyes intently watching him.
“There is a spare set of clothes on the end of the bed for you,” he mutters without looking at me. He tosses the tie onto the bed beside the pile of clothes he just mentioned.
“Thanks,” I breathe as I eye off the pile.
I take a deep breath as I take a few steps forward until I’m at the bed. I look at the black and gray bed sheets wondering if Adrian likes any other colors besides black.
“Oh, and you’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight,” Adrian says after a moment, finally lifting his eyes to mine.
My eyes widen in shock.
“You can’t be serious?”
Judging by the deadpan look on his face and the way he carelessly takes off his button-up shirt and replaces his slacks with a pair of cotton shorts, he’s deadly serious.
I watch as he climbs into bed and continues to not acknowledge my presence as I stand before him, still wearing my wedding dress and holding a pile of clothes that I don’t even know will fit me.
Everything that has happened this past week has been overwhelming, to say the least. I take a deep breath as everything comes crashing down on me at once, and all the emotions I have been pushing aside since the second time we met explode out of me at once.
“Why do you hate me?” I demand, folding my arms over my chest. My heart is racing at my sudden shift in tone, but I refuse to back down. My wolf is howling for me to let it go, but I ignore her.
Adrian lifts his eyes to mine. His eyes soften for a moment, just long enough for me to see it, before they return to their usual tense and cold stare.
“Because your pack is the reason why my parents are dead.”
His words hit me like an arrow to the heart, piercing through my soul. The way he casually drops that information on me has my mind racing and my heart filling with dread and guilt all at the same time.
“How?” I whisper, desperately hoping he will answer me. “How is my pack at fault for that?”
My mind races. Now it’s all starting to make sense. The reason why he hates me—and the Midnight pack. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that emotion was, but now I understand—it was resentment mixed with regret.
Adrian isn’t done.
“Your father ordered a pack of rogue wolves to attack my pack, which resulted in my parents being slaughtered,” Adrian spits out as he kicks the quilt off and stands to his feet. I can hear the anger dripping from his voice as he speaks, like venom.
“Which makes you a part of the reason they are dead.”
I can feel anger and frustration starting to build inside of me.
I don’t believe my father would do something evil like that. He is the best Alpha I have ever known, and would never stoop as low as to assassinate another pack leader—and start a war in the process.
“You’re wrong,” I say forcefully, shaking my head. “My father would never do such a thing. You’re lying.”
My eyes widen in shock when Adrian strides across the room until his nose is almost touching mine.
My heart is in my throat as his warm breath fans across my lips and his dark eyes stare back into mine. He’s so close to me that I could clear his hair out from over his eyes or touch his cheek.
“Don’t you dare call me a liar,” he seethes. “I know what truly happened that night, so don’t think you can just waltz on in here and change my mind.”
He has an intensely dark look in his eyes, and his voice is so deep and gravelly that it vibrates every bone in my entire body.
I want to argue with him further to tell him why he’s wrong about my father, but he doesn’t give me the chance to when he turns on his heels and walks back to the bed. He tosses a blanket and pillow onto the floor on the opposite side of the bed without looking at me.
“Like I said, you’re on the floor tonight.”
He switches off the lamp on the nightstand, leaving me standing in the dark alone with my thoughts and heart racing a mile a minute.