I stared at the paper in Alec's hand. The word contract felt like a physical blow to my stomach. I hadn't even washed the dried blood from my palm yet, and he was already presenting me with the price of my life.
"A contract?" I whispered. "We were just bound by blood at the altar. Isn't that enough for you?"
"The blood bond ensures your soul is tied to this pack," Alec said, his voice as cold as the stone walls around us. "This document ensures your behavior is tied to my will. Read the terms, Skylar. I don't like repeating myself."
My eyes blurred as I reached out, took the paper and scanned the list. It wasn't a marriage agreement; it was a manual for a slave.
Rule 1: The Luna shall provide a male heir within three months. Access to the Alpha's bed is mandatory upon command. Outside of procreation, the Luna shall not seek, initiate, or expect physical contact.
Rule 2: Total Emotional Severance. The Luna shall not address the Alpha with personal inquiries, nor expect conversation, companionship, or comfort. In this house, she is a title, not a person.
Rule 3: Public Performance. The Luna shall maintain the appearance of a devoted wife in the presence of the Alpha's family and the pack. Any public display of misery or dissent will be considered a breach of the Peace Treaty.
Rule 4: Forfeiture of Rights. Failure to conceive or a breach of any rule results in the immediate nullification of the Peace Treaty. The Crescent Pack will be left to the mercy of the invaders.
The paper rattled in my shaking hands. "You want me to be... a doll? Someone you only use when you want a child, and then I'm supposed to play-pretend for your mother that everything is perfect?"
Cold spike in my chest. I looked at him… really looked at him. He was devastatingly handsome, but he was a void. There was no soul behind those dark forest eyes, only a ruthless, calculating machine.
"I won't sign this." I stated as I dropped the paper onto the mahogany desk. "I won't be a vessel for you to use and discard."
I heard him breathing sharply before he stood up from the desk. He moved with a slow, predatory grace that made my heart stop. He didn't yell. He simply strolled toward me until I was backed against the stone wall near the window.
He leaned in as he placed one hand on the wall beside my head, looming so closely I couldn't breathe.
"You think you have the luxury of pride?" he hissed. "Look at me, Skylar."
I forced myself to meet his gaze, my eyes swimming with tears.
"Your father sold you because he is a coward and his pack is nothing without." he muttered, "You are here because the shadow tomb binds us together. And that's the only reason your pack is safe. If you don't sign that paper, the peace treaty stays in my desk. I'll withdraw my guards from your borders, and I'll watch from this window as the rogue packs tear your family apart."
He pulled back just enough to let me breathe, but the pressure was still there.
"I'll give you two days." He stated. "Forty-eight hours to mourn the life you thought you'd have. On the third morning, you either sign that paper, or I send you back to a pack that is already burning. The choice is yours."
I froze. "You are asked me to sell my body to keep my family alive?"
"I'm asking you to do the only thing you're capable of doing for this pack," Alec replied.
I looked down at the contract. A drop of tear fell and the paper got soaked. The words in my hand seemed to flash in front of my eyes.
The Luna shall provide a male heir within three months of the union.
The air left my lungs. He had stepped away from me when I asked, "I understand you will kill my family. But what about me? What would you do to me if I don't agree to sign this?"
"With or without that contract, you are bound to serve me." Alec said, his voice as flat as a blade. "So, if you do not sign it," He added, "I will not return you to your father. I will not give you the mercy of a quick death in the forest."
He turned back to face me, "I will strip you of your title. I will move you from this room to the damp stone of the cellar, and I will treat you exactly as you are: a captured enemy. You will still provide the heir. You will still serve this pack. But you will do it in chains, without the comfort of a bed or the protection of my name."
His eyes tracked the single tear that escaped, trailing down my cheek. He didn't reach out to wipe it. He didn't look like he even felt the impulse.
"The contract is your only hope for a life that resembles anything human, Skylar. Sign it, and you are a Luna in the eyes of the world. Refuse it, and you are merely a body I own."
The silence that followed was suffocating. I felt the walls of the room closing in, the shadows stretching like long, black fingers to drag me down. It was a death sentence wrapped in legal ink
"Two days." I whispered, the words barely finding their way past the lump in my throat.
"Two days." he confirmed.
I thought of my mother's cold eyes and my brother's cruel laughter. I had no home to go back to. So, if I even thought of escaping, I had nowhere to go. But nowhere sounded way better than the cage I was in. I might get killed by the rogues. But it's better than living with this beast.
"I will give it to you again in two days." Alec took the paper back from my hand. He slipped the contract into a drawer and locked it.
"The bathroom is yours." He said, not looking back.
I didn't wait. I scrambled toward the bathroom, my heavy skirts rustling on the floor. I locked the door and leaned my forehead against the cold marble of the vanity, finally letting the sobs rack my body.
I was nineteen. I was an Omega. And I had forty-eight hours to decide which version of hell I was going to live in for the rest of my life.
I cried for what felt like an hour. Then I let the water run hot. I scrubbed the expensive makeup from my face until my skin was raw. I stepped out of the steam ten minutes later, and found a nightgown.
When I stepped out, Alec was sitting on the edge of the massive bed now, a laptop open on his knees.
"Where do I sleep?" I asked.
Alec didn't look up from the screen. "Do you think I pay for extra rooms to house ghosts, Skylar? You sleep in the bed. It's the only one in the room."
My heart did a painful flip. The same bed.
"Can I not get a different bed for two days?" I swallowed hard, my face heating up with a shame I couldn't control. I thought of the contract. The heir. The three months deadline.
Alec finally looked up. His gaze was slow, traveling from my bare feet up to my messy hair, and finally settling on my eyes.
"No." He said, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying growl. "And don't worry. I don't bed women who look like they're waiting for an executioner. Go to sleep, Skylar."
Trash. He was just trash.
I moved toward the bed without any further protest. I climbed in at the very edge, my back to him, curling my body into the smallest ball possible.
I must have drifted into a fitful sleep, because the next thing I knew, the room was gray.
I was pulled out of my sleep by the harsh morning light. I squinted and immediately the reality of where I was came crashing back.
Alec was lying next to me.
He was still on his side of the bed, but he was close enough that I could see the faint lines of tension around his eyes, even in sleep. One arm was draped over his forehead, shielding him from the sun. Without the cold, predatory glint in his eyes, he looked almost normal. His jaw wasn't clenched for once, and his dark hair was a mess against the white silk pillow.
I shouldn't have been looking. I should have felt nothing but hatred. But in the quiet of the morning, he looked less like a monster and more like a man who hadn't slept in days.
Suddenly, his arm shifted. His hand dropped, and his eyes snapped open.
Our gazes locked. I froze, my breath hitching in my throat. I felt like a deer caught in a hunter's sights.
His eyes were so dark, so intense… there was no sleep in them at all. He had been awake. He had probably been watching me too.
I opened my mouth to apologize, to say I was just waking up, but the words died in my throat.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
A sharp knock on the door shattered the moment. I jumped, my heart leaping into my throat.
"I'll get it," I whispered, scrambling to sit up. I just wanted to get away from the heat of his body. But before I could even slide out of the covers, Alec's hand shot out.
His fingers wrapped around my wrist like a steel shackle.
"Who is it?" he called out. He didn't let go of me.
"It's Bellina," his mother's voice came from the hallway.
"One minute, Mother," Alec replied.
Then, without a word of warning, he jerked my arm. I gasped, falling back onto the mattress, my chest colliding with his hard, muscular shoulder. Before I could protest, his hand slid into the hair at the nape of my neck, tilting my head back.