Chapter 3

Mason’s POV

I couldn’t keep count of the number of times I replayed Amelia storming up the stairs after she had just passed me the scariest look anyone had given me. Not even her parents, the Alpha and Luna, as I heard the people here address them, looked at me with such hatred in their eyes when they were about to kill me.

It stung a bit. I couldn’t deny that. I twirled around the glass of expensive wine in my hands as I stared into a random space in my room, which was the former Alpha’s room. I was going to be crowned soon, as Harry told me before he died, but that could not happen without me getting married to Amelia.

I didn’t know how the elders were going to make that happen unless perhaps she was forced to because I knew she hated me with every string of flesh she was made of, and I didn’t blame her. I killed her parents for no tangible reason at all.

I dropped my glass of wine on my table, then stood up from the bed and headed toward the window. I looked out and sighed as I started to replay what Harry told me before he killed himself yesterday.

Contrary to what Amelia thought, he cared about her even more than he cared about himself. He did everything in his power to take away the curse she was born with, which affected their pack, but he hasn’t succeeded. He wanted me to do so.

He thought the Alpha, her late father, was the cause of the misery that had befallen them. He told me that an ancestor contacted him recently, and he had to go to their land and stay for a while. I will help resurrect him when he is ready to come back.

A knock at my door brought me out of my reverie, and I cocked my head toward it. I expected the person knocking to come in, but when they didn’t, I decided to speak up.

“Come in!” I voiced out.

The door clicked open, and someone I had never met before got into my room with a fake smile painted on his lips. It was obvious he came here out of fear.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Rudolph. Your Beta,” he answered, his head cast low. His long blond hair covered most of his face.

“What is a Beta?” I raised a brow, turning my entire frame to look at him.

“I am your second in command after you have been crowned by our pack, which will be anytime from now,” he explained.

“I need to get married to Amelia, but it can’t be so soon. She hates my guts,” I said with humor in my tone.

He gave me a forced, tight-lipped smile, which made me drop my smile.

“What are you here to do?” I asked him.

He cleared his throat. “Your wedding with Princess Amelia is tonight, sir.”

I frowned as I tried to comprehend what he had just told me. I didn’t want anyone to force her to marry me. I had already caused her enough pain, and I certainly didn’t want to tie her down to me when I didn’t even know who I was and what I was doing in this strange place.

“Does she know?” I turned my gaze back to him.

”Yes, she does. Not that she even has a say in this.” He shrugged.

“Why so?”

“It is in our tradition, milord. If a rogue ever kills the Alpha, he has to go to a battle with his son, and if it’s a daughter, he ] has to marry her,” he explained.

I sighed. I was not going to force her to do what she didn’t want to.

“You are excused.” I shooed him away with my hand, and he nodded before he left the room.

I looked out my window again and noticed that it was almost night. I wondered how they were going to make someone that hated me to bits marry me. I wanted to see how they were going to perform that miracle.

I picked up the mantle the former Alpha used to wear, which was hung on a long clothing stand. I wore it around my body and smiled as I looked in the mirror. It fit me as though it had been sown for me.

After admiring the shiny little diamonds lined up on the mantle, I decided to head out of my room. I wanted to visit Amelia’s room to ask her if she wanted to marry me, at least for her pack’s sake, but I decided against it.

She might not rule murder out of the things she wanted to do to me after I wore her father’s royal mantle just a day after I killed him.

I felt bad for her, but I was yet to feel regret. It felt like it was meant to be. I killed him for the good of the pack, and I was going to restore everything back.

I headed down the stairs to go where the wedding was going to be officiated, but I was met with people in the sitting room instead. It was beautifully decorated. I didn’t know a whole celebration was going on here. I looked around, and Amelia was not very hard to spot.

She looked very beautiful in her nice dress and beautifully made hair. My throat parched as I stared at her frame. She was a goddess. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I wondered why she decided to dress up for the wedding she obviously didn’t want.

When I was coming down the stairs, I saw her pass me a glance and look away, then dart her gaze back to me and stare at me momentarily. I saw the emotions that passed through her eyes before she looked away again. It was that of anger and irritation. But she masked it as fast as she could.

I could tell instantly that there was something off about her. She couldn’t just go from hating my guts to dressing up to marry me just a day after I had murdered her parents. I was not going to buy the act she was displaying.

I headed where she was standing and stood beside her.

“I didn’t know the wedding was already being prepared for,” I whispered, craning my head so I got a vision of her perfect profile.

Amelia was a very pretty lady. She easily outshined the rest of the women in the sitting room, which was now decorated into a wedding hall. She didn’t reply to me as she looked around the celebration.

I cleared my throat. “I understand that you despise me, but I need you to know that I won’t force you into doing anything you don’t want. If you don’t want to marry me, that is totally fine with me,” I told her.

She scoffed, this time acknowledging what I had just told her before she turned her head sharply to look at me. The heated gaze she had on me almost made me flinch.

“I am not marrying you because I want to. I’m doing it for my pack, to get control of the power my father left me. I would appreciate it if you stayed as far away from me as possible,” she uttered in a mortal tone.

“Okay,” I nodded.

I couldn’t help but think that she had an ulterior motive for this. She scoffed at the idea of marrying me yesterday when her uncle proposed it to her. She might not be as naive as I thought. I needed to be smarter to keep myself safe from her.

My throat felt dry as I had not taken anything since yesterday, and I wasn’t hungry. But I needed water. I turned around to get some when Amelia called me back. “Mason,” she called out softly.

I felt my entire body still from the sound of her voice calling out my name. I could listen to her say it all day long without enervating a wink. I turned around to look at her, staring momentarily into her large blue eyes before looking away.

My stomach churned, and I swallowed the lump in my throat before I replied to her, “Yes?”

“Nobody knows my father and mother are dead. I would like to keep it that way.”

“Why aren’t you telling anyone? They deserve to know,” I pointed out.

Her father was the Alpha, and they were going to find out sooner or later that their leader was missing.

“I am not ready to announce it yet,” she rolled her hands into fists, then released them. “I don’t want them to question my abilities to rule this pack when I have a curse lingering around me. Only a few people know about his death.”

I nodded in understanding. I still didn’t know what exactly the curse was that was so bad that it affected the whole pack. The way Amelia uttered it with a broken tone, I could see how much it affected her. She didn’t deserve this.

“I understand,” I said to her.

She nodded before she left. I had caused her unimaginable pain and grief, but I was determined to find a way to nullify the curse, as her uncle mentioned to me before he left to visit his ancestors.

I had to wait to reincarnate him first before I found my way around this because I was as confused as anyone could be who was in my shoes. Amelia would not agree to allow me to help her because she hated me.

I was still thinking of a way around this when a clink of a metal on a glass interrupted my thoughts, and I craned my head toward the sound. It was a middle-aged woman I had never seen before. She looked vibrant and excited, as though she was the one getting married.

“Thank you all for coming,” she started. “Despite our Alpha and Luna being on a journey, we still want to officiate the wedding of our dear princess, Amelia, and her powerful husband, Alpha Mason,” she announced.

I took a glance at Amelia, and I could see her fighting back her emotions. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she turned around to leave the celebration and dashed upstairs. Everyone stared at her retreating figure in confusion, and I decided to follow her.

Without thinking twice, I followed her upstairs and headed toward her room which was just a few doors away from mine. I took in a deep breath as I placed my hand on the knob, then clicked it open. The first glance I gave her room sent shivers down my spine. I quickly shut it as my heart started hammering in my chest, and I placed my hand on my chest to ease it.

I was speechless as I quickly made my way downstairs, my legs still shaking from the horror I had just witnessed. After what I had seen, I wasn’t sure if Amelia was the only person in opposition to this marriage. She was truly cursed.