Chapter 2 Unveiled secrets

Nicole's POV

"Come here at once," the alpha's voice rumbled deep in my head as I raced through the busy courtyard where the wedding preparations were already underway. The air was riddled with tension as everyone was on edge because of the marriage alliance between Nadine and the Lycan king.

I walked past the adjoining corridors and entered the alpha's office. He was seated behind his desk with a grim expression on his face, and his beta was standing in front of him. I entered slowly with my head bowed down, and I could almost feel his eyes burning into my skin. He dismissed his beta, and I was left alone with him.

"Where is Nadine?" he asked.

"She's with Julian. She says she doesn't want to get married anymore to the Lycan king. She wants to marry Julian instead, and she's now pregnant with his child," I said slowly, whimpering from the pain of the loss of my mate.

"This is all your fault," he suddenly barked angrily.

"What?" I was surprised at the sudden blame. How was any of this my fault? If anything, I was the victim here. His daughter just took my mate away from me.

"I had the good heart to adopt you and take you in as my daughter when no one else did and you couldn't even keep Nadine in check. Now what am I going to tell the Lycan king? If we don't find anyone for him to marry, he will declare war on all of us," he yelled accusingly.

A few decades ago, the Silver Moon Pack was at war with some neighboring rogues and were almost defeated and on the verge of extinction when the then-lycan king stepped in and saved the pack. As a result, every pack must marry out one of their daughters to the new Lycan king, and it's been that way for years.

Nadine had been trained from a young age to be the wife of the future Lycan king and had previously agreed to it because of the power she would gain from it, but she suddenly changed her mind along the way because of the rumors she heard about the Lycan king.

He had never been seen by the pack members in the kingdom before, only by his close confidantes, and he was rumored to be scarred, ugly-looking, and very ruthless. There were also some rumors that he was behind the deaths of some of the daughters of different alpha's that had been offered to him as his wife. The rumors had spread and had become quite known, making a lot of Alpha's daughters reluctant to marry the Lycan king, and some of them had even committed suicide as a result of it.

Nadine had protested against the marriage in the upcoming months leading to it, but the alpha had ignored it.

Now he was blaming me for her actions. How was I supposed to stop her when he had never given me any rights to be able to control her? Although he had adopted me as his daughter, he had never really treated me as one. Instead, Nadine had treated me like a servant to do all her bidding for her.

"What could I have done? Nadine wouldn't have listened to me anyway. The only person she could have listened to was you. She's the only one at fault here, and now I am suffering for it," I uttered, a brief surge of anger and frustration fueling my confidence.

"Are you saying this is my fault? How dare you?" The alpha yelled, storming angrily towards me. I shut my eyes in terror and cursed myself for my earlier outburst. It had been a long time since the alpha had hit me, but that didn't mean he wouldn't if he wanted to.

He raised his hands to hit me, and I flinched from the incoming attack when the door suddenly swung open and Nadine sauntered into the room slowly. I had never been so happy to see her walk in for the first time in my life.

"Dad, you can't hit her, at least not yet, Nadine said as she pulled her father from me. We both looked at her in surprise. When has she ever stopped anybody from inflicting pain on me before? She was definitely up to something. Her eyes held a mischievous glint in them, and it made my stomach turn.

"The last person you should be worrying about right now is Nicole; instead, you should worry about yourself. Do you know what will happen if the Lycan King finds out you're now pregnant with someone else's child and don't want to go through with the wedding anymore? He will start a war against us and kill us all," Alpha Andrew thundered.

Nadine smirked, crossing her hand over her chest as she looked at me.

"Don't worry, father. I already have a plan for the Lycan King. We just need Nicole's help with it," she said, the corners of her mouth turned up mischievously.

My brows creased in confusion as I tried to comprehend what she was saying. She was acting very suspicious, and whenever Nadine acted like that, it almost never ended well for me.

"What plan? How are we going to get out of this mess, and how is she going to help us with it?" Alpha Andrew inquired inquisitively, his voice barely hiding his disgust as he motioned towards me.

I was already used to this kind of treatment from him, especially since it was something I had been experiencing from a young age. I was always the alpha and his daughter punching bag, but it still didn't lessen the pain and hurt that the two people closest to what I can at least call a family didn't care about me and treated me like shit.

Nadine's face perked up at Alpha Andrew's words, glad she was able to capture his attention. She glanced at me slyly with an evil smirk on her face before turning towards her father and suggesting the very next words that would change the rest of my life.

"Let's get Nicole married to the Lycan king in place of me instead."

My eyes grew round with shock, and I could feel the blood drain from my face. They couldn't possibly do that, right? It would mean going against tradition and even worse, lying to the royal family, which could ultimately mean death for me. If I was ever found out, I would be instantly killed. I couldn't let that happen.

"What do you mean by that? How on earth can we do that? Are you saying we should deceive the Lycan king? If he finds out we deceived him, he's going to declare war on us." Andrew admonished Nadine, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he knew it was going to be a bad idea, but judging from the look on Nadine's face, she wasn't ready to back down easily.

She pulled alpha Andrew back to his desk. "Father, we will not be deceiving the Lycan king, so you don't have to worry about that. The tradition says that a chosen female child of the alpha will be offered as a wife to the alpha king, and Nicole is also a daughter of this family, isn't she?" Nadine said.

"Yes, you're actually right. I legally adopted Nicole, so nobody can say she isn't my daughter. This plan just might work," the alpha responded, his words driving a wedge in my heart.

Nadine smirked triumphantly as she noticed the way the alpha expressions had changed.

This wasn't good. I was still standing there totally ignored while they made plans for my future like I was nothing.

"You can't do that. If the Lycan king finds out, he'll kill us all. I refuse to agree to this," I voiced out in frustration and anger.

"You don't exactly have a choice. If you don't do what we say, we will make Kristen's life miserable," Nadine threatened.

Kristen was my best friend and the only one who had ever treated me like a human apart from Julian. She was also a maid in the royal palace, and her father worked as a guard for the king. I didn't want to drag her and her family into this mess.

"Besides, even if the Lycan king finds out about our deception, you can take all the blame and die an honorable death on our behalf. It's the least you can do for what my family has done for you," Nadine finished and walked out with her father, leaving me alone to my thoughts of my bleak future.