The Contract That Binds

APRIL'S POV

I pushed the doors open.

The scent hit me first: white roses and champagne, elegant and almost suffocating. The hall was decorated exactly how I'd imagined it, with soft lights, trailing ivy, and candles flickering like tiny stars.

Then I saw their faces.

Almost every member of the pack had turned to watch me enter, but no one was smiling.

There were cold stares, frowns, and expressions of open disapproval.

I forced my chin up and kept walking. Today is my birthday and my wedding to Alpha Luke.

I didn't want to care about what they thought of me.

That's when the rotten whispers started.

"I can't believe a wolfless girl is going to be Luna."

"This is a disgrace. What is the Alpha thinking?"

"Someone needs to stop this," a middle-aged man hissed, his face twisted in disapproval.

"You want to challenge the Alpha?" his companion shot back. "Go ahead. Get yourself killed."

The first man fell silent, but his glare remained fixed on me.

"She can't even shift. Not like her sister."

"Cursed. That's what she is."

I clutched the wolf pendant, my nails digging into my palms, the pain grounding me.

My eyes landed on my best friend, Stephanie. She gave me an encouraging look.

I wouldn't let them see me break. After today, I'd be Luna, and they'd have no choice but to respect me.

At least, that's what I kept telling myself.

Alpha Luke was waiting at the altar.

He looked every inch the Alpha he was: tall and handsome, with broad shoulders filling out his dark blue suit. His brown hair was slicked back, and his expression was calm and unreadable.

He had this powerful, untouchable aura around him, and somehow, by some miracle of fate, he was mine.

"Go get him, baby girl," Stephanie whispered from her seat.

I smiled, but it felt fragile.

At the altar, May stood in a soft lavender dress, perfectly poised as my maid of honor. She was my twin. My opposite. She was everything I wasn't: strong, confident, and beautiful in a way that demanded attention.

She was everything our father valued.

And yet, tradition dictated that I was the heir. The eldest. The one who should inherit it all.

Not that it had ever felt that way.

Still, I clung to hope as I reached the altar. Maybe today, I'd finally step out of her shadow.

Then I noticed something.

The way Luke and May were looking at each other.

It wasn't the way friends looked at each other. There was something familiar in their eyes, something that made my stomach tighten.

They looked like lovers sharing a private moment.

My heart began to race, but I quickly pushed the thought aside. I was probably overthinking things. There was no reason for me to suspect anything.

Right?

"Are you ready?" the officiant asked, cutting through the fog in my mind.

"Yes." I turned to Luke, forcing myself to meet his eyes.

He stared back at me with a blank, cold expression.

"Do you, April Quinn, take Luke Blackwood as your husband and Alpha?"

The officiant looked at me, and I returned his gaze with a smile and a nod.

"Yes. Yes, I do."

He turned to Luke.