I Married A Stranger To Save My Family — What I Found In His Cabin Changed Everything
Part 1
Watching the champagne pool around Craig’s polished shoes, I stared at the shattered crystal.
Brushing a stray droplet from his lapel, my fiancé announced his intention to keep his current mistress after our wedding.
He waited patiently as the ballroom of shifter nobility fell dead silent to gauge my reaction.
My jaw tightened so fiercely that my teeth ached.
As an alpha by blood, my people relied on me to secure an alliance before the elder council stripped my title.
Despite the political pressure, I refused to be bartered off and humiliated by an entitled beta.
Turning sharply on my heel, I walked away without uttering a single validating word.
With my vision blurring from unshed frustration, I collided incredibly hard with a solid chest.
Cold liquid soaked right through the delicate silk of my dress, prompting me to inhale a sharp breath and snap at whoever blocked my path.
Looking up aggressively, I found Tyler Preston staring down at me, his bright blue eyes dancing with obvious amusement.
Standing effortlessly at the pinnacle of our hidden society, he was undeniably the wealthiest alpha on the East Coast.
Wiping a dark smear of red wine from his custom jacket, he didn’t demand an arrogant apology.
Instead, the intimidating billionaire simply proposed a radically unconventional idea.
Dragging me purposefully into a quiet alcove away from the crowds, he laid out the terms of his offer with clinical precision.
Needing a legitimate mate to secure a vacant seat on the national council, he offered his resources to keep my pack’s territory safe.
It felt like a flawless transaction completely devoid of messy emotional entanglements.
A strict one-year contract, a highly public claiming mark, and a quiet divorce twelve months later were all he asked for.
Agreeing to his terms without hesitation, we stood stiffly at the ancient stone altar exactly one week later.
The heavy air in the subterranean ceremonial chamber felt thick with dormant magic as he stepped close, settling his warm hands firmly on my hips.
Tilting my head back to expose my vulnerable throat, I gasped when his sharp teeth sank deeply into my skin.
Consuming fire erupted instantly in my veins, snapping the primal mating bond into rigid place and tethering my mind directly to his consciousness.
My fingers dug desperately into his broad shoulders because it absolutely wasn’t supposed to feel so overwhelmingly real.
Moving into his sprawling country estate the very next morning, I fully expected him to ignore me.
Rather than leaving me alone, he flooded my bedroom with dozens of rare orchids and casually tossed the keys to a brand-new Ferrari onto my desk.
Constantly pushing for intimate dinner dates, he asked surprisingly thoughtful questions about my childhood while I kept my distance.
Reminding him sharply every single day about the strictly business terms of our contract, I tried desperately to ignore the magnetic tension humming between us.
Then, the carefully constructed cracks in his perfect facade started to show.
Walking briskly into his private bathroom early one morning, I found him gripping the edge of the cold counter while staring at a deep gash sliced across his palm.
With the ragged edges of the fresh wound looking dangerously angry, the injury was alarming since a healthy shifter heals from a minor cut like that in mere minutes.
His wound remained visibly inflamed for days, culminating in a disastrous dinner at a secluded Italian restaurant a week later.
Draining his third consecutive glass of expensive human wine, his movements grew uncharacteristically sloppy and uncoordinated.
His words noticeably slurred heavily together, which terrified me beyond reason because shifters absolutely do not get drunk on low-proof alcohol.
Clumsily knocking over a crystal water glass, he buried his exhausted face in his trembling hands and confessed the impossible truth in a broken whisper.
His ancient bloodline carried a dark curse, meaning his inner wolf would inevitably die if he didn’t find true, reciprocal love before his looming thirtieth birthday.
My stomach dropped straight into my shoes, realizing with crushing clarity that he hadn’t married me for political leverage.
Hoping he could manipulate me into falling genuinely in love with him, he had orchestrated our marriage simply to save his own fading life.
Feeling entirely like a naive pawn in his desperate game, I pulled away completely by building impossibly thick emotional walls between us.
Avoiding him effortlessly for an entire agonizing month, our vibrant mating bond withered into silence until my brother Dan stepped in to handle the pack negotiations in my place.
Walking arrogantly into my private office instead of Tyler, my smug ex-fiancé dropped a signed border agreement folder onto my polished desk.
Casually mentioning that Tyler was far too preoccupied with his beautiful new girlfriend to attend the critical meeting, Craig’s taunting words burrowed deeply under my skin.
My chest physically ached with a sudden, overwhelming jealousy I had no logical right to feel.
Pacing my sprawling bedroom late that night, the absolute silence of the massive estate slowly suffocated me with every passing minute.
Picking up my phone, my knuckles turned completely white and my fingers trembled as I dialed Tyler’s private line.
Calmly offering to break our mating bond early so he could formally mate with this new woman, I coldly told him it made perfect tactical sense for his continued survival.
Trying desperately to convince my breaking heart I was doing the right thing, I told him I just wanted him to successfully break his terrifying curse.
A heavy, agonizing silence stretched tautly over the line before he finally agreed to the divorce without a single fight.
With his usually vibrant voice sounding entirely hollow and defeated, the call ended abruptly.
Hanging up the phone, I stared blindly into the suffocating darkness of my empty room, realizing with crushing suddenness that I had just voluntarily let go of the only man I truly loved.
