Chapter 6
Six
A vra
I fisted my hand as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. After a month of planning and preparation, according to Ozias’s preferences, the day was here.
My wedding day.
This wasn’t what I imagined as a little girl.
I miss you, Mama. I need your guidance, Papa.
I could only hope somewhere in heaven, Mama forgave me for marrying the son of her murderer. Papa, on the other hand, would understand this decision.
Out of all of us, I was most like him.
My parents ingrained family loyalty and honor into us, and there were no lengths we wouldn’t go to seek justice.
However, at moments like this, regardless of who I married, I felt their absence as if the wounds that never truly healed were tearing open again. My dreams of Mama helping me dress with Laya and Cali talking nonstop would never happen. And no matter how much I wished it, Papa wasn’t alive to walk me down the aisle.
I inhaled deeply, refusing to lose myself in the pain. I had worked so hard to control my emotions. As Vik always told me, I should use them to fuel my plans for the future.
Plus, my beautiful sisters, smarter than I ever could be, stood by me.
Through the walls of the ready room of the church, I heard the hum of noise, indicating the final preparations for the wedding.
The planner Ozias had hired was the only positive aspect of this situation. She attended to every detail and kept Ozias away from me. Her ability to maneuver people made me want to hire her for the Vitalis world.
I slid a hand down my body, admiring my dress. The planner had also introduced me to a local up-and-coming designer with exquisite taste. The gorgeous gown I’d chosen incorporated traditional Greek designs with high-fashion trends seen on the runway.
Of course, Ozias had interfered in the process, claiming the dress was too simple and cheap. He expected me to select something from the options his people chose, something too revealing.
The old man was out of his mind if he thought I would let him sexualize me and make me nothing but a sexy trophy on his son’s arm.
The gown I should have had on had disappeared in the aftermath of the coup. It had been passed down from generation to generation on my mother’s side of the family to the firstborn daughter.
I would have altered it to fit me and fashioned it to something more to my taste, but the legacy the women of my family created would have continued.
Now, it was gone to who knew where, most likely burned or thrown out by the greedy bastard about to become my father-in-law.
“You’re stunning,” Cali said, jolting me away from the detour of anger where my thoughts were leading me.
She approached me from behind and smoothed a fold in my skirt.
I smiled and nodded. “This is definitely a showstopper. That idiot needs to learn that a lady can draw attention without displaying her goods.”
The fabric hugged my every curve, and with the way the lace overlay avoided revealing too much skin, it gave the right amount of sexy.
“You look tall, elegant, and anything but Elias Xenos’s inferior.” The way Cali stated things brought a grin to my lips.
“I couldn’t agree more. Elias is taller than me. There is no denying this fact. However, with these heels and my above-average height, I am at least near eye level with him.” I took the lipstick Laya handed me to touch up my makeup and said, “I do love this dress.”
“You look amazing in it,” Laya agreed as she checked her hair in another mirror, glancing at me through the reflection. “How are you feeling about this? You can change your mind.”
I lifted my shoulders, making sure the bodice of my dress could move with me.
“Can she?” Cali asked. “All of us are in too far to change the path. Just don’t fall in love with him.”
The youngest of the three of us was the most logical and felt the most. Cali would deny the latter until she was blue in the face, saying she knew how to control her emotions, but Laya and I knew her. She carried the empathy that had never bloomed in us.
“First, love is the last thing on my mind. This is a means to an end. Second, it doesn’t matter how I feel.” I nodded to my sisters. “We will avenge our family.”
“I feel so bad, though.” Cali stood, brushing down the creamy blue dress she’d chosen as my bridesmaid.
Oh, Cali, there she went, feeling too much.
“We agreed. We follow the plan.”
Cali sighed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever stop feeling guilty about how you’re…you’re just sacrificing yourself like this.”
Sacrificial lamb for the big, bad wolf. Elias’s words returned to me, and I held back a scoff. “Don’t worry, Cali. I’ll be fine.”
Why had my words sounded like a bad omen?
In the back of my mind, an uneasiness grew, not about the plan but that unsettling attraction to Elias.
I never responded to anyone the instant I met them, but it had happened with him.
Since that dinner with him and his father, I could not shake the memories of how he’d known just how to push me to lose my composure. His dominance seemed to incite a side of me to fight with him. When he’d warned me not to play with him, my immediate reaction was that he’d thrown down a challenge.
Then there was the fact that I kept thinking of his lips and wanting a taste of them.
How could such a brief interaction leave me in this confused state?
From the start, my sisters and I understood that the plan demanded we become wives in every sense of the word, including intimacy. We agreed to feign it, just as countless women had throughout the ages.
However, something deep in my gut told me nothing with Elias would go as planned.
“We’ll all be fine,” Laya said in a no-nonsense way. “Because we’re back for what is ours, and no one will take it from us again.”
“Soon,” I told my sisters, “everyone will regret stealing from us.”
The former Vitalis territories and land remained under our names despite other families taking over the area, completely unaware that Papa began dividing his assets long before anything happened to him. At each of our births, Papa transferred ownership of parts of his estate into trusts for us. Most of what our enemies believed they’d taken as spoils of their plot against Juno Vitalis had legally never belonged to them. Even after marriage, what belonged to us remained ours. And if anything were to happen to one of us sisters, our trust would be divided between the remaining sisters or left to the next-in-line Vitalis to take over the family.
Papa had understood the ways of the world long before the deceit that resulted in his death.
It made no sense that no one in the last fifteen years had bothered to research the deeds and records for the land upon which they lay their heads. Or perhaps Ozias had, which was why he had so readily agreed to this marriage. Before he’d known I was alive, he knew the members of the Vitalis family in America were the only ones with the power to challenge him, and they were too busy expanding their reach locally to put effort into Europe.
As an extra precaution, before leaving Prague, my sisters and I had created wills stating upon our deaths, all of our assets would transfer to the Vitalis cousins in America.
Their support and loyalty to Papa meant more to me than they could know. I’d never forget their help with sorting through the lies of the past to unearth the facts about my parents’ deaths.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t attend the wedding due to issues in their territories. Having some family would have been a nice show of force, but it was what it was.
“You’ve got that right,” Laya agreed with an unladylike grunt .
“I hate that we have to see those bastards today.” Cali clenched her jaw.
Many of Ozias’s co-conspirators planned to attend the wedding, especially the three who helped him mastermind everything. Inside the church would be a sea of enemies with a sprinkling of Vitalis soldiers as the few friendly faces.
“We have to hide our contempt,” Laya advised as she came to my side, looking into the mirror before adding, “No matter how hard it may be.”
“Yeah. Wear your cold, infallible mask,” Cali added.
It was time to implement Vik’s training and slide on the shield impenetrable to our enemies.
Except, they wouldn’t get the unemotional part today. They would glimpse what simmered underneath.
I shook my head. “No. I want them to see the wrath in my eyes. It doesn’t matter if they underestimate me or laugh at me. What they will know is that I am coming for them.”
Laya’s lips curved up on one side as she shook her head. “Then let’s get this going.”
Without any more delays or worries about how this would turn out, we filed out of the room and took our places in the procession.
I pushed back the thoughts of my parents and all the broken dreams and tucked my arm into Vik’s.
The music commenced as I carefully walked down the aisle of the ancient church. The streamers, flowers, and vases of candles created a soft glow. The intricate details of the decor around me blurred my focus on the altar where the tall groom stood watching me .
A tingle shot down my spine, and goosebumps prickled my skin.
Elias’s gaze locked on mine. He wore a well-cut and tailored tuxedo, accentuating his muscular body. His slicked-back salt-and-pepper hair accentuated his face’s sharp, lean lines. He held himself like a mighty Greek god, a dominant, unapologetic killer.
Vik kissed my cheek once we reached the altar. There was a second of hesitation before he placed my hand over Elias’s and stepped back.
A sweeping shift of emotions played through his eyes. Sadness. Pride. Love. Worry.
Vik gave me over to the enemy, but deep down, he believed in me.
He’d reminded me earlier in the morning to remember this was an act, only a sham, a necessary step in the plan.
No matter the game, Elias and I were entering a real marriage. He was the last lover I would ever take. I wasn’t a cheater, and hell would freeze over before I looked the other way while anyone stepped out on me. Nothing outside of death ended this.
His dark-brown gaze narrowed as if he heard my thoughts. The power staring at me shouldn’t appeal. He meant to taunt and intimidate. With others, it may work, but not with me.
I was a Vitalis.
I gave over my power to no one. Not to Elias and definitely not to his father.
The days of anyone lording over me were over. Cloe learned this at the end of my pistol, and soon, I’d show this side to others.
The energy between Elias and me crackled, charging the air with challenge and anticipation. The aching desire that smoldered in the pit of my stomach from our initial meeting ignited into a low burning need.
Damn this attraction. I refused to succumb to the nuisance of a handsome face or intense dark eyes. However, the throbbing between my legs and the flood of arousal coursing through me said otherwise.
I barely knew this man, and I definitely couldn’t trust him. But sure as fuck, my body responded to him and wanted him in the worst possible way.
“Are you ready to become the wolf’s dinner, Avra?” he asked in a deep, intoxicating tone.
The heat of his large hand seeped into mine as he guided me toward the priest.
As we knelt, I whispered, “Perhaps I’m the wolf, and you’re my dinner.”
“I’m counting on it.” He lifted my knuckles to his lips and brushed a kiss against them.
By all the saints, this man was potent. What had I gotten myself into?
The wedding commenced as if in a blur. The vows went in one ear and out the other. I simply followed along with the cues, making sure to play my role of the seemingly demure and patient bride.
My family knew it was an act, and Elias had apparently seen through the guise. However, the rest of the attendants accepted the ruse as I performed the steps of the old traditions until I left the one-hundred-year-old building as a married woman.
My composure nearly slipped during the ring exchange. I had told Vik to handle the details of selecting the band for Elias, thinking he wouldn’t care as long as it wasn’t gaudy.
Except when Elias slowly and delicately slipped my ring onto my finger, I could only stare at it in awe.
It was breathtaking and something I’d have chosen for myself under different circumstances. The artistry of the design made it unique, and the stones weren’t so big that it made me look as if he owned me, but large and prominent enough to state my unavailable status. I never expected a Xenos to pick a ring like this.
Again, he’d read my thoughts and responded, “We share blood but aren’t the same, little wolf.”
Before I realized it, the ceremony ended. “You may now kiss your bride.”
The traditional wording. Their possessiveness implied I would be Elias’s, not that he’d be mine or that we’d be each other’s.
I shook the thought away and waited to see if Elias actually planned to kiss me. Nothing with him had gone as expected. Why would this?
His focus landed on my lips, almost like a physical caress, and they tingled in response. I took in an unsteady breath, and immediately, his expression darkened.
As if in slow motion, he cupped my face. The branding of his hold and the heat of his touch shot through me, and without thought, I leaned toward him.
I kept my eyes on him as he dropped his mouth to mine. Desire spiked through me, a tingling from head to toe. It was the barest, briefest brush of his mouth against mine, too short and too tender, but a knowing settled over me.
The kiss sealed my fate to his in more ways than marriage. One of us would fall, one would break, and one would hurt the other.
I went still, unable to let him see how much the realization had the back of my throat burning.
As he stepped back, still holding my hand with the ring he’d given me, his expression revealed he was as unsettled as I was.