I walked down the long corridor that led up to two giant wooden doors as I rubbed my hands together.

"Name?" a big guard from out of nowhere asked with a drenched accent. We were wedged between Ukraine and Romania in a country named Moldova that outwardly portrayed itself as poor while it had an alter ego of a supernatural metropolitan, so maybe his accent was Moldovan.

"Alicia Lindros," I answered. He looked through his clipboard and when his eyes hit my name—or maybe the lack of my name—they flickered up to mine.

"I'm sorry. I can't let you in," he said.

"But I got an invitation," I reasoned. Jackson was sneaky. He left a ticket and invitation addressed to me on my bed. Maybe the illegal spare key he had was useful after all.

"What invitation?" he asked. I started to look in my pockets and purse, but remembered that when I was giving the taxi directions, I had given it to him considering reading an address was easier than trying to feign whatever language he spoke. Crap. "Invitation?"

"I left it in the taxi..." I mumbled.

"Hm. Bummer," he responded with sarcasm. Jerk. "Have a nice day."

Ugh. I turned to leave the corridor and building, only to try and find another way inside to the wedding. When the bells charmed loudly, I knew it was time for the wedding to start so my suspicious fast walk turned into a full-on sprint around the building and into another entrance that's route was up some stairs and through a window. Little did I know that it led to some small room that had spare clothes and empty wine glasses. This is probably where the bride and her bridesmaids changed. I opened the doorway and peeked my head out before shuffling down the hallway. I noticed that the doors were labeled and I stopped when I saw the word "Groom." I knew that he would be at the altar by now, but I wished that he was in that room for me to at least talk to him...not be banned from his wedding and suspiciously walking down several hallways while avoiding guards.

I made it to some sort of balcony with people sitting up there that looked fancy and famous. Kings? Queens? Councilmen and women?

I stayed my distance to back up and run down the next hall to the next balcony. I looked down at the giant room. There were gold accents everywhere with hints of forest green and a long white and gold cloth runway was split through the middle of the large aisle. I saw Chase and Dane at the end of the altar. Dane had a black suit with a green tie while Chase was wearing a military dress uniform that had medals pinned on his chest and a medallion around his neck. His hair was pushed and combed back as he looked into the distance at the ground.

The Wedding March started to play on piano and the huge crowd stood up to look back at the gold and wooden French style doors as they opened. A salt-and-pepper-haired man walked arm-in-arm with a model sized girl with a princess-style white wedding dress with golden embroidery. If I could, I'd say she was beautiful, but of course her long and trained veil was in the way of her face. She made it to the altar and reached out for Chase's hands. He looked down at her and managed to produce a half grin before unclasping his hands from behind his back and taking hers in his.

My own hands throbbed at the encounter, but I couldn't ruin this moment.

I started to even question why I was here. Even if he was my mate, it irked me that he was rushing into things with someone else, but I understood and acknowledged the fact that it was for his title—that he inevitably wanted to keep. I dashed out of the arrangement and when I started to turn my back on the "if anyone opposes the marriage of these two people, speak now, or forever hold your piece" part, someone yelled: "I object!" and it wasn't me. I turned back and saw as the crowd gasped and looked to Dane of all people.

"I'm not letting my brother marry her," Dane expressed. For once I was seeing the cold-set Cane brother break down his hostility for the betterment of his brother. The crowd started whispered. What are you doing Dane?

"This is exactly why I rejected our birthright within the Council," he added. "This is too much pressure in a place already filled with stupidity and backwards lawmaking."

The reverend looked to the couple and Chase nodded as if dismissing Dane's outcry. He carried on with the speech, and then one by one each member of Chase's pack stood up from the pews. Even Tori and Carina—whose hand was attached to the five-and-a-half-year old Grayson beside her—stood up. The reverend stopped speaking, too astonished at the large pack that was in clear opposition.

Chase looked back to the audience and when I thought that he would break up the marriage before it started, he looked over the pack and ordered: "Sit down and shut up."

Of course, under his command as Alpha, they did as told even though it was with reluctance. Carina, obviously uncontrolled, was the last to sit and then pulled Grayson down with her. I couldn't believe him. Why would he start ordering his pack around even though it's just some girl that he was marrying? I wanted to say he was maybe happy with the arrangement, but the expression on his face told me otherwise. He was like a robot operating on autopilot while the real Chase Cane was probably screaming on the inside to get out.

"Chase, what are you doing?" I breathed with disappointment. I saw his back stiffen up as if he heard me, but then realized that he was just shifting his position. I wished he could hear me. I really did.

"So do you, Sir Chase Donovan Cane of the Connecticut/New England American Pack, take Princess Francesca Ann Hanover as your wife—for richer or for poorer—in sickness or in health—to have and to hold, until death do you part?" the reverend asked after inquiring the same to Francesca. She hadn't hesitated like he did.

"I do..."

"Then you may kiss your—"

"...not," Chase finished. What? The crowd paused for a second before breaking into an uproar. He whispered something in the ear of his "fiancé" that would currently be his wife without the "not." He dropped their hands and turned to the audience.

"After the resignation of my brother to our birthright title as royal descendants of the Cane family, the Council wanted to ascend me to the throne. But, as werewolf law has it, in order to be a prince of the Lycan tier, I had to prove to the Council that I could take on the responsibility of a prince,meaning I had to first conquer the responsibilities of being an imprinted wolf. So I was sent back home to find my soul mate to marry and be with her, but I couldn't do it," he started. That's why he came back? "So the Lycan Tier was so persistent on me getting married at my age and title that they arranged me to marry Francesca thinking we could fool everyone while also aligning my future with the Council. That's the truth."

He looked back to Francesca. She nodded and stepped back. Chase welcomed his brother to his side and Dane placed a hand on his shoulder.

"There's not going to be a wedding today," Dane announced. I thought the audience would start talking again—and they did, but half the crowd started to boo.

"Hey! Shut it!" Wes commanded as he stood up. "You would honestly want to see someone get married to some girl he doesn't and can't love?"

"Yeah!"

"It wouldn't be the first arrangement!"

"It's in the law!"

"What law should be able to say he has to be married at twenty one years old to someone who isn't his mate?!" Wes yelled over all the voices. "What law should be able to say that when our Alpha gets married our pack has to split up even more than it has in the last four years?! Because that's what would've happened. We're part of the second biggest pack in the USA. And who's it run by? Chase Cane. Who's it been run by for the last four years? Me, unfortunately and I am not cut out for this any longer. We can't do anything without him much longer."

"Stop complaining. Just get over it."

"Just move here!"

"Like the council wants more teenagers to take care of," Dane reasoned. There was chatter.

"If he didn't have to get married and have to stay here, we wouldn't have an issue," Wes voiced.

"Did you just say he's ahead of the second biggest pack in the USA?" a new voice asked. Everyone looked back to the balcony that I was on before this one—the one with the fancy people. I assumed they were the esteemed Council sat up there. The people were looking to them for an answer.

"Yes sir," Wes answered instead.

"How is someone to run that big of a pack without a Luna all this time?" someone in the crowd, sitting on the bride's side, asked.

"Well the thing is—"

"That would be my responsibility," a new voice said as Carina stood up in a green dress and her hair pinned up beautifully. "I try to help my brother out as much as I can—"

"I meant—"

"Our Luna isn't involved with our Alpha, but she's still involved with the pack," Eli informed. I looked back to the balcony of councilmen and women as they conversed and the leader looked as if he was angry. He stood up and cleared his throat. The room fell silent.

"The wedding between Sir Chase and Princess Francesca is hereby canceled," he announced. With some wolf cry and a chant, they all stood and left—some at incredible speeds. That left the pack standing in the pews under the assumption that they'd be questioned by the Council. And I intended to listen.

***

"Telling anyone outside of our world is prohibited—even for Alphas," Chase was scolded. They were in a different assembly room and I was listening from a crack in the door. The high-status boys in the pack were there and even with my sneaking around, I didn't know where anyone else was.

"I didn't tell her," Chase denied.

"My mate Tori did on accident. It was a long story," Mason added.

"Well thank God we're all immortal. Because otherwise we wouldn't have enough time," another man said with sarcasm drenching his speech. "Speak."

I listened as they told the story. They started with the pack's feud with Riley way back to his issues with their treaty and I had learned that the pack assumed Riley's second set of adopted parents were the cause of the Cane parents' mysterious car accident that killed them. That much was news to me but I heard the pain in Dane's voice almost as much as when he informed them of the initial kidnapping. That led to Wes explaining how they were trying to confuse Riley with the whole mating situation. They just had to include me making out with Wes and being shot to prompt the necessity of telling me about their secret. I was dreading them revealing all of the pathetic and dramatic turn of events during our high school adventures only for Wes to lie and say they had a witch—Sharon—hex me into forgetting about the hunting and werewolf secret incidents, which was meant to cover their tracks about me knowing about them plus why I wasn't with Chase. And then, a hand was wrapped around my mouth and waist before I could hear them explain why I had stayed or why Chase and I still didn't end up together or what else happened in the last four years after he left. Soon enough, I was thrown into a corner and looked to see several familiar people.

"What are you doing here!?" Carina whispered to me as we were now in a small room and I first saw Tori, Jackson and Nathaniel before the rest of the pack.

"I'm Jackson's plus one to the wedding?" I answered unsure. Jackson smiled smugly.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course you are."

"Well then why are you here?" Nathaniel asked. Though he had broadened out over the years, his attitude stayed the same.

"The wedding concerned the pack and no matter how I try and try to leave it, I know I'm part of this pack," I said truthfully. Carina took me in a hug.

"I'm just glad that you're here," she said.

"What happened with Torrance?" Jackson asked once he had ushered me into a seat and some of the other guys continued talking to each other or exiting the room to return with stolen food from the would-be reception.

"He called off the engagement and suggested that I try to win Chase back..." I informed.

"I knew he wasn't an idiot," Jackson scoffed. I smacked his shoulder.

"You were engaged?" Carina asked.

"Yeah. To my boyfriend Torrance, but then Riley nearly beat him to death to blame it on Chase and the doctors revealed an incurably progressing tumor because of Riley's venom, so now he thinks that I shouldn't be with him because he won't live much longer and he'll hold me back," I explained in one breath.

"I've missed a lot," Carina commented.

"Your fault, not mine," I defended before she gave me a playful eye roll.

"Well while you two are bonding or whatever, there's a conversation I'd like to listen to," Nathaniel complained.

"The doors are sound proof, idiot," Carina sneered.

"Well it just so happens that the door's not shut all the way which is how Alicia was listening, so maybe I can still hear if you shut your mouth," he retorted. We waited in silence and then as it took hours, pack members of all ages started to leave and visit the odd and diverse country we were in as the immortal empire.

Soon enough, there was some sort of bell ringing in the town's center—which I only thought movies had—as the council spoke in front of the huge parliament house and made an announcement and whomever wasn't at that current setting watched from TV's in stores.

"As you may have heard, earlier this morning, Sir Chase was arranged to wed Princess Francesca—a girl that was not his mate due to pressure from the Lycan Tier within the Immortal Council," the leader with tanned skin and a muscular build said. "Under a brief investigation, the Council has determined that Chase Cane has proven his maturity and fulfilled enough responsibilities in his youth for himself, his imprint, and his pack for us to believe he would be well suited to be a prince as well as a chairman for lycanthropic representation over our American Lycan affairs."

A pale, red-headed man with dark shades began speaking. "However, the only caution we uncovered was prompted by a young vampire named Riley Sean who has openly participated in kidnapping, murder, wreckless bloodlust, trespassing, infringement and assault on not only a royal bloodline but also mortals and mates of imprinted werewolves. On behalf of the Council, if you happen to know anything about this individual, please contact law enforcements or any Council member of the Vampyr Tier."

At least Riley would eventually be brought to justice.

"Sir Chase will remain in the running for the throne as his commencement ceremony will take place next Saturday so he may ascend to his new title. He has requested only the attendance of the Council and his pack," the first man added before there was a closure for him and other announcements.

"If your brothers are princes, does that make you a princess?" I asked Carina in a whisper.

"They're just knighted lords, so I guess that makes me a Lady," she answered, perkily. "But now I guess since Chase will be a prince...maybe."

"I'm just glad things worked out without this whole arranged marriage thing," I said as I ate my funnel cake.

"Speaking of that..." she started. "You said your ex-fiancé wanted you to win Chase over...is that the only reason why you came?"

"The guys told me how it would screw up the pack if Chase got married to her," I answered.

"That's it?"

And the fact that he's my mate...Maybe I just needed to see or talk to him to convince him otherwise before he actually got hitched.

"Yeah," I nodded in a lie. "I mean, why else would I come all the way here? After all, Jackson wanted me to be his date and—"

"I can think of other reasons than that," a new voice said. I looked behind me, through a few of the pack's boys and saw Chase in his white dress shirt, unbuttoned uniform coat, and matching dark pants. And just like that, he strode over to me and got extremely close to me. "Come with me?"

I slightly nodded and followed him somewhere. Maybe this was my chance.

***

"You know, even though you'll be a prince, people will probably still call you a coward," I said first, breaking the awkwardness. I was balancing on an elevated log with Chase holding my right hand to steady me as he walked on the normal forestry ground covered in dead leaves.

"A coward for what exactly?" he asked. We walked in silence into the forest to be away from people and media, but we didn't talk that whole commute. It was the second sentence he's said to me today. And even though I had heard him speak before now, I was finally hearing the slightest presence of an accent.

"Leaving her at the altar," I answered.

"I rather be called a coward for that, than be a power-hungry, heartless Alpha that married some poser girl instead of my real mate that I lied to the entire immortal population about," he mumbled back. He had a point.

"I'm sorry about accusing you about Torrance..." I apologized as I leapt down from the log.

"It's okay. I understand why you would think it was me," he shrugged. This whole time I tried to look in his eyes to maybe trigger the memories of when I was in love with him years ago, but now he was the one avoiding the eye contact. "How is he, by the way? I hope he doesn't still hate me."

He hates you for apparently loving me more than him...

"He doesn't hate you," I started, "but he's staying in the hospital. He had a ruptured spleen, they had to remove a kidney and they found an incurable tumor, so that hospital might as well be his new home for a while."

"Let me guess, you told him that and he said 'home is wherever you are,'" Chase guessed and tried to force a breathy laugh.

"Quite the opposite actually," I rejected. I felt him pause. "He broke off the engagement instead."

And told me to get with you.

"That bastard," Chase mumbled. I lightly hit him. The contact with my hand tingled. "Only an idiot would do that."

"Well he figures that he'd hold me back and..." it's better to be with you instead. "He's not doing treatments so I think they gave him six to nine months to live and he doesn't want me around for all of that."

Chase stopped walking as I continued.

"If two people really loved each other, they'd get married just to declare their love, no matter when they'd die. It's 'til death do us part' for a reason," Chase mumbled. I stopped walking because I wondered what that meant coming from him. He was looking down, playing with the gold ring on his finger he had moved to his right hand. It didn't look like a wedding band though. It had too much detail and hidden significance for that. "Say you're in love with someone and they're leaving for the military and 80% of soldiers come back dead yet he still marries you two days before leaving, that means he loves you and has faith that he'll come back just to see the face of his beautiful wife again."

That made sense if you wanted to look past the obvious monetary stipend they received for getting hitched. It was romantic in his way though.

"Would you do that?" I asked.