Chapter 5 Chapter 0005

•RAVEN•

"Tristan," Katerina said as she slightly bowed her head. But her hand was still around my hair, and still pulling the strands from my scalp.

"Let her go this instant!" Tristan ordered when he saw the way she was holding me.

Katerina quickly loosened her hand, and I stumbled back on the floor before the scout who came with Tristan caught me and helped me up to my feet.

And I quickly darted behind Tristan on instinct, afraid she might try to hurt me again.

"What the hell were you doing to her?" He seethed, leaning toward Katerina. "Don't you know it is forbidden to mistreat a member of this pack?"

"No, Tristan," Katerina tried to explain. "This is not what it looks like. Raven can tell you we were just playing when you arrived. You know she's my sister and I can never mistreat her."

"People talk, Katerina, and they know you and your sisters haven't been kind to her ever since your mother died. You've been spreading lies about her, hoping she'd leave the pack, but you won't touch her anymore."

My heart thundered in my chest as I lifted my eyes and looked at Tristan. I wondered what he meant by that, when not so long ago, he was restricting me from the pack river because I was human.

But it warmed my heart when he defended me. No one had ever stood up for me before, except Rumi.

Katerina looked at me and scoffed. "She's not as innocent as she appears, Tristan. Our mother has always wanted to send her back to her home, but she died. Mysteriously."

My heart pounded in my chest, and I clenched my fists at my sides, huffing as I wondered what made her think I'd kill the woman who had saved my life.

Maddie was everything to me. She gave me a home when I lost mine and took me in as her own daughter. There was nothing in the world I wouldn't have done for her.

Being accused of her death felt like an insult.

"Be careful of your words, Katerina," Tristan warned her. "They might get you in trouble if we find out the claims are lies."

She huffed, looking away from me.

And when Tristan commanded her to apologize to me, her nostrils flared, and she tried to resist before she knelt before me and apologized.

Tristan didn't wait for me to say anything to her before he grabbed my hand and led me to the training grounds.

We sat on the staircase before he turned and looked at me. At first, I thought he'd ask me about what was happening when he walked inside the house.

But another part of me felt as if he were about to send me away from the pack. I was human and was no use to them.

But then he made me an offer.

"You want me to marry you?"

"This will benefit us both," he answered. "You will study in any field of your choice in our college so you could have a future once our deal is over."

I scoffed and shook my head, standing up from the staircase. "What makes you think I want to be the Luna after you and the pack have made it clear I didn't belong here?"

"What other choice do you have? Hm?" He stood up and looked at me, towering over me. "You have no place to go and no other man in our pack is willing to make you their wife.

His words stung, but he was right that I had nowhere else to go. Katerina and Tamara would kill me if I stayed in their house, and Rumi would not be able to protect me when she wasn't around.

"That means you're as hopeless as I am," I sneered, raising my brow and looking up at him. "There's no better woman than me who wants you as their husband, so your offer must be better than what you made."

"You are human and the weakest of us all," he smirked as he leaned closer. "What makes you think I have no other choice besides you? Any woman in our pack will do anything to be the Luna."

I swallowed at the way he looked at me and how he smelled. His woody cologne filled my nostrils.

"I don't want to be Luna."

"And I don't have a mate," he replied. "You and I will be in a civil marriage with no drama. You will serve as the Luna for five years before I reinstate my mate in your place. Come on—" he leaned closer. "That's an offer you can't deny."

"Five years with you as my husband," I muttered. "And then I will be free to stay or leave when you find your mate? Will I have the capital to start my life somewhere if I wish to leave the pack?"

"Yes," he answered. "You will have a one-million payout. What do you say?"

I was quiet for a moment, thinking of everything he had said and the offer he had made.

"Yes," I finally answered. "We have a deal."

We shook hands, but if I had known things would turn out the way they did five years later, I wouldn't have made the deal.