Lethal Temptation

07 Searching For Strength

Mara

Four days had passed since Lucian and his father came to the house, and I still hadn’t found my way out of the haze.

I sat in the garden behind our home, staring at nothing. Not the flowers. Not the trees. Just the empty space ahead of me, like it might hold some kind of answer if I looked long enough.

Lucian’s words still echoed in my mind—cold, cruel, and then, strangely, honest. The truth was a blade that hadn’t stopped cutting. It wasn’t about me being Luna material or helping Lucian. It was about Darian. About removing me from the equation so his mother could shape his future without interference.

I didn’t even hear him approach.

“You’ve lost weight,” Darian said softly, sitting beside me.

I didn’t reply. What was there to say?

He sighed and stood again, pacing. Frustrated. Restless. I knew he wanted to talk. He always did. But I couldn’t give him what he was looking for—not when I felt like my whole life had been bargained away by people who never even asked me what I wanted.

“Why didn’t you tell me Lucian came to see you?” he finally asked.

I looked up at him, calm on the surface, hollow underneath.

“I didn’t think it was necessary.”

He stopped pacing. “We’re friends, Mara. Everything is necessary. Everything matters.”

He looked exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his shoulders were tense. I could see the guilt in the way he carried himself, but he didn’t understand. Not yet.

“Help me, Darian,” I said, my voice cracking. “Please.”

He came to a stop in front of me, eyes full of sorrow. “If I were Alpha, I’d cancel this madness. I swear I would.”

“But you’re not,” I whispered.

Then I looked him in the eyes, and I said the one thing that had been building in my chest like pressure before a storm. “Your mother set this up.”

He frowned, his expression hardening.

“Lucian said it in front of your father. And your father didn’t deny it. She was afraid that you and I… that we might end up together. She didn’t want her son marrying someone from a middle-class family. So she pushed this union, forced it, to get me out of your orbit.”

Darian’s jaw clenched. “That’s not true. She knows we’re just friends. That there’s nothing between us.”

His words landed like stones in my chest.

“If I wanted to date you, Mara, I would’ve.”

That hurt. I expected it, but it still hurt.

“She doesn’t see it that way,” I replied. “To her, I’m a threat to your future. So she ruined mine.”

I paused, voice low and shaking. “Please talk to her, Darian. She’s destroying two lives out of fear. Lucian has someone he loves. And me?” My voice broke. “She’s condemning me to a loveless, miserable life. All because I was your friend.”

I looked down at my hands, trembling now. “I’ll give up the Gamma position. I’ll leave. Just… help me get out of this.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks, hot and helpless. “I don’t want to marry your brother. Please.”

He sat down beside me again, silent for a long moment. His hand found mine, hesitated, then held it gently.

“I’ll talk to her,” he said at last, voice low. “I can’t promise anything, Mara. But I’ll try. I’ll beg her if I have to.”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t hopeful.

At this point, I just needed to know someone tried. That not everyone stood by and watched my future burn.

If Darian hadn’t offered, I might’ve buried myself in silent acceptance. Might’ve forced myself to walk into that cold, loveless match.

But Lucian wasn’t just cruel—he was dangerous. He was a murderer. An irresponsible drunk. A walking storm I’d be expected to share a life with. The thought of binding myself to him permanently… it made my skin crawl.

We sat in silence for a while after that. Just breathing the same air. Just existing in the same space.

Eventually, Darian left.

And I was alone again.

Sitting in a garden, surrounded by life, while mine slowly withered away.

Two days passed.

Nothing from Darian.

No call. No visit. Not even a message. Just silence.

I lay on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling like it might offer some kind of escape. It didn’t. All I saw was the countdown—days slipping away until the wedding. Until my funeral. Because that’s what it felt like. The day I married Lucian would be the day I buried the last of myself.

I didn’t know if I’d take the Gamma position when the time came. I doubted it. The fire in me—the one that once pushed me to be the best—was nothing but ash now. Resignation tasted bitter, but it was starting to feel like the only thing I had left.

There was a knock at my door.

I didn’t answer.

I didn’t have to. I could already smell her—my mother. And the food tray she was balancing in her hands. I didn’t move, didn’t speak, and just like I knew she would, she let herself in.

“Mara,” she said gently, placing the tray on the table. “You need to eat something.”

I didn’t even look at the food. I looked at her. Cold. Angry. Broken.

“How can you and Dad live with yourselves after selling your daughter?” I asked, my voice flat, my expression disgusted.

She froze by the table, her eyes lowering, as if even she couldn’t bear to meet mine.

“He gave us no choice, Mara,” she whispered. “The money was to ease his conscience.”

“And you took it.” My words were a blade. “Spent it, I’m sure. Did it ever occur to you that Lucian might call it off? That Alpha Vander might want his money back?”

She turned to face me slowly, her expression tired and tight.

“We had no choice,” she repeated. “It was take it… or be cast out. ‘Take it or get out,’ that’s what he said. We were drowning, Mara. The house, the loans—we were about to lose everything.”

I blinked, stunned. “So you sold me to pay off your debts? The loans you took for my education?”

“No,” she said quickly. “We were ready to let the house go. We planned to move in with my sister. We didn’t expect Alpha Nighthorn to show up. But when he forced the union, when he said it was happening whether we liked it or not... we took the money. We used it to survive.”

“And you used me to survive,” I said bitterly.

She flinched.

I sat up, my eyes sharp now. “What happens if the deal falls apart? If Lucian calls it off and his father wants the money back?”

“Why would he?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Because I told Darian,” I said. “I told him what Lucian said. About the truth—how this wasn’t about Lucian needing a wife but about his mother wanting me out of Darian’s life. He promised he’d talk to her. Try to get her to stop this madness.”

My mother’s eyes widened, shocked. She hadn’t expected me to do anything. Maybe she thought I’d just quietly crumble.

She slowly sat beside me, her body folding like something had broken inside her.

Tears slid down her face.

“Mara, my darling…” my mother’s voice cracked as she sat beside me. “I didn’t know you would take it this hard.”

I didn’t answer.

She reached for my hand, but I didn’t move. My eyes stayed locked on the ceiling, dry now, but only because I had nothing left in me.

“I’m hurting too,” she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I need you to be strong. You’re tougher than this.”

I didn’t look at her.

“Darian and Rowan left yesterday,” she added carefully. “They won’t be back until it’s time for him to take over the pack.”

The words sank in slowly, like poison soaking through my veins.

They went on the trip.

Without me.

Without a word.

Darian—the one person I still believed would try to help me—was gone. He didn’t even call. Didn’t say goodbye. Didn’t tell me that he had failed or that he’d tried at all.

The silence in my chest cracked. My heart broke without sound.

“I know what you’re thinking,” my mother said, almost defensively. “It was Luna Martha. She forced the trip.”

I turned to her now, eyes stinging again.

“She forced him?” I asked, though I already believed it.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Jason—Darian’s butler—he came by for a check-up. He told me Darian had a terrible argument with Martha. About Lucian. About you. About how unfair this is. And when she couldn’t control the conversation, she controlled him. She made him leave. Told him it was to ‘gain experience.’ Said he’d return a better Alpha.”

My lip trembled, but I didn’t speak.

It was my fault. I asked him to intervene. I pulled him into this. And now he was gone. Banished under the guise of training. And nothing had changed.

Lucian was still my future.

And Darian… Darian had become part of the past.

I sat in silence as the tears returned—slow, steady, quiet.

“I’m sorry, baby,” my mother whispered. “But please… eat something. Don’t let this kill you. You’re one of the strongest wolves this pack has ever seen. A woman winning Gamma? That’s not luck. That’s grit. That’s fire. You will find a way to cope.”

I didn’t believe her.

Not even a little.

She pulled me close, kissed my forehead, then left the room without waiting for a response.

I stared at the food. The smell turned my stomach. Fear had coiled itself so tightly around my gut I could barely breathe, let alone eat.

I picked at the plate. Flushed it all down the toilet. Washed the dishes in silence.

I wanted to fade out of existence.

But I couldn’t.

I was still here.

Trapped in a body with no escape, in a life that no longer felt like mine.

They hadn’t even set a date yet. That should’ve been a good thing—more time, more room to plan, to hope—but instead, it made it worse. The anticipation, the waiting. The illusion of freedom.

Alpha Vander was “putting things in order,” whatever that meant. Maybe planning some extravagant public affair to mask the fact that the union was a sentence, not a celebration.

Forced marriages weren’t supposed to be grand.

But this one was.

Because it wasn’t about love—it was about control.

I climbed back into bed, curled beneath the blanket, and tried to breathe past the panic rising in my throat.

Please, I thought.

Let time fly. Let it fly fast.