Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Scott’s POV

After I got Emilia’s text, I shut my eyes in pain.

She had no idea how much those words cut, coming from her.

I set the phone down, sat in the dark a moment, then picked it up again and dialed Lily.

"Are you free tomorrow night?"

"Um, why? What’s going on?"

"I’m taking you somewhere."

"Where?"

"Don’t ask. You’ll see when we get there."

The next day at the office, Lily kept her distance from me.

We’d agreed to marry, yet she’d blush and duck away the second anyone from the company glanced our way.

She had no clue that by tonight, everything between us was about to move a great deal faster than she was ready for.

She waited until the building emptied out before slipping into my car in the parking garage, glancing over her shoulder the whole time.

"You act like you’re smuggling contraband," I said.

Her cheeks puffed out. "It’s just, not a good look, being seen."

"We’re getting married. Nobody’s going to arrest us for standing next to each other."

"Right. Yeah."

She nodded, and I pulled out of the garage. Halfway there she asked again where we were headed. I told her she’d know when we stopped.

Half an hour later I parked outside Peaceful Bay Resort. I got out first and opened her door.

"You said you’d tell me once we got out of the car," she reminded me, hopping down.

I turned to face her. "This is where my mother lives."

The color drained from her face. She spun on her heel to bolt, and I caught her wrist.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

"Your mother is going to skin me alive. She can’t stand me."

"Not while I’m standing right here."

I took her hand and kept walking. I felt her fingers go rigid in mine, and with my hearing I caught her pulse running faster than it should. I didn’t let go.

Claudine opened the door and smiled at me. "Scott. Come in."

Her gaze drifted past me, landed on Lily, and her whole face iced over. "What is she doing here?"

"I brought her." I kept my voice even and nodded Lily forward. "Come on."

Lily trailed me into the living room on unsteady legs. Claudine’s stare followed her like the edge of a blade.

"Tell me why you dragged this woman into my home," Claudine said, sitting across from me.

"I’m getting married." I announced.

Lily’s POV

The air went subzero. I didn’t even have to lift my head. I could feel Claudine’s stare drilling into the top of my skull.

After a horrible silence, her voice came out shaking. "Don’t tell me you mean to marry this woman."

"Yes. Her."

Crack.

She slapped him. Full across the face.

I clapped a hand over my mouth and forgot how to breathe. The woman who might become my mother-in-law was terrifying. Looks could kill, and hers were loaded.

"Is this revenge? Are you marrying some improper little nobody just to get back at me over Emilia? Marriage isn’t a game, Scott. I will not have some dirty stray for a daughter-in-law!"

Her words should have gutted me. I couldn’t even react. That look pinned me in place.

"My life is mine," Scott said, cold and flat. "You don’t get a vote on who I marry. I came out of courtesy, to inform you, not to ask permission. You’ve been informed. We’re leaving."

He stood, pulled me up beside him, and steered me toward the door.

"Stop!" Claudine’s voice cracked into a shriek. "I swear I’ll leave Emilia alone. Just stay away from this woman!"

"You expect me to believe that?" He didn’t slow down, dragging me along.

"I’ll count to three. If you don’t stop, I’ll disown you!"

I froze, tried to dig in my heels, but he ignored me and pulled me straight out.

Claudine chased us into the hall. "I don’t agree! I will never agree! You marry her without my blessing over my dead body!"

Scott stopped. He turned, and his voice dropped to something ice-cold. "Did you get my consent when you divorced Dad?"

Claudine stood there like the words had knocked the wind out of her.

"I was eight," Scott went on. "Eight years old when you walked out and flew off overseas. Just because I kept quiet doesn’t mean I didn’t care. I had every right to hate you."

With that, Scott took my hand and walked me out. His palm was broad and warm, and it closed over mine and held on tight.

He opened the passenger door for me and I slid in without a word, and he drove us away from that suffocating place.

I sat beside him and watched him drive.

I could tell the fight with his mother had him on edge. His shoulders were rigid, his jaw set.

After a long, miserable stretch I finally worked up the nerve.

"You don’t have to fight your mother over me. If she can’t stand me, then, you should marry someone she approves of."

He said nothing, only frowned.

"I’m getting ahead of myself here. You were fighting over Emilia. Who am I to—" I fumbled on. "Look, just think about the marriage again. Your mother’s not wrong. It isn’t a game. There are other ways to keep her from hurting Emilia. You don’t have to pay for it with your own happiness."

I couldn’t stop talking. It just kept pouring out of me.

Then Scott hit the brakes so hard the car lurched. He caught my face in his hands and kissed me. No warning at all.

The world tilted sideways. My mind went blank. I stared at the man I’d loved in secret, certain this had to be a dream, except his breath was warm against my mouth, too warm for anything but real.

He pulled back, breathing hard. "That was the only way to shut you up. Forgive the abruptness."

He put the car back in gear and drove on. The kiss did its job. I didn’t say another word the entire way home.

I didn’t expect Claudine to come find me the next day.

We sat in a café across from the Hanson building while I waited for her to speak. She studied me a long while, then said, "So irritating."

That did it for my nerves. I lifted my chin. "If that’s all you’ve got, I’ll head back. I’m on the clock."

"Leave my son."

No preamble. I let out a sharp little laugh. "And if I say no? You going to toss a check across the table?"

"You wish. I wouldn’t waste the money on someone like you."

I breathed in, told myself not to snap. Slowly I slid a hundred-dollar bill onto the table and flagged the waiter. "Check, please."

I was halfway to standing when her voice followed me.

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Marry my son, and I’ll make the rest of your life a misery."

"Don’t worry." I met her eyes without blinking. "I’ll keep your son so far away from you, you’ll never have to lay eyes on him again."

I walked out and didn’t look back. Behind me, I could practically hear her choking on her own fury.