Fake Vow, True Luna

#Chapter 6: Lying in Church

Olivia

Nathan placed his hand on my belly and smiled up at me while the rest of the wedding guests watched us with shocked faces. “Olivia, I promise that I will take care of you… And our baby,” he said.

The bride’s face was as white as a sheet. The entire church, which was just murmuring angrily over the scene before them, now fell so utterly silent that the sound of Layla’s white lily bouquet falling to the floor echoed throughout the walls. 

All I could hear, however, was my own heart beating too fast inside my chest as I wondered what the hell was happening today. Not only did Nathan refuse to marry his bride, Layla, but he also claimed that he would take care of me! And our… baby?! We hadn’t seen each other in a decade. This couldn’t be possible; it had to be a joke, or a bad dream, or a nasty prank…

“What is all of this, Nathan?!” Colin, Nathan’s father, shouted. His loud, domineering voice boomed throughout the dead silent church and was the only thing to finally drown out the overwhelmingly loud sound of my racing heartbeat.

Nathan removed his hand from my belly and grabbed my hand, turning to face his father proudly.

“Olivia is the daughter of Gamma Kamran. She was forced to leave the pack with her father when she was fifteen, but she was my first and only love, and has never left my heart this entire time. Now that she is back, I can’t live this lie any longer.”

Once again, the church flew into an uproar.

I opened my mouth to protest. I wanted to say that this wasn’t true, but I couldn’t. Literally, physically, I couldn’t say a word; Nathan used his power of the Alpha’s Absolute Obedience to keep me from speaking. The moment he took my hand, he used his power to keep me from saying a peep so that I couldn’t protest against this lie.

I could only be led up to the pulpit by him like a stone.

Damn you, Nathan, I cursed in my mind. How was this any better than living on the streets? I was only back for a few days, and he already was humiliating me in front of the entire pack. And for what? Nathan and I never had a relationship; we were only ever friends!

Before we could reach the pulpit, Colin suddenly stepped into our path and puffed his chest out as he blocked us from going any further.

“Nathan, I will not allow this,” Colin growled. “The wedding has already been set in stone. Look at what you’re doing to your lovely bride! Don’t be a fool!”

I tried to glance past Colin to see Layla, but Colin was too large and broad for me to see past him. His steely gaze landed on me with a fury that made me want to sink straight into the floor, through the Earth and out the other side, leaving me floating in space. I would have preferred that over… this.

Nathan shook his head. He glared at his father, completely undaunted by his father’s fury.

“I’m the Alpha now, father,” he said proudly with his chin held high. “It’s my decision. And besides… Olivia is my fated mate, and you can’t separate us.”

The entire church gasped. Colin’s eyes went wide, and his mouth hung slack. Nathan pushed past him during his state of shock and kept leading me forward.

Fated mates were destined mates. Very few werewolves ever actually found their fated mates, and it was a highly revered status to have. It was especially revered for an Alpha to find their fated mate, as the fated mate bond would strengthen the Alpha’s powers immensely.

But my wolf was dormant. Even if Nathan and I were somehow fated mates, which I doubted anyway, there was no way that either of us could know it until my wolf appeared. Nathan was blatantly lying… in church, no less!

At this point, however, the eyes of the crowd were no longer on either of us. They were on the bride, Layla. She still stood at the pulpit in her beautiful white gown, with her beautiful blonde hair and her big eyes. Beside her, her father was cursing out loud. Suddenly, she put her hand on her father’s arm and shook her head.

“I’ll handle this, father,” she said quietly.

Nathan and I stopped at the bottom of the steps to the pulpit. Layla slowly picked up her skirt with her delicate hands and gracefully made her way down the steps one step at a time, each slower than the last, until she came to a stop in front of me.

As she stood one step above me, she looked like a beautiful goddess looking down over me, and I thought for sure that this would be the end for me despite the fact that I never had a relationship with her fiance.

If only I could tell her the truth… But Nathan was still gripping my hand so tightly that I thought for sure it would fall off, and I couldn’t even move my body in a way that would indicate my distaste for what was happening here. His power of Absolute Obedience was too strong. I was completely helpless, like a prisoner in this situation.

Surely she was going to slap me, or even worse. She was an Alpha female, after all, and even if she wasn’t, she still had every right to slap the woman who ruined her marriage. And since I couldn’t speak for myself or run away, all I could do was stand there and shut my eyes as I braced myself for the slap of a lifetime.

But that slap never came. I slowly and nervously cracked my eyes open to see something that I didn’t expect at all.

Layla slowly lifted her hands and removed the glistening, delicate tiara off of her head, which her beautiful veil was attached to. She gently reached forward and placed the tiara onto my head instead. 

As she bent down slightly to gently lower the sparkling tiara onto my head, I swore that I saw what looked like a faint smile play across her round lips, and a sparkle of something in her big, beautiful eyes that I couldn’t quite read. 

This close, she almost looked… Happy to be done with this marriage? Was she happy to not be marrying the Alpha, for some reason? Or was her hint of a smile just a way for her to mock me for ruining her wedding day?

“As sad as I am,” Layla said, addressing not only Nathan and I, but also the entire crowd, “I am touched by this display of true love. Nathan, Olivia… You have my blessing. I, Layla, officially announce that my engagement to Nathan is officially null and void.”

The crowd murmured in confusion. I felt my eyes go wide as I looked up at the ethereal Alpha female standing before me. How was this even possible, that an Alpha female such as herself would be so graceful and understanding about a woman stealing her groom away from her on their wedding day?

What on Earth was happening in this church?!