As Vael stepped out of the boardroom, the only thing ringing inside his head was one name.
Vessara.
The woman standing in that boardroom. The woman everyone had chosen for him.
A bitter laugh threatened to escape him as he strode down the corridor.
Vael had spent days trying to force himself to accept the arrangement. He hated every second of it, but there was no stopping it. He had steeled himself for some faceless stranger, a woman who would serve her purpose and fade into the background of his life.
Fine. If they wanted him married so badly, then they would get exactly what they asked for. A Luna. Nothing more.
Whoever she turned out to be would have a title, a room in the pack house, and children carrying his bloodline.
Beyond that, she would get nothing from him. No affection. No commitment. No expectations of love.
It had been the only way he could stomach the situation. The only way he could convince himself he still had some control or at least the illusion of it.
