Rejected at the Altar, Married to the Mafia Alpha novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: The Wrong Bride
Damon rejects Chiara at the public ceremony, announces Bianca, and tries to repossess South Rail. Valerio arrives with the alleged debt; Chiara names her own marriage conditions before the crowd. The oath bears her dead mother's thumbprint on a date when her mother had no thumb.
Damon rejected me at the altar before the violinist finished her first note.
"I won't bind myself to a woman without a wolf."
Three hundred people heard him.
I stood under the white flowers his father had ordered and watched Damon offer his hand to Bianca Valenti.
She had been waiting in the front row in a silver dress.
Of course she had.
The officiant still held the cord meant to bind our wrists.
Damon took it from him and dropped it at my feet.
"There," he said. "You can stop pretending."
The laughter started behind me and ran down the room.
I bent to pick up the cord, because Rita had braided it herself.
She had used one blue thread for South Rail, the refuge we ran in the old freight depot.
Damon put his shoe on the loose end.
"Leave it. My father will send someone for your things."
"My things are at South Rail."
"Not for long."
He turned to the guests and lifted Bianca's hand.
"The depot was pledged against a pack debt. Collection begins tonight."
Rita stood up so fast her chair struck the wall.
"That depot is mine."
Damon kept smiling at the room.
"Take it up with the creditor."
Two men in black coats opened the doors.
They were not Damon's men.
Valerio Bellandi walked between them, carrying a flat leather case.
I knew his face from warnings passed between the packs.
The Lake Alpha collected debts with a court order in one hand and armed men behind the other.
His father had taken three houses on our street, and the families had come to sleep at South Rail.
He stopped when he saw the cord under Damon's shoe.
"Did I interrupt?"
"Perfect timing," Damon said. "Tell them what she owes."
Valerio looked at me, not at him.
"The Rail account claims the depot as collateral. I came to collect the original oath before anyone moves in."
"My aunt owns the depot," I said.
"I know what the account says. I didn't say I believed it."
Damon's smile thinned.
"Your father believed it."
"My father died." Valerio set the case on the altar. "I read things before I sign them."
Bianca slipped her arm through Damon's.
"Can we finish this first?"
I looked at Rita.
Her hands were shaking, though she held her chin high.
At the depot, thirty adults were getting ready for supper.
Some had arrived with only the clothes they wore.
If Damon locked the doors tonight, they would have nowhere to go.
"How long can you stop collection?" I asked Valerio.
He opened the case.
"As an outside creditor, I can request a hold. As the spouse of someone with standing in the Rail pack, I can enforce it."
The room went quiet.
Damon laughed first.
"Are you offering to marry her? She can't even shift."
Valerio looked at him.
"I heard you the first time."
"Then you know she's useless."
I stepped down from the altar.
My shoes clicked against the tile until I stood beside Valerio.
"If there is a marriage," I said, "these are my terms."
Rita stared at me.
Valerio shut the case and listened.
"The refuge stays in Rita's name. No guard enters without my invitation. You don't claim me as a mate. We have separate rooms. Either of us can leave after the debt is settled."
Damon barked a laugh.
"You think he'll accept that in front of his men?"
"I'm speaking to him."
Valerio turned to one of his guards.
"Write it down exactly."
I felt the room change around me.
It was small, but it belonged to me.
"And you post enough money to keep the residents inside tonight," I added.
Valerio nodded.
"Done."
Damon reached for my arm.
I pulled away before he touched me.
"You can't marry him. You were promised to me."
"You dropped the promise on the floor."
I put the cord in Rita's hands.
Valerio opened the case again and drew out a stiff sheet under glass.
An old brown thumbprint sat beneath my mother's name.
I had spent years repairing split pages for the refuge.
I knew the shape of that print better than my own.
My mother had lost her right thumb when I was eight.
She told me the depot press took it.
The oath showed a full right thumbprint.
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