I also didn’t have time to waste on getting married when the darkness was still lurking around, causing issues. People were getting hurt, and instead of focusing on that, the Council thought getting us married was more important.
“I'm not complaining,” Maddox snipped as he sat down in a chair, crossing his arms. “But let's be honest here. How the hell did you all get paired before I did? Is this machine broken?”
“Because it's random. It's not like the computer picked the best-looking and went from there.” Henrik said.
“Or maybe it did, and you're just coming to terms with the realization that you're not as good-looking as you think,” Aaron said with a smirk, clearly proud of himself.
Maddox glared at Aaron as he opened a beer. “Sorry, is your ego hurt?”
“You're a dick.”
“And you're just jealous,” Aaron said, taking a sip. “Now quit complaining about it. This is Frank's wedding, not yours.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to the mirror. I had to admit the suit looked nice. It was a light gray suit with a cream tie. Sam and Katie helped Nina plan everything out in a week. I didn't see the point in dressing up and making a huge deal out of it. I hardly knew Nina, let alone felt the need to parade myself around like this was what I wanted.
Everyone knew the truth that this was forced.
But Sam had quickly snapped that, being an Alpha, a wedding was needed. That Jay and Henrik did it without complaint, which I had wanted to argue back, wasn't entirely true, but I hadn't. Sam had grown herself a backbone, and I often found myself unable to argue with her. That, and I didn't feel like having Jay snap at me.
It had all happened so quickly. The Council called that I was the next to be matched and told me it was Nina. I was in a meeting when I got the call and ended up breaking my phone. It wasn't even two hours later when Jay arrived to tell me, but I informed him the Council was ahead of him on it.
“Oy,” Jones smacked my head, and I frowned, not realizing I was gripping my beer bottle too hard. The bottle head snapped, and pain cut through my palm.
“You idiot.” Jones quickly grabbed the bottle, glaring at me. “You're going to make a mess. Jesus Christ, get a grip.”
The room fell quiet as I looked at my palm and the cut. It wasn't deep, and I knew it would heal in a few minutes. I looked at Jones, who took the remaining part of the bottle and tossed it into the trash. “Control your anger,” he grumbled at me.
I looked at the others, watching as they had gone quiet.
“I'm fine,” I mumbled, walking towards the bathroom. I shoved the door open, turned the faucet on, and placed my hand under it.
I watched as the water turned red for a moment before the cut stitched itself closed. I grabbed the towel and dried my hand. Jay walked over and leaned on the door. “You're angry.”
“Weren't you?” I asked, glancing at him. “When you were told you had no choice. I recall you weren't exactly level-headed about it all.”
Jay nodded his head. “Yeah, but not like this. I wasn’t raging with anger.”
I inhaled slowly and turned to the mirror. “She's beneath me.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.” I glanced at him in the mirror, watching several emotions flick across his face. Jay took a deep breath and straightened his arms. “You are to do what your pack needs and our pack needs this. I know you are logically thinking this doesn’t help you, but it does. Even if we get this darkness undercontrol, our people are still infertile, and we need humans for children.”
I knew that. I knew the logic and how this was good. We needed humans to have children because of whatever force was making our women unable to bear children. But if we found that out, we wouldn't need to rely on humans. If we focused our attention on that rather than this, maybe it would have been figured out by now.
“And if we just caught the bastard doing this, we wouldn't need to lean on humans.”
“While that is logically an answer, you know it's been almost a year since this all started. Our numbers are down. And you need to set a good example for your pack. Especially now. I know you’ve lost people to this darkness. Marrying Nina is the way to remind people that even when we are low, we can still push forward.”
I huffed a sigh and turned to him. “I know you and Henrik both love your wives. But your wife is a seer, and his wife is a fucking scientist. Neither are just normal humans. The one I'm getting…”
“Nina,” Jay said, his eyes narrowing. “Her name is Nina.”
I swallowed, knowing Jay had a soft spot for her. I nodded. “Nina is just a human. She is a weak breed.”
“That's not entirely true. You have a view of a species that has outgrown that. You need to open your eyes and see that.”
“And I remember at one point your views had matched mine.”
