Five Years a Placeholder, Now Fated to the Lycan King

I called Darren Silver my mate and husband for five years, but on our fifth wedding anniversary I found out he never registered our marriage.

We never had a real wedding. Just the plain gold ring he gave me and a paper we both signed in our room to show for years of dedication.

“We’re already bonded, Nova. When the time is right, we will have a real ceremony.”

I believed him for five years as he kept saying we would get to it eventually, that it could wait until he took over as Alpha and the pack settled down. Later never came.

I remembered asking him about it just a week ago. I was folding his shirts when I finally found the nerve.

“Darren… do you think, maybe this year, we could finally have a ceremony for our fifth anniversary? Just do it properly in front of the pack.”

He didn’t look up from his laptop.

“Why? We’re already bonded.”

“But you said we would once things settled—”

“And now you’re being difficult.” His fingers paused over the keys. “Drop it, Nova. With the constant rogue attacks, the pack needs to prepare for the worst, not throw a feast.”

I swallowed it. I always did.

But today was different. He would be home after two days handling matters at the borders. I decided to prepare something nice for dinner to welcome him and celebrate our five years together.

I was still smiling about tonight’s dinner when I passed the Pack Registry Hall downtown.

I saw Darren standing on the marble steps in his best coat, the one I pressed for him last week. And next to him, holding his arm like she had done it a thousand times before, was Briar, my adopted sister.

She vanished five years ago and never once called, never once wrote, never once let me know if she was alive or dead.

My bags hit the ground. Everything I bought rolled into the gutter. I didn’t move to pick it up.

“Are you sure we can get this certificate?” Briar’s voice floated down to me. “What about your Nova? You’re still legally tied to her, aren’t you?”

“I don’t care about her.” Darren’s voice came fast. “That bond was never real. That’s why I never registered our marriage. What I have with you is real, and now that you’re finally back, I’ll deal with Nova soon.”

My ears rang. My vision tilted.

“You mean that?” Briar’s voice trembled. “Even after I ran without a word?”

He turned toward her and smiled. “It was always going to be you. You don’t have to feel guilty anymore. I understand why you left.”

He kissed her passionately. A breath caught painfully in my throat.

She pulled back just enough to whisper, “And Nova? Did you ever have real feelings for her?”

He laughed dismissively. “Never. I never saw her as anything more than a placeholder while I worked hard to be worthy of you.”

The world went very quiet as I struggled to digest his words.

Five years ago, Briar vanished without a word. Our parents had been furious. They called her ungrateful, selfish, and even said she was dead to them. I was the only one who searched for her, hired private investigators until every lead turned cold. I grieved her. I defended her memory even when our parents refused to speak her name.

And now she stood here, five years later, holding the hand of the man I called my mate like it was the most natural thing in the world.

And Darren? I stood by him for five years, waking at dawn to run the pack accounts, smiling through the rumors that called me the weak one, the half-blood who got lucky. I wore his ring. I built my life around the promise that one day the paperwork would catch up to the bond I felt.

Staring at the gold band on my wrist, I wanted to scream. I wanted my wolf to rip through my skin right there on the sidewalk. Heat flooded my chest, then drained so fast my knees nearly buckled.

“What about the ceremony?” A familiar voice cut through their joy. Marcus. My father.

“Just make sure Nova doesn’t find out,” Erin, my mother, said. “She’ll make a scene. I think it’s best we sell her off to the black market or feed her to the rogues before she catches on to anything.”

I stopped breathing as all four of them laughed.

My parents—blood of my blood—who had spent five years pretending to hate and disown Briar, now laughed with her and my mate while they planned to erase me.

The pretense cracked open in that single moment. All those years of anger had been a performance. They had known. Or they had chosen this the second she reappeared.

Slowly, I backed away and ran. I wasn’t sure where I was going, only that it couldn’t be here.

The street blurred past me. Strangers stepped aside for a woman who must have looked half out of her mind. My chest burned. My vision swam. The gold ring dug into my finger with every swing of my arm.

I didn’t hear the engine until it was almost on top of me.

Headlights flared white. The world spun sideways. Something in my hip screamed as I hit the ground and rolled. Metal shrieked. Pain exploded through my side and lower belly, sharp and final. Tires screeched. Voices shouted somewhere far away.

I tried to push myself up. My arms refused. Warm wetness spread across my clothes. The last thing I felt was the ring still locked on my finger as the asphalt rose up to meet me again.