Snakes Over Wolves Chapter 01
The moment those words left my mouth, Dad froze mid-motion, still clutching the marriage contract in his hand.
Mom’s eyes widened, and the fur on her tail bristled straight up. “Nessa, have you lost your mind? Nathaniel is permanently sterile and extremely violent. I heard he nearly tore a servant’s throat out during a feral episode. Marrying him is basically courting death!”
Before I could answer, Dad cleared his throat. “But if she doesn’t, what is Annie supposed to do? She’s already mated with Cameron.”
Conflict flashed in Mom’s eyes before she slowly let go of my hand.
My heart sank instantly. I was their biological daughter, yet they always favored Anika—the adopted child who constantly played the victim.
I let out a short, bitter laugh. “I have one condition. On my wedding day, Anika must publicly admit that she stole my potion.”
“How can you be so vicious?” Dad snapped, slamming his hand against the table in anger. “You’ll destroy Annie’s reputation!”
Beside him, Mom simply stared at me in profound disappointment.
I glared right back at them with undisguised contempt. “The Weresnake Tribe prince specifically asked for the female werebeast who brewed the potion. You can’t have it both ways. Anika has to choose between protecting her reputation and securing her future happiness.”
In the end, they relented to protect Anika.
I turned and walked away without hesitation, only to run into Cameron stepping out of Anika’s bedroom in the hallway.
He wore nothing but a bathrobe. Red marks littered his chest, and Anika’s signature rose perfume clung heavily to his skin.
It was painfully obvious how much time they had spent in bed together over the last three days.
Seeing me cover my nose in disgust and try to push past him, Cameron rushed to block my path.
“Nessa, I know you’re mad, but this was the only way I could help Annie,” he pleaded. “Weresnakes are incredibly possessive. Mating with her was the only way to stop the prince from coming after her.”
I gave a bitter smile.
“And what about me?”
I was supposed to mate with him when I turned twenty. Yet, he abandoned me right before the mating ceremony every time because Anika threw a fit.
He dragged it out again and again. Now, just days before my twenty-fifth birthday, he had chosen to mate with Anika instead.
That left me with only two miserable choices—being randomly assigned to a rogue werebeast, or marrying the Weresnake prince.
Guilt flashed in Cameron’s eyes as he grabbed my hand. “Nessa, I won’t let you end up with some rogue. I thought of another way. I can mark you as my slave, and then you can move into my house without needing to marry anyone.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a formality. Once you move in, I’ll treat you exactly the same as Annie.”
I actually laughed out loud from sheer disbelief. How could someone be this shameless?
Only the most wicked or desperate werebeasts ever accepted a slave mark.
A branded slave could be sold off by their owner at any moment, condemned to spend their entire life as a second-class citizen. Even their descendants would inherit that status forever.
I violently yanked my hand out of his grasp. “Cameron, I would rather marry the worst man alive than become anyone’s slave.”
My rejection bruised his pride instantly, and his expression darkened.
“Vanessa, don’t you love me?” he hissed. “Is your reputation really more important than being with me?”
“Is that right?” I shot back. “Then why don’t you make Anika your slave? That would save her as well.”
“How could she be a slave?” he snapped. “She’s delicate and sweet. She deserves to be cherished, not put through hell.”
Years of suffocating unfairness finally pushed tears to my eyes.
Anika was a fragile wererabbit, while I was our pack’s only nine-tailed werefox—physically resilient and blessed with nine lives.
Because of that, my parents favored her, and even my own fiancé pitied her.
As for me, I was simply expected to endure every injustice in silence.
Angered and flushed with shame under my mocking glare, Cameron spat, “Think really carefully about what you’re doing. It’s not like you have any other options anyway.”
After he stormed off, I dragged myself downstairs feeling hollow inside, only to discover that the Weresnake Tribe had already delivered an engagement gift.
It was the exact emerald bracelet I’d missed out on at the last auction.
Warmth spread unexpectedly through my chest.
Maybe marrying Nathaniel wouldn’t be a total disaster after all.