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The priest clears his throat just as I feel the sharp heel of Stella’s shoe dig into my toes and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to muffle the pained sound that wants to escape my lips. Damn it. My mind ran away with my thoughts about Stella’s frigid cunt.
“I do,” I raise my voice and meet the priest’s gaze.
“Do you Stella Rachel Penticton, take this man, Jaxon Philip Stratford, to be your lawful and cherished husband?” I almost feel sorry for the priest. He’s holding his breath waiting for whatever Stella will do. It’s been no secret amongst those intimately involved with this wedding that the bride wanted no part in it. It’s a good thing no one took her objections and desires into consideration.I’ll probably be paying for that fact for the rest of my damn life.
Stella never turns her eyes towards me, she stares straight ahead and past the priest. I can almost see the scales in her mind as she undoubtedly weighs the consequences of refusing me.It’s no use. She, like I, knows there is no changing our fates. I am power hungry and she is a prize I am determined to take. The crowning jewel in my new empire. I will have her by any means necessary.
Silence fills the air, and we all stand like statues afraid to move, waiting with baited breath for the ice queen’s words. I can feel a trickle of sweat down my back. The desire to wrap my fingers around her impertinent throat seizes me. I grind my back molars to prevent me from doing anything further to embarrass myself. Just as I turn my face towards her with a raised brow and the look of retribution on my face if she denies me, her words ring out, loud and reserved.
“I do.” Her cultured voice is strong in the silence of the church. The congregation releases a breath they all seemed to have been holding. I watch out of the corner of my eye as Ajax stiffens, his eyes riveted on Stella before lowering to the ground with a grimace on his face. That motherfucker better wipe that grimace off his face before someone in the crowd catches on that the best man was cheering for the groom to be left at the altar.Fucking traitor!
The need to slam my fist into his pretty boy face is almost overwhelming. Heat is rising along my body, prickling my skin, as my temper tries to get control of me. My foot takes a step in his direction, before I pull myself back to the here and now. A smug grin crosses my face with the realization, it doesn’t matter what Ajax wants or feels. I already fucking won,she’s mine.
The priest continues on for a few more minutes about the sanctity of marriage but I tune him completely out. My thoughts race ahead to all the power plays I mean to make in the next couple of months. I tune back in just as Stella tightens her grip on my hand, squeezing my fingers in a bruising embrace. My glance returns to her and even through the veil, I can see her displeasure. Her lips are in a tight line and her nose is flaring with obvious rage.Well, shit.
Ajax moves forward and places two platinum and diamond encrusted bands in my hand before moving back to his spot. I hold up the smaller of the rings and slip it on Stella’s finger, pushing the square Stratford diamond I sent her by courier weeks ago further back as I slip the band in next to it. I know it was a dick move and not one that won me any brownie points with her, but I just couldn’t be bothered to play up the charade of two bestowed lovers. Stella takes the band from my hand and slips it with bruising force on my finger, sinking her nails into the skin of my knuckle before releasing my hand.Fucking bitch.
The words I have been waiting weeks to hear are finally uttered. “You may now kiss your bride.” Hell, I’ll willingly kiss the ice queen, after all she just became my most valuable possession. I reach forward and lift her delicate black veil up and over her crown, revealing her beautiful features to me. The breath in my lungs momentarily stalls. She is a stunningly beautiful woman. If it wasn’t for her viper tongue and arctic personality I would be beside myself with glee at having such a stunning wife. Instead I am constantly weary and waiting for her to plunge a blade into my chest.
Before I can lean forward and take her lips in the obligatory kiss, she shoves her bouquet of blood red roses at me, makes an unlady-like snort and turns away from me to walk back up the aisle alone, head held high and back rigid.
Gasps, murmurs, and giggles are breaking out around the room and the poor priest looks mortified. My beautiful, uncontrollable bride just left me standing at the altar like an irredeemable asshole holding her flowers rather than allowing me to kiss her.
She’s going to pay for that.
3
Stella
“Anger is a violent emotion, vindictive, and as dangerous to he who is driven by it as to anyone on whom it is turned.” Dean Koontz
Ileavehimstandingat the altar holding my damn flowers and walk out on him. He doesn’t bother to give chase, after all now he has what he wanted, I am a Stratford and his possession. I make it to the black chauffeured vehicle outside of the church that is meant to take us to our reception lunch with hurried steps.
The back of my mind is shouting miserably that I am weak, running away from my monsters, but I try to ignore those tempestuous thoughts. The driver rushes around to open the door and to help me quickly get inside with this overbearing dress. Once I’m safely in the confines of the vehicle, I instruct him to take me directly to the Stratford estate rather than the country club where our reception is to be held. I’m finally able to release the strangled breath that has had my chest tightening for the last hour.It’s done, there is no turning back now.
All my personal belongings were transferred to his home this morning. There is no point in returning to the Penticton estate, I am no longer a Penticton. At least at the Stratford estate, my father will not be able to get his furious hands on me. His rage was palpable and I know if the world wasn’t watching he would have wrung my neck for my show of defiance. I close my eyes and try to calm my racing heart from the ordeal of the ceremony.
Jaxon, the fucker, couldn’t even pay me the miniscule amount of respect of paying attention to our wedding vows. Not that any vows he makes to me, I would put any weight in. I could tell he was lost in his thoughts, probably already scheming, now that he has his desired prize. He has another thing coming if he thinks I will just sit back and let him use me.
The look on his face was priceless when I refused his kiss, shoved my flowers at him, and turned and walked away. I could hear all the gasps and murmurs all around the room. The disappointed sheep, bleating that their new queen will not fall in line with what is expected. They hunger for the type of power that we now have together. The one my new name provides me. I will not put on a show for any of them if it does not benefit me. I am the untouchable ice queen, why should marrying Jaxon formally change that. If anything, it fills me with more disdain and fury that they all watched as I was forced to the altar. A sacrificial lamb, sent to the slaughter at the hands of powerful men.
I know that most of the women in that room have slept with my new husband. Whether they themselves are married or not. Nothing in our world is truly a secret. That man is despicable and can’t seem to keep his dick in his pants. I have heard rumors of his various kinks, ones that cause a shudder to race down my spine. Will he try to force those on me now? He pursues women relentlessly and even in my self-imposed glass castle, I hear the stories of his exploits. I will not be one more notch on his belt. He can force me to take his name, but he cannot force me to desire him and willingly let him touch me in intimacy.What if he tries to take it by force?My mind questions.Then it will be the last thing he does alive on this earth before I slit his delectable, evil throat.
I almost feel sorry for my pathetic father who so desperately craved a male heir that he sold his only daughter to a monster in order to get one. He did it for nothing. I will rip out my own ovaries and set fire to them before I provide him with what he and Jaxon want. No, as far as I’m concerned, the Penticton’s and Stratford’s line will end with us so that we don’t force the next generation into the same predicament.
The gates open upon the approach of the vehicle and I watch as the large gray stone house appears, a short drive from sixty-second street. It’s ridiculous the opulence in the middle of the city, not that the Penticton estate isn’t as grandiose. We are all living in a rich man’s world, regardless of what is happening just outside of our gates.
The limo rolls through the gates and they immediately close behind us. One can never be too careful when one comes from a powerful wealthy family. I know there are those that mean to do my father and my new husband harm. I will be fighting enemies at every turn going forward. That thought should scare me, instead it fills me with anticipation. I was made for war, just like the goddessAthena, I welcome the blood of my enemies.
I’ve never stepped foot in Jaxon’s family home, having preferred to live in complete denial that there wouldn’t have been a way for me to extract myself from this mess. Now that I have failed, I need to accept that this will be my new prison for the foreseeable future, or at least until I make myself a willing widow.
The limo stops before the large Grecian styled columns on either side of the resplendent wood and glass front door. It opens and a butler and housekeeper, both in navy uniforms, make their way outside to the driveway. As I extract myself from the car, tearing the train on my fifty-thousand-dollar dress as I get out of the vehicle and almost end up in an undignified heap on the cobbled driveway.Fucking hell!I am so glad I wasn’t in love with this dress, otherwise I would be in tears right now. As it is, it is one more shackle confining me to this miserable life. I will be so relieved when I never see the despicable thing again and I would love to be a fly on the wall when my father gets the bill.
“Mrs. Stratford, it is a pleasure to have you home, ma’am. We were…not expecting you…before the completion of the…bridal lunch. I am Fergus, the Stratford family butler and this is Mrs. Pox, the housekeeper.” His lined face seems kind and I can see that I have caused both of them agitation with my untimely and unexpected arrival. I feel horrible for causing them stress, but I just couldn’t take another moment of pretending to be content with the wedding and since this is my new home, there was nowhere else to go. I would have boarded a plane for anywhere, had Jaxon not taken my passport days ago, to prevent that very thing.
“I am truly sorry for causing you any distress. I was exhausted from the ceremony and decided to come to my new home for a reprieve.” I watch as they both take in my black attire and the use of my word reprieve. Yes, that’s right, this wedding was an execution of myself at the hands of my father and Jaxon Stratford. There is no point in mincing words anymore. The deed is now done.
“Ma’am? Uh…Mr. Stratford is not with you?” Fergus seems perplexed by the fact that no one else has vacated the vehicle other than me. I nod my head no and start moving towards the front door.
