He was flat-out ignoring the fact that his uncle had ordered the bridenapping. He wasn’t going to go through with it, Mary realized, anxiety clutching at her. This was her sister’s most important, most public bridenapping ever, the one that would make or break her agency. And it wasn’t going to happen.
“She was here first, so I believe you were the one stalking her. And I’m sure you’re delighted to see her,” Mary said desperately.
“Not really, no.”
Regina rushed up to Jarrod, breathless.
“And may I say, you’re looking especially lovely today, Mary. The blue of your dress really brings out the blue in your eyes,” Jarrod continued. Almost like he wanted Regina to hear it.
“Why, thank you, Jarrod!” Regina cried out, as if Jarrod had been speaking to her. “And you look good enough to eat,” she simpered flirtatiously.
“Is your name Mary?” Angela wondered aloud. “And is your dress blue? Where I come from, we call that color red.”
“It’s so funny how we keep running into each other everywhere, isn’t it?” Regina added, with a big, desperate smile on her face as she moved to Jarrod’s side, her sharp elbow somehow ending up jammed into Mary’s ribs.
Mary stifled a gasp of pain as she fell back. “Well, gotta run,” she said with a grimace, grabbing Angela by the arm and leading her away from Mary.
“She did that on purpose. Let me cripple her. Please?” Angela begged.
“No. Why must you always cause trouble?” Mary demanded irritably once she’d gotten her over to the other side of the store.
“Because it’s fun?”
Mary glared at her cousin until Angela finally threw up her hands in exasperation. “Come on. It’s obvious he’s way more into you. Didn’t you say you were kind of seeing him in high school?”
“Yes, and it didn’t end well.”
To this day, she burned with humiliation just thinking about it. She should have known all along, though. He’d never be seen with her in public. He’d insisted that they keep their relationship a secret. And worse, her friends had kept telling her they saw him publicly hanging out with the girls from the popular crowd. He’d be seen with them, but not with her.
When she’d finally put her foot down and said that if he didn’t want to be seen with her in public, it was over, he’d actually asked her out to dinner. That had been right after he’d graduated; she’d been two years behind him.
She’d glowed with pride at the thought of being seen with the handsome Alpha. Her, the quiet, chubby nerd from the mobile home park. But it was not to be – because he’d never planned on taking her out. Instead he’d stood her up. And that wasn’t all. Oh, no. She’d showed up at the restaurant to find that he wasn’t there - but everyone from the popular crowd from school waiting there for her.
They’d applauded and whistled when she’d walked in. That was what she got for thinking somebody like him would want somebody like her – as Hilda had made sure to tell her at the time.
And Jarrod had left town immediately after that, without a word to her, heading off to Alpha College early.
Shortly after that, her mother had wrapped her car around a tree, for the third time that year. That time, her mother hadn’t walked away from it. It had been a closed casket funeral, and the year from hell.
“Let me tell you what’s happening. He and his uncle are having a major power struggle, and this is his way of sticking it to his uncle. Back in high school, his uncle couldn’t stand me; he ran into me and Jarrod once and flipped out. I heard him screaming about how he wasn’t going to let Jarrod waste a valuable political alliance on no-good trash like me.”
And two weeks later, Jarrod had stood her up. Surprise, surprise.
“Isn’t he Alpha Regent? Why is there even any power struggle?” Angela wondered.
“Because his uncle has run the pack ever since Jarrod was little, and he’s not thrilled about having to hand over the reins to anybody else. But as soon as Jarrod gets married, he becomes the Alpha.”
“But…his uncle is the one arranging the bridenapping,” Angela said, puzzled. “So he wants Jarrod to get married. And then his uncle would have no power at all, right?”
“His uncle has no choice, unless he wants a stranger to come in. You know how every pack has its own laws and traditions? According to Magister Pack rules, if Jarrod doesn’t marry by the time he’s thirty, the Alpha Congress will select a replacement from outside the pack.”
Angela opened her mouth to say something; Mary held up her hand.
“I know what you’re going to ask. The uncle can’t be Alpha because he was born with cerebral palsy and he walks with a limp. A very slight limp. Although he’ll kill anyone who mentions it or even appears to be looking at it.”
“Hey! That’s…able-ist! That’s prejudiced against the disabled!” Angela yelped, always eager to find a new oppressed class to be indignant about.
“I don’t know, werewolves are different.” Mary shrugged. “There’s a specific pack hierarchy, just like there is with wolves in the wild. The pack Alpha has to be strong. He has to be ready to face Death Challenges and defend his pack at all times. Any type of physical disability is an automatic disqualification.”