The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Book 3 The Alpha’s Substitute Bride – Episode 37

~HUNTER~

“Are you not going to eat anything brother?” Esma asked me as she shoved a plate in front of me.

I looked at the food as though it was my enemy. I didn’t feel like eating. It has been hell without Isabella by my side and each day got worse than the last. I missed everything about her. Her stubborn nature, the slight blush to her cheeks, the way she said my name, the way her eyes lit up when she saw me, the small m***s from her mouth whenever I touched her intimately. Damn it, I missed so much about this woman.

I missed the way her body arched towards me as though she would die if she didn’t get closer. I was so messed up that I even missed our arguments.

I missed having her by my side at night, even though we didn’t get much of that. The little that we did was enough to leave an everlasting effect. Each day got harder to digest and I was still no closer to finding out more about Maggie’s whereabouts these past years. Things were becoming worse at home, she kept trying to get closer to me and my body kept retaliating. Isabella had left such an impact on me that no one had the ability to touch me again.

I looked at the food on the plate and turned my face away from it, just looking at it made me feel sick to my stomach.

“I don’t want any Esma.”

She winced at my tone. I didn’t mean for my words to be that harsh but I’ve been extremely cranky after Isabella left.

“Please Hunter, you need to eat something. You haven’t eaten anything since Isabella left!”

My jaw clenched. “I haven’t been hungry. That’s why.”

“For three whole days?” She demanded from me.

My hands tightened around the corners of the table and my nails dug into it. Any second now and the furniture would break from the pressure of my palms. “I don’t want to talk about this right now Esma. I have enough on my mind, I don’t want to eat.”

The truth was I couldn’t bring myself to eat. I couldn’t do it without Isabella next to me. I felt like I didn’t even deserve food until I brought her back. I often wondered in what condition she was in. I was tempted to go look for her, to make sure that she was doing alright without me but I knew that the moment I went after her and caught a whiff of her scent coupled with her beautiful smile, I would be a complete goner.

I hung my head and wondered how I’d come to this. It felt like I didn’t have a life without my sweet Isabella.

“What are you doing to yourself Hunter?” Esma questioned.

I looked up at her upset tone; she barely ever spoke to me like that. She was always soft spoken when speaking to me. It felt unusual to hear her speak this way.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“You’re clearly miserable without Isabella. It’s quite clear to me who you really love. You were doing a lot better when you thought Maggie was dead and when you accepted Isabella to be your wife. In fact you were starting to look happy again. Now you’re left with Maggie and Isabella is gone and I’ve never seen you look this way, not even when we’d all thought that Maggie was dead. That should be your answer if you’re having any doubts or questions about this entire situation. If everyone around you that cares about you can see it. Then why can’t you? I saw the way Isabella looked at you, she adored and respected you. It was quite clear that she was completely heartbroken when she left here. Why haven’t you gone to her as yet? What are you waiting on brother?” She demanded. “I hate to see you like this. Stop hurting yourself. First you spent all of these years blaming yourself for Maggie’s death when she wasn’t dead at all. I watched you suffer day after day and I never said anything, I understood that you needed to grieve for your dead mate. But this is completely different. The woman that you’re missing and craving is still alive. Why are you sitting here and sulking when you can go to her? Tell me brother, you’re denying yourself happiness for what exactly? She’s alive and well, go and bring her back before it’s too late!”

I was surprised by Esma’a outburst; she was not someone to ever get this worked up over something. My sister was always the quiet one, for her to explode like this it must have been bothering her a lot.

I opened my mouth to respond but closed it shut again. What was I to respond to that?

Her words were completely true. Everything she’d said was spot on. Why was I denying myself happiness? I was beginning to think that I liked to see myself unhappy. I kept preventing that happiness from entering my life over and over again.

Esma’s eyes moved to something behind me and I followed her gaze to find Bruce at the doorway. He looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. I never liked to see him like this. The last time I’d seen him look this worried he’d brought to my attention that Maggie might be alive and it turned out to be true.

What could be the problem now?

“Did you hear the news?” He asked me. The man looked like he’d just run a marathon.

I wasn’t concerned with whatever he had to tell me however. I didn’t care about anything as long as Isabella wasn’t involved. She was the only thing on my mind recently, the world could end right now and it wouldn’t bother me as much as losing her did.

“There’s news of an upcoming wedding in the council.”

My eyes snapped to his at the mention of the black council. A wedding? Who else could be getting married so soon? I didn’t know of any recent wedding arrangements.

“I’m not sure you want to see this.” He said as he held something like a wedding invitation close to his chest.

I narrowed my eyes. What could be so bad that he didn’t want to show to me?

“Give it to me Bruce.”

“I’ll give it to you once you promise not to overreact.”

His fear only provoked my anger and distress. The more he spoke the more I felt like it had something to do with Isabella. She was the only reason for me to lose my mind and Bruce knew that.

I got up from the chair and faced him with an angry glare. “I’m not going to ask again, let me see the card.”

He hesitated at first but eventually did as I asked.

I took the flimsy card between my fingers and scanned the words.

“What the f**k is this?”

Bruce look worried at my tone. “I asked you not to overreact. The council is remarrying Isabella to the man she was originally supposed to get married too before they gave her to you.”

The invitation dropped from my hand and I grabbed Bruce by his collar before I could stop my own reaction to his words. “What the hell are you saying to me Bruce?”

His brows rose in confusion. “I’m not the one you need to direct your anger to. It’s the council remarrying Isabella . . . Not me.”

It took a moment for my head to clear and I suddenly realized what I was doing. I let go of him and took a step back.

They were planning on getting her married? I held my head like it was about to explode and before I could stop myself I grabbed a chair and slammed it into the wall.

“HUNTER!” Esma screamed in panic. I couldn’t hear her though, I was losing control.

Anger laced through me mixed with feelings of panic.

No.

This was not happening.

I would never allow that to happen. Isabella belonged to me, she knew it, I knew it, it was time for the world to know it as well!

. . . . . . . . .

~ISABELLA~

I knew something was wrong when my brothers didn’t come to greet me as soon as I pulled back up to the council. They must have been worried sick about me, so then why was no one here to greet me?

“Where are my brothers?” I demanded from Vincent.

I knew he held something against them, he always had. The smirk on his face told me plenty.

My eyes narrowed. “Why aren’t my brothers here to greet me?”

He sighed. “Let me tell you something about your brothers Isabella. They’re getting too comfortable around here. They feel like they could get away with anything. They tried to ruin the wedding arrangement between you and Jerome. Of course we had to do something about that.”

My lips trembled as I glared at the monster. “What did you do?”

“They’re in the dungeons. You can go pay them a visit. I’m sure they will be happy to see their sister.” He said.

I had already turned to leave when I heard him speak again. “You might not see them for the wedding. The prosecutor and I think that its best your brothers sit this one out. We’re just teaching them a lesson for going against us. This punishment was long overdue.”

A few minutes later and I wasn’t running fast enough to my brothers. I slipped the shoes out of my feet and ran down the stairs that led to the brutal dungeon.

What could my brothers have done to be put inside of here? This was exactly what I was avoiding! I didn’t want any of my family members to suffer because of me, it wasn’t fair to them. If I had to suffer I would do it alone, I didn’t want anyone to have to experience pain. My family went through enough already; I didn’t want to be the cause for more sufferings.

I winced as I saw them.

I covered my mouth with my hands. There was b***d all over their bodies. Their eyes were closed and they looked like all the life had been sucked out of their bodies.

I stumbled forward towards the locked cell that prevented me from running straight into their arms. I felt the tears start to fall the moment Ermanno opened his eyes and tried to smile at me.

“Isabella.” He croaked.

At my name all of my brothers opened their eyes as well. Marcus tried to grin and Thane tried to raise his hand to wave at me. Nolan looked like he didn’t want me to see him in here and Luthais looked like he wanted to cry.

Oh God.

My brothers!

What had the council done to them?

“Don’t c-cry.” Thane coughed up b***d as he tried to speak to me.

“We’re fine.” Marcus lied. “We will heal quickly.”

“I need to try and get you out of here!” I cried. “How could they put you in here? What did you do to deserve this kind of punishment?”

Nolan coughed. “We tried to attack the prosecutor after he told us that there was no way he was stopping your wedding.”

“Why would you?” I screamed. “You know the lives we have over here! You shouldn’t have done this! You guys take too many risks. What would happen to mom and dad if something happened to any of you? What would happen to Lucy and Eden . . . What would happen to me? We care about you . . . You idiots! We care about you! We love you!”

I leaned against the cell and felt more tears fall from my eyes. “I can’t live with you.”

Their voices hitched at my break down.

“We’re sorry Isabella . . . We weren’t thinking.” Luthais whispered. “We will not put our lives at risk like that again.”

“You promise?” I asked them. My brothers always did risky things, I couldn’t imagine them actually owning up to those words.

My brothers looked at each other before giving me a broken smile.

“We promise . . . Right after we kill Hunter for putting you into this mess.”

I gasped. “NO!”

Their eyes widened at my outburst. I couldn’t stop it. The thought of Hunter in danger only doubled my fear. I loved him more than I loved anyone else, that was the complete truth.

“We will be careful . . .”

“Y-you don’t u-understand.” I stuttered. “I . . . I love . . . Him.”

There was complete silence at my confession and my brothers looked like they’d just been slapped in the face.

“You love him?” Thane growled.

“That man is a monster!” Marcus hissed.

“He let you go as soon as his wife returned. Why would you love someone like that?”

Their words pierced my heart and made it hard to breathe.

“ENOUGH!” Ermanno shouted, shutting all of them up. “Leave her alone. Let her rest.”

I was surprised that Ermanno had taken my side. I knew that even he disliked Hunter to a great degree.

I didn’t wait for any of my brothers to say anything again; I rushed up the stairs and straight into my room.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach and stormed into the bathroom.

I barely opened the door when I puked all over the bathroom floor. I stayed like that for a few minutes before I fell back against the wall.

What was wrong with me? I felt sick . . . So sick. It’s possible that it was from seeing my brothers in that state then hearing them threaten to hurt Hunter.

A small sigh left my mouth as I picked myself off the ground and went to my bed. I needed to rest before I completely lost my mind. Things were about to get even crazier in my life and I needed to prepare myself for it.