Page 1 of Claimed By the Silver Fox

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JULIA

I stare at myself in the mirror, taking in the strange sight of my body crammed into this wedding dress. Hair teased up into a perfect updo, laced with flowers that match the bouquet sitting on the bed behind me, just waiting for me to pick it up and carry it down the aisle. The fitted corset, the flared skirt, the delicate lace details around the neckline…

On anyone else, it would look like a dream, but on me, it feels more like a myth.

I still can’t believe I’m finally here, so close to marrying the man I’ve been with for so long now. Ever since he pushed the ring onto my finger at the restaurant, I’ve been letting myself get swept along by the wedding planning, the thought of this huge day unfolding before me. Not like I had much of a choice, given how fast everything came together. One moment I was saying yes, the next I found myself standing here, staring at this version of myself, wondering how the hell I’m standing at the cusp of a whole new life.

A whole new life I’m not sure I want anything to do with.

I hurriedly push that thought to the back of my head. I can’t think that way.

Things are going to be different, once we’re married, I’m sure of it. They have to be, right? There’s no way everything will stay the same.

Andreo, he’ll settle down when he has that ring on his finger. It’s only insecurity that drives him to act the way he does sometimes. This wedding, if anything, will salve the fear in his heart, the fear that turns him dark when I least expect it. I know there’s a good man under there.

I mean, I think there is…

I tug down one of my long sleeves to cover the slight bruise on my wrist where he grabbed me the other day, and thank God I had the foresight to choose something that would cover me up.

He was stressed a few days ago, when he came back from his bachelor party, about what I’d been up to with Anna—my maid of honor and the only person in my wedding party. She had come to sit and paint her nails and sip wine at our apartment while he was out doing God knows what. He walked through that door and locked eyes with me like he wanted to start a fight, insisting that I’d been sneaking around behind his back, trying to make him look like an idiot. He grasped my wrist so hard when I tried to head into the bedroom to get away from him that it left me with a bracelet of a bruise, now hidden beneath the white lace sleeve.

I inhale deeply and turn to grab the bouquet behind me, glad that the glam squad has backed off to give me some time to myself. My makeup has never looked better, hair teased to perfection, but their excited chatter was enough to make me feel even more nervous than I already was.

Not nervous about marrying Andreo, of course. I know that’s going to be okay, when he settles down a bit. But…probably just nervous about stepping out there in front of all those people, letting them see me, so many of them tied up in the darkness of the world that he has sworn only he can keep me safe from.

The soles of my feet prickle at the thought, and I do my best to ignore it. I’ve known about it since the start, more or less, the stuff his family is involved in.

I mean, the moment I saw him, when he paid for my drinks at a bar too fancy for me to afford, I figured he must have some kind of power in this city. The way people ducked their heads when he drew close, the way they looked at him, the way they avoided him, like the last thing they wanted was for him to look too hard in their direction…

Yeah, I knew then that something was up, and I’m just glad that, by now, I’m on his good side⁠—

Suddenly, the door to the hotel room flies open, and I nearly jump out of my skin, the bouquet slipping from my hand and landing with a thump on the ground.

“Julia!”

It’s Anna—my best friend—wearing the beautiful peony-pink dress that we chose together. But the dress is the only thing about her appearance that looks as it’s meant to. She rushes to my side, grabbing my arm tight, her eyes widening so far it looks like they might bust right out of her head.

“You scared me.” I laugh nervously as I lean down to grab the flowers where they dropped onto the plush cream carpet.

But Anna shakes her head, and I realize, with a creeping horror, that something is wrong. Really, really wrong.

“He’s gone.”

“What?”

I stare at her for a moment, mind unable to calculate just what it is she’s saying to me. Because there is no way, no way in fucking hell, that it can be what I think it is.

“Who’s gone, Anna? What are you talking about?”

“Andreo,” she tells me, her voice hitching painfully at the back of her throat. “He—one of the groomsmen just told me. They went to check on him and the room was empty. We’ve turned over the entire hotel, he’s…he’s nowhere, babe. He’s…” She trails off, clearly not wanting to fill in the rest of the gaps for me.

I feel the blood drain from my face, skin as white as the dress I’m wearing. No. No. This can’t be happening, can’t be real. It just can’t be. After everything we’ve been through, all that has led us to this moment, and he just…takes off? On the day we’re supposed to be married?

“There’s got to be some kind of mistake,” I reply, forcing a laugh, as if this is all some stupid joke at my expense. Even though I know Anna would never, in a million years, pull something like this on me. And even if she tried, she has a terrible poker face, and would never be able to pull off a joke for this long.

“I wish there was,” she breathes. “But he’s gone. He’s not answering his phone. He…”