Chosen as the Cursed Alpha's Seventh Bride

Emilia’s POV

No matter how fast I ran, physics wasn’t on my side. The thief was pulling ahead, my wallet in his dirty hand.

My lungs burned and my legs felt like lead. Just when I was about to give up and start screaming for help, a figure shot past me like a bolt of lightning.

Before I could even register what happened, the guy was already twenty feet ahead, catching up to the thief with crazy speed.

The thief must have realized he was outmatched because suddenly he threw my wallet onto the ground and turned sharply into a dark patch of forest, disappearing into the shadows.

I finally caught up, completely out of breath, and bent over with my hands on my knees, gasping for air.

The man picked up my wallet and walked back toward me. "You should check if anything’s missing."

I looked up slowly, still trying to catch my breath, and froze.

It was the lead singer from the band. The tall, dark-haired guy with the guitar and the leather jacket who’d been absolutely killing it on stage.

"Thank you," I managed between gasps. "Thank you so much."

I took the wallet from him with shaking hands and unzipped it right away, my heart in my throat. "Please let it be there, please let it be there..."

The photo of Sebastian and me was still tucked safely in the inner pocket. The one Mila had forced us to take at our wedding.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, thank the Moon Goddess."

"Nothing missing?" he asked.

"No, everything’s here. Thank you so much. Seriously, you’re a lifesaver."

I pulled out some euros from my wallet, remembering I’d been about to tip him before all this chaos started. "Here, for your performance. You were amazing up there."

He held up a hand, smiling. "Keep your money. I don’t need it."

My eyes went wide. "What? But... aren’t you a street performer? Isn’t that kind of the whole point?"

He laughed, and it was a warm, genuine sound. "I have a regular job. Tonight was just for fun. Call it a whim."

"Oh." Heat rose to my cheeks. "Right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume..."

"Don’t worry about it," he said easily. "Are you here alone?"

Sebastian.

It hit me and I smacked myself in the forehead. "Oh my God. Oh no. I came here with my husband. He’s going to kill me."

"Just give him a call," the guy said reasonably.

"Right, yes, good idea." I reached for my pocket and my hand met nothing but fabric. My stomach dropped. "No. No, no, no. You’ve got to be kidding me."

I checked my other pocket. Then patted down my jacket like crazy.

Nothing.

"I lost my phone," I said, staring at my empty hands in disbelief. "I actually lost my phone. How is this even possible? How can one person have this much bad luck in ten minutes?"

The guy actually laughed. "You might have used up a whole lifetime’s worth of bad luck tonight."

"This isn’t funny!" I said, but I was starting to laugh too because honestly, what else could I do?

"Eve? Are you there?"

"I’m here," she answered right away, her presence warm and reassuring in my head.

"Can you mind-link Sebastian? I need to tell him where I am."

There was a pause, and then Eve’s voice came back, apologetic. "I’m sorry, Emilia. I can’t."

"What? Why not? You’re awake now, aren’t you? Can’t all wolves mind-link their mates?"

"Normally, yes," Eve explained gently. "But we just woke up. We haven’t completed our first shift yet. For mind-linking to work, especially within a pack, we need to shift first with an Alpha’s help, and then join the pack properly. Only after the pack bond is set up can we use mind-link."

"You’re joking."

"I wish I was."

Panic crept in. Alone in a foreign city, at night, with no phone and no way to contact Sebastian.

"Hey." The guy’s voice cut through the panic. "Don’t worry. Just go back to where you two separated. He’s probably looking for you there."

Deep breath. He was right. That was the logical thing to do.

"Okay," I said. "Yeah. That makes sense."

I looked at him. There was something about the way he’d moved earlier, that burst of impossible speed. And now that my attention was on him, there was something... different about him. A subtle energy that felt familiar.

"He’s definitely a werewolf. Maybe he’s from a local pack here in Paris?"

"What about you?" I asked. "Don’t you need to get back to your band?"

He shrugged. "I’ll walk with you. It’s not safe for you to wander around alone at night, especially after what just happened."

"Thank you. Really."

We started walking back along the Seine.

"I’m Emilia, by the way," I said casually. "Emilia Taylor."

"Ethan," he replied. "Ethan Rowling."

"Rowling?" I raised an eyebrow. "Like J.K. Rowling?"

He grinned. "I get that a lot. But no, we’re not related. As far as I know, she doesn’t have any rock musician relatives."

"Well, that’s disappointing," I said with fake sadness. "I was hoping you could introduce me to the Wizarding World."

"Sorry to crush your dreams," he said.

We walked in easy silence for a moment, and I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.

"You don’t seem like your typical street performer," I said carefully. "You’ve got this whole... I don’t know. Bookish vibe going on."

He laughed. "Is that your polite way of saying I seem pretentious?"

"Maybe a little," I admitted with a grin. "But in a good way. Like you actually read books instead of just posting about them online."

"Guilty as charged," he said. "Though these days, you can’t really tell who’s genuinely well-read and who just Googles quotes to sound smart."

"Cynical much?"

"Realistic," he said, smiling.

We rounded a corner and the spot where Sebastian and I had separated came into view. My stomach twisted.

Ethan checked his watch. "I’ll wait with you until your husband shows up. Like I said, not the safest area at night."

"You really don’t have to..."

"I know," he interrupted gently. "But I want to."

We sat down on a nearby bench and the tension eased a little. Despite the chaos of the evening, Ethan was easy to talk to.

"You know," I said suddenly, "you look really familiar. Have we met before?"