What happened in Bride by Ali Hazelwood - Recaptains

The basics

Title: Bride

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Series: Bride #1

- Bride (2024)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in Bride by Ali Hazelwood to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. If you need help remembering what happened in Bride then you’re in the right place.

What happened in Bride?

• Misery is a vampire and is about to marry Lowe, a werewolf. This has been arranged by Misery’s councilman father, who wants to secure a strong alliance between the vampires and werewolves because previously they’ve been at war a lot. Misery hasn’t met Lowe yet so she doesn’t know that he’s hot.
• Owen, Misery’s brother, is concerned about this marriage. The siblings often don’t agree with their father’s approach. He’s particularly worried because two hundred years ago there was a wedding called The Aster which ended in complete bloodshed and disaster.
• Misery’s father walks her down the aisle, whispering to her about the dangers of the Were and Lowe the entire time. When Misery reaches him, Lowe sniffs her and seems to enjoy (?) the smell. Misery doesn’t catch that part though.
• We jump back several weeks to Misery working a normal office job among humans. She only works at night, obviously, and has told her colleagues that she has some sort of disorder. Her job involves her testing security systems to identify weaknesses.
• Vania, the head of Misery’s father’s guard, shows up and tells Misery that her father is summoning her. Vania threatens one of Misery’s colleagues.
• Misery heads to the Nest, the centre of the vampire community and basically their government building. Her family own the top floors of the building because they’re so important.
• Misery goes to find her father. They discuss politics, particularly about how the previous human governor, Davenport, sided with the vampires against the werewolves. Now someone called Garcia has been elected, and Misery’s father feels there has been a slight loss of control.
• Misery was brought up as a Collateral, meaning she had to live with humans when she was growing up as a promise of peace. Garcia doesn’t like this.
• Recently, the werewolf Alpha Roscoe was challenged and killed by Lowe, who then became Alpha. Lowe has already shown that he is less cruel than Roscoe and is trying to arrange peace talks.
• Councilman Lark tells Misery that she will be marrying a werewolf for the alliance. Misery doesn’t want to do this because she has never met the guy and also, ew, werewolves. One of the werewolves will be sent to live with the vampires as a Collateral. Lark tells Misery that she’ll be marrying Lowe, and she agrees.
• Back at the wedding in the present day, Misery speaks to Governor Davenport. It seems as though she’s trying to find information about her missing best friend, Serena. The two are foster sisters and have been best friends since they were ten years old. Davenport tells Misery that Lowe’s mate is the werewolf who is being sent to the vampires.
• Misery and Lowe have their first dance, and they’re able to speak properly for the first time. Lowe seems to know a lot about her, including the assassination attempts against her life. He asks Misery why she agreed to the marriage but she doesn’t give him an answer.
• Someone tries to slit Misery’s throat but Lowe stops them.
• Misery goes to live with the werewolves. That night, she is woken up by a child called Ana. Ana tells Misery that she used to stay in this bedroom, and that Lowe is in the room next door. Misery wonders if Lowe is Ana’s father. Another were called Juno interrupts them, and tells Misery that Ana is Lowe’s sister and that Ana’s father is dead.
• Misery wonders where Serena is. She disappeared weeks ago and didn’t tell anyone where she was going. Misery is worried that something bad has happened to her. The police aren’t doing anything to help. Misery broke into Serena’s apartment to investigate and found a piece of paper with “L E MORELAND” written on it.
• Misery has been searching the web for L E Moreland but hasn’t found much. She found a memo on a government server that said Lowe met with Garcia around the time of Serena’s disappearance.
• Alex shows Misery around, and tells Misery that Lowe had a mate called Gabrielle. He tells Misery a bit about werewolves and their abilities. He says Lowe is the strongest of them, of course.
• A young werewolf called Max is very hostile towards Misery. They argue about the things their people have done and Max attacks her. Lowe has to separate them.
• Misery tells the adults that she was defending herself. Juno says Misery was trying to drink from Max, which is stupid because there are plenty of blood bags available. Misery points out that Max called Lowe a traitor, and Juno gets upset at the implication that Max is a loyalist.
• After this, Misery is assigned some guards, including a sweet older werewolf called Mick.
• Owen calls to check in. Misery asks him to look into the loyalists thing because she doesn’t know what that means.
• Ana shows up in Misery’s room. Ana names Serena’s cat (which Misery is looking after) Sparkles.
• Misery breaks into Lowe’s room while he’s away for the night. She sees some architectural sketches in his closet, and a sketch of her.
• The werewolves gather out the front of the house for a party. Misery isn’t invited. Misery watches out the window and notices Max leading Ana away into the woods. Misery runs down to intercept, even though it’s daylight outside. She stops Max, and then all the other werewolves emerge from the trees.
• The werewolves tie Max up and question him. They want to know why he was trying to abduct Ana. It turns out they were suspicious of him working with the loyalists already and they set up the whole thing with Ana. She was never in any danger. Max refuses to admit to anything.
• Misery uses her vampire powers to hypnotise Max so that he’ll talk. He admits he was takingAna to the loyalists to force Lowe to step down. Max thinks that Roscoe’s mate, Emery, was in charge of this but he hasn’t spoken to her.
• Misery is sent back to her room by the slightly terrified werewolves.
• Misery looks around Lowe’s office and hacks into his computer. Cal and Lowe show up and it’s all very awkward. Lowe says that he could consider this a sign of aggression from the vampires, so Misery admits that she’s searching for information about her best friend. She asks about the L E Moreland thing, and then learns that Ana’s full name is Liliana Esther Moreland, meaning Serena was interested in the child for some reason.
• Lowe entrusts Misery with some information about Ana that only Juno and Cal know. He says that he and Ana are only half-siblings. They have the same mother. Ana’s father, however, was human. This is shocking because species never mix.
• Lowe tells Misery that Roscoe was threatened by him. Roscoe was known to be cruel and would kill anyone who stood against him. Lowe and Ana’s mother was killed for disagreeing with him. Lowe challenged Roscoe to protect Ana, but also to stop Roscoe from hurting anyone else.
• Alex and Misery work together to find information on Serena.
• Juno apologises to Misery for being mean and they become kind of friends.
• Ana is sad when the other werewolves shift during the full moon because she isn’t able to. She spends the night in Misery’s room.
• Misery overhears Alex trying to show Lowe how to use a computer. It seems they’re up to something. Mick interrupts and tells them Ana has cooked dinner and wants them all in the dining room.
• Ana wants to throw a birthday party for Misery.
• Lowe tells the werewolves that he plans on meeting with Emery. Everyone agrees that it’s likely a trap. In private, Misery asks if Lowe is planning on planting spyware on Emery’s computer, which is really a terrible plan because he’s clueless with a computer. Misery offers to go with him.
• Lowe tells Misery that Mick used to be Roscoe’s second. Mick’s family are dead, and it’s assumed they were killed by humans. Lowe also explains the concept of mates and that scent is a big factor.
• Lowe and Misery fly to meet Emery. They need to pretend that Misery is truly part of the pack so Lowe marks her before they get off the plane.
• Emery hosts a dinner.
• Lowe explains that he has never marked anyone like that because his mate doesn’t know that they’re mates, and he doesn’t want to influence her.
• An ally of Lowe’s, Koen, distracts Emery so that Lowe and Misery can access the computer. Koen is the Alpha of another pack.
• A guy called John attends dinner wearing a vial of vampire blood.
• Misery and Lowe excuse themselves from dinner and install the code on the computer. Guards wander by and so Misery feeds on Lowe (with his permission) as a distraction. They return to dinner.
• Cal tells Lowe that he needs to come home because something is going on with Ana. Misery and Lowe return immediately.
• Ana is clearly quite ill. Werewolves don’t tend to get sick and don’t know about human treatment, so Misery advises on what medicine to get. 
• Misery asks Alex to get a list of humans that were part of the human/werewolf Bureau
• Owen realises that Misery fed on Lowe and tells her she should keep it a secret. He also advises her not to do this again because the feeding can cause attachments to form. And that would be bad.
• Lowe asks Misery to look for Ana’s father.
• Misery passes out just as Lowe is about to kiss her.
• Lowe got hold of a vampire doctor called Doctor Averill. He says Misery has been poisoned so her body will enter a trance state to heal. They figure out that someone poisoned the jar of peanut butter.
• Misery wakes up and finds a white wolf guarding her door. It makes her go back to bed and they fall asleep.
• Ana has been sent away in case war between werewolves and vampires breaks out due to the poisoning. Owen asks Misery to come home but she refuses. He tells her that someone broke into Serena’s apartment recently.
• Alex finds emails between Serena and someone called Thomas Jalakas at the Bureau. They apparently met up before she disappeared.
• Lowe and Misery go for dinner with Davenport, who appointed Jalakas to his position. Lowe tells Davenport that his mother worked with Jalakas. Davenport says Jalakas died in a car accident initially, but then Lowe threatens him and he admits he had Jalakas killed for talking to journalists about the department’s embezzlement.
• Misery theorises that Serena felt she had to go into hiding from Davenport.
• Lowe and Misery meet with Owen. Gabi, Lowe’s mate, is also there. 
• Owen tells Misery that he plans to oppose their father and he wants Misery’s support. He wants to dismantle the whole Collateral thing and better negotiate alliances between the species. Lowe likes the sound of this.
• Misery realises that Gabi isn’t Lowe’s mate from the way they interact.
• Lowe and Misery stop at her apartment. Misery confronts Lowe about Gabi, and that he let her believe that Gabi is his mate. He was supposed to offer a blood relative for the Collateral, but he didn’t want to give up Ana. Gabi volunteered instead.
• Misery tells Lowe that she thinks they’re mates. Lowe rejects her and leaves. He sends Mick to pick her up.
• Mick injects Misery with something and knocks her out.
• Misery wakes up and sees Serena. They’re being kept in a tiny room, where Serena has been for three months. Serena confirms that she was investigating Davernport’s embezzlement crimes. In doing so, she learnt about Ana being of two species.
• Serena and Misery escape the room by threatening a guard. They realise they’re in the Nest. 
• Vania stops them from leaving and takes them to Misery’s father.
• Lark tells Misery that they have Mick’s son, and that’s why he’s working for them. 
• Misery and Lark argue. Lark says he needs to ensure that werewolves and humans stay at war so they don’t team up against the vampires. If anyone finds out about the interbreeding, the werewolves and humans could use this against the vampires.
• Lark says that Davenport told her that a half-werewolf/human child existed two decades ago. Too long ago to be Ana. It was Serena, who contacted Jalakas to find out about her parentage.
• Jalakas found out that he had a daughter and informed Davenport. Davenport promoted Jalakas to try to get him to drop it, but in the end he had to have Jalakas killed.
• Lowe is brought in in handcuffs. Lark demands that Lowe hands over Ana.
• Lark is aware that Misery is Lowe’s mate. Lowe doesn’t deny it. Lark threatens to kill his daughter if Lowe doesn’t hand over Ana. Lark admits to trying to poison Misery through Mick.
• Serena uses their secret language to tell Misery that she can shift. Misery tells Lowe that if Ana can’t shift now, she will be able to when she’s older. Lowe understands what Misery is telling him. Lowe and Serena shift and rip everyone up.
• Mick is interrogated.
• Owen says that he and Lowe realised that Mick was doing something awful and likely working with Lark. 
• Owen tells Lark that he’s taking over. Lark is imprisoned.
• Owen tells Misery that she doesn’t need to return to the Were House (lol). Misery drops Serena off at Juno’s place so Serena can spend some time with the werewolves.
• Misery heads to the Were House and finds her things boxed up. Lowe says that Mick and his son have been reunited but Mick is still in trouble.
• Lowe and Misery chat about their relationship and the whole mate thing. He says her things were only packed up so he could install vampire safe windows.
• Koen brings Ana back. Koen meets Serena and BAM, they’re mates!

That’s what happened in Bride! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!