Accidentally Fell for My Ex's Uncle: Dark Alpha novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Ten Minutes

Poppy is stapled into the dead bride's second dress, learns Riverside owes a bride for a bride, and says the vows. HOOK: the old woman starts the one-hour clock.

The guards put me in a white tent behind the cake table and handed me a dress.

It was the other bride's second dress, the one she had meant to wear to the reception.

Nobody said that out loud, and nobody had to.

"Arms up," said the biggest guard.

I put my arms up.

Three guards pulled at the zipper from three directions.

The dress had been cut for a woman six inches taller than me, so the zipper went up and the hem stayed on the ground.

"Hold your breath," the second guard said.

"I'm holding it."

"Hold it harder."

The third guard got a stapler.

I did not ask where he got a stapler.

The tent flap flew open and Dottie came in sideways, with Frankie hanging off her sleeve and a guard hanging off his.

"They said we could have five minutes," Dottie said. "I said we'd take ten."

"Poppy, you do not have to say a word to anyone," Frankie said. "I want that on the record. I have read the Moonstone code, and it does not say you can be made to marry anyone."

"You read the Moonstone code?"

"In the car. On my phone."

"What does it say about killing a bride?"

Frankie opened his mouth and closed it.

"It says Riverside owes a life for a life," he said finally. "Or a bride for a bride."

Dottie turned slowly and looked at me.

"Don't," she said.

"If I don't marry him, they ask for Riverside's land," I said. "Not me. All of it."

"That's a lot of land for one hedge," Dottie said.

"It's forty families."

Dottie sat down hard on a cooler.

Our pack runs a pool, a rec center, and a small bank that is mostly a cash box. Moonstone could swallow it in one afternoon, and it would be my fault.

I took a napkin off the cake table and a pen from my sister's clutch.

"What are you doing?" Frankie said.

"Writing it down."

At the top of the napkin I wrote: OWED TO LUCAN, and under it: funeral flowers, one bride, one cake.

I looked at it for a second.

I added: one hedge.

My father once forgot to pay a feed bill, and Riverside spent six years being the pack that doesn't pay. I have not owed anyone a nickel since.

"Poppy." Dottie pulled the napkin out of my hand. "You can't put a price on a person."

"I'm not pricing her. I'm pricing everything else."

"That's worse."

"I know."

The tent flap lifted again.

Brent came in without knocking.

He had loosened his tie, and he looked like a man who had practiced a speech in the hallway.

"Okay," he said. "I know you're upset."

"I'm wearing a dead woman's dress, Brent."

"You can't marry my uncle."

"You also told me I couldn't attend this wedding."

"That was different. You were going to embarrass me."

"And then I killed a woman by accident."

"You embarrassed me more," he said.

Dottie stood up from the cooler very slowly. Frankie put a hand on her shoulder.

"Brent," I said. "Who was she?"

"Who?"

"The girl you were kissing."

"She's a work friend."

"I watched you."

"We're in a rough patch, Poppy. It's complicated."

"It was eight months."

"It was eight months with a lot of ups and downs." He lowered his voice. "Listen, six women have married my uncle. They are all in the ground. Do you think you're special? You'll be dead by dinner, and then they'll blame me for letting you in."

I stared at him.

"So you're worried about the blame."

"I'm worried about you," he said, which was not what his face said.

The big guard cleared his throat from behind him. "Sir, the Alpha says it's time."

Brent looked at me, then at the guard, then at my stapled hem.

"You'll regret this," he said.

"I regret you," I said. "This is just a Tuesday."

He left, and Dottie let out a whoop that she turned into a cough.

Outside, the music started. It was a string quartet playing something slow.

I picked up my sister's clutch and stuffed the napkin inside it.

"You don't have to do this," Frankie said.

"Write that down," I said. "I want it on the record that I said yes."

I walked out under the string lights in a stapled dress with a size-six foot in a size-seven shoe.

Two hundred wolves watched me go.

Lucan Thackeray waited at the end of the aisle, where his last bride had died.

Someone had already washed the stone.

He did not smile, and I decided I was glad.

"Poppy Larkin, of Riverside," the old woman said. "Do you take Lucan Thackeray, Alpha of Moonstone, as your husband?"

I looked at him.

Behind his shoulder, the silver-haired woman in pearls was pouring a fresh cup of tea.

"I do," I said.

The old woman looked at her watch.

"One hour," she announced, to the whole lawn. "Starting now."

Two hundred wolves leaned in to see if I would die.

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