He Kept Me as a Spare, But I Married a Prince novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: I Do, in Front of the Duke

I married Lucan Hartsmere in the great hall at four in the afternoon, in a gown I had finished at six that morning.

It was plain ivory silk, cut high at the neck, with the sleeves taken from my mother's wedding photograph.

Aunt Margery sat in the front row with her cane across her knees, and she was the only person in the room who was crying.

Two hundred wolves from eleven packs filled the benches.

The doors had been left open at the back so that the pack runners outside could see.

I walked the length of the hall alone, because I had no one to walk me.

Lucan waited at the end of it in black, and his eyes did not leave my face once.

When I reached him, he held out his hand.

I took it, and it was the first touch we were allowed.

The officiant, an old wolf in a grey robe, had not even opened his book when a chair scraped.

"Before this goes any further," said the Duke.

He rose from the first bench with his son beside him.

"We have a mate here for our prince, and no one in this hall has seen her wolf. I ask for the test now, in front of witnesses, as a courtesy to the packs."

A murmur went around the benches.

I felt Lucan's fingers tighten on mine.

"Please," I said, very quietly. "I can try."

"Morwen."

"If I don't, they'll say I hid it."

He let go of my hand.

I stepped out onto the open floor of the hall and closed my eyes.

I thought of the woods behind Graymoor, and the autumn I was seventeen, and what it had felt like when the change came up through my ribs.

I pulled at it with everything I had.

There was only silence inside me, in the place where my wolf should have been.

← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend