Rejected Me? I Married the Alpha King! novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Terms

Maxine names her price for the deal and her father arrives to drag her home, so she refuses him before the Keep's staff and learns she must be wed before dawn.

"I haven't said yes," I told the Alpha King.

"No," Elias Harrow agreed. "You haven't."

The doors above us were propped open, and the light and the murmuring spilled down the steps.

My shoulder still felt like a burn.

"I have terms," I said.

"I'd think less of you if you didn't."

I held up one finger.

"First, you don't pity me. If you're kind to me because of tonight, the deal is off."

"I'm rarely kind. That should be easy."

I held up a second finger.

"I keep my name. I'm Maxine Garrow, and I'll be Maxine Garrow when this is over."

He nodded once.

"Third. At the Blood Moon Gathering, Brant and my father stand up in front of all nine packs and say what they did tonight. Out loud."

Elias looked at me for a long moment.

"I can't promise what they'll say," he said.

"I can promise they'll be standing there."

"Fine. And fourth, I get a room with a lock."

"There are forty rooms in the Keep, and most of them lock."

"Then what do you want?"

"A wife who stands next to me in public. A scent seal the council can't argue with before the Gathering." He paused.

"No mark, and no bed. I won't ask for either from a woman who's still bleeding from another man's teeth."

I let out a short breath that was almost a laugh.

"That's very noble."

"It's very practical," Elias said. "I'd like you to be able to sit down tomorrow."

Behind us the doors banged wider, and someone came down the steps at a run.

It was Junie, with my coat over her arm and her red curls coming loose.

"I got your bag from the cloakroom," she said, out of breath. "I also spilled a whole tray of crab puffs down Brant's father's shirt."

"On purpose?"

"I'm going to say it was a tragic accident." She looked at Elias, then back at me, and her eyes went wide.

"Why is the King sitting on the steps?"

"He's offering me a job," I said.

"A marriage," Elias said.

"A marriage," I agreed.

Junie sat down on my other side without a word and took my hand.

I had barely opened my mouth when I heard my father's voice at the top of the steps.

"Maxine."

Kenneth Garrow came down the stairs with two Garrow guards behind him.

He stopped three steps up and did not look at the King.

"You're upset," he said. "You've had a shock. It's past time for your tea, and you need your bed."

A crowd had gathered in the doorway behind him.

Stewards in the Crown's gray, a few heirs with their drinks, three women from the Redmoon table.

Every one of them was listening.

"I'm not unwell, Dad."

"You're hysterical." He said it low and calm, the voice he used on a pack member who'd had too much to drink.

"You two, take her to the car."

One of the guards took a step down.

Elias stood up.

He did it slowly, and the guard stopped where he was.

"She isn't in your house tonight, Alpha Garrow," Elias said.

"She's a rejected wolf," my father said. "By the old law she goes home to her father."

"Unless she's wed or sheltered by the Crown before dawn," Elias said, so quietly that the stewards leaned in.

"That's also the law."

My father finally looked at him.

"She doesn't know what she's saying. She can't smell, Your Majesty. She can't scent. She isn't fit to stand beside you, or any wolf."

I stood up too.

My legs held.

"Dad," I said.

"Maxine, think."

"I did. It didn't take long."

I turned to the crowd in the doorway, because they were the ones who needed to hear it.

"I accept the Alpha King's offer of marriage," I said.

"I'm not unwell, I'm not hysterical, and I'm not going home."

The silence after that was so complete I could hear the lake.

My father's face did something I had never seen it do.

It went gray around the mouth, as if I had said something much worse.

"You have no idea what you've done," he said.

I thought, that's the strangest thing he could have said.

Then Elias turned to one of the stewards.

"Gather the elders," he said. "All three."

"Tonight, Your Majesty? It's nearly eleven."

"The law gives us until dawn," Elias said, "and I'd rather not cut it close."

He looked back at me, and his eyes caught the light from the doors and flashed gold, just for a second.

"Midnight," he said. "The Moon Hall."

"You have an hour," Junie whispered in my ear, "to find something to wear that isn't green."

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