The Alpha King and His Virgin Bride novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Words

I found him on the cliff at seven in the morning, still in my uniform.

There was a bench out at the end of a path through the birches, where the rock dropped straight down into the lake.

He was sitting on it with a cup of coffee he hadn't touched.

He knew I was coming before I got there.

He held out a second cup without turning around.

I didn't take it.

"Room twelve at Harborview," I said.

His shoulders went tight.

He put the cups down on the bench very carefully.

"You went to see her before you ever went to see a girl," I said. "So you're going to tell me the words, Vidar. All of them. Or I walk down to my truck and you find another paramedic."

The wind came up off the water and moved his hair.

He looked out at the lake for a long time.

Then he said them.

"Every king of your blood will find his mate in my town." His voice was flat and low, like he was reading a stone. "Refuse her, and the moon will take you by your thirtieth year, as it takes me. Take her, and the bond will take whichever of you holds back."

I sat down on the bench beside him.

Whichever of you holds back.

"That's not 'the bride dies,'" I said.

"No."

"Your whole pack thinks it's 'the bride dies.'"

"My grandfather wanted his sons to marry wolves." His mouth twisted. "So he gave them half the sentence."

"And your father's bride..."

"Held back." He finally looked at me. "She never loved him. She never gave him one thing, not her body, not her name, not a word. My father gave her everything he had. The bond took the one who held back."

I thought about Arne in his boat at two in the morning.

"So that's why you think I'll die," I said slowly.

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