The Alpha King and His Virgin Bride novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: The Dead Bride's Gown

Vidar's hand went hard against my back.

"You'd put her out of the territory," he said to Torvald. "Out of reach of my heart."

"The law would," Torvald said. "I only read it."

"And the night it stops with her gone?"

Torvald folded the paper along its creases.

"Then the pack will grieve," he said, "and go on."

I stepped out from under Vidar's hand.

"Fine," I said.

Every head in the hall turned.

"Bring your eleven Alphas," I said to Torvald. "I'll meet them. I meet strangers on the worst night of their lives every week. I can meet eleven men in nice coats."

Torvald smiled at me.

"Friday supper is at seven," he said. "Ragna has a gift for you."

The pack ate supper together every Friday in the great hall.

Long tables, two hundred people, venison stew and fry bread and kids running under the benches.

Tove dragged me to the King's table and made me wear my one dress.

"Neckline," she said with satisfaction, and walked off.

Vidar looked at me when I sat down beside him.

Then he looked at his stew very hard for a while.

Under the table, his knee pressed against mine and stayed there.

Halfway through the meal, Ragna stood up.

She was at Torvald's table, near the hearth, in a silver dress.

She tapped her glass with a spoon until the hall went quiet.

"It's a Greywater custom," she said, smiling all around. "When the King chooses his bride, the pack gives her the Rask bride's gown. So she knows what she's marrying into."

Two men carried a long cedar box down the hall and set it on the table in front of me.

Ragna came behind them.

She lifted the lid herself.

The smell came up out of the box.

Cedar.

Then she drew the gown out and held it up against herself so the whole hall could see.

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