The Alpha King's Bride novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: I Don't Want It

Jasper claims Finola at the altar, she refuses him in front of the court, and the King's vow kiss silences the pull she felt for four years.

They put me in a white dress that had been cut for someone taller.

The seamstress pinned the hem while I stood on a stool and said nothing.

Nobody had asked me whether I wanted a wedding, and nobody was going to.

Three hours later I stood at the end of the Crown Hall aisle with a bouquet of white thistle in my hands.

Every house in the realm sat in the benches, in their best black.

The Rookes had been given seats at the front, because the bride's house always is.

Judith sat with a handkerchief pressed to her mouth.

Imogen sat beside her in pale pink, her hand through Jasper's arm.

Perrin stood behind them in the guard line, looking at the wall.

I walked the whole aisle alone, because I had nobody to give me away.

Aldric Ashdown waited at the top in a black coat with a silver clasp.

The priest of the Moon opened a book and cleared his throat.

"We are gathered to bind the Crown to the lot," he said, "and the lot to the Crown."

"Wait."

Jasper had stood up.

The whole hall turned around.

He came into the aisle with his jaw set, and Imogen let go of his sleeve at last, and let him go.

"I won't stand by for this," he said. "She is my fated mate."

He said it to the hall, not to me.

"I have felt her pull for four years. The Choosing was rigged by some mistake, and I claim her under the old law before anyone makes a vow."

Whispers ran along the benches.

I looked at his face.

That morning he had looked at his shoes while I begged him to bite my mark.

Now, with four hundred witnesses and a king watching, he had found his voice.

"Jasper Lowe," Aldric said, quiet and flat. "Crown law does not recognize a pull without a mark."

"She felt it too. Ask her."

Every head turned to me.

I held the thistle so tight that a thorn went into my palm.

"I did feel it," I said.

A sound went through the hall.

Jasper's shoulders came down, and he held out his hand to me.

"I felt it every day for four years," I said. "And this morning I stood in front of all of you and asked you to mark me, and you looked at my foster sister."

His hand stayed in the air.

"If that is a bond," I said, "I don't want it."

Somebody on the left side of the hall clapped once and stopped.

Jasper's face went red.

"Finola, you're upset. You don't mean that."

"Sit down, Jasper," said Imogen in a small, sweet voice, and he turned his head toward her at once.

I saw the whole hall see it.

He sat down.

Judith dabbed her eyes.

The priest looked at the King.

"Proceed," said Aldric.

The priest read the vows in the old tongue, and I repeated them, one broken line at a time.

My voice shook on the first one and held on every one after.

When it came to the last line, I looked up.

Aldric was already looking down at me.

His eyes were gold, and they were the only steady thing in the hall.

"I take the Crown," I said. "I take the one who wears it."

"I take the one who drew me," he said.

The priest closed the book.

"You may seal it."

I thought he would kiss my cheek.

He lifted his hand, and the back of his knuckles touched my jaw.

Then his palm slid under my ear, and his thumb pressed the corner of my mouth.

My breath stopped.

He bent his head, slowly enough that I could have turned away.

I did not turn away.

His mouth was warm and hard, and he kissed me slowly, then deeper, until I made a sound against his mouth.

I grabbed his coat with both fists.

I felt his other hand spread across my back and pull me in until there was no cold air between us.

The hall roared, and I did not hear a thing.

When he let go, my knees nearly folded.

His forehead stayed against mine, and his breathing was uneven.

Then I noticed something that made me forget how to stand.

For four years there had been a tug in my chest every time Jasper came into a room.

I had felt it again as he stood in the aisle, a thin, stale pull that never quite felt like mine.

It was gone.

The place where it had been was quiet and empty.

And somewhere left of my breastbone, where nothing had ever been, something I had no name for turned over and woke up.

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