Not the Bride He Wanted novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Marked

My father stood at the north gate in his good jacket, with the copper ring on his hand and the elders behind him.

Aksel stood at his shoulder.

He'd shaved.

Somebody had bought him a new coat.

Magnus walked down the drive to meet them on his own two feet, and I walked beside him.

Half the household came out onto the steps to watch.

"You got my paper," my father said.

"I got it."

"Then you know the terms. If my champion wins, Copper Ridge holds the crown."

"And if he loses?"

My father smiled.

"He won't. He's been training since the wedding. He's young, and he's whole."

He looked Magnus up and down, slowly, the way he'd looked at me in the lodge hall the morning Kirsten ran.

"Which is more than the Lake packs can say for their King."

The old woman from the elders' table stood at the back of the Copper Ridge group with her hands folded on her stick.

She wasn't looking at Magnus.

She was looking at my father.

"And Brenna comes home after," my father added. "Back where she belongs."

"I've got a home," I said.

"You've got a man who can't shift, in a house he's about to lose."

"I'll answer your challenge," Magnus said. "Myself. December fifth."

My father laughed out loud.

"On two legs?"

"On whatever I've got."

Aksel grinned at me over my father's shoulder.

"I'll try not to kill him, Bren," he said. "For old times."

I didn't answer him.

I was looking at the old woman with the stick.

She lifted her chin at me, just slightly, and turned and walked back to the trucks before the men did.

Magnus didn't sleep that night either.

The next night, I went to find him.

He was in our bedroom.

I hadn't set foot in it since the night before the Council.

The sheets were new, heavy cream linen, and the fire was lit.

He was standing at the window over the black lake with his hands in his pockets.

He turned when the door opened, and he went still.

I was in my nightgown, barefoot, with my braid down.

"Brenna."

"You said you'd answer anything I asked after the Frost Moon," I said. "In front of whoever I liked."

"I did."

"It's after the Frost Moon."

"Ask."

I came across the room and stood in front of him.

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