My Alpha Found a New Love novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: North Shore

At Kingsfall, Espen swears to a new Alpha and Kari refuses to, then learns Haakon must name Freya and Rune his heirs at the ceremony because he has no Luna.

Espen's fever broke at dawn, on a bench in the great hall of Kingsfall, with his blood on Haakon Torsen's palm.

"Say it," Haakon told him.

My brother was gray and soaked in sweat. He could barely lift his head.

He said it anyway. "I, Espen Vold, give my oath to Kingsfall and its Alpha."

Haakon closed his bleeding hand around Espen's cut one.

Espen's whole body arched off the bench.

Then he fell back, and breathed, and the color came into his face.

I let go of the breath I'd been holding since Greyfir.

"Huh," Espen said, blinking at the rafters. "That's a lot of wolves."

"Four hundred and twelve," said a voice behind me. "Not counting the ones I've disowned."

A small old woman stood at my elbow in a hand-knit cardigan, her white braid wound around her head.

She had the bluest eyes I'd ever seen.

"Solveig Torsen," she said. "The old Luna. Mother of that." She pointed her chin at Haakon. "Grandmother of the other thing."

"Kari Vold."

"Oh, I know who you are. You dropped Greyfir's moonstone in my granddaughter's wine."

She patted my arm.

"I've been waiting twenty-two years for someone to do that."

Espen laughed so hard he started coughing.

The great hall of Kingsfall stood on the cliff edge over Lake Superior, all black timber and gray stone.

A glass roof covered the middle of it so the moon could shine on the floor.

Out the tall windows the lake went on forever, steel blue, with whitecaps.

At the head of the hall, on a raised step, stood two carved chairs.

One had a wolfskin over its arm and Haakon's coat thrown across it.

The other was empty and had a fine layer of dust on its seat.

"Your turn," Haakon said to me.

He held up his cut hand.

I looked at it.

"No."

The wolves nearest us went still.

"You're packless," Haakon said. "Your link tore last night same as his did. You'll feel it by noon."

"I'll feel it, then."

I folded my arms.

"I swore to an Alpha once, at twenty-three. I'm not doing it again. Not to you, not to anyone."

Solveig made a delighted little sound.

Haakon looked at me a long moment.

Then he wiped his hand on his jeans and said, "My study."

His study was up a flight of stone stairs, with a window full of lake and a desk covered in maps of the shore.

He shut the door and leaned against it.

"Say it," he said.

"Say what?"

"Whatever you're going to say. You've been chewing on it since Greyfir."

"Fine."

I faced him across the desk.

"Thank you for my brother. I mean it. I'll owe you for him the rest of my life."

"You don't owe me."

"I'll decide that. Here's the rest."

I held up a finger.

"I don't swear to you."

Another.

"I don't take your money, I don't take your pity, and I don't sit in a corner of your hall being sad at people."

A third.

"And when Rune marks your daughter in this building next month, I'm standing in that hall. On my feet. Not as anybody's guest who pours wine or pins braids."

"Done."

"That's it? Done?"

"Did you want me to argue?"

"I thought you'd want something."

He pushed off the door and came around the desk.

He didn't hurry.

He stopped close enough that I had to tilt my head back to keep looking at him.

I kept looking, because I'd be damned if I'd look away.

His eyes went to my mouth while I talked.

They stayed there.

He didn't pretend they hadn't.

"I want plenty," he said. "You asked what I'd make you pay for. Nothing."

My heart was going so hard I could feel it in the torn mark.

"You're old enough to be my father," I said.

"I'd have been a busy sixteen."

I laughed before I could stop it.

Something flickered at the corner of his mouth. It wasn't quite a smile.

Outside, a horn blew down at the gate. Two long notes.

Haakon's face changed.

"That's my daughter's car," he said.

By the time we got down to the yard, half of Kingsfall was out on the gravel.

A white SUV had pulled up by the steps, and Rune was opening the passenger door like a footman.

Freya stepped out in sunglasses and a cream silk coat.

Rune's beta climbed out of the back with their luggage. Three more Greyfir warriors behind him.

"We're staying for the month," Freya announced to the yard. "For the ceremony. Papa doesn't mind."

She saw me on the steps.

She took her sunglasses off.

"Oh, Papa. You brought the leftovers home."

A few young Kingsfall wolves laughed, then looked at their Alpha's face and stopped.

Rune came around the car and put his arm around Freya's waist.

He looked at me, at Espen behind me, and back at me, and smiled.

"Kari. You look tired."

"I am tired. I spent all night listening to my brother almost die."

"His choice."

Freya raised her voice for the yard.

"Everybody should know, since Rune's going to be family."

She beamed up at the hall.

"At the ceremony, Papa names his heir. Me. And my mate stands next to me. So in a month, you'll all be bowing to Rune too."

The yard went very quiet.

Rune didn't look at the wolves. He looked at Haakon.

I looked at Haakon too.

He hadn't said a word.

He hadn't said no.

"Is that true?" I asked him, low.

He kept his eyes on Rune.

"An Alpha with no Luna has to name his blood, at his heir's mating," he said. "It's Kingsfall's oldest custom."

His jaw tightened.

"I have no Luna."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend