He Hid His Changing, Then His Doctor Became His Mate novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Terms and Vows

Fenny refuses the Queen, then names his terms: clinical touch only, no mark, and it ends when the treatment ends. They marry before the pack, and on the wedding night Fenny smells Cavan's heat from the stairs.

Fenny Fox said no three times before the Queen sat down at his table.

"I'm a beta with a clinic and forty patients," he said. "I don't marry princes."

Cavan leaned in the doorway of the back room, arms crossed, in a shirt buttoned to the throat.

He wanted to say that he hadn't asked either.

Miranda folded her hands on the table, next to the envelope Fenny still would not touch.

"You were fifteen when it started for you," she said. "Your mother wrote to my healer. I read that letter."

Fenny's face went still.

"You know how it feels," Miranda said. "You know what it is to be shut in a room, afraid of your own skin. My son is shut in one now, and it's getting worse every day. I can't hire a stranger who'll talk."

Her voice cracked, only a little, and she did not wipe her eyes.

"Please help him. You once suffered. Help him."

Nobody spoke.

The pill tin rattled once in Fenny's coat as he shifted his weight.

"Terms," he said.

Cavan's head came up.

"Mine." Fenny pulled a pen from behind his ear. "I treat him daily. I'm his physician and, for the pack, his husband. That means a ring and a bed in his rooms. It doesn't mean anything else."

"Fenny..." Miranda began.

"I touch him as a doctor touches a patient. Nothing else. No kissing in private. No mark on his neck, and none on mine, ever." He turned the page toward Cavan. "And when the treatment is finished, the marriage is finished. That's the last line. Sign under it."

Cavan read it twice.

The words were plain. Not one of them was unkind.

He signed.

"You didn't argue," Fenny said, watching him.

"I'd rather have you than the other kind of doctor," Cavan said.

"What kind is that?"

"The kind who'd say yes."

Something moved across Fenny's mouth, almost a smile, and was gone.

The wedding was held in the Hall chapel six days later, with no time to be nervous.

Four hundred wolves filled the benches. Cavan stood at the front in his dark ceremony coat, and a ring sat heavy in his pocket.

He had not changed in four days.

Fenny had given him a tea twice a day and a rule: when the heat came, breathe out and name three things in the room.

It worked once. It had to be enough.

His father stood at his side, hand warm on his shoulder.

The chapel door opened, and Fenny walked in alone.

He wore a grey coat that fit him badly and a clean white collar.

He had left off the glasses.

His eyes were more green than hazel in the candlelight, and when he reached the altar he did not look at the pack at all.

He looked at Cavan.

"Hello, Prince," he said very low.

"Doctor."

The priest spoke the words, and Cavan said them.

Fenny said them too, in a steady voice, only his hands shaking where they held the ring.

"You may seal it," the priest said.

Cavan took Fenny's jaw in his hand.

Fenny's skin was cool and his pulse beat fast against Cavan's fingers.

The kiss was short, for the room.

It was also the first time Cavan had kissed anyone in four years, and he stayed alpha through it by sheer will, scent steady, shoulders tight.

Fenny's breath hitched against his mouth.

Then the benches roared, and the moment broke.

At the feast Roddy lifted his cup from the high table.

"To my brother, who has found a doctor and a husband in one," he called, grinning. "May the Prime have all the care he needs."

The hall laughed and drank.

Cavan raised his own cup and found his stepbrother's smile warm and open, as it had always been.

Fenny, at his side, did not drink.

He was watching Roddy over the rim of his glass.

"Ignore him," Cavan murmured. "He's like that."

"Like what?"

"Kind."

Fenny said nothing, and set his cup down untouched.

Late that night Cavan shut the door of his rooms behind him, alone, and turned the key.

Fenny had gone to fetch his bag from the clinic wagon.

Cavan sat on the edge of the big bed and felt the sunburst against his chest warm up.

Heat gathered low in his belly.

He pressed his fist against it and breathed out.

Door. Bed. Lamp.

A knock came.

"Prince," Fenny called from the corridor, and his voice had changed.

"Open it. Your heat's started. I can smell it from the stairs."

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

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