He Kept Me as a Spare, But I Married a Prince novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Gate at Noon

The prince's convoy takes Morwen out of Graymoor in front of the whole pack, and in the car he tells her the terms and asks if she can shift.

By noon the whole pack was standing in the courtyard.

Word travels fast in a house where nothing else happens, and the front desk had not kept quiet.

I came down the front steps with one bag.

It held my sewing case, my mother's thimble, two dresses I had made and my sketchbooks.

Everything else in my room had been given to me, so I left it on the bed.

Aunt Margery was waiting at the bottom step, leaning on her bad knee.

"You're sure," she said.

"I wrote to him three weeks ago," I said. "I've never been surer of anything."

She pressed my hand and said nothing else, which was how I knew she was afraid for me.

Three black cars turned in at the gate and stopped in a line.

The doors opened together, and six guards in dark coats stepped out and faced the crowd.

Then the prince got out of the middle car.

I had not seen his face in the daylight.

He was taller than I remembered, with black hair and green-gold eyes, and he held his left side very slightly stiff when he moved.

I knew exactly why.

He crossed the gravel and stopped in front of me.

"Miss Ainsley," Lucan said, and bowed his head, in front of all of them.

Nobody in the courtyard breathed.

"Your Highness," I said.

"I have your letter. I'm here to answer it."

Behind me, Alpha Osric came down the steps with Garrick at his shoulder.

Osric had a soft voice and a gentle face, and he used both well.

"Your Highness, this is an honor," he said. "But Morwen is my ward, and she has not been well. Her wolf has always been delicate."

"I know what her wolf is," Garrick added quietly. "I grew up with her."

Lucan looked at Garrick for a moment.

"Miss Ainsley is twenty-five," he said to Osric. "Under Crown law she answers to no one's guardianship. She wrote to me, and I came."

"Of course," Osric said. "I only worry. A prince's mate must be tested by the council. If she can't show a wolf, she will be shamed in front of the realm."

"Then the council will test her," Lucan said. "At the Solstice, as the law says."

Osric spread his hands and smiled.

It was a good smile. I had been grateful for it for seven years.

Brenna pushed through the crowd in her leather jacket, with a red mark still faint on her cheek.

"Morwen," she said, and her eyes were wet. "You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye."

She hugged me hard before I could step back.

"I'm so happy for you," she said into my hair, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Don't forget your tonic, you know how you get. I'll have the kitchen send it after you."

"Thank you," I said.

Lucan was watching her over my shoulder, and his face gave nothing away.

Then he took my bag out of my hand.

"Shall we?"

I walked to the car with him, and I did not look back.

I knew that if I did, I would see all of them watching me go, and I wanted to remember it as a thing I had done on my own feet.

The door shut, and the car pulled out through the gate.

For a mile neither of us spoke.

Then Lucan turned toward me on the leather seat.

"I'll say this plainly, because you saved my life and I won't waste your time," he said. "I did not come only because you saved me."

"I know," I said. "Nobody sends a convoy for a debt."

"The Alpha King is dying. I take the crown at the Winter Solstice, in forty days, but only if I stand before the council with a mate they've tested."

He said it without any heat at all.

"My uncle the Duke wants the crown for his son. If I walk in alone, he wins."

"So you need a wife."

"I need a wife who can stand in front of the court and not be afraid of them. Your letter asked to be taken away. I can do that, and I can do it safely."

"What are the terms?"

He looked almost surprised that I had asked.

"We marry in three days, at the palace. You'll have your own rooms, with a door between ours that stays shut. In private we don't touch each other. In public we do, because they will be watching."

"And after the Solstice?"

"You're free. You keep a title, a house and my protection. I'll say that in front of witnesses."

I considered it.

"One more term," I said. "Garrick and Brenna never get me alone again."

"Done," Lucan said, at once, and his jaw tightened.

I looked out at the road and the bare winter trees.

My hands were not shaking, which surprised me.

"There is one more thing," he said.

"What?"

"The council will make you shift. Before witnesses, in the great hall." His voice was careful. "Can you?"

"I haven't shifted since I was eighteen," I said. "Garrick said my wolf is weak."

Lucan went very still.

He looked at me for a long moment, and for the first time since he had stepped out of the car, his face showed something.

It was doubt, and it was not aimed at me.

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