He Replaced His Groom, Then Begged for His Mate novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Price

Casper explains that Rowan pays for his mother's care; Felix promises to cover it and sets terms for a year-and-a-day marriage, says the rejection words, and learns Rowan is still holding Casper's mother over him.

Felix pulled his hand back hard.

Casper pulled his own away and tucked it under his arm.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry. I'll get out at the next light."

"Sit still."

The car turned off the avenue and went down a ramp into a private garage.

Casper looked up at the gold letters on the wall, and his mouth fell open a little.

"This is Lantern Tower," he said. "Rowan says nobody even knows who owns it."

"Rowan says a lot of things."

They rode the private lift to the top floor in silence.

Felix could feel the burn at his nape every second of it, quiet now, but there.

The penthouse doors opened on glass walls and the whole city lit up below.

Casper stopped on the threshold and would not come in.

"I thought you lived in a rented flat," he said. "Rowan said you were a clerk with a good head for sums."

"Rowan was told that."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to be loved for something else." Felix put his keys on the table. "That went well."

Casper's face crumpled, and he put a hand over his mouth.

"Don't," Felix said, more gently than he meant to. "Tell me why you stood up there. And don't tell me you were forced, I saw you shaking. Tell me who and how."

Casper sat on the very edge of the sofa, ready to leave.

"My mother has been in a coma for eight months," he said. "A car hit her outside the hospital where she works. She's Rowan's stepmother, so the Wexley pack is meant to care for her, and it does. Rowan pays the ward every month."

His voice was shaking, but he kept going.

"Last week he told me to put on the coat and say the vows and keep my face covered, and I would never have to think about it again. I said no. He said that in that case the ward would be told to move her to a public bed. A public bed has a waiting list of nine months for the ventilator."

He wiped his eyes with a cuff.

"I didn't know it was your wedding until the morning, I swear. I didn't know it was you under the other veil. I said your vows in a whisper so you wouldn't hear my voice."

Felix stood very still.

He had taken that whisper for nerves, and it had made him love Rowan more.

"What does she need?" he asked.

"What?"

"Mrs. Froster. Name the drug, the ward, the amount."

Casper stared at him. "You can't. It's six thousand a day, and the surgeon wants the new treatment, and that costs more than..."

"Casper."

"Yes?"

"Do you see where we are standing?"

Casper looked at the glass walls, the lit towers, the city under their feet.

"Oh," he said very softly.

"I'll pay for your mother's care. All of it, from tonight, whatever the surgeon asks. Rowan stops being part of it."

The color left Casper's face and came back all at once.

"Why would you do that? I helped them humiliate you."

"You did what you were told to keep her alive." Felix turned away to the window. "I'd have done the same. Don't thank me, I'm not doing it to be kind."

"Then why?"

"Because it's the first thing anyone has let me take from Rowan."

It was only half the truth, and he knew it.

He heard Casper stand up behind him.

"Then I'll work it off," Casper said. "I'll clean, I'll cook, whatever you want."

"You'll do none of that. Here are the terms."

Felix turned and held up one finger.

"One. The vow can't be broken for a year and a day, so we stay married for that long. In public you're my husband and you're treated like one."

A second finger.

"Two. You have your own room. Third door on the left."

A third.

"Three. We don't touch."

Casper nodded too quickly. "Of course. I understand."

"And four." Felix made himself say it, because the heat at his neck was starting to spread, and he wanted it gone. "I won't be your mate. Whatever they call this, I don't take you. I'll say the words if you want them."

"You don't have to."

"I do not take you as my mate."

The old rejection, the one every wolf child learns in school.

It should have cooled the mark.

Instead the crescent flared white-hot, and Felix caught the back of the sofa to keep from falling.

Across the room Casper had gone white, and he held his own wrist against his chest.

"It hurts you too," Felix said.

"It's just the shock." Casper smiled, a terrible, brave smile. "Nobody would choose me anyway. You don't have to be sorry."

A phone buzzed in his borrowed coat.

He took it out, read the message, and his hands began to shake again.

Felix crossed the room, took the phone from his fingers and read it over his shoulder.

Rowan had written: Don't forget what I hold.

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