My Gown Had No Gems, So I Walked Out of My Own Bonding Ceremony novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Her Terms

Cecily fell asleep in the guest room at Ironwood with her boots still on.

She had cried on the whole drive around the lake.

She had stopped only when Jasper's beta put a mug of hot milk in her hands.

"Nobody at Ironwood will ever strike your name from anything," the beta told her.

I stood in the corridor outside her door until her breathing went even.

Then I walked down the hall to the end room, and Jasper was standing at the window with his back to me.

"She's asleep," I said.

"Good."

"My father struck her for carrying a dress."

"I know."

"He did it in front of four hundred people and he did not look at her once."

Jasper turned around.

He had not said anything in the car, and he said nothing now.

He only waited, as he had waited in the snow outside the circle, to see what I would do.

"I want to be bonded," I said.

His face did not change, but his hand closed on the windowsill.

"Clara."

"Not because of the treaty. Not because my father is a coward and my mother is a locked door and I have nowhere else to stand." I crossed the room. "Because I walked out of one pack and I want to walk into one on purpose. Mine, with my name on it."

"Your name stays Winslow."

"My name stays Winslow."

"And you sit at my table and vote in my hall."

"You said once that you would never say the word," I said. "You made it a rule."

"I made it a rule because I thought you would hate it."

"Say it now."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Bond," said Jasper. "Bond with me, Clara."

"Yes."

He crossed the last step in a breath.

His mouth came down on mine, hard and unsteady, and his hands went into my hair.

I pulled his shirt up over his head and dropped it, and he pulled mine off and threw it somewhere behind us.

The scar across his knuckles was white against my skin as he pushed my bra strap off my shoulder.

"Slowly," I said. "I want to feel all of it."

"I don't know that I can."

← Chapter 13 · All chapters · Chapter 15 →

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