Not the Bride He Wanted novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Empty Bed
On the morning the Alpha King's convoy comes for her sister, Brenna finds Kirsten's bed empty and her own mate on the phone saying he marked her, refuses her father's order, and drives to the King herself, only to learn the runaways will stand beside her at the altar.
The Alpha King's trucks pulled into our yard at seven in the morning, and my sister's bed was empty.
I stood in her doorway with her coffee going cold in my hand.
The quilt was pulled up tight.
Her closet was open, and half the hangers were bare.
Her phone charger was gone from the wall.
Downstairs, the whole of Copper Ridge was crowded into the lodge hall to wave her off to her wedding.
I could hear my father laughing at something the King's Beta had said.
I set the mug down on her dresser.
Then I called Aksel.
Aksel Sund had been my chosen mate for three years.
We were going to make it real at the Hunter's Moon in November.
He'd kissed me goodnight on the lodge porch at ten last night and told me to get some sleep.
The phone rang four times.
When he picked up, I heard road noise and a radio and my sister laughing.
"Bren," he said. "I was going to call you."
"Where is she?"
"She's right here."
Kirsten's voice came close to the phone, sweet and sleepy.
"Hi, Bren. Don't be mad."
"Put Aksel back on."
There was a rustle.
"Look," Aksel said. "It just happened. We didn't plan to hurt you."
"What happened?"
He took a breath.
"I marked her last night."
I didn't say anything.
I couldn't feel my hand around the phone.
"She's my mate now," he said. "It's done, Bren. You'll be fine. You always are."
Kirsten laughed again in the background, and he hung up.
I walked downstairs.
Forty people turned to look at me.
My father stood by the fireplace in his good jacket with his copper ring catching the light.
The King's Beta stood beside him, a big man in a black coat, holding a white garment bag over his arm.
"Where's your sister?" my father said.
"Gone," I said. "With Aksel. He marked her last night."
The hall went dead quiet.
My stepmother put a hand over her pearls.
The King's Beta looked from my father to me.
"The treaty says noon on Saturday," he said. "That's tomorrow. My King doesn't wait well."
My father's face went dark red.
Then he looked at me, top to bottom.
"Brenna will go," he said.
Somebody near the door said my name under their breath.
"Get your things," my father said. "You're a daughter of this pack. The treaty says a daughter."
"No," I said.
He took a step toward me.
"You don't say no to me in my own hall."
"I just did."
I unhooked my car keys from the peg by the door.
"I'm not your tribute," I said. "If anybody takes me anywhere, it's me."
I walked out past the Beta and his garment bag.
Nobody stopped me.
It was two hours to Hollstrom Hall along the lake.
I drove it with both hands on the wheel and didn't cry once.
The Hall was gray stone on a bluff above Lake Superior, with the water behind it the color of a knife.
Two guards met my car at the gate.
"I'm Brenna Nyberg," I said. "Tell the King the bride's here."
They walked me into a long room with a fire at one end and a man at the other.
Magnus Hollstrom was bigger than the stories.
He sat behind a desk covered in maps, dark beard, pale eyes, sleeves rolled to the elbow.
He didn't stand up.
"You're not the one I was promised," he said.
"No. I'm her older sister."
"Where's the younger one?"
"In a truck somewhere with my mate."
One dark eyebrow went up.
"And your father sent you instead."
"My father tried to send me. I came."
He set his pen down.
"Why?"
"Because if I go home, my father hands me to the next man who wants something from him."
I stepped up to the edge of his desk.
"So here are my terms," I said. "I marry you as Brenna Nyberg. Not as Copper Ridge's payment."
"Go on."
"I answer to you, and nobody else. Not my father. Not anyone."
He studied me for a long time.
"They say I killed my own uncle with my hands," he said. "They say I break things."
"They say a lot about you at Copper Ridge. They said I was the sensible one."
Something moved at the corner of his mouth.
It wasn't quite a smile.
"Fine," he said. "Tomorrow at noon."
The tension in my shoulders loosened.
Then his Beta came in from the hall with a phone in his hand and bent to his ear.
Magnus listened.
When he looked up at me, his face was cold again.
"My trackers caught your sister and Aksel Sund at the Mackinac Bridge an hour ago," he said.
"And?"
"And your father has called. He'd like them married tomorrow too, at the same stone, to save his face."
The fire cracked in the grate.
"I said yes," he said. "Unless you want me to refuse."
I thought of Kirsten laughing into Aksel's phone.
"No," I said. "Let them stand there and watch."
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