The Alpha King's Bride novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: A Door With Guards

I told him at breakfast, with the physician still standing by the door.

Aldric had a cup halfway to his mouth.

"I'm carrying your child," I said.

The cup stopped.

He set it down on the table, very carefully, and he looked at the physician.

"Is it certain?"

"It is certain, Majesty."

He looked at me.

I had seen his face cold in the Crown Hall and furious in the council.

I had seen it burning over me in the dark.

I had never seen it open like this.

He stood so fast that his chair went over backwards.

He crossed the room, and he went down on one knee in front of me, and he put his forehead against my stomach.

His shoulders shook once.

The physician slid out of the room without a sound.

"Aldric?"

"Give me a moment," he said into my robe.

I put my fingers in his hair.

"It's what you wanted," I said. "Isn't it?"

"I did not let myself want it."

"You have a child on the way and a challenge on the moon, and you did not let yourself want anything."

He laughed, wet and rough.

Then he stood and took my face in both his hands and kissed me, long and slow.

"Thank you," he said against my mouth.

"I didn't do it alone."

"Thank you anyway."

For about a minute, I was entirely happy.

Then the King came back into his eyes.

I watched it happen.

His jaw set, and his gaze went to the window, and he started counting something I could not see.

"The Northern Lord has an envoy in my city," he said. "Judith Rooke has Lowe guards and a grudge. And you are the only person in the realm who has drunk her tea."

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