The Alpha King's Bride novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: Say So
I woke in a bed that was not mine.
The sheets were dark, and the ceiling was carved with wolves.
My skin felt scorched.
Every nerve I owned was awake and humming.
"Don't sit up," said a low voice.
Aldric sat in the chair beside the bed with his shirt open at the collar and his hair a mess.
He had not slept since the council.
"Where am I?"
"My room. The physician says it's the mate fever. Four years of blunted sense, coming back all at once."
"How long?"
"Two nights."
"Did you stay here the whole time?"
"Yes."
I tried to work out how I felt about that, and the thinking was too slow.
The fever pulsed under my skin, and every place the sheet touched me hurt in a way that was almost pleasure.
"It eases," he said, "when the bond is close. The physician says to keep you cool and keep me near. So I have kept you cool."
He held up a bowl of water and a cloth, and his hand was not steady.
He rose and bent over me, and he laid the wet cloth on my forehead.
The back of his fingers brushed my cheek.
I turned my face into his hand.
I did not decide to.
He stopped breathing.
"Finola."
"My terms," I said, and my voice came out scraped. "You don't touch me unless I say so."
"I know."
"I'm saying so."
He took his hand away, very slowly.
"You are burning," he said. "You don't know what you're asking for."
"I know exactly what I'm asking for."
I got my elbows under me and sat up, and the room swung once and steadied.
"For four years someone else decided what I felt," I said. "This is the first thing in my body that I didn't get handed in a cup. I want it. I want you."
He stood absolutely still, his jaw tight with everything he was holding back.
"If I touch you tonight, I won't stop," he said.
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