The Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Bare Hands

The whole ballroom looked at me.

Darek's hand tightened on mine under the table.

"You don't have to," he said, low.

"I know."

I stood up.

I walked down the long center aisle in my green dress with every head turning to follow me.

Imogen waited at the foot of the dais steps with a velvet box in her hands.

She smiled the whole way as I came to her.

"I wanted you to have the honor," she said, loud enough for the first rows. "You've done so much for our family. Of course you should carry the ring."

"A ring bearer," I said.

"Doesn't it suit you?"

She lowered her voice until only I could hear.

"I know what you've done to it."

"I haven't touched it since you called me a thief."

"Then you've done it from a distance," she said, still smiling. "Ten days of Ironwood, and it falls off my finger every time I turn around. You'll hold it while he puts it on. If it drops again, everyone will see whose hands were nearest."

I looked at her.

She had planned all of it.

The seat, the dress, the ring, the box.

She was not afraid of me.

She was only afraid that I would be standing close when the ring did what it had been doing for a month.

"Gloves," Imogen said, and she held up a pair in her other hand. "It's tradition. Nobody carries the Brandis ring with a bare hand."

White satin gloves, small enough to fit me.

I looked at them.

The card in my pocket said: Come with your hands bare.

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