Chapter 20
Alaric
We’re sitting in my room drinking the finest scotch and not talking.
There’s tension in the air, and everyone knows why.
It’s not just that Harper is gone and we’re feeling helpless and anxious, it’s that we felt like we were all growing closer and then Lucien pulled some shit that put all that into question.
Why did he go to our father alone? Why did he take a stance that we’d be claiming Harper…
alone? Shouldn’t that have been something we discussed?
“Lucien–” I began.
“Tell us,” Gareth barks, his grip so tight on his drink that I think it’s going to break into shards within his grip.
I try to sound as neutral as I can. “Why did you go to father alone to discuss Harper?”
Lucien, looking uncharacteristically disheveled, leans his head down, his blond hair falling over his face as he stares at his drink.
“I knew she was leaving, that father would want all the pomp and show of sending her off, and that we didn’t have time to talk beforehand.
That was all. I didn’t intend… I didn’t intend for it to create problems between us. ”
“And what caused you to change your stance so quickly about Harper? Discussing marrying her between the three of us, and what that would mean, is one thing. Going to father and making a declaration like that is a completely different thing.”
“I know… I just… it’s hard to explain.”
“The three of us have never had the best relationship, but we’ve been building something recently. Something fragile. And fragile things need to be handled with care.”
“I know.”
“As important as Harper is, as the woman we’re going to marry is, none of this will work if the three of us aren’t on the same page. For the first time in our lives, we have to actually act like brothers.”
“I understand.”
It seems like he’s saying all the right words, but I don’t even know if he’s focused on me.
He seems a million miles away, and it’s frustrating.
I’ve never seen him like this before, so distracted, so lost. I have to think it’s about Harper being sent out to our enemies, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t just say that then.
“I can understand that you were limited on time. Harper was leaving today. I also understand that emotions might be running hot because we’re sending our soon-to-be-wife off to danger. But what’s going on with you? Something must have happened.”
Gareth, who’d been angrily swirling his drink, asks, “Did you fuck her last night?”
My entire body tenses. “Fuck her last night? What are you talking about? Of course he didn’t fuck her last night…”
I look at Lucien, but he won’t glance up. His hair still covers his face. His posture is tense.
“Lucien. Tell him.”
The tension in the air only increases as he remains silent, and I feel the calmness inside of me, the shock, being replaced by anger.
Is that what we were feeling last night?
All the arousal, all the need, was that because they were fucking and not the dragons?
If he touched Harper, I honestly think I might kill him.
“Speak,” I bark the word.
Lucien looks up, swallowing the rest of his drink and putting it down beside him. “Last night, after I saved Harper from Tesson, we wound up in her room, and one thing led to another–”
Gareth leaps out of his seat and tackles Lucien, sending the chair he’s on flying back.
They scuffle on the floor, punching each other, grabbing each other, doing anything they can to harm the other man.
I stare at them for a long minute in shock, picturing Harper with Lucien.
I can’t stop thinking about just how many times I shamefully got myself off last night, feeling the waves of arousal that I couldn’t fight.
He was with her? He touched Harper? But… she’s mine, isn’t she?
I knew I’d have to share her in theory. I knew that my brothers would get to touch her too.
But I thought I’d have time to process that.
To prepare myself. To accept the reality of what that meant.
This? This feels like being sucker punched in the face.
By my own brother, someone I was growing to trust.
Blood goes flying as Lucien strikes Gareth in the face, and that snaps me out of my stupor. As angry as I am, I’m not about to let my brothers kill each other.
I leap between them and wrestle them apart, pulling Gareth back as he fights against me. He’s a big man, but so am I. And while he’s lost his mind in anger, I’m perfectly controlled, pushing him back until I push him into my chair.
He tries to get up.
“Don’t,” I tell him through gritted teeth. I straighten Lucien’s chair, help him up, then punch him in the face. He hits the ground, and I grab my drink and sit in another spot. “Let’s talk.”
Lucien glares at both of us, glaring as he wipes blood from his mouth, then slips back into his chair. Gareth’s chest is rising and falling rapidly. His gaze is locked onto Lucien. I pray Lucien isn’t a fool, that he keeps his mouth shut until Gareth calms down.
“So, you slept with Harper? You just decided to sleep with her without talking to us? Without coming to some kind of an agreement?”
“Come on. Tell me that if you two had a chance to be with her you’d wait for an agreement,” he says angrily. “I mean, look at her. You wouldn’t tell her no.”
I want to punch him again, but I keep my voice steady. “We’re all engaged to her. We should’ve done this the right way.”
“And what’s the right way?” he asks arrogantly.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
“It should’ve been all of us,” Gareth grits out. “Not one of us. All of us.”
I nod. “That would’ve been the fair way to do it.”
Lucien shakes his head. “Don’t you think that’d be a bit much for her? All three of us at once, the first time?”
“Then it should’ve been me,” Gareth says.
I stiffen. “Or me.”
We all sit in silence, stewing over what exactly would’ve been fair.
I might be biased, but I feel like she should’ve been with me first. In many ways, we have the best relationship out of the three of us.
If I’m honest, I would’ve thought Lucien would’ve been the last man she’d choose to sleep with.
Then again, he’s good at convincing women to get in his bed.
“You’ve fucked most of the kingdom,” Gareth says angrily, and I can’t help but agree. “You didn’t need to have her too.”
“But I wanted her.” Lucien doesn’t seem the least bit ashamed, or sorry, about what he’s done.
“And you always take what you want,” Gareth snarls.
I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “This isn’t going to work if we fight any time one of us gets her attention and the others don’t.”
“We hadn’t even decided if we wanted this,” Gareth says.
Lucien leans back in his chair arrogantly. “Come on. You two can’t stand the idea of anyone touching her. At least be honest with yourselves. What I said to our father is what we were all thinking. We want her. Not just for a night, but for always. We want her for ourselves.”
His words ring true to me, and I hate it. I hate that the guy I want to punch is saying all the right things. “You’re right. I don’t want anyone else with her.”
Gareth doesn’t mince words. “She’s mine.”
I stare at Lucien, watching his expression. “So it really wasn’t just about the sex for you?”
He doesn’t even hesitate. “No. I think I’m– I think I care a lot about her.”
Closing my eyes, I sit for a second, drinking all of this in, before opening my eyes once more. “So, what’s the plan?”
“The plan?” Lucien repeats back.
“When she comes back, with or without the Hollowborn, what’s the plan?”
Lucien answers with ease. “Even if the Hollowborn comes back with her, nothing will work out with them. We won’t ever have to share her with one of those assholes. So, we just have to wait until she comes back, make our intentions clear to her, and then marry the woman we want to marry.”
“You make it sound easy,” Gareth says, finally sounding a little less angry.
“It will be.”
I hesitate, then ask anyway. “And what if we do end up having to share her with the Hollowborn?”
Gareth’s lip curls. “We won’t let that happen.”
“No matter what?”
“No matter what.” Gareth looks at both of us. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” we both say.
But the thing is, I don’t know if we’re going to have much of a say.
Once our father gets something in his head, it’s impossible to change his mind.
And he definitely has this in his head. I guess we just have to hope the Hollowborn accept a deal, but not the peace marriage.
Or that they just crawl back into whatever hole they crawled out of.
I mean, in all likelihood they won’t even meet her to hear the message. Everything they’ve done is probably just a game to them. Harper will return home safely to us, and then we can marry her and put this whole craziness to bed.
And I can finally fuck her all night long the way I’ve been wanting.
Screw Lucien. She’s mine.
Lucien hands out drinks again, and we all sit together once more.
An uneasy peace stretches between us. I hope it will evolve once more into a real peace, because if we’re going to marry Harper, and we are going to marry her, we need her back here, safe and sound, away from the Hollowborn, and in my bed.