Chapter 5
Chapter Five
King Alaric
Bodies rush out of the vast throne room like waves receding from the shore.
The great doors are thrown open, and I hear the royal guard barking orders, ushering the women out with hurried efficiency, though their voices are strangely muted as if my head is submerged underwater.
Everything in the background fades to a muted nothingness.
Because all of my focus is locked on her.
She stands there, staring back at me, seizing my soul with her gorgeous brown eyes that are powerful enough to make a Wolf King fall to his knees.
There is no doubt.
No uncertainty.
No question left to be asked.
This woman is my mate.
No pretending necessary. No political games or forced connections.
It’s her.
Mine.
The realization lands hard and absolute, like a hammer slamming onto an anvil. Like a key turning with a click in a lock. My world tilts sharply on its axis, and I know nothing will ever be the same again.
I have stood before thousands of my female subjects. I have met women of all ages, sizes, classes, and ranges of beauty.
They all pale in comparison to this human female.
I have never felt this kind of primal need. The intensity of it is making my hands shake.
She’s stunning.
Her hair is as dark as the night, loose around her shoulders like it refuses to be tamed, just like her indomitable spirit. Those bewitching brown eyes are pulling me in, charming and seductive. My castle could be on fire all around me and I still wouldn’t be able to look away.
Her skin looks so soft, and those lips… Gods, I can’t breathe.
My mate’s intoxicating scent is still swirling in my lungs, curling through me in a way that is instantly familiar and devastatingly new all at once.
The great doors slam shut behind the last fleeing guard and the heavy sound reverberates through the chamber like a final pronouncement. The echo fades, leaving us in silence.
That is when my wolf awakens with a roar.
Not gently.
Not cautiously.
He surges up from the depths of me like a beast freed from iron chains, flooding my veins with heat and power and a feral presence so intense it steals my breath. My muscles flex of their own accord, strength pouring into them until I feel larger, heavier, and more solid than I was a moment ago.
Every cell in my body comes alive.
Truly alive.
I draw a slow breath and feel my chest expand. I feel my senses sharpen. I can hear my mate’s heartbeat, quick and strong. I can smell every delicious inch of her. I can almost taste her in the air.
My wolf presses forward, eager, possessive, triumphant.
Where the fuck have you been? I ask.
Mine, he snarls back.
Ours, I correct as a new form of possessiveness rages through me.
She tilts her head as she watches my transformation, like she can tell something has just changed, like she can feel the difference.
I stare back at her, wondering what to do. What to say.
All my life, I have commanded. My voice has moved armies. My will has dominated packs and crushed dissent. I was born an alpha. Dominance is as natural to me as breathing, a language my body speaks without thought.
But as I look down at this frail human female, standing there unafraid, eyes bright and fierce, I know instinctively that this is not a situation that can be handled the same way.
Domination and commands will not work with her.
Brute force will get me nowhere.
She is not prey.
She is not my subject.
She is not something to be ordered into place.
She is a part of me. An equal. My future queen.
If anything, there is something in the way she watches me—assessing, unyielding, unflinching—that suggests she might very well be the one to dominate me.
The thought sends a dangerous thrill through my wolf.
Her voice breaks the silence.
“What will happen to all of those girls?”
The question is sharp, immediate, utterly unconcerned with her own vulnerable position in this moment. I’m so distracted by her that it takes me a heartbeat to understand what she means.
“What girls?” I ask.
She stares at me like I have lost my mind.
“The girls you summoned here,” she says, disbelief threading her words. “The ones you just dismissed.”
The truth strikes me with embarrassing clarity.
I had forgotten all about them.
Since the moment I caught my mate’s aroused scent, nothing else existed. No other women mattered. All of it had vanished from my mind.
The sheer gravity of her presence erased my mind of anything that wasn’t mate.
“They will be returned to their homes,” I say, my voice steady despite the storm raging beneath my skin. “With apologies. And compensation.”
“Tonight,” she says, crossing her arms as she glares up at me.
Gods, she’s fierce. I’m in love.
“Tonight,” I say with a firm nod.
“And lots of compensation,” she says.
My lips curl into a smile. “So much they’ll be running home with smiles on their faces.”
Some of the stiffness in her body eases. “I doubt that,” she says, although there’s less bite in her tone now. “They’ve been traumatized, the poor girls.”
And it was worth it.
To find this amazing woman.
It was worth it.
“It was not my first choice,” I say hesitantly.
“I should hope not,” she says, her chin in the air, staring defiantly at me. “It’s a barbaric custom.”
“I… apologize. I was desperate.”
“For what?”
I take a deep breath and my whole body softens. “For you. It was all to find you.”
“Me?” She puts her hand on her chest and steps back, those defiant eyes melting my soul. “And what makes me so special?”
“You’re my mate,” I say softly. “You’re our queen.”
She doesn’t move as she stares at me for a long moment, and then she bursts out laughing. “Your highness,” she says sarcastically. “I make candles. I don’t rule wolf kingdoms in far-off strange lands.”
I step forward and take her hand. Her laughter quickly fades.
“And I have been living without half of my soul for forty-one years,” I say, my voice low and firm. “I have struggled in loneliness. Nearly lost my wolf to grief. I was drowning without my queen and now my feet are on solid land. A lot has changed today.”
She stares at me as the weight of my words settles between us. For the first time since she was dragged into this room, I see uncertainty flicker in her eyes—not fear, but something quieter. Something deeper.
“I don’t understand,” she says softly. “Why you’re saying things like that. If you want to force me into your bed, you don’t have to pretend there’s love and… more here.”
I shake my head fiercely. “There will be no forcing anything. Do you not… feel it?”
Her inquisitive eyes look me over as her mind works. I wish I could read her thoughts and discover what she’s thinking. I want to feel her feelings and experience her thoughts along with her. I want to be a part of her in every way.
“What’s your name?” I ask when she doesn’t answer.
“Morwen.”
“Morwen,” I whisper, savoring the succulent name on my tongue. “Beautiful.”
“King Alaric,” she says, rubbing her thumb on my hand. It’s such a small gesture, but it makes my thick, powerful legs buckle. She can bring me to my knees with such ease.
“You’re ready to put a crown on my head and place me on that throne,” she says, motioning to the empty seat with her eyes. “When you don’t even know me?”
“I know you,” I say immediately. “Intimately.”
She scoffs. “You smelled me. That’s not the same thing.”
“To a wolf it is,” I say. “A wolf you woke from the dead.”
Her head tilts. “You lost me.”
“And you found me,” I say, holding her hand tighter. “You’re my mate, Morwen. And I’m yours.”
My wolf is pacing inside, rearing to get out and smell his mate in the flesh. I hold him back, not wanting to surrender my girl to him just yet.
My eyes drop to her luscious pink lips and I wonder how soon it will be before I can kiss those soft lips whenever I desire. Once I start, I may never stop.
“You are my mate,” I say, hammering it home. “Fate has decided on it. The Gods have decided on it. We are mates, and nothing in this world—or the next—is going to change that.”
“My opinion on the subject doesn’t matter?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “And neither does mine. You can ignore the yearning feelings surging through your body right now. You can flee our kingdom and scurry back home. You can run. You can hide. You can try to fight it all you want. But you will fail. The yearning will be too great. And you will return. Mates must be together.”
It’s not like I’d let her leave. I’d lock her in my castle if I had to. I’d follow her home. There’s no way my mate is going back into that dangerous world without me beside her for protection. She’s much too precious for that.
She gently pulls her hand from mine and takes a step back. I watch her as she turns away and looks up at the stained glass windows that display the history of my ancestors.
My wolf growls possessively as my ravenous eyes roam down my mate’s body, taking in every delectable curve.
She is softer than any creature I have ever seen, so unlike the hard, muscular bodies of female wolf shifters. But there is strength in her too. There is nothing fragile about the way she carries herself. She may look delicate and breakable, but she is a force to be reckoned with.
I want to reach out and touch her. To pull her flush against my body and feel exactly how well she fits. I want to taste that sweet mouth and drag my tongue along her skin.
My cock gets long and hard under my purple tunic as I imagine undressing her. I’d take my time and relish every inch of her exposed skin.
Gods. Will this lustful need ever be quenched?
The swell of her breasts rises and falls with each breath she takes, and I find myself tracking the movement, imagining the warmth of her skin beneath my palms, the soft give of her body as she arches toward me instead of away. Her mouth reaching for mine… My hands exploring… Pulling… Needing…
My wolf lunges forward. Urging. Demanding. His lustful hunger sharp and immediate.
Mine.
I swallow hard and turn away. But even the air is thick with her exhilarating scent. She smells like warm wax and honey and something intoxicatingly human and feminine beneath it. I breathe her in with deep, insatiable breaths.
It kills me that I must wait to claim her. It’s three weeks until the next full moon, until the mating ceremony when mates are finally allowed to touch, to mark, to take what fate has so generously provided. It’s a sacred night, but right now, the wait feels like a curse.
I have waited half a lifetime for her, wandered without my other half for forty-one barren years, and now that she stands within arm’s reach, I am expected to wait even more.
It will be torture.
Pure, exquisite torture.
My wolf snarls his agreement, pacing restlessly inside me, already imagining her taste, her sound, the way she will look when she finally submits to the bond she is fighting with every proud inch of her spine.
I swallow hard, forcing myself to breathe, to remember that she is not a wolf, not bound by our instincts or our laws.
Yet.
“Okay,” she says, turning slightly, stunning me all over again. “I guess I can stay for the night. Will I get my own room?”
My heart soars. “You will get everything you desire.”
She nods. It’s decided. “I will stay the night. If you order those brutes to treat those women like proper ladies and escort them home.”
“It will be done.”
“Home,” she says with a firm stare. “Not dropped off at the border like cattle, but right to their front doors. Safely. With compensation.”
“You have my word. They will not be harmed.”
“Good,” she says with a nod. “Because if even one of them is harmed, I will leave this castle and never return.”
“Understood.”
“And if you don’t let me leave,” she warns. “I will leave another way.”
I swallow hard, that thought too dreadful to imagine. If she took her own life, I would never forgive myself. I would be right behind her, following her to the afterlife.
“They are under the King’s protection,” I say with my body feeling unsteady. “Anyone who harms them will answer to my wolf.”
“Good,” she says. “I trust you. I don’t know why, but I do.”
That’s a good sign. It’s a start at least.
“You’ll have dinner with me?” I ask.
She smiles shyly. “Okay. I’d like that.”
“Very well,” I say, taking one last breath of her. “I will see to the females. My chamberlain will show you to your quarters.”
I stare at her for a moment longer, studying her beauty, still unsure if this is real.
“My queen,” I say, bowing my head before turning away and marching to the great doors. I don’t look back. I know I would not be able to stop myself from returning if I saw my mate’s stunning face once again.
I burst through the doors and call for Brutus, my beta commander. I order him to return every human female to their homes, unharmed.
“I mean it, Brutus,” I warn in a sharp tone. “Unharmed.”
“Yes, my Alpha,” he says, bowing low.
Next, I order the keeper of the purse to give each female a sack of coins worth one year’s labor. He nearly balks at me until he sees that it’s not up for discussion.
“Yes, my Alpha,” he says, rushing away to fulfill my command.
I order the chamberlain to get my mate’s room ready and provide her with a hot bath and the highest quality dress the kingdom has to offer. I also tell him that I will require a private dinner in my quarters with something a human would desire.
After delegating all of the commands, I head out to the courtyard and warn each member of my royal guard to treat these females like royalty. It’s important to Morwen, so it’s important to me.
After they’ve all left, and the sun begins to set, I look up at the stone tower to my private quarters where I will be hosting my mate soon.
Alone.
Within a few paws of my bed.
I exhale long and hard, fighting the intense urges ripping through me.
Three weeks.
I must wait three weeks before I can touch that heavenly body.
I do not know how I will survive.
But I will.
Because when the moon finally rises full and bright, when I am at last allowed to claim what fate has placed in my hands, I know one thing with absolute certainty.
She will be worth every second of the wait.