Chapter 30 #2
“Oh look, another uninvited guest,” Sophine says in annoyance. “Don’t you have the day off, Mrs. Blackwater?”
“For the millionth time, I didn’t take my mates’ last name. And since Mrs. Gardener is my mother, it’s Iris. Just Iris,” she corrects.
“Fine. Iris. Why are you interrupting us?”
“Because my sister needs me,” she says like it’s common sense. “So I’m here.”
Sophine sighs. “Very well.” She walks around to her chair and sits, crossing one leg over the other. When she gestures for me and Mari to step before her, we do.
If it’s possible to sink through the floor, I’ll find a way. The full force of the Monarch’s attention hits my chest like a battering ram.
“So,” she says, “please tell me what warrants all this fanfare?”
Mari clears her throat, a flustered blush climbing to her cheeks. “Uh, yes, thank you, Monarch. We’re—”
“Not you,” she says sharply, icy gaze whipping to me. “You.”
I nearly swallow my own tongue. “M-me?”
“Yes, you. I’m more interested in why you are here as a Delta, holding hands with my sister’s…friend.”
“Right, uh.” I’m not sure how to start this or even what to say.
“I’m here—I mean, we’re here because Marigold and I are in…
well, we’re in love.” My collar tightens and the room goes unbearably hot.
Sophine’s gaze sharpens. “And we know, with how social norms are, it isn’t common for people like us to be mated.
There are challenges. But with the blessing of her family, we’ve come to ask—”
Her hand cuts through the air, silencing me before I can finish.
Forget the heat. I break out in a cold sweat everywhere.
“You’re here to ask for permission to hold a mating ceremony,” she says, completing the sentence for me.
Her voice is calm, almost unnervingly so. The complete absence of emotion makes it impossible to tell which way she’s leaning, and somehow that uncertainty is worse than outright refusal.
“Yes,” I say with only a slight hesitation.
“A Delta and an Omega. My Luxe.”
Oh, this isn’t looking good. Not when she’s restating the obvious already.
Mari squeezes my hand. I can feel her fear radiating from her, but she’s trying to be brave. And I need to be, too. Having her here, beside me, with Pen and Iris, needs to give me strength because this is it. This is our chance. There’s no going back.
I square my shoulders, though my pulse pounds hard enough to shake them.
“Yes, Monarch. Marigold hasn’t only been my friend since I started working for the Gardeners.
She’s been my confidant. My supporter. My light.
She’s owned my heart since then as well.
She saw me when no one else did. Not as a Delta. Not as a servant. Just... me.”
I turn toward Mari, and the moment our eyes meet, the rest of the room fades away. The smile she gives me is small, but it’s enough to steady every unease in my chest.
“I have loved her quietly for so long that I don’t remember what it feels like not to.
” My voice catches, but I force the words out anyway.
“Every invention I’ve built, every risk I’ve taken, every impossible dream I’ve chased...
somewhere in all of it has been the hope of giving her a life.
Maybe not a better one, but something filled with joy, and laughter, and support. A life where she’s seen, too.”
I swallow hard before looking back at the Monarch.
“I don’t want to spend my life serving her family.
I want to spend it standing beside her. I want to wake up next to her every morning, celebrate every victory with her, carry every burden with her, and grow old with her.
I want to be the person she reaches for when she’s happy, when she’s frightened, when the world feels too heavy.
I promise to dedicate my every waking day to her and her happiness because she’s my home, my pack. She always will be.”
For a long moment, the Monarch simply studies us. Then, she rises from her chair. She approaches Mari, who stiffens in place, and lifts a finger to Mari’s chin. With a gentle touch, Mari moves her head to the side, exposing the fading pinkish marks from my teeth the day before.
The Monarch lets out a measured sigh before dropping her hand.
“Those were beautiful words, Mr. Calder,” she says. The faintest smile touches her lips before disappearing just as quickly. “Heartfelt. Poetic. But I’m afraid, I’ve never been much of a romantic.” Her gaze moves between Mari and me, unwavering. “My answer is no.”
The words settled over me like lead. The room, though, erupts in controlled chaos.
“Sophine,” Pen says. “Listen to them.”
“Did you hear anything Reece said?” Iris bites out. “Anything?”
Pen taps her cane. “They’re in love.”
Fredrick comes back with a new glass—a bigger one—with a different kind of amber liquid, darker than the first. He hurries across the floor and hands it to Sophine before resuming his stance behind her chair.
The Monarch takes a long sip of her drink, taking her time as Pen and Iris continue to call out her hypocrisy. Only when she’s ready, she answers.
“Mating ceremonies have never existed solely because two people love one another. They exist to establish families, strengthen society, preserve bloodlines, and ensure future generations,” Sophine says, and her gaze shifts to me. “You cannot father children with an Omega.”
“All this nonsense about children!” Mari says, exasperated. “I don’t want kids! I never have, and I never will. Even if I mated with an Alpha. I don’t want them.”
“You’ll change your mind,” the Monarch says with another sip. “You’re an Omega.”
Mari reels back like she’s been slapped. “That doesn’t mean anything. I know what I want and what I don’t want with my life. And I want Reece.”
“And what about your heats? Your biology has not changed simply because your feelings have.”
“We may have a solution for her heats,” I say.
Mari reaches into her wristlet and withdraws the small silver device. She places it gently into my palm. Since her heat finally ended last night, we agreed it was the perfect time to show my device to the Monarch ourselves.
I hold it up for everyone in the room to see. “This is my prototype. I have no name for it yet, and there are still tests that need to be run, but my initial trial went way better than expected.”