Page 145 of Ruled By The Alpha

Finally, his words sink in.

I haven’t said the words. I haven’t agreed to his uncle’s plan. But the lie is already in my heart. I’ve bound my soul to his. And I’ll never give him up. I’d never ask him to give me up.

The Mother’s seen what’s in my heart, and she’s affixed its stain on my face.

“Is it terrible to look on?” I ask.

“No,” Morgan says. “It changes nothing of the way I see you.”

But it will change the way others see me.

Act 2: The Golden Moon Falls

I walk down the aisle toward my mate-in-name, over a carpet of rose petals spread across the Motherchapel’s stone floor by the Tower Omegas, between members of my father’s house I have known all my life. Guarded and protected all my life.

I wear the rosy robes I wore yesterday to meet my mate-in-name, which kept me warm all night while I lay with my mate-in-truth. I haven’t returned to my rooms for either fresh clothes or the censure I might find there. I wear no veil. I keep my chin up and my eyes on the men who wait for me, but the whispers reach my ears.

“Mother’s curse.”

“Tainted Omega.”

I fix Morgan’s warm eyes to the front of my thoughts. That look of acceptance and admiration as he stroked his fingers over my blemished cheek and throat. I have never cared before about the scars I bear. This is one more scar, I tell myself. It only diminishes me if I allow it.

I still have to control a flinch at the dismay in the eyes of my father and the Mother’s priest when they look on my face.

I stop when I reach Justlinn and give him the deep curtsey that is his due. “My Lord Alpha.”

“My Lady Omega.” His smile is warmer and more fatherly than my own father’s. “You honor me today.”

My own smile feels small and fluttering, but it is there. My hand, as I take his, is steady. He turns to the priest, Father Fergor, who I’ve known all my life, who cannot meet my eyes ashe intones the Mother’s blessing over our joined hands. I keep my eyes on Father Fergor’s clean-shaven, aesthetic face to avoid looking at Morgan, who stands on Justlinn’s far side. But I feel him, as much his powerful presence as the blessing he’s left within me.

When Father Fergor finishes, my mother steps forward from the line of attendants behind the priest and places a wreath of roses and myrtle on my head. My father places a wreath of rosemary on Justlinn’s white brow. I see Rivvard’s artful hand in the twining and knotting of white, rose, and green ribbons around each wreath.

My parents join hands as the priest steps back. “Go, with our blessing,” they say.

I curtsey to each of them. Justlinn bows. It is a thank you, and a farewell. This is my House no more. These are my people no more.

We turn and walk back through a rain of rose petals, but the crowd is silent. There are no cheers. No congratulations. Only eyes wide as they touch my face, and the whispers.

“We could ride immediately,” Justlinn says to me, his voice low.

“I would appreciate that,” I respond in the same tone.

“I will say again how sorry I am. I had no inkling the Mother would lift her blessing—”

I shake my head. “Think not of it. In Tomarrhai, I am unknown. I will be looked on with pity, perhaps, but not horror and disgust.”

“I give you leave to horse-whip anyone who looks at you with disgust.”

A quiet growl behind us. “Start with that priest.”

I do not look over my shoulder at my Alpha, who pads silently behind his kinsman, but my smile widens.

*

The seat of House Tomarr is a tall, grey tower that commands a long stretch of salt marsh and pebbled beach. Along the gleaming beach, low buildings cluster around two stone jetties: the port of Caelgach. In the far distance, lost in the blue haze where sky meets water, is the coast of Oneswoga.

It’s taken us two days to reach Tomarrhai, riding through the high mountain meadows of the Halga pass and down across the hills that conceal House Tomarr’s wealth under their grassy skirts. Poor Rivvard, riding in the cart carrying my clothes, linen, and bride gifts, moaned at every rut and rock in the road. But I quickly recovered my seat and spent two blissful days riding at my Alpha’s side, sharing every passing thought, every sight that delighted our eyes. Morgan knows as little of Tomarrhai as I do. The split between his father and his uncle is an old feud, and Morgan lived always in the capital with his father. He only met the rest of his family when Justlinn and his sons were called south to fight in the old King’s war.

---