The Alpha King’s Stolen Daughter Chapter 12

The Alpha King’s Stolen Daughter Chapter 12 – Ember

“You felt it,” Kade said. “Don’t insult us both.”

I did feel it. I’d been feeling it for two weeks, every time he walked into a room – the live-wire thing, the way my new wolf sat up and paid attention.

I just hadn’t had a word for it, because nobody had ever explained anything to me in my entire life.

“Mates,” I said.

“Mates.”

“I’m seventeen.”

“For two more days,” he said, “and I haven’t touched you, and I’m not going to, and I told your father that in front of all five of your brothers, which is why I currently have a broken finger.”

“Which one broke it?”

“Guess.”

“Rafe.”

“Nico,” Kade said, and I laughed so hard I had to put my head on the counter.

When I stopped, he was watching me with something quiet in his face.

“You know what I keep thinking about?” he said. “I’ve had the Ashborne heirship since I was twenty-two. I’ve inspected forty-one properties. I have never once learned the name of a receptionist.”

“Lucky me.”

“Ember.” He set the bowl down. “If I’d been ten minutes late that morning. If they’d sent someone else. If you’d been on shift at the back desk.”

I thought about a girl on a roof, counting stars, three stories up.

“I know,” I said.

“So here’s what I want,” he said. “Not the bond. Screw the bond, the bond’s just chemistry, and you’ve had

enough people decide things about your body without asking.” He leaned forward. “I want you to have four years of nobody wanting anything from you. Finish school. Learn what your face looks like when it isn’t

scared. Buy stupid things. Fight with your brothers about the TV”

“And then?”

“And then, if you still walk into a room and my heart does that,” Kade said, “you come find me. And I’ll be exactly where you left me.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

“You’re going to wait four years,” I said.

“I waited twenty-eight for the hallway,” he said. “Four’s nothing.”

I didn’t kiss him. I want that on record, because Nico still doesn’t believe me.

But I did reach across the counter and take his hand – the one with the splint on the finger

for about six seconds.

–

He looked like I’d handed him the moon.

Two days later I turned eighteen.

They didn’t tell me what was happening. I was ordered into a dress and driven to the old grounds behind Ravenspire, where the trees open into a stone amphitheater that has been there since before this country

had a name.

There were nine hundred people in it.

Alphas from every territory in the North. Elders. Council. Kade’s father, who bowed to me, which nearly gave me a heart attack.

“Dad,” I hissed. “What is this?”

“A Naming,” my father said. “It’s what we do for an heir. I did it for Rafe when he was one.” His hand tightened on my arm. “You are seventeen years late, and every single person in this valley is going to hear

your name said correctly, out loud, tonight.”

I stopped walking.

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I’ve never – Dad, people look at me and I-”

He turned me to face him and put both hands on my shoulders.

“Do you know what you did in that chapel?” he said quietly. “You blew out a window that survived two wars. Nine hundred wolves in this valley felt your wolf wake up from thirty miles away. They are not here out of politeness, principessa. They’re here because something enormous came home.”

He wiped my cheek with his thumb.

“But if you want to leave,” he said, “we’ll leave. Right now. Nine hundred people can go home hungry. Say

the word and I’ll burn the whole night down for you.”

That’s the moment. That’s the exact moment I stopped waiting for the other shoe.

“No,” I said. “Let’s go.”

The Elder at the center of the stone asked, in the old tongue, who presented the child.

And my father said, in a voice they heard in the parking lots:

“I do. Lyall Draven, Alpha of the North. She is my blood, born of Selene Draven, my wife, my Luna, who died protecting her from my own brother.”

He put his hand on my head.

“Her name,” he said, “is Mirabella Ember Lyall Draven. She carries my name because her mother wanted the world to know exactly whose daughter it was dealing with.”

Nine hundred wolves went down on one knee.

And I stood there in a borrowed dress with silver scars under the fabric and thought: Mom. Mom, look.

Then the Elder said, “And the second child?”

And I turned around.