Three Lives, One Alpha, No Bride Chapter 06

Three Lives, One Alpha, No Bride Chapter 06

“Clara.”

Rowan’s voice cut through the room.

“Stop this. Don’t lie.”

For a moment his parents only looked between us in confusion. Then his mother forced a smile.

“So that’s all this is,” she said lightly. “An argument after the claiming night.” She reached for her mate’s arm. “We’ll leave you two to settle it.”

I stopped her.

“This isn’t an argument,” I said. “And I’m not lying.”

All three of them turned back.

“Last night, Alpha Blackthorne and his mate were at my house. I was with them the entire evening. If you

don’t believe me, ask them.”

That brought the room to a halt.

His mother frowned. “That can’t be right. The servants said your chambers were occupied all night.” Her gaze flicked toward the bed behind Rowan. “If that wasn’t you, then who was it?”

I looked at Rowan.

“You should tell them now,” I said. “If I make Alpha Blackthorne repeat it here, this gets worse.”

Rowan’s face darkened.

For a long second he said nothing, as if sheer force of will might still hold the room together. Then his

mother looked from me to the bed, and whatever she saw there finally broke through her confusion.

“Rowan,” she said slowly, “who was here last night?”

He did not answer.

His father’s voice came next, harder. “Bring her out.”

Still Rowan did not move.

The silence stretched until it felt alive. His mother had gone pale; his father looked one breath away from tearing the truth out of him by force. I said nothing. There was nothing left for me to say. The room itself had turned against him.

At last Rowan exhaled through his teeth, sharp and angry, and turned without another word. He disappeared into the inner room.

No one moved while he was gone.

Then he came back with a female beside him.

He was holding her hand.

That, more than anything, made his mother stop breathing for a beat.

“Who is she?” she asked.

Rowan’s jaw tightened. “Her name is Mara.”

His father’s face had gone flat. “And?”

Rowan glanced at me, then away. “She was under Hart protection.”

He could not say more, so I said it for him.

“Mara is the last blood daughter of the former Alpha of Frost Hollow Pack. When Frost Hollow fell, she was placed under treaty protection. My father took her in, and she has lived under our roof ever since.”

His mother went pale. His father swore under his breath.

“A treaty ward?” she whispered.

I nodded. “Protected, but never truly free. Not unless the old terms were lifted.”

That made the silence heavier.

His mother stared at Rowan. “This is the female you brought into your bed?”

I answered before he could.

“Not just into his bed. Into his plans.”

Rowan snapped, “Enough.”

But I was done protecting him.

“You want the truth?” I said to his parents. “Then search his study. The herbs there weren’t for me. The calendar wasn’t tracking my cycle. Search it properly.”

His mother looked shaken. His father looked furious.

Rowan straightened at once. “She’s twisting everything. Clara changed her mind and now she wants to humiliate me. None of it means anything.”

I laughed.

“Then let them search.”

He said nothing.

That was enough for his father.

“Search the room,” he ordered. “The study. The bedchamber. Everything.”

Servants rushed in.

Several long minutes passed before they returned carrying armfuls of things from Rowan’s study: the moon calendar, bundles of herbs, tied packets, and a lacquer box filled with scent cloths steeped in the same honey-bloom oil still hanging in the room.

His mother stared at the pile as if each item stripped something away.

Rowan made one last attempt.

“You’re reading too much into this,” he said. “It proves nothing.”

Before anyone could answer, another servant hurried in behind the others, something wrapped in dark

cloth in both hands.

“My lord,” he said to Rowan’s father, “there was a locked panel behind the inner cabinet. This was hidden inside.”

The old man took it, unwrapped it, and froze.

His face changed at once.

His mother half rose from her chair. “What is it?”

He did not answer. He only turned it so the rest of us could see.

It was a petition to the Council, drafted in Rowan’s own hand but never sent. At the top was Mara’s full name. Below it, he had requested that her treaty status be lifted and her protection transferred to his authority.

Folded inside it was a second page.

It was a private order, also in Rowan’s hand, arranging chambers, an allowance, and permanent residence for Mara inside the Alpha house once he had publicly bonded a Hart daughter.

Mara made a broken sound.

His mother covered her mouth. Rowan’s father looked at his son as if he no longer recognized him.

Then he asked, each word cold and clear:

“How do you intend to explain this?”