Three Lives, One Alpha, No Bride Chapter 08

Three Lives, One Alpha, No Bride Chapter 08

In the end, Rowan and his father chose the worst possible path.

When they returned, both looked relieved, or tried to.

“We spoke to Alpha Blackthorne,” Rowan said. “He won’t interfere. Silver Ridge is to handle its own

affairs.”

I knew at once that something in that was false, but I said nothing.

His mother finally relaxed.

“Good. Then only Clara’s mother remains.” She turned to Rowan at once. “Tonight you finish what should

have happened last night. Once the bond is real, the Harts will have no choice but to accept it.”

For the first time that day, fear cut cleanly through me.

I had expected threats. I had expected violence. I had not expected this.

Rowan crossed the room and shoved me back onto the bed. The scent still clinging to it made my stomach turn. He pinned my wrists with one hand.

“You did this to yourself,” he said. “If you had come to me yesterday, none of this would be happening.”

Then the door flew open.

“Let her go.”

Ivy stood there with a sword in both hands. Her grip shook, but she did not lower it.

Rowan barely glanced at her before knocking the blade aside.

“You think you can stop me?”

“You know she isn’t the one you claimed,” Ivy shot back.

Rowan laughed.

“Can you prove that?”

“I can.”

A new voice cut through the room.

Alpha Blackthorne stepped inside with his mate, the Blackthorne twins behind them, and Recorder Hale

at their backs.

Rowan released me at once.

For the first time, he looked shaken.

Alpha Blackthorne’s gaze swept the room, the bed, Rowan’s hand still at my wrist.

“I told you Silver Ridge could settle its own disgrace,” he said. “I did not tell you that you were free to force my future daughter-in-law into your bed.”

The room went still.

“That’s impossible,” Rowan said.

Blackthorne held out a document, but not to him. He gave it to Rowan’s father.

The old man opened it and went gray.

It was the sealed rival claim, recorded the night before. My name was on it. So was Blackthorne Pack’s.

The twins had not stepped forward as suitors.

They had stepped forward as protection.

Rowan found his voice first. “That proves nothing except that you moved quickly.”

“It proves enough,” Blackthorne said.

Then he stepped aside.

Recorder Hale came forward. “I sealed the rival claim myself,” he said. “And this morning, Alpha Vale and

his father came to Blackthorne territory asking that the matter be kept quiet. They stated their intention

to present Clara Hart as the female Rowan claimed, though they knew she was elsewhere during the

night in question.”

Rowan’s mother swayed. His father’s face darkened.

“That is not-”

Hale cut him off.

“You may deny it before the Council. You may also explain the attempted coercion of a female already under formal protection from another pack, the unlawful detention of that female, and the misuse of a

treaty ward in an unnamed claim.”

Silence fell.

Mara, who had stood frozen until then, took one step away from Rowan.

He turned toward her. “Mara-”

She flinched.

That landed harder than anything else in the room.

Alpha Blackthorne’s mate came to my side, helped me off the bed, and placed herself between Rowan

and me.

No one objected.

At last Alpha Blackthorne spoke again.

“This is no longer private,” he said. “The Council will hear it.”

No one in Silver Ridge answered him.

There was nothing left to say.