Free Web NovelChapter 79: Chapter 79 Alaric shows up
_Alaric’s POV_
Reid told me at night.
He came into the study with a report and set it on the desk and I knew from the way he set it down, that particular careful placement of a document that contains something he’s uncertain how I’ll receive, that it wasn’t operational news. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
I read it.
The banquet had gone ahead. Ten candidates. Distinguished families. The evening was already underway.
I put the report down.
I picked up the cup on my desk and then I put it down again and then something gave way and I didn’t put it down the second time, I threw it, and it hit the far wall and came apart, and the sound of it was satisfying for approximately one second before the silence that followed it was worse than what had been there before.
Reid stood where he was and said nothing.
"She actually did it," I said.
"It appears so," he said.
I stood up.
"Alpha," Reid said.
"Get the car."
"It’s eleven o’clock."
"Reid."
He obeyed and got the car.
I told myself on the drive over that I was going to be calm. That I was the Alpha King and I conducted myself with a certain standard regardless of the situation and that arriving at the Ashthorne mansion in the middle of a selection banquet and causing a scene was not consistent with that standard.
I believed this for approximately the first ten minutes of the drive.
Then I thought about Rowena in a room with ten men who had been assembled specifically to be considered as her husband and the calm became considerably harder to locate.
She had told me she wasn’t going to marry. She had said it on the bridge, clearly, looking directly at me, not for the time being. She had been specific. I had heard her say it.
And yet.
The mansion was still lit when I arrived. Through the front windows I could see movement, guests, the particular configuration of a formal social event in progress. I got out of the car before the driver had fully stopped, which I was aware was not my most composed moment.
The staff at the entrance recognized me immediately, because they always did, because that was the reality of the position, and I was inside before anyone had properly processed that I had arrived.
I saw her immediately.
She was standing near the center of the room in a deep green dress, speaking with one of the young men, and she looked exactly like what she was: the Marchioness of Ashthorne, head of a family with a long history, receiving guests in her own home. She was composed and elegant and entirely in her element.
She was also the most beautiful person in the room and I was furious about the entire situation.
The room noticed me arrive. These things happened in stages. First the staff nearest the entrance, then a ripple outward as awareness traveled, and then the quality of stillness that a room takes on when the Alpha King is unexpectedly present.
Rowena turned.
She looked at me across the room with an expression that I couldn’t fully read, which was unusual because I had become reasonably good at reading her. There was surprise in it, genuine surprise, but underneath that something more careful. She had the look of someone who had been managing a situation successfully and had just had a new variable introduced.
I crossed the room.
"A word," I said.
It came out more curtly than I intended. She looked at me for a moment, then excused herself from the young man she’d been speaking with, who had the good sense to step back without comment, and we moved toward the side of the room where the conversation could be contained.
"You came," she said.
"You actually went through with it," I said.
"I told you I wasn’t making any decisions tonight," she said. "I’m attending a banquet."
"You’re attending a banquet where the explicit purpose is to select a husband," I said. "That’s not the same as attending a banquet."
She looked at me with patience she used when she thought someone was being unreasonable and had decided to wait it out rather than argue with it. freewёbnoνel.com
"Rowena," I said, and I made myself lower my voice because the room was not as inattentive as I would have liked. "You told me you weren’t going to marry. On the bridge. You said it clearly."
"I said not for the time being," she said. "I also said I would attend this evening because my grandmother arranged it and I respect her."
"There are ten men in this room who were assembled for your consideration."
"Yes."
"And you’re speaking with them."
"It would be rude not to."
I looked at her.
"What if you ended up liking any of them? Do you actually want to choose one of them," I said. Not accusatory. Just direct. "Honestly. Is that what you want."
Something shifted in her expression. The composure didn’t break but something underneath it moved.
"What I want," she said quietly, "is complicated."
"Then uncomplicate it," I said.
She was quiet for a moment.
"Alaric," she said. "This is not the place."
"You picked the place by holding the banquet."
"I didn’t invite you to it."
"No," I said. "You didn’t. I don’t need an invite, I’m the King.”
We looked at each other.
The room around us was doing its best to pretend it wasn’t paying attention, which meant it was paying very close attention. The young men had redistributed themselves.
What neither of us had noticed was Alpha Pierre Ashford who had been close enough to the side of the room where Rowena and I were standing to hear most of what had passed between us.
He was listening with an expression that was calculating something.
I didn’t notice him fast.
I was still looking at Rowena, waiting for the answer she hadn’t given me, the one I had come across the city at eleven at night to hear, the one that would either settle something or make it considerably more complicated.
She met my eyes.
And for a moment, just a moment, the composure slipped just enough for me to see what was actually underneath it.
Then she straightened slightly and the composure came back.
"Not here," she said again. Softer this time.
I breathed out.
"Fine," I said. "But this conversation isn’t finished."
“I know," she said.
She held my gaze for one more second. Then she turned and walked back toward her guests m
