Pregnant Runaway Mate of the Alpha Prince, page 23
part #37 of Forbidden Alpha Kings Series
“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll marry you, Harris. Yes.”
35
Ella
When I agreed to marry Harris, I had thought that we would take a couple of days to arrange things. We were obviously safe while we were still at the compound, so I hadn’t seen the same sense of urgency that everyone around me seemed to.
I was sorely mistaken. No sooner had I agreed to marry him, people started to rush around us, and I watched with wide eyes as several tall, male shifters started to use twigs and sticks to build an arch near the bonfire, and Harris lifted my hand to brush his lips against my knuckles.
“Thank you,” he whispered, drawing my attention to him.
The bond in my chest hummed, and I couldn’t deny him anymore. I didn’t want to.
“Of course,” I whispered back, leaning up to brush my lips up against his.
That brief kiss turned into a deep, soul-clenching make-out session while people moved and whirred around us, and by the time he pulled away, his eyes glinting mischievously as he looked down at me, arousal was humming through my body again, and I was debating whether we had time for me to drag him off for yet another round.
God, what was wrong with me? We had been doing it all afternoon, and I wanted to do it again?
This is what happens when you stay away from your mate, a judgmental voice at the back of my head whispered.
I dismissed the thought, true though it might be. It was clear that I wouldn’t be doing that again.
Melissa shifted a little closer to me, looking at the two of us, and she smiled. “I’ll perform the ceremony,” she said gently, glancing over my shoulder.
I followed her gaze, surprised to see that a rudimentary, beautiful arch had already been constructed behind us, lit up by the flickering embers of the fire. These men worked fast, and a sudden rush of nerves flooded me as Melissa rose to her feet, gesturing for Harris and me to do the same thing.
Oh, God. We were doing this.
Harris didn’t release my hand, even for a moment as we walked over to the arch, and suddenly, I could feel all the eyes of the tiny community on us as my mother took place in the center of the arch, Harris and I standing hand in hand in front of her. I didn’t know many of these people, had only briefly met a few of them, and yet, I felt more love and support buzzing from our audience than I had felt in my entire life.
What would it have been like if I had grown up here? If my mother had brought us with her when she had first decided to run away? Would I have grown up with the same unconditional love these children seemed to be experiencing?
They all seem so happy…
“Friends, family,” my mother spoke up, drawing my attention and pulling me out of my head. “I don’t think that any of us expected to be watching a ceremony of joining tonight, but life sometimes throws curveballs at you, and all you can do is go with the flow.”
Her eyes fell on me and Harris, and his fingers flexed around mine where he still held my hand. Her voice was warm and steady when she continued. “My daughter has found her mate. Under any circumstances, that would be a wonderful thing, but given the lengths that her mate is willing to go to in order to keep herself and their unborn pup safe, it’s especially poetic. The shifter prince, and his fated mate.” Her eyes glimmered a little, and a lump rose in my throat as her eyes fell on me, soft with pride and longing for a relationship that I wasn’t sure that we were ever going to have.
She continued, her voice thick with emotion. “It’s a beautiful thing. And most importantly, it means that the two of them will be able to go forward in their lives, keeping each other safe and protected in the way that only fated mates can.”
She looked at Harris, whose expression had become stoic. On his other side, Buck walked up to take his place on Harris’, an equally calm expression on his face, and wildly, I wished that Beth were here at my side. She was my best friend, and she was going to be so sad that she had missed this. I would be making this up to her for years.
“Harris,” my mother said softly. “Do you promise to take Ella as your mate, to hold her and keep her safe no matter the challenges that you might face as a pair, and individually? Forever and always, until the end of your days?”
Harris jerked his chin in a nod. “I do,” he rasped.
She turned her eyes to me, and repeated the vows, my mouth drying and my heart racing more and more until I finally whispered, “I do.”
Mom nodded decisively, and in the audience, I heard a few sniffles. Overhead, the moon was starting to rise, and I couldn’t help the warm feeling inside of me at the sight of the full moon over us. This was kismet.
“I pronounce you married,” my mother declared, her voice thick. With tears, happiness? Both? I wasn’t sure. “You may kiss your mate, Prince Harris.”
Harris turned to face me with her words and gently cupped my face, his eyes shining with happiness and relief as he looked down at me. He leaned down to press his lips against mine, and swallowed the soft whimper that escaped me when he did so.
With this kiss, our complicated history faded away. The challenges that were in front of us faded away.
I kissed him back with everything that I had, my hands sliding up his chest so that I could wrap my arms around the back of his neck, and when he pulled away, his eyes gleaming happily, I felt a resounding joy leap to life inside of me.
His eyes widened a little bit, and I knew that he had felt it through the bond. He leaned down and brushed the tip of his nose against mine, whispering, “I know, baby.”
Then he released me, looking at my mother and nodding once, and she took a cue that I didn’t understand. She walked away, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other shifters backing away the tiniest bit, giving us a wide berth.
“Harris?” I whispered. “What’s going on?”
Harris didn’t answer, instead releasing me and stepping back. He looked at me with joy in his eyes, and then he lifted his chin, looking up toward the moon and letting out a low howl... before he shifted.
The magic that rippled through him as his wolf form burst to life, tearing through the clothes that he’d been wearing like tissue, made that goosebumps rise on the back of my arms.
He was fucking magnificent, and I found myself just as awed by the sight of his enormous wolf now as I had been when I’d seen it for the very first time.
When he landed on all fours in front of me, his eyes gleaming in the soft moonlight as he looked at me meaningfully, I felt a resounding surge of magic within myself.
It shocked me, and before I could figure out what was happening, I shifted as well.
My clothes shredded around me and I landed on all fours in front of him, my white fur practically glowing in the light of the full moon. Immediately, all my senses were heightened, and I heard my mother sigh appreciatively as she looked at me, whispering, “Beautiful.”
I was shocked. So many years I’d been trying to shift, trying to access the magic inside of me that seemed to be so innate for everyone else, and failing every step along the way. And now, the only two times in my life that I’d managed to access my wolf...it was with Harris.
Was he the key to my shift? Was it... did it have something to do with the fact that he was my mate?
Harris his eyes gleamed with joy, and he danced backward, his head jerking in a gesture for me to follow him, tearing me out of my thoughts.
Then he turned on his heel and ran, and I bolted after him without hesitation, the two of us making our way away from the compound before anyone could tell us otherwise.
It was freeing to run in this moment, animal instincts taking over, and I threw back my head to howl at the moon.
Again, my thoughts were chaotic, though simpler in this form than they were when I was a human.
Was this all I needed? Did I just need to be with my mate in order to shift?
I had so many questions, but in the moment, nothing mattered more than myself, Harris, and the earth pounding beneath my paws as we raced through the trees.
He was my mate.
He was my husband.
And somewhere in this forest, we were going to shift back into human form, and take each other all over again under the light of the moon. We would do as shifters had for centuries, and then we would go back.
We would face the future together, hand in hand. Bonded.
Inseparable.
36
Harris
“We have to go back, eventually, baby.”
Ella lifted her head from where it was resting on my chest, and her lower lip jutted out in a slight pout as she looked at me. “I know that.”
The petulance in her voice made me smile, and I leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, breathing in her scent and relishing her pressed up against me for the thousandth time.
It had been almost two weeks since our impromptu marriage, since we had gone running through the forest, since we had come together frantically under the light of the moon, sealing our marriage and our bond once and for all.
I knew that we had gone about all of this backward, but I couldn’t find it in me to regret it, even for a moment. She was mine. My wife. My mate. We were bonded in every way possible, and I was beginning to itch to go back to the city that we called home so that I could confront my parents, so that I could tell them exactly what was going to happen. Exactly how things were going to be from now on.
I certainly wasn’t going to be marrying the woman that they had set up for me, that was for sure.
Ella fell silent after I kissed her, and eventually, she sighed.
“I know we need to go back,” she finally said softly.
Every time we had had this conversation in the past two weeks, she had followed up a similar statement with an excuse, a reason why we couldn’t leave quite yet. I knew that the conversation with her mother about the hit that had been put out on her had rattled her, and I was determined to give her the space that she needed to handle her emotions in the needed time.
So, I braced myself for something similar this time. Of course, I would give her all the time that she needed, but in the back of my mind, I could feel our opportunity to make a difference slipping away.
Buck had gone back to the city for a few days after we had gotten married, and when he had returned, his expression was grim. He hadn’t been able to give me any specifics, all he had been able to tell me was that things were happening, and my father was making moves that were deeply concerning, even without knowing the exact details of it all. It made me nervous.
We needed to head back, we needed to take back the throne. Ella was going to be the most incredible Queen, I already knew it, but in order to place both of us in a position where we could actually help our people, we couldn’t be hiding away in this little community with her mother anymore.
When Ella didn’t come up with some token protest at this time, though, I knew that I had her.
I gently reached out and nudged her chin up so that she was looking me in the eye, and I smiled at her. “It’s going to be okay,” I said softly.
She looked at me as though she weren’t quite sure, but nodded anyway.
“As long as we’re together,” she whispered, her hands trembling the tiniest bit as she pushed herself off me, and then stood.
Packing was fast, and when the two of us walked out of the little building that we had been staying in for weeks, her mother was already waiting outside with a soft, warm expression that was somewhat resigned, regardless.
“You’re leaving,” she said. A statement, not a question.
Ella nodded, and she glanced up at me before she released my hand, stepping up to her mother.
“I will come back if we can,” she said softly. “But we can’t change things from here.”
Her mother looked at her with a soft expression, and she sighed, holding out her arms. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if Ella was going to follow through, but then she wrapped her arms around her mother’s torso in a firm hug, and something inside of me softened.
Their relationship was by no means perfect, and I knew that was going to take months and years for them to repair the damage that Melissa’s abandonment had caused. But this was a good first step, especially knowing that her mother supported us and everything that we wanted to do back in the city.
I wanted to take on my father, and Ella wanted to help bring the lower classes up in line with the upper. She wanted to close the poverty gap, and I wanted to bring all shifters back to the center. The illegality of communities like this one was asinine, I knew that now.
Changing the laws around living in packs, and living under the palace rule was going to be one of the first things that I did when I went back and took my rightful place on the throne.
A slight shiver of unease went down my spine at the thought of it, and Ella pulled away from her mother, looking at me curiously before she looked back again.
“Thank you for everything,” she said quietly. “Truly.”
Melissa nodded, and tucked her hands into the pockets of the soft pants that she wore. “We’re always here if you decide that you want to come back,” she said, just as softly.
Ella slipped her hand into mine again, and we both nodded at Melissa before turning and walking away without further goodbye.
This wasn’t for forever. I had every faith that Ella and her mother were going to continue rebuilding the relationship now that Ella knew that her mother was still alive.
Nobody else stopped us as we made our way out of the community, and Buck was waiting outside the compound with the car, leaning against the side of it as he waited for us to approach. His expression was stoic and neutral as always, and he nodded at me before looking at Ella. “Are you sure that you want to do this?”
The words were said without judgment, but I felt Ella flinch anyway. I knew that he didn’t mean any harm by it, but the fact of the matter was that, if there actually was a hit out on my wife, she was the one of us that was in the most danger by going back.
The thought of Ella being in danger of any kind made my blood run cold, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Ella nodded decisively, looking up at me. “We’re married now,” she said softly. Her hand flexed in mine, and she looked down at the point where we joined together. “My mate will protect me, if anything were to happen.”
Her faith in me settled, warm and heavy in my stomach, and I pulled her up against me, wrapping one arm around her waist and dipping my head to press a kiss to her lips. She melted under my touch, and I enjoyed the feeling of her skin under my hand before I pulled away and rested my forehead against hers.
“I won’t let your faith in me go to waste,” I whispered. I pressed another kiss to her lips before I pulled away, and Buck opened the door to the backseat for her.
“In that case, after you, your Majesty,” Brock said politely. Addressing Ella.
Because that’s exactly what she was. She was my wife. She was royalty now, and she and I were going to go back and take back our city if it was the last thing that we fucking did.
37
Ella
The first two hours back to the city were quiet in the car, and I couldn’t help feeling a slight buzz of excitement as we headed back to the city that I had called home for my entire life.
I knew that there were challenges that were happening, things that we needed to be concerned about. Apparently there was a hit out on me, and my stepmother was more twisted than I had ever been able to imagine.
Still, I couldn’t help being excited at the thought of seeing Beth, or checking in with Michaela. I really thought that she felt bad about the way that she had treated me, and given some time, I thought it was possible that we might be able to have some kind of friendly relationship.
For the first time, with my mate at my side, there were things that I was actually looking forward to back at home, and even the thought that loomed over my head—that Vivian might have sold or destroyed the last standing memory that I had of my father while I was gone—couldn’t take the excitement that I felt down a notch.
Buck drove, and at my side, Harris was quiet, though every time I glanced over at him, he was looking at me with a warm glint in his eyes.
I knew what that glint meant, and it made me smile every time.
Still, when we reached the borders of the city, I finally started feeling a slight flicker of discomfort.
“Are you sure that everything is going to be okay?” I asked softly, reaching into my bag and digging out my phone. I had left it off and plugged in the entire time that we had been in the commune with my mother, but I was going to have to turn it back on and face the music from Beth sooner or later. “Your parents aren’t going to be happy about the wedding.
Harris flexed his fingers against mine where he held my hand in his lap, and then he lifted it up to his lips, pressing a chaste kiss to my knuckles.
“Then they’re upset about it,” he said simply. His affirmation made my stomach twist, and I smiled as I turned my phone on, waiting for the screen to light up.
Only to immediately furrow my brow when the phone started buzzing incessantly in my hand, message after message, missed call after missed call appearing on the screen.
“What is it?” Harris asked, looking over at me with a concerned gleam in his eyes.
I swallowed hard, the sense of foreboding that I had been vaguely entertaining rocketing to the forefront of my mind. “I don’t know.”
I frowned, ignoring the messages from my stepsisters and Vivian, and I opened up the text message thread that I had with Beth, knowing that whatever was going on, she was probably the one who would know the most.
How did I know that something was going on? Call it intuition. That, and the fact that when we pulled to a stop in front of the bakery and Harris and I looked around, there was a small horde of people gathered around the car, looking at us with wide eyes and pointing.
