The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 338

Chapter 338: The Before Was Here. Right Here.

Her voice carried across the courtyard with a projection that would have made stage performers weep with envy. Two hundred Fae nobles turned to look at her with expressions ranging from confusion to alarm to the particular facial configuration of people witnessing a diplomatic incident in real time.

Tristan’s head turned. River’s head turned. The officiant’s hands froze in midair, still raised in the gesture of a blessing that had been interrupted by a woman in red who had apparently decided that the threshold between "before the kiss" and "married" was the ideal window for an entrance.

Vesper’s eyes locked onto Tristan. "You are marrying your sister, Tristan."

The word detonated across the courtyard.

Sister.

Gasps erupted from every row. Heads swiveled between Vesper and the couple at the altar with the synchronized horror of people watching an shitshow they couldn’t look away from. Two noble women in the third row clutched each other. A man in the fifth row made a sound that was half gasp and half word and entirely involuntary.

Lucian stepped forward. The wolf king moved with the instinct of a man whose reflexes defaulted to protection, regardless of whose protection he was providing, regardless of the fact that the woman he was defending had a star on her neck that belonged to his best friend.

"She was adopted, lady." His voice cut through the gasps with the authority of an Alpha addressing a crowd, calm and certain and carrying the weight of a man who had been present for every relevant fact. "They grew up together. They share a household, a father, and a history. They do not share blood."

Vesper’s eyes moved to Lucian. She dismissed him with a flick of her gaze the way a queen dismisses a footman who has spoken without being asked.

"Blood is irrelevant." She turned back to Tristan. "You know what I am to you. You can feel it now. The pull, Tristan."

The courtyard was silent. The sea was loud. The wind carried petals across the stone in slow spirals that landed on nobody.

"We have bond blessed by fate. Our magic is in sync," Vesper said. "Confirmed by every instinct you possess. You can lie to this crowd, Tristan. You can lie to your father." Her eyes moved to River. "You can lie to her. But you cannot lie to fate, and fate chose me."

Tristan was frozen.

His face was a mask of something that had gone beyond shock into a territory where expressions ceased to function. His pupils were dilated. His jaw was locked. His hands, which had been holding River’s a moment ago, were at his sides, and the stillness in his body was absolute, the specific paralysis of a man hearing words that rearranged his understanding of the terrain.

River’s hand flew to her mouth.

She looked at Tristan. His face was unreadable. His eyes were somewhere else, somewhere internal, and the fact that he had said nothing, corrected nothing, denied nothing, was louder than any words he could have spoken.

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