The Luna's Bodyguard [a mature werewolf romance]

Ch 46: Wedding Night

OPHELIA
🌶️🌶️

The door clicked shut behind us. I knew that guards stood on the other side, privy to whatever sound travelled through the cracks, but it was the armoured soldier leaning against this side of the door that I was worried about — or rather, for. Fallon pressed his forehead to the cold wood as if it could sooth his raging soul, eyes scrunched shut against the painful prospect of the orders he'd just been given.

"Somebody must verify the consummation," King Reginald had said, but despite the contemplative air he put on, the old bastard's eyes had slid far too quickly to Nate's bodyguard. "Who better than you, Fallon Lathurna?"

It was no different from packing salt in a wound, the use of his surname there. Calling on Fallon's legacy to elicit pain instead of pride.

"You don't have to do this," I said softly, stepping towards him.

Nate stepped forward, too. Even though his cock was straining against his pants and his mind was half-blown from the taste of my blood, the rest of it driven to finish the mating act. "We can find another way. A way to fake it, or —"

"There is no other way," Fallon said despondently, rising to his full height. My heart almost broke when he turned woodenly, taking up a soldier's stance as far from the bed as the room would allow. "I will not risk my sister's life."

"And I won't do this without your enthusiastic consent," I snapped, balling my hands into fists. "Let's go. Let's march right up to Reginald's office and rip that ugly head off his shoulders."

"That would only create a vacuum of power that would endanger us all," Fallon said tightly.

He was right, but I hesitated. "Blair said she'd send reinforcements when she sees the sign she was promised. What if that is the sign?" I asked. "Ripping Reginald's head off is pretty clear, right?"

"It is an unnecessary risk," Fallon said sternly, doubling down. I could still sense his wariness after the maze situation, where I'd duped him into staying behind while I crossed enemy lines.

By which I meant I declared my love and beat him into submission.

It hadn't escaped me that he had yet to say it back.

"Fine," I muttered — if only because I was almost as scared of Blair as I was of the Crown. I didn't trust that things would change for the better if she were to usurp the throne.

Or that she'd allow Nate to live.

"The original plan stands," he went on stiffly. "Through your marriage to Ignatius, you will be able to turn the court against his father. Claim the throne when the time is right, and you have the rebels and society on your side."

After we reached Aurora, of course. But I was starting to realise she wasn't mine to save — not this time. She'd been there to help heal me and clean me up before the wedding, and taken all of my old clothes with her. I just know she had Evergreen's necklace: her ticket to the underground.

"Do not worry about me," Fallon said stiffly. "It brings me joy to know the two people I care most for can find happiness in each other."

I let out a slow, despondent sigh. Joy, yes, but also pain. The kind that sliced so deep he'd thrown up a shield between our minds to stop us from feeling it, too.