Page 17 of Knotting Sleeping Beauty

I reach back without looking and find my alpha’s hand.

Twelve

KAEL

Rose goes quiet when we pass the ridge and Valdemar spreads out below us. Dark stone. Mountains. Wolf banners snapping in the wind. Not golden and polished like Thornhaven. My home is rough. Cold. Built to take a beating and stand.

She breathes in, and I watch her face like my life depends on it. Because it fucking does.

“It’s perfect,” she says.

And she means it. Every word.

Something in my chest unlocks.

* * *

My parents are in the courtyard. My father takes one look at Rose, grunts, and nods at me.

“‘Bout damn time, boy.”

That’s it. That’s all I get. The man ruled a kingdom for thirty years and retired to go fishing. He doesn’t do speeches. I laugh.

Rose blinks. “That’s… it?”

My father shrugs, smiling broadly. “You’re his. He’s yours. Welcome to the family, love.” He winks at her, comes to give us warm hugs, then turns to walk back into the castle.

Rose watches him go, eyes wide. “I see where you get it from.”

I cock an eyebrow. “Get what?”

“The whole…” she waves a hand at me.

Before I can respond, my mother bursts through the doors like a storm. She’s small, dark-haired, fierce, and she’s been waiting thirty-five fucking years for this exact moment.

She grabs Rose’s face in both hands and kisses her forehead. “Welcome home, sweetheart.”

Then she turns and smacks my arm. Hard.

“Ow! What the…”

“That’s for making me wait.” She smacks me again. “And that’s for bonding this beautiful girl in a cursed tower instead of courting her properly, you animal.”

“Ma, there was a curse to break. What was I supposed to do?”

Rose shrugs. “He’s not wrong.”

My mother stares at us, then she laughs, hooks her arm through Rose’s, and steers her inside. “Oh, I like you. Come, let me show you the palace. My son wouldn’t know where to start.”

“I can hear you, Ma!”

“Good!”

Rose glances back at me, giggling. And I stand in my courtyard like a lovesick fool until Ronan clears his throat.

“You’re smiling, sir.”

“Fuck off, Ronan.”