The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Book 2 The Alpha’s Forbidden Bride – Episode 28

~JAMES~

I scowled as Archer doubled over in laughter as soon as his eyes fell on us. “What the hell happened to the both of you?” he asked as he pointed to our semi naked state.

At least somebody found this hilarious. I never thought I’d live to see the day that a girl kicked my a*s.

“We couldn’t fight back.” Lucas answered. Unlike me, even he seemed to be amused by all of this. But he was Lucas after all, he found everything amusing.

The woman could fight, I’ll give her that. We didn’t fight back in fear of hurting her but still her skills were amazing. She acted like someone who’d been doing that for years. If I hadn’t been concerned with hiding the camera I would have been a lot more impressed with how she handled us.

“She took your shirts?” Austin asked confused. I followed his gaze, our chests were completely bare. I had no idea why she did such a thing, what good would our clothes do her?

“I forgot to mention that to you men.” Archer confessed with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I’d seen her do that to other men before since she also gifted clothing to the werewolves without packs.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He purposely let that happen. He hadn’t forgotten to mention it; he wanted to see this happen.

That sly bastard. He was indeed a Blackner after all.

“At least she let y’all keep your pants.” he added when he spotted out scowls.

“Wait, did you get the camera before she took it?” Austin demanded.

I nodded and pulled it out from my pants. “It’s right here, she didn’t suspect anything.”

“I must say, even though we didn’t fight back, the girl could definitely fight.” Lucas admitted.

He was clearly thinking the same thing that I was. I had hope that even though the Blackners were about to kidnap her, she will still fight them back with everything in her. I had a feeling she was about to give Arthur a very hard time.

As soon as I got Eden out from the council, I knew what had to be done. We couldn’t let that girl suffer because of us; we had to somehow help her get out. But that was another problem that I couldn’t get into now. We had to take it one step at a time.

“Well boys,” Archer said. “That’s it for me. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to join you in your journey to meet my father. That’s all on you.”

I nodded, even though I didn’t fancy him, I still appreciated his help.

“Thank you.”

He grinned. “You might want to get yourselves some shirts before you see my father. See you men around and good luck with Eden!”

I needed all the luck that I could get. This war was about to be the greatest challenge that my family and I have ever faced.

. . . . . . . . . .

“I can’t believe we’re doing this again.” Lucas g*****d as the drone flew over us just like before and scanned our bodies.

“Back already?”

We looked up to see the Blackner brothers staring down at us. Arthur as usual didn’t look happy to see us but all of the other brothers, they seemed amused. The looks on their faces said that they didn’t expect to see us back here so soon, or ever.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Arthur asked. “Climb up, father is expecting you.”

He was already expecting us? We hadn’t given them any heads up, how could he be expecting us?

The walk to Gideon’s room was pretty much the same as before. We found him near the glass windows looking out at the view.

He turned to us and smiled with a knowing look on his face. “Welcome back.”

I nodded along with my brothers.

“Boys, leave us alone.” He told his sons who reluctantly left the room.

“What do you have for me?” he asked as soon as they exited. It was clear as day that he didn’t want Archer to hear our conversation. Which meant he hadn’t told his son of his plans as yet. I wished to be there when he broke the news to him, that would be an interesting day.

I dropped all of the pictures and papers Archer had given to us onto the desk. “Her name is Gabriella Sawyer and she has all of the qualities that you asked for.”

He took one look at the picture and then back at us. “Are you positive she has everything?” he asked before taking a closer look at her picture. “She looks like a soft woman, one who would break easily under pressure.”

I nodded, she was most definitely not soft in any way from what Lucas and I witnessed earlier on today. “I’m sure she’ll prove beneficial to you.”

He quirked a brow, not looking convinced at all.

“No pack?”

“No pack.” Austin answered.

“And she has both werewolf and vampire b***d in her veins?”

“Yes. . . We made sure of it.”

“How can I be sure that you’re telling the truth?”

I took the camera out of my pocket and handed it to him. “We met her today, here’s a video of our meeting. I think you’ll find it very interesting.”

He took it from me and played the video. For someone that often hid his emotions behind a fake smile, he looked pleasantly surprised by what he saw. In fact, he looked like he didn’t believe that the video could possibly be real.

“Did she really do this all on her own?”

“The video is there as proof.” I answered. “If you don’t believe us, you can obviously check her out yourself. I assure you, you will be impressed.”

“Alright, good. I believe you.” He said as took a seat on the white chair and leaned back. “Let’s get down to business then.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. I was one step closer to getting to Eden.

“I’ll send my boys with you today.” He continued when I said nothing.

Austin and I gave each other confused looks. How did he know we already needed them?

“What?” he asked after looking at our shocked expressions. “You didn’t think that I would just send my people without doing any research? After you came here I had my men keep a watch on everything, they informed me of what happened with your mate. I already knew you would be here soon.”

People were keeping tracking of us and we had no idea?

Damn it.

“Remember the next end of the deal.” He reminded us suddenly. “Right after we help you get out of the situation with the council and Hunter, which believe me, we will. I expect Lucas back here to discuss the details of the wedding.”

I stiffened at his reminder. It was the last thing I needed to her from Gideon. I stole a glance at Lucas and immediately felt the guilt I’d been feeling return at the look on his face. My brother was giving up his happiness for my own.

I wasn’t happy about it and I sure as hell would never let him go through with it.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

~EDEN~

I stared at myself in the mirror. The wedding dress was old fashioned, just the way the council wanted it to be. I looked like a princess being forced into an arranged marriage. Everything was pretty much the same, just, I wasn’t exactly a princess.

Instead, I was a woman that didn’t understand why she had to be in a situation where she had to leave the man that she loved for someone that scared the hell out of her, all just to make sure that he was kept safe and away from any danger.

I loved James. I loved James even without the memories of my past. The new memories was enough to make me fall in love with him.

I shouldn’t have to choose. I should be able to be with James without worrying about anything bad happening to him.

It was the day of the wedding and I felt like I was making the worst decision of my entire life.

I couldn’t stop thinking about James and what I felt for him. Leaving him behind was so difficult for me. Then being rushed to the council without knowing exactly who they were wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either.

The council was brutal.

I hated it here.

Everything was so much more peaceful with James and his family. They were living a much better life that the people here were.

The council was dark, it felt cold here and not in a good way.

What made all of this worse was the fact that I still had absolutely no idea of my past life. I tried my best to remember any little detail. Even my parents tried their best to show me multiple pictures in hopes of me remembering.

My brothers along with Isabella told me multiple stories and still. . . No help.

Everything was hopeless and I was beginning to think that I would never remember my past.

All of my memories with James, the little that I had, all of it flashed before my mind as I tried to gain the strength to continue with this wedding. The memory of when I first saw him and immediately felt a connection to the memory of his touch, his k**s. . . I never wanted to forget it. James made me feel things that I was positive no other man would ever make me feel. Everything about him was special and unique , even down to the way he looked at me.

I wiped the tears away at the reminder of it all. Sighing, I picked myself of the bed and walked over to the table in front of me where there was a clean napkin waiting for me to use. I had to fight these thoughts and feelings. I did all of this for him and the people that I cared about, I couldn’t turn back now.

I paused, something on the wall catching my attention. There seemed to be some sort of painting hidden behind of the wardrobe.

I quickly pushed the furniture aside and returned my attention to the painting.

I held my breath at what I saw.

James.

It was a painting of James.

One by one images flashed across my mind like a trigger in my head. I cried out and held my head as though it was about to explode with all of the memories rushing in all at once.

I fell back against the bed as I felt everything around of me begin to spin.

My eyes were wide with horror as everything I’d been missing crashed all over the place.

From the memory of James chained to the ground and roaring to get to me, to the memory of the day of my engagement to Hunter.

Oh God.

No!

What had I done?