No, no, that couldn’t be right. I must have heard him wrong?—
“You didn’t mishear me,” Tadhg said preemptively, as if he could sense my thoughts. “Just like with the bear business, I’m one hundred percent serious about us wanting you. But I know…”
He gave me a sympathetic look. “I know this is a lot to process.”
Understatement. Huge, huge understatement.
Being a bear was one thing. But all my adult life, I’d been trying—quietly, politely, desperately—to find someone who might be willing to mate with me. And now here Tadhg, the Mountain King, was telling me I was this “The Potential,” meant for notjust one but all three kings. That he and the Shadow King had arranged and funded all of the Wölfennite brides being kidnapped just so they could get to me.
Me. Sadie “Nobody Wants the Bear Who Thinks She’s a She-Wolf” Ellis.
“No...” My voice nearly gave out. I shook my head, feeling dazed—worse than I sometimes did when I woke up from a too-long Winter Sleep, groggy and still exhausted.
“Isn’t this what you wanted, Strawberry?” Tadhg reached out but didn’t quite touch my hand, just settled his much larger one next to it. “Was finding a mate not why you went to Scotland?”
Yes, finding a mate willing to have me was what I wanted—why I’d defied my mother and traveled thousands of miles for the exchange. But something wouldn’t let me answer his questions out loud. I could only stare at him, mouth partially open to say words that never made it to my tongue.
“Is it the literal three-body problem?” Tadhg reached into the pocket of his open plaid button-down and pulled out a folded-up piece of paper. “I know it goes against your Bible, but there are a number of strong arguments for why three mates are better than one.”
“Actually, there’s nothing in our Bible forbidding more than one spouse.” Voice still weak, I managed to choke out a correction. “As Naomi says, that’s part of the extra stuff leaders throughout history made up to control the masses.”
“Okay, so you’re not hung up on that. Good.” He tucked the paper back into his pocket with a wry look and admitted, “I wrote a whole list of pros, starting with division of family labor after you deliver our cubs.”
Something twisted and flipped inside my stomach. “You want children, too?”
“Of course. Future kings to carry on our lines. Though we’re not looking to turn you into an incubator, Strawberry. We can negotiate how many if you’re not comfortable with one son for each kingdom.”
My chest rocked with the sensation of my heart wanting but failing to explode with happiness.
Yes, this was everything I’d ever wanted—more than everything. I could never in my wildest imagination have come up with this—even during the worst of the Spring Fire months when I had to take two showers a day to secretly satisfy the forbidden hunger.
But then Tadhg continued on with, “Though, there is something you should know when it comes to children and a royal marriage. The High King has original claim of you.”
“Original claim?”
Tadhg laid his hand back down next to mine on the table. “Alright, sadly, I was so concerned about you not going for the three kings bit, I didn’t come up with a list of pros for this next part. But, Sadie, our kingdom is incredibly old. So old, I couldn’t give you a start year because we date back to a time before record-keeping. And as with any society that has lasted this long, we have ways and rituals. Rules.”
He averted his eyes so he was looking at the tree line leading out to the lake when he told me, “When it comes to taking a queen, the High King has your first claim—the right of first penetration. Neither I nor the Shadow King can penetrate you in a baby-making manner until he has you first and you’re pregnant with his cub.”
“The High King has the right of first penetration?” I went completely still, everything inside of me screeching to a halt.
And Tadhg grimaced. “You do understand what penetration is—how babies are made, at least among us mammals?”
I did understand. But that wasn’t the reason for my reaction.
It suddenly occurred to me why I was having so much trouble just saying, “Yes, yes, sign me up.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Where is this High King? If he has this all-important first claim, as you mentioned, why isn’t he here requesting a three-spouse marriage, too? Or taking the lead? You’d think it would matter most to him, considering this is his first child we’re talking about.”
Tadhg hesitated. And my heart sank.
That pause told me exactly what my gut had been trying to all along.
“He’s not on board,” I realized out loud. “It’s a three-king plan, but only two of you are behind this. He doesn’t want me.”
“He doesn’tnotwant you,” Tadhg said carefully. “He didn’t exactly say yes after you were delivered, but he also didn’t say no. He only walked away.”
“Walked away?” I repeated. The image of this unknown High King with the streak in his hair, taking one look at me and running, churned in my stomach. “Walking away from something—from someone—is the exact definition of saying no to it.”
