Alpha's Secret Bride

The following moonrise began quietly, almost too quiet for a palace that rarely stayed peaceful for long. Emma was in the family chamber helping Charlotte arrange a collection of drawings across the table when Bryan walked in carrying a dusty wooden box. He placed it carefully beside the drawings, then brushed the dust from his hands while looking at his mother with an expression that made her pause.

"Mother, I found this."

Emma looked up from the drawings and studied the box before looking back at him. "Where did you find it?"

"In one of the old storage chambers near the west wing."

Charlotte immediately forgot about her drawings and leaned closer to the box. "What’s inside?"

Bryan shrugged. "I don’t know."

Emma smiled at their curiosity, but before either pup could reach for the lid, she pulled the box toward herself. She looked at Bryan again, her fingers resting lightly against the dusty wood. "Where did you get this?"

"Mr. Richard told me I could look through the old things as long as I didn’t touch anything that was locked."

Emma’s eyes moved back to the box. The question came before she could stop herself. "Was this locked?"

Bryan shook his head. "No." He turned the box around and pointed to the lid. "There was a piece of cloth over it, but I moved it because I thought it was just an old box."

Emma reached across the table and slowly brushed the dust from the lid. The box looked old enough to have been sitting untouched for winters, and the wood had darkened with age. A small metal clasp held the lid closed, and just above it was the faint impression of a royal seal.

Her fingers stopped.

She knew that seal.

The Frostbane royal seal.

Emma’s gaze remained fixed on it for several seconds before she looked back at Bryan. "Where exactly did you find this?"

Bryan pointed toward the hallway leading to the west wing. "The old records chamber."

She glanced at Charlotte, who was now watching her instead of the box. Something about the seal had changed the way she looked at it, and the pups seemed to notice the difference even though she hadn’t said anything.

"Did anyone see you take it?"

"Mr. Richard saw me."

She nodded slowly and placed both hands on the box. She didn’t open it. Instead, she looked toward the doorway, then back at the pups.

"All right. Go find your father."

Bryan frowned, clearly confused by her sudden change in mood. "Why?"

She kept one hand on the box as she met his eyes.

"Because I want him here before we open this."

That was enough to make Charlotte look even more interested. She leaned closer to the table, her eyes fixed on the dusty box as though she might be able to figure out what was inside just by looking at it.

"Is it something important?"

Emma didn’t answer immediately. She ran her fingers lightly over the old seal before looking back at her daughter.

"I don’t know yet."

Bryan hurried out of the chamber, leaving Charlotte beside the table. She climbed onto the edge of the chair and watched Emma closely.

"Mother?"

She looked down at her. "What?"

"Why do you look worried?"

She forced a small smile and brushed a loose strand of hair away from Charlotte’s face.

"I’m not worried."

Charlotte narrowed her eyes, clearly unconvinced. "You are."

She laughed softly and shook her head. "You’re becoming too observant, just like your father."

"Father says I’m observant."

"Your father says many things."

Charlotte smiled, but her eyes returned to the box.

A few moments later, footsteps approached from the hallway. Brandon entered the chamber, still looking toward the pups until his attention settled on the wooden box sitting in the middle of the table.

"What happened?"

She pushed her chair back and stood. "Bryan found this in the old records chamber."

He walked toward the table. The moment his eyes fell on the seal, he stopped.

The change in his expression was immediate.

She noticed and looked at him carefully. "You know it."

He didn’t answer. He stepped closer and studied the seal, then reached toward the box before stopping just short of touching it.

"Where did he find this?"

"The west wing records chamber."

Brandon straightened and glanced toward the doorway where Charlotte had disappeared. His eyes returned to the box.

"How did this survive all these winters?"

Emma’s concern deepened as she moved closer to him.

"Starlite, what is it?"

He looked at her. For a moment, he said nothing. His gaze moved from Emma to the box, then back to her, as though he were deciding how much he should tell her before they opened it.

Finally, he pulled out a chair and sat down.

"It belonged to my father."

She slowly sat opposite him.

"Eldric?"

He nodded.

"I thought it was gone."

Emma’s eyes moved back to the box. "What is inside?"

"I don’t know."

She stared at him. "You don’t know?"

"I knew it existed."

Brandon rested both hands on the table, his fingers close to the edge of the old wooden box.

"My father had several private documents prepared a few winters ago. Most were kept with the official royal records, but there were a few things he never wanted the council to see."

She glanced at the seal again. "Why?"

"Because they weren’t meant for the council."

His eyes remained on the box as his thumb brushed lightly against the edge of the lid.

"They were meant for me."

She was quiet for a moment, watching him. "What kind of documents?"

"Instructions. Personal decisions. He wanted me to know if something happened to him before I was ready to take responsibility for the kingdom."

Her fingers rested against the edge of the table. "And this one?"

Brandon shook his head. "I never saw it."

Bryan returned before Emma could ask another question. He walked straight toward the table, his curiosity written across his face.

"Father, what’s inside?"

Brandon looked at him and then at the box.

"We’re about to find out."

Bryan moved closer, but Brandon lifted a hand.

"Stay there."

Bryan stopped where he was, watching his father carefully before Brandon finally signaled for him to leave.

He opened the box.

Inside was a folded piece of parchment wrapped in a faded piece of cloth. Beneath it lay an old signet ring and several smaller documents, their edges worn from winters of storage.

Emma’s eyes moved over the contents. "That’s from Eldric?"

He nodded.

He reached into the box and carefully lifted the parchment. The royal seal had been pressed into dark red wax, still intact despite the winters that had passed.

His thumb moved slowly over the seal.

Emma watched him for a moment before speaking.

"Do you want me to leave?"

He looked at her.

"No."

There was no hesitation.

"You’re my Queen. Whatever is in here, you should know."

She held his gaze. The words were simple, but something inside her shifted.

There had been a time when she would have wondered what he was hiding, when secrets had stood between them until neither of them knew what was true anymore.

Now he was sitting beside her, holding something his father had intended only for him, and his first instinct was to let her see it with him.

She reached across the table and placed her hand over his.

"Then let’s read it together."

He nodded and broke the seal.

The parchment unfolded with a soft crackle, and the sound seemed unusually loud in the quiet chamber. For several seconds, neither of them spoke as Brandon held the letter between his hands.

His eyes moved slowly across the first few lines.

Emma watched his expression change.

"What does it say?"

Brandon swallowed and lowered his eyes to the parchment again.

"My father wrote this for me."

He continued reading.

The letter did not contain instructions about military campaigns or council appointments. It wasn’t a list of territories to defend or enemies to fight.

It was something much more personal.

Eldric wrote about the weight of the crown and the responsibility that came with it. He wrote about how easily a king could become so focused on protecting the kingdom that he forgot the people living inside it. He warned Brandon that power could make a ruler mistake obedience for loyalty, and that a palace filled with people who agreed with everything he said was not necessarily a palace filled with people who trusted him.

Emma listened quietly as Brandon read the words aloud, her eyes occasionally moving from the parchment to his face. He paused several times, his thumb resting against the edge of the page before continuing.

Then he reached the final paragraph.

His voice became quieter.

"He says I shouldn’t become the king he was."

Emma looked at him. "What?"

Brandon lowered his eyes to the letter and read the sentence again, this time more slowly.

Eldric had written that Brandon would one day inherit the crown, but inheriting the throne did not mean inheriting the same decisions, fears, or mistakes. He wanted his heir to understand that a crown could be passed down, but the choices made while wearing it belonged to the person who carried it.

He wanted Brandon to choose his own path, to become the kind of king the kingdom needed rather than simply the kind of king tradition expected him to be.

Emma’s eyes softened as she looked at him.

"He knew you better than you thought."

Brandon gave a faint smile and looked down at the parchment. "Maybe he did."

He lowered the letter onto the table and let his hand rest beside it. For a moment, neither of them spoke. The chamber remained quiet, with only the faint sound of Bryan and Charlotte moving somewhere nearby.

Then Emma’s eyes caught something beneath the letter.

"Starlite."

He looked at her.

"There is something underneath."

She carefully lifted the edge of the first parchment, revealing another sheet folded behind it.

He pulled it free and unfolded it slowly. His eyes moved across the page until they reached the bottom.

Then he stopped.

She leaned closer, watching his face.

"What is it?"

Brandon didn’t answer.

She looked down at the parchment herself.

There was a second name written beneath Eldric’s final words.

A name neither of them expected to see.

Bryan Oliver Frostbane.

Brandon’s fingers tightened around the parchment.

Emma slowly lifted her eyes toward their pup.

Bryan stood a few steps away, completely unaware that his name had just appeared in a letter written by his grandfather, and that whatever Eldric had left behind was about to change everything they thought they knew.

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