All Chapters of An Heir For The Comatose Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Constance"Move to the examination room and strip. Lie down on the bed and spread your legs," one of the doctors said in a flat, cold voice. "If you lied about being a virgin on the application form, you will be going home in a casket."I was too stunned to even answer.William Blackwood, the Alpha heir, was lying in a coma. His uncle, the acting regent, had decided the best solution to a dying bloodline was to round up every eligible woman in the territory and see which one was fit to carry it forward.Every girl in the territory over eighteen and under thirty had gotten the same letter. Report for evaluation, or your family answers for it. My father did not even wait for the letter. He had already signed his name before it arrived.He had sold me out for a territory contract, trading my life for debt relief without even lying to my face about it. I had overheard him on the phone an hour before I left the house. "She's young, clean, and quiet. Clear my ledger, and she's yours."That

ConstanceI sat up on the edge of the silk-draped bed, my head spinning as the effects of the witch's potion slowly faded. My body felt bruised, my throat raw. Julian did not give me time to catch my breath. He led me out of the recovery room and down a maze of hallways to a private suite where I could rest.Julian was the only person in this whole place who had said a kind word to me since I arrived. He fussed over the pillows, checked the lock on the door twice, and told me to rest before he left to fetch tea. I almost believed, for a moment, that I was safe.The moment he was gone, I stood in front of the mirror, staring at my own reflection with shaking hands. My skin was pale, my hair a mess, but I was breathing. I was alive.For the first time since I left my father's house, nobody was screaming, dying, or threatening me. I let myself breathe for one whole minute, counting each breath, trying to believe it was really over.The heavy door clicked open behind me."Julian?" I asked

ConstanceI stopped breathing.William's arm was an iron bar across my back, his hand splayed flat between my shoulder blades, holding me pinned against his chest under the quilt. His heartbeat thudded against my ear, too fast for a man who was supposed to be a corpse waiting. My own pulse slammed so hard I was sure it would give us away before Julian even crossed the room."My lord?" Julian's voice, cautious, feeling out the silence. "Forgive the intrusion. I've brought the physician's report and your morning broth."Porcelain clinked against a tray. Footsteps, soft-soled, moving closer.William did not stir. Not a twitch, not a breath out of rhythm, nothing to mark him as anything but a man locked in a coma. In that frozen second I understood how he had fooled them all. He still didn't act. He simply stopped being a person and became a shape on the bed.I tried to do the same. Eyes shut, face pressed into the curve of his neck, I prayed the heat in my throat stayed hidden.The footste

ConstanceWilliam didn't answer me. He stood at the balcony doors with his back to the room, his shoulders set in that hard, immovable line I was starting to recognize as the shape he wore when he didn't want me to see his face."William.""Get some rest," he said. "The night is nearly gone.""You just told me someone left a warning in this keep and you don't know who it's for, and now you want me to sleep?"He turned then, and whatever he'd been holding behind his eyes a moment ago was gone, tucked away so completely I might have imagined it. "I want you to be sharp tomorrow. My uncle does not summon candidates to his private study for pleasant conversation, and you have an audience with him at midday.”My stomach dropped."How do you know that?”His mouth tightened slightly. “I heard Ferdinand's steward mention it when he came through earlier.”He crossed back toward the bed, and for a moment I thought he might sit, might let himself be tired in front of me the way he had been for on

ConstanceI didn't run back to William's chamber. Running would have drawn eyes, and Ferdinand had just taught me that eyes were the one thing I couldn't afford.I walked instead, steady and unhurried, past corridor after corridor, my hands folded in front of me the way a proper candidate's should be. My father had never explained his debts to me. He'd come home some nights smelling of whiskey and said nothing at all, and other nights he'd said too much, muttering about ledgers and creditors and men who wouldn't return his letters. I'd always assumed it was carelessness. Bad luck. Ferdinand's question had cracked that assumption open without giving me anything to put in its place.Julian let me into William's chamber without a word, his eyes searching my face for something as I passed him in the doorway. I didn't stop to explain. I waited until the bolt slid home behind me before I let my shoulders drop.William was already sitting up, no pretense of sleep, his gold eyes fixed on me t