The palace walls, the palace walls were more of an enclosure every day. Guards at every turn. I had eyes on me everywhere I went. My rejection, which was hanging in the air, but not spoken.
But I was not going to stay here, bound to a relation I had not signed.
When it was dark, at nightfall, when everyone was asleep in the kingdom I traced out the paths that led into the forest beyond the palace gates. I studied by heart the guard rotations, the doorways of the servants, the dead ends of the patrols. My wolf crouched by me, impatient because hungry--because he wanted our mate--but true to my decision to be free.
"Soon," I told her, a whisper. "We'll go. We'll have freedom."
But fate was unkind.
When daylight broke the alarm-bells struck. A warning howl cut through the grounds. The kingdom was attacked.
I sat up with a racing heart. Motion out of the window--dark things flitting along the outer walls. Rogues. Dozens. Perhaps hundreds.
The door opened to my room and bang! And there he was. Lucian. The Alpha King. His eyes were molten and his presence swept into the room.
Behind me, he said, and he already took up his sword.
"I can fight back!" Snap, snap, though my voice shook.
His eyes glared up at me, scalding and implacitable. "You will fight with me, then. Beside me."
I was about to protest, when a rogue flew through the window with his fangs unsheathing. Instinct asserted itself. I shifted, and my wolf leapt out with a growl and threw itself at the intruder.
Lucian was there in a moment, his wolf larger, stronger, dominating, and repelled the rogues. We fought together--his blows quick, mine of pitiful resistance. And a minute of strained breathing had seen our wolves make one movement.
When the rogue died away in his fall, silence had been restored. My chest was heaving and my fur was wet with blood. Lucian transformed, his body being as beautiful as shining with strength, his golden eyes staring at me.
His rough voice, his claim, was, You are mine. No demand--need, truth that my wolf shook.
And I dislike that of me would fain believe it.