Estrella
The morning after the Haze in Dun's Crossing, my body aches deliciously. The scent of my mate fills the tent-cool mint and that brown liquor they served at dinner here. After months of running out into the Haze back home, panting and wanting and finding no one, I am finally sated. I can feel my wolf inside me, grinning at the memory of last night. We are closer than ever, just like Mother promised.
My head slams into the ground as the warm pillow underneath me shoots back.
"Ow!" I sit up, rubbing my head. The blanket pools around my waist. I look toward the disappearing pillow.
And see the pale Dun's Crossing prince I met at the docks only yesterday. Anwen-that's his name. His naked body is all trim muscle, the line of his waist leading my eye to a thatch of light hair and the lengthy cock between his legs. I lick my lips. There is a welcome breakfast this morning-my parents and his brother decided attempting to fit a diplomatic meal in between the descending Haze wouldn't be clever-but I think there may be enough time for another round before we have to leave.
"Desperate, huh?" he says. "I knew you were a virgin."
Instantly, my mating bite burns. I yank my gaze up to his face. He's got diamond-sharp cheekbones, so different from what I'm used to in Sundrop Gem, but his ice-blue eyes are hard.
"What?" I ask.
He rolls his eyes. "Look, I don't know how you pulled this off, but obviously, this is a political ploy to strengthen the alliance. I'm not stupid, and I'm not falling for it."
His words hit like a slap to the face. Did he not feel what I felt last night? The Moon Goddess's hand was on my shoulders, pushing me toward him. I had never felt so close to Her, so right. I grab the blanket around my waist and pull it up to my chest, hiding myself from his eyes.
"If you think I affected the Haze, then you are very stupid," I reply.
"I would be careful how you speak to me." His voice whips through the tent with another pulse of pain from the bite where my shoulder meets my neck.
I put my hand on it. The skin is warm as if inflamed. "Turn around, if you're so certain. Show me you don't have the mating bite."
He spins insolently, and I wrestle my wolf not to look at his ass in the cold light of day. The more he speaks, the more I hope he's right somehow, that the Haze was manipulated. The man cannot be my mate.
But there, on the back of his shoulder, still surrounding the pink-red circle of teeth marks, is a pale sun. A mating mate. The same one I've seen on Mother's neck all my life.
"Well?" he asks roughly.
"It's not as if you don't know," I reply. "You can feel the pain of your own rejection."
He snorts and turns back around. "If you think that hurts, Princess, I'd love to have lived your life."
I told Father my thoughts when we received the letter. Everyone knew King Gavin was a monster. Even on the other side of the Lonely Sea, the rumors reached us. We heard of the packs he decimated, one after the other, spreading across the land like a disease. I told him that nothing good could come of his son leading Dun's Crossing. A man like King Gavin could not have raised a better son. But Mother spoke to our holy woman, Yana, and she said the day we received the letter was a day of forgiveness. That if we did not reconsider the old feud, we would risk angering the Moon Goddess. And Father and Mother have always been two halves of the same whole, so when Mother believed it, the decision was made.
Finding my mate was supposed to be like that. I was supposed to fall into the arms of a man who would lead my people alongside me and love me. Not this hard-eyed prince that confirms all my worst suspicions about Dun's Crossing.
I stand, the blanket clutched around my chest. He doesn't deserve to see me. And I won't use my nudity like he is, like a challenge. "I am certain you would have loved to live my life, if even half the stories I've heard about your father are true."
He snarls at me, and it's like a knife through my mark. I nearly stumble with the pain.
"Don't speak about him like that." Anwen takes a step forward, mere inches from me. "In fact, don't speak about him at all."
My hurt and confusion starts to fade, and the pride my parents taught me surges in its place. I am the crown princess of Sundrop Gem. Our pack cares nothing for gender in our leaders, just the wisdom that comes with age. I am older than this sneering prince, who will only inherit if the child in Queen Raven's stomach dies. And he ought to understand who he's talking to.
I close the distance between us, the blanket the only thing separating our naked bodies. My wolf howls with want. His cool, deep scent threatens to overwhelm me. But I hold strong.
"You don't tell me what to say," I hiss. "In fact, you don't tell me anything at all."
Anwen glares down at me, fire finally burning in those icy eyes. He grabs my arm hard enough that I think it might bruise, and want coils between my legs.
"I'm going to walk out of here"-his voice is low and dangerous-"and sneak back to the castle. I'm going to cover my mark and tell every single person I see that I ended this Haze alone. If you like, Princess, we can find out who the people of Dun's Crossing believe more."
The pain that rips through me from his words is nothing like the sweet pain of his touch. It's sickening, knee-weakening. I slump in his grasp until he's the only thing keeping me on my feet.
"My parents would have you searched for the bite," I murmur.
"And I would pitch a fit until our healer got to do the inspection, and Fleming would hide anything I asked." He smirks. "So either we keep this quiet, or the rest of the world enjoys laughing at the mad, desperate princess of Sundrop Gem. Your choice."
He releases me, and I barely catch my feet before I stumble. Whatever else this prince might be, he seems to be right that the pain doesn't impress him. Only a sneer mars his expression. For a single moment, I wonder what growing up under a man who would burn his enemies to death must be like.
Then, Anwen sneers, and I decide that I don't care.
"That's a good idea." I straighten and turn for the spare clothes the prim people of Dun's Crossing leave in their civilized little Haze tents. Were we in Sundrop, I would march naked into my home, wearing my mark proudly, and my people would cheer. Everything here is twisted.
"Of course it is." Still, he sounds confused at my change of heart.
"Yes." I lift the simple dress and drop the blanket with my back to him. I couldn't care less if he looks at me. "I think there would be nothing worse for my reputation, or for the future of Sundrop Gem, than being mated to you." I slide the dress on over my head. "So thank you, Prince Anwen, for ensuring the safety of my pack with your gracious offer."
"Not wanting to throw my life away on a random virgin because a cloud told me to doesn't make me a bad leader," he splutters.
I turn to him with a soft smile that I have to hold onto by the tips of my claws. "The Moon Goddess told you to. And no, it's your reaction that tells me everything I need to know."
A bell clangs in the distance. Anwen jerks his head up.
"Fuck. That's the breakfast call." He lunges for the other pile of clothes. "We have to move. If we show up in these, everyone will know."
"I wish you luck with that." I curtsy to the man that should be my mate and step out of the tent with my mark burning. No matter what he wants, I'm not racing through his precious palace to change. I'll tell my parents I stayed in the Haze all night and claimed a tent to sleep if I must. I would rather do anything in the world more than please Prince Anwen Solberg.
But as I walk through a forest I don't know, foreign smells clouding my nose, the sounds of other couples fill the air. Laughter. A few soft moans. Happy, celebratory noises from people who found their fated mates and are ready to settle into a life together.
Tears fill my eyes, but I hold my head high. I am Princess Estrella Sollabella, and I have a breakfast to attend.