Estrella
I stalk through the halls of Solberg Castle with an unfamiliar scowl on my face. Well, it used to be unfamiliar. After a full day in this palace, I'm starting to worry my face is going to be stuck this way. Father asked me to meet him after one of his endless meetings with King Kieran simply because we haven't seen each other for more than a few minutes since that breakfast yesterday. I suspect he's going to take me for a walk in what passes for a courtyard here.
A maid scurries past me with her head down, obviously frightened. I wince and try to soften my scowl. There's really no reason to be storming around like this, except that my mark has begun itching as well as hurting. It's like having a headache and a mosquito bite in one. I haven't seen Anwen since that breakfast, for which I'm very grateful. Occasionally, I walk through clouds of his stink. If it only worsened the pain in my mark, I think I might be able to handle it, but without fail, my knees go weak and my wolf howls with want.
Still, I keep walking around. I need to. Pacing is the only thing that keeps all my racing thoughts at bay, the only thing that tired me out enough to sleep without crying last night. Even Tess won't walk with me anymore.
Or perhaps that's because she's tired of hearing about Anwen. Tess turned twenty-one a couple months before me, and a Haze swept through Sundrop the week after. While I sat at home, smelling the air and wondering what it would be like when it was my turn, she found her mate, Orion. He's a bit lower ranked than her, but he's big, sweet, and he treats her like she's his world. They haven't married yet, but that's only because Orion is working up to a promotion, and he wants to be good enough for her. She's told him a thousand times over he is. Honestly, watching them together is enough to give a person cavities. When the Haze took me, Tess was completely convinced I'd come back just as happy as her. She hasn't really known what to do since Anwen rejected me. We're just trying to focus on the ball.
I enter a large room and nearly retch. There's his smell, mint and something fermented, powerful enough that I suspect he was here recently. It shivers up my spine. My wolf wants to tear my clothes off and track him down. But I know what to do. I simply pinch my nose closed with a wooden pin I found one of the maids using for the wash and keep marching forward. The hall Father told me to meet him in is this way. And Solberg Castle is so large I rarely ever see anyone but servants that I don't bring with me in its halls. I escape the room, but I know how his smell lingers, so I leave the pin on a moment longer.
And if I have to wipe a few tears from my eyes, it's only because the smell is so overpowering.
I turn a corner and slam directly into something. With my momentum, the abrupt stop sends me careening back. I try to catch the wall, but someone grabs me around the waist and pulls me flush against their chest.
"Thank you." I blink to clear my eyes. "And I'm so-"
The words die in my mouth. The person holding me, who saved me from falling, is none other than Anwen himself. There's a furrow between his fair eyebrows, like he was worrying about something, and I'm so close to him. My breasts are crushed against his chest, trying to escape the bodice of my dress. One of his legs landed smoothly between mine, just the suggestion of friction against the inside of my thigh, south of where my wolf screams for it. I can feel him hardening against me. His hand burns through the back of my dress, and his mouth is so close that I can see the fine, golden hairs of a beard that hasn't been shaved in too long. He stares into my eyes hungrily then drags his gaze down to my mouth.
His frown deepens. "Clothespin?"
And the brief hold the mating bond has on my thoughts shatters. I snatch the pin off my nose-his scent is too powerful, overwhelming-and stuff it into a pouch tied to my waist.
"I'm training my hearing," I lie. Anything is better than telling him how much he affects me.
I yank myself out of his hold.
"Interesting," he says, like he doesn't believe me. "Any particular reason?"
"So that next time my nose misleads me, I can think around it." I look him up and down before realizing what a mistake that was. He wears a pair of leather pants that cling to every inch of his legs, as well as what lies between them, and a tunic that's half-unlaced at the neck to show a tempting swath of skin. I swallow sudden saliva in my mouth.
He purses his lips. "Right. Well, good seeing you, I've got somewhere to-"
"Wait!" I grab his forearm.
He stops, even though he could probably tear out of my grasp easily. "What?"
At home, Rhys Ibarra always runs from me when he's up to something, but he won't actively disobey an order I give him. It seems like Anwen might be just susceptible enough to the mate bond that he'll behave similarly to my friend.
"You've been avoiding me. Why?"
Anwen turns back with a small smirk. "Are you sure you want to discuss this in the hallway, Princess?"
"Are you sure you want to take me into a private room?" I drop my gaze deliberately to the bulge in his pants. My wolf yowls for me to touch him.
His smirk drops. "I'm avoiding you because of the scene you made at breakfast. Clearly, you're unable to resist me."
"Resist you?" I laugh. "Resisting you is the easy part. Trying to figure out why you're so insistent on your secrets when your king seems all in on an alliance is the hard part."
"I thought you were protecting your people from me," he says, but he won't make eye contact with me anymore.
I've found something.
"So, you're not hiding us for political reasons." I smile. "What, then?"
"Leave it, Princess," he snaps. "I really do have somewhere to be."
I tighten my hold on his arm, more reminder than an actual stopping force. Just like Rhys would have, Anwen stays. My body lights with the rush of keeping him here through will alone.
That certainly never happened with Rhys.
I shove that aside. "I don't think you're the one who gets to be angry here. I've been shoved aside, made to feel like garbage, and you won't even do me the honor of telling me why. Are you that scared?"
"Scared?" That burning flares in his eyes. "I stood up to King Gavin. The one you're all so goddamn scared of you needed permission to go to a ball. Do you think a little thing like you scares me?" He snorts.
Tess's words from yesterday echo in my head. If he treats me badly, he doesn't deserve me. And she's right, no matter what the Goddess says-though I do offer a quick mental apology to Her for thinking that. I am smart, kind, and beautiful. Even if I weren't the crown princess of Sundrop Gem, I would deserve someone who treated me well. Everyone does. So I'm not going to sit around waiting for Anwen to pull his head out of his ass, lapping up scraps of affection when he gives them to me.
"You can keep putting me down." I force my voice even. "Call me a virgin, a mad princess, a little thing. But the Goddess put me in your path for a reason, and I think you know what it is. And that's what scares you. That I might really make a difference in your life."
I know Anwen's wolf is fast. I don't expect him to move just as quickly. He rips my hand off his arm, twists us around, and slams me into the wall.
"Keep talking shit." His breath is hot on my face. "All I'm hearing is that you need me to pay attention to you." He runs a hand up the outside of my thigh. "If I fuck you again, will you stop yapping? It's worked for a lot of other girls around here."
He's so close, his hardness pressed against my stomach, and no matter how much my wolf begs, I don't want a thing.
"Get off me." I shove him back.
To my surprise, he goes.
I straighten my dress huffily. "I'm so glad you stood up to your father. It's lucky Dun's Crossing has such different leadership now."
Before he can reply, I turn and march away. I am certainly asking Father when we're leaving-as soon as possible.