The Princess and the Alpha: A Shifter Romance

by K. M. Carnoky

  “Why are you dressed like that?” I blurted out.

  Ryan didn’t miss a beat, even though we hadn’t spoken in hours, “Because I didn’t know that some princesses liked to go mountain climbing on the first date,” he said sarcastically.

  “Were you trying to get into the gala?” I asked.

  I was oddly touched by the idea and I stared at my mate in awe for a brief moment while he continued to march forward.

  “Yeah, I figured I was an eligible bachelor. I had as much right to charm you as any other guy there did,” he grunted.

  I wanted to tell him that it was incredibly sweet and brave to do such a thing. I wanted to tell him that I appreciated the gesture so much, and that I took back all those awful words I had shouted at him a few days ago but I couldn’t. My tongue felt like it was tied in my mouth and every time I tried to think of something to say, it sounded too sappy or too cheesy so I just shut my mouth and trudged forward.

  A few minutes later I sighed at the beautiful sight in front of me.

  “This is it?” Ryan said in disbelief.

  “This is it,” I assured, nearly skipping towards the tiny cottage.

  True, it wasn’t much but it was enough to make me happy.

  The small cottage was well-constructed where even after twenty years it still looked brand new and was well taken care of despite the fact that no one had been here for at least two years since the solar panels had been added for more electricity.

  I ambled up the little porch to the front door, running my fingers over the red siding as I sighed deeply. This single bedroom cabin held so many pleasant memories. We didn’t come here often, only about once a year when I was young. Its main purpose was to help my parents get away from the kingdom since neither of them had been raised to be royal. During those times, we would play board games for hours on end, each of us so competitive that we refused to lose. My dad would take me fishing in a nearby creek while my mom had a bath and when we got home my mom would read a book to me in the living room until I fell asleep.

  This place was nothing short of magical in my opinion.

  “We can’t be more than forty kilometers away from the palace,” Ryan protested.

  “We are exactly thirty six kilometers away from the palac,.” I murmured, opening the front door.

  “You don’t think we should go further?”

  “No, they’ll never think to look here. No one even knows this place exists besides my parents and they won’t think I remember it.”

  Chapter 25

  Ryan protested greatly on the idea of us staying in the little cabin. He whined so much that I felt like covering my ears or screaming at him. I had saved him; I had done something lovely by keeping him out of that awful dungeon and away from my furious father and the only thanks I got was him telling me my plan was stupid and ill thought out. The plan I had come up with in less than a day to get this man away from my family and all the other werewolves who hated him was apparently not good enough.

  Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore I walked into the little bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me before I entered the attached bathroom and started the shower. I was fuming in the steamy shower, furious at him for being so ungrateful, but I couldn’t deny myself a little bit of relaxation. I was in a safe place for the time being and it felt so pleasant to be free from those drenched clothes.

  I stayed in the stream of hot water long after the shampoo and conditioner had been rinsed out of my hair and my skin was turning red from the heat. Knowing I couldn’t hide behind the shower curtain forever, I sighed, shut the water off, and stepped out. I dried myself off with a fluffy towel and sauntered back into the bedroom to find some clothes to wear. After donning on a thick hoodie and a pair of warm sweatpants, I let out a little sigh of content before I opened the bedroom door, ready to face Ryan again.

  “I need to go back to my pack,” Ryan said.

  I ignored him and walked towards the tiny, outdated kitchen. When I pulled open the cupboards I was greeted with faded labels on cans. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, but I had known all along that we couldn’t have any fresh food lying around.

  “I know you don’t have a pack to run or a real job or anything, but I need to go back to them,” Ryan continued.

  I gritted my teeth tightly at his words, but stayed silent as I kept looking for more decent food to eat. There was nothing fresh nor anything that had enough nutrients. There were plenty of pasta, canned beans and vegetables, jams that hadn’t even been open yet, and a single jar of pickles. I knew that I could survive off these things for now without any issue, but Ryan’s body needed more. He still had to recover from the beating the guards gave him and that would require plenty of vitamins and protein.

  “Are you even listening to me?” he demanded.

  “No,” I replied honestly, “and I won’t listen to you until after you’ve had a shower and changed into clean clothes.”

  “We need to keep moving,” he argued.

  “Maybe you should wait to have a shower, it will dehydrate you,” I mused.

  I twirled around the kitchen in search of my backpack. Once I found it, I pulled out all the food I smuggled and set it on the counter. I hummed to myself as I plucked a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water to accompany the food. I took a quick sip from the glass, enjoying the freshness of the well water before I placed it in front of Ryan.

  “You don’t have a very good grasp on reality, do you? Your parents, the king and queen are going to be tearing apart this whole continent looking for you, and when they find me with you they’re going to kill me. We need to keep moving.”

  I reminded myself that he was upset and stressed, but my hands were clenched into tight fists at my side.

  “Ryan, please, I understand that this is hard for you but you have to trust me. We will be okay here, no one will find us and we need to stay in werewolf territory if we want to keep our wolves alive. You know that being surrounded by humans would slowly weaken our wolves. No one knows where this place is besides my parents, okay? They built this place to get away from everything. Besides we took a very different route, I only remember it because it was the way I would try and sneak back home when I got tired of being bored all the time. No one knows we are here.”

  “My pack–”

  “You have a very loyal beta. Let him do his job for a couple of days. We won’t be here long, just until everything dies down and my parents are able to think rationally,” I soothed.

  “Adeline, I won’t stay here.”

  I had had enough. I spun around to face Ryan, my eyes blazing with anger, “Sit down and eat,” I commanded.

  Ryan seemed startled by my sudden outburst, but he was even more surprised when his body actually moved to the counter where he pulled up a little bar stool and sat down. He stared at me in horror when his hand reached for a fork and he began eating the omelette.

  Once he realized what was happening, he tried to fight it but it was all for naught. I would be lying if I said that it didn’t please me a little bit. I poked around the kitchen a little more while he ate, trying to get familiar with where everything was.

  “Adeline, we need to go,” Ryan began again.

  “Well, since you’re done eating I think it’s time you showered,” I said.

  “Are you going to force me to take a shower?”

  “I will if I have to. There are three closets in the bedroom. The large one is my mother’s; the two smaller ones are my dad’s. I think his clothes will fit you and I imagine that they are in much better condition compared to your current attire,” I murmured.

  Ryan gave out a small groan before he moved off the chair and went into the bedroom.

  I was left alone in the kitchen wondering what I had gotten myself into and how I would manage to get myself out.

  Chapter 26

  Ryan continued to fight with me when I suggested that he stay home and rest while I take the emergency car that stayed in the garag
e out to a nearby human town for fresh food.

  He argued that if my parents did end up figuring out where we were and they stumbled upon him without me they would almost certainly think he had killed me and would then kill him. I thought the idea was foolish; my parents would be awfully concerned if that situation occurred, but they never gave orders to kill people on sight. There would be days of interrogation, and by then, I would’ve figured out what was going on and gotten to the castle.

  Ryan didn’t care and he told me that I was wrong the entire time while I worked to get the little Honda Civic in running condition. It had been left here for years and needed a healthy amount of love before it would even start. I grunted at his words as I milled around the little garage and finally gave up, just fully ready for him to shut up about it.

  “Fine!” I shouted, “You can come, but I want you to let it drop. Maybe this whole thing wasn’t the best plan, but it’s what we’ve got right now, so please, just let me do as I see fit from now on, okay?”

  Two hours later we were walking up and down the aisles of a local grocery store like a normal couple.

  Well, we probably looked normal but there was no denying the fact that I hardly knew the man that was standing next to me. Nevertheless, I quickly learned that we had very different tastes when it came to food. He hated tomatoes which nearly broke me because I could live off tomatoes. We stocked up on foods we both liked so the cart was filled with vegetables, juice, milk, and plenty of fruits. Ryan even convinced me to buy peach tea, something that sounded a little gross to me because I liked coffee and dark, strong teas.

  I was almost impressed with how long we had gone without arguing until we reached the small clothing section and I froze.

  “Come on, you’ll need some clothes to wear if you actually plan on staying a while,” Ryan pointed out.

  He was right too; I had some clothes in a bag that I brought, and my mom left a few articles of clothing from her last adventures in the cabin, but it wasn’t enough and some of the articles wouldn’t fit my body properly. Plus, I could definitely use a couple pairs of shoes.

  “What are you waiting for?” Ryan pushed when I timidly poked at a rack filled with cheap tee shirts.

  “Well, I don’t actually know my size or anything,” I whispered.

  “What? How do you not know your size?” he demanded.

  “I don’t ever shop for myself, okay? Just let me figure it out, go find some clothes that you want to buy,” I snapped, shooing him away with my hands.

  So what if I never bought my own clothes? It couldn’t be that hard to figure out, but it was embarrassing to admit. In fact, the whole shopping spree had taken me completely out of my element, but I wasn’t ready to admit that out loud.

  Ryan however, seemed to be doubtful. When he left in search of new things, I began pulling shirts off racks and holding them up to my body, trying to see if they’d fit, then repeating the same thing with pants, underwear, and bras. I must’ve looked like a fool, but I hardly cared, I just needed to be dressed while I figured out our next step from the cabin.

  “Are you done?” Ryan groaned, coming back to me with his arms loaded up.

  He dumped the clothes on top of the food with a huff and smirked slightly when he saw that I was holding up a hot pink bra to my chest, trying to gauge the size.

  “Yes, yes, I’m done,” I blurted, tossing the bra into the cart.

  My cheeks instantly turned red but I spun away from Ryan so he wouldn’t see.

  We wandered through the store, looking for any last minute items we didn’t think of buying beforehand like shampoo or deodorant. Once we finished wandering up and down every aisle, I announced that our escapade was over and it was time to pay. I hummed idly as the woman scanned the items through the till, my eyes following each thing until I noticed a small box that I didn’t take off the shelf myself.

  Just as I was reaching for it, Ryan grabbed my arm, “You can’t pay with a credit or debit card.” he murmured, nodding to my wallet. “How much cash do you have?”

  “About three grand. Why can’t I use my cards? I always use my cards when my parents let me go out,” I protested.

  “Three grand?!” he spluttered out.

  “Is that not enough? My parents always said that I should have a little bit so I took what I thought was a reasonable amount. Will it cover this?”

  Ryan seemed more than a little confused by my lack of knowledge but he just whispered for me to trust him and do as he said which is use my cash. For a brief moment I debated doing the exact opposite of what he said just to see what kind of reaction I would get out of him, but I decided against it. He was terribly afraid of being detected, and out of the two of us, he had more experience in these kinds of situations so I gave the cashier the needed amount and began loading up the shopping cart with bags.

  Once we were out of the store Ryan asked me for some money. I thoughtlessly handed him a hundred dollar bill and told him I would be loading up the car. He returned from another store nearby just as I was slipping on my seat belt and preparing for the long drive back.

  The drive back home was relatively quiet. I softly asked why I wasn’t allowed to use my credit cards and Ryan explained that they could easily be tracked and there was no doubt that my parents would be monitoring my transactions closely. He told me that if we got low on cash we would have to drive further, into a big city that was a few hours away to throw off my parents.

  We returned to the house just as the sun was going down and I began yawning. The stress of the day and all of its crazy events kept me wide awake, but now that everything was slowing down, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief followed by a series of fighting my drowsiness from exhaustion.

  Ryan hardly looked any better. Those wild blue eyes were dulled, his face had rough stubbles, and his skin turned pale from weariness. We both silently agreed to unpack our groceries and retire to bed for the night.

  “You aren’t going to argue with me this time?” Ryan asked through a massive yawn.

  “No, there’s only one bed in the cabin and I doubt you’ll want to sleep on the couch,” I murmured as I slipped into the bathroom.

  I heard Ryan laugh a tiny bit just as I shut the door behind me and began pulling off my clothes. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and stared unknowingly for a moment, horrified. My hair was sporadic and ratty looking, knotted, and bunched up because of the wild natural curls I had. My wide eyes looked unusually small because they lacked mascara and eye shadow while my cheeks appeared to be especially pale without a swipe of blush on them. I hardly looked like the elegant princess I thought I was. In fact, I looked more like a homeless man.

  Seeing myself like this caused a whole wave of insecurities to crash over me. My hips were quite wide, but they were usually hidden under gorgeous gowns so it hardly mattered. My legs looked large and cellulite spotted along the back of them, making me cringe. My arms were weak and thin, but they had a layer of fat that jiggled if I moved my arm a certain way. To make matters worse my breasts were hardly the large, perky things one would expect. They were average and a little saggy if I was being fair.

  I quickly turned away from the mirror, realizing the longer that I looked at my reflection, the more I would dislike my overall appearance. I leapt into my modest pajamas to cover up the bare skin as I tried to shake the awful thoughts out of my head. I wondered if Ryan saw all those gross details when he looked at me.

  No, I couldn’t do this to myself. I took a deep breath to help restrain all the negativity and flung open the bathroom door, ready to look collected and tough.

  Luckily for me, the only sound in the bedroom was Ryan’s soft breathing as he slept.

  Chapter 27

  In the morning I felt unbearably warm and when I tried to roll away in my sleepy state I felt an arm tighten around me couple with a huff of disproval. For an instant I was panicked, thinking that someone had broken into my palace, but then I remembered I was in the small vacatio
n cabin with Ryan and my heart rate slowed down almost instantly.

  True, he was the alpha of the loathed rogue pack, but his hold around me didn’t feel diabolical. He didn’t seem like an angry violent person who would hurt anyone, really. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought that he was just a normal werewolf. I couldn’t understand why he was so hated.

  I sighed to myself, well, at least here; he could just be my mate. For now, anyway.

  Regardless, I still felt like I was cuddling a space heater in July so I carefully eased myself out of Ryan’s arms and rolled further away. My eyes closed in bliss when the cold covers touched me and I slowly dozed off into sleep again.

  When I woke up the second time, I was restless. My body was on a schedule. I was awake at the same time almost every day, whether it was a normal Wednesday or Christmas morning. I was used to having learning sessions, and fighting lessons being forced on me the second my eyes opened. I was also used to women demanding I stayed still while they yanked on my corset and my stylist scolding me for not washing off my makeup off last night. This morning however, held no long to-do list and no one was yanking me out of the bed.

  Still, I didn’t feel like I could bear staying in bed any longer so I gently moved the blankets off my body and stood up. I watched Ryan’s reaction as I left the bed. His breathing hitched and he flinched slightly when the bed moved, but stayed asleep otherwise. After tiptoeing around the room in search of clothing I slipped into the bathroom to get ready.

  Once my face was clean, my teeth scrubbed, and my long hair brushed I pulled on the new clothes that I had bought and was a little mortified with the way they hung off my body. The bust was too tight, the waist too small, the leggings barely made it over my hips yet they felt loose in the ankles. I suppose having a private seamstress paid off more than I thought.

  I was careful to be quiet as I moved out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and into the main living space. Ryan needed to get as much sleep as possible so he could finally heal from all the damage the royal guards had inflicted. I shuddered at the idea of a fight between my own mate and the guards I had grown up around and trusted with my life.