Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3)

by Katerina Martinez

  I reached the Prince’s tent in a hurry, stopping to scan the area nearby for signs that I’d been spotted coming here. The place was quiet, there didn’t appear to be anyone around. Gullie pressed herself against the back of my hand again, becoming a tattoo on my skin, and then I pulled the curtain aside to step through—only to have a hand thrust out and grab my neck.

  The Prince pulled me into the tent and squeezed his fingers around my throat. And as I stared into his eyes, pure horror filling me, I knew; it wasn’t him in there right now, but his brother.

  Radulf.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Let me go!” I croaked.

  “You,” he hissed, his voice coming through like a gargle, “You, you, you would bring us to this wretched place surrounded by these filthy dogs.”

  I struggled with his hands, trying to work them off my neck, but he was stronger than I was, even with my strange new gifts. “Cillian,” I said, “Please… come back.”

  “He can’t hear you,” Radulf said, his hand closing even more tightly around my throat. “And now that I have you in my grasp, do you really think I’m going to let go of him even for an instant?”

  Radulf pushed me to the ground and dropped on top of me, wrapping his other hand around my neck. I tried to speak, but it was impossible. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t talk, could barely think. He was trying to kill me; he was going to kill me if I didn’t do something about this before I passed out. The only thing I could think to do was shapeshift.

  But it worked.

  The sudden change in the dimensions of my neck meant his hands weren’t pressing so tightly against my windpipe anymore. That gave me an opportunity to press my large hind legs into his stomach and push him away from me with all the force I could muster.

  It was enough.

  Radulf toppled back, staggered, and fell to the ground. I straightened myself out quickly and lunged at him before he could stand, shoving him back down with a powerful shoulder-charge. When Radulf tried to stand again, I snarled at him and flashed my fangs. I knew just how big I was in this form, and even he wasn’t totally immune to the threat I posed.

  “You want to fight me?” I growled, “Make your move, and I’ll make sure you regret it.”

  “Hurt me,” Radulf snarled, “And you hurt him. I don’t think you dare.”

  “Try me.”

  Radulf went to stand, and I snapped into action. I had an opening to go for his neck, and I took it, clamping my jaws around it and pushing him to the ground. He grabbed hold of my back and struggled to get free, but after a moment his struggles started to weaken. Instead of trying to pull chunks of my fur clean off, he was grabbing hold of me as if for dear life.

  “Dahlia!” he groaned as he wrapped his arms around my neck. It made a change from his hands.

  I wanted to let him go so I could speak, but how did I know this wasn’t a trick? I used my entire body weight to pin him down to the ground, even as I pulled my teeth just a little—enough that they weren’t cutting into the flesh of his neck.

  Already I could taste some of his blood on my tongue, and I hated that I was hurting him, but I hadn’t known what else to do.

  The Prince slowly tightened his hold around me, only it wasn’t an attempted strangulation. He was trying to hug me, to embrace me, to hold me close. I could hear him taking long, deep breaths of my fur, and I knew, then, that it was him. I knew my scent had released whatever hold his brother had on him.

  I pulled my teeth even further, removing them from his neck completely.

  “I’m sorry,” he said against my fur, “He took hold while I slept.”

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I have you.”

  “I can feel him even now. He’s lingering, waiting for his moment to come back up. How did he get so much stronger?”

  I arched my neck up to get a good look at him, but he couldn’t seem to bring his gaze down to meet mine. He was in pain, not physical pain, but emotional pain. The veins on his neck were strained, his skin was flushed red from exertion, and he couldn’t even bear to look at me. This was killing him, and it was killing me, too.

  “What can I do?” I asked. “Tell me what to do.”

  “I don’t know. The scent of your shirt kept him away for a while, but I can’t be awake all the time.”

  “I know. There has to be a way to beat him.”

  He finally looked at me. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  I nodded. “I believe you. It’s okay.”

  “It’s not. What if I’d had a weapon? He wants to kill you, Dahlia. I can feel it, his anger, his rage. You are the only thing that breaks his link, your scent, being close to you.”

  I shook my head. “No, I think it’s more than that.”

  “More?”

  “I think it’s our link, this connection that we have.”

  “I thought… you didn’t believe.”

  I took a deep breath. “The circumstances have… changed.”

  His eyes narrowed, and he gave me a curious stare. He opened his mouth to speak, to ask me a question, but then he groaned and tipped his head back. He let go of my fur and slammed his fists into the ground once, hard. I picked myself up and stood above him, but I didn’t go anywhere. I needed to be ready to bite him again if I had to.

  “You can’t keep me away forever,” he rasped in a croaky, guttural voice. “She can’t protect you forever.”

  “Leave her out of this,” the Prince said, his voice momentarily returning to normal. “Dahlia, run. I can’t hold him!”

  I stared at him, panic gripping the back of my throat and starting to seal it shut. I glanced at the closed flap leading out of the tent, then look down at him again. What was running going to accomplish? Where was I going to go? And what would happen to him if anyone found out who he was and what was going on in here?

  I had to stop him, I had to help him, and then something clicked inside of me.

  I dropped onto of him again as he struggled with himself. He grabbed hold of me, but instead of biting him, I changed shape again, losing my wolf form and becoming human. I cupped his face with my hands and kissed him long, and deep. He fought me at first, but then his struggling seemed to settle—though only a little bit.

  “Don’t leave me,” I whispered into his mouth, “Come back to me. Find your way back.”

  “I… Dahlia…” he said into my mouth, “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can. You are the Prince. You are my Prince. Understood? Mine, and no one else’s.”

  I didn’t let him speak again. Instead, I kissed him even more deeply, plunging my tongue into his mouth and trying to find his. The Prince wrapped his arms around me now, holding me close, his fingers touching the bare skin of my shoulders and back.

  Once he had me in his arms, I quickly lowered my hands and found the hem of his pants. “Come back to me,” I breathed, “Don’t think about him, Cillian, think about me.”

  The Prince moaned into my mouth as I reached into his pants and wrapped my hand around him. It was warm, and thick, and already a little excited. I couldn’t believe I’d so brazenly taken hold of him like this, but once I had him in my hand, it took only a moment to get him all the way worked up.

  When he was ready, I pulled it out of his pants and straddled him, guiding him toward me. I was already wet, already aching and so desperate to experience this exact moment. Even though I couldn’t savor the first instant of pleasurable contact, no one could stop me from moaning, exultantly, as I took him inside of me.

  Cupping his face again, not once breaking the kiss, I lowered myself slowly onto him, enjoying every last inch of that first, gradual push.

  “Dahlia…” he groaned.

  “Yes,” I said into his mouth, “Say my name, keep it on your lips. He can’t get to you if I have you.”

  “Dahlia,” he repeated.

  Slowly, I made my hips climb again, and then I lowered myself once more, allowing my body plenty of time to adjust to the sensation. It
was almost like an outer body experience. Each and every one of my limbs were trembling, my heart was pounding, my head was pounding, but I was ready for him, now.

  My mind cleared, my instincts took over, and my hips moved like they had life of their own. Carefully at first, I bucked against him, feeling the full length of him slide in and out of me and moaning with delight at the apex of every pleasurable pulse.

  The Prince’s hands moved down along the curve of my back to settle on my backside, but he didn’t try to control the rhythm of our bodies. He left that entirely up to me, not once breaking contact with my lips and making sure to keep my name on a short leash.

  It was working.

  I could feel him, Cillian; not his mind, but his soul. I knew it was him as I straddled and rode him into the ground. I had never done this before; been so forceful with a man. He was the first. The only one that mattered. My first. My Prince.

  “Mine,” I whispered, as I kissed him.

  “Yours,” he said.

  I felt his fingertips dig into my backside, felt his whole-body tense underneath me, and I knew what was coming. This was it. I had fantasized about this very moment before, but I had never imagined it would happen like this; on the floor of a tent in a village full of wolf fae. How could I?

  I pressed my hips hard against his, bringing him into me as deep as I could. I wanted to cry out as he reached his powerful climax, but I couldn’t. Instead, I held our mouths locked together and moaned into his while he pulsed and throbbed inside of me.

  My entire body prickled, my skin coming alive as if wreathed in fire as the sensation ripped through me. It took a moment for him to settle, but only after he was done did I finally break contact with his mouth to look at him. His eyes opened slowly, as if he was waking up from a deep sleep. I smiled at him and brushed the side of his face, letting my fingers come up and touch his antlers.

  “Feel better?” I asked.

  He stroked my back with one hand and touched my cheek with the other. “I do…” he said.

  “Good.”

  “Do you?”

  “Now that you’re where you belong, yes.”

  “Belong…”

  I nodded, then I kissed him again. “Belore.”

  He scanned my eyes, darting from left to right. “What… what has gotten into you?”

  I made my hips grind against him just a little bit. He shuddered. One of my eyebrows perked up, and a smirk spread across my face. “You, it seems.”

  He smirked. “Funny.”

  “I should get off you and put my clothes back on, though…” I said, “I don’t know how to shape change without losing them.”

  “I… am not going to complain about that.”

  “I didn’t think you would. I’ve seen some of the other fae keep their clothes. It is possible.”

  “Don’t learn that skill too quickly, then.”

  Now that the moment had passed, and I had returned to my usual, modest self, I scrambled across the room to grab my clothes and hastily get changed. I wasn’t sure how no one had heard us. They had to have heard something, right? The struggle, his inner fight with his brother—what happened after.

  Had no one heard us?

  After poking my head out of the tent, it didn’t seem like anyone had. I turned around again and came back into the tent. The Prince took hold of my hand and pulled me close, then he brushed my silver hair up and over my long, pointed ear, tucking some of my hair behind it. His fingers lingered on my ear, playing with it.

  I shuddered, now.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “For?” I asked.

  “You may have saved my life. Again.”

  “Let’s not make it a habit, shall we?”

  “I cannot make any promises. Radulf is… subdued, for now, but we can’t very well do that every time he threatens to take control.”

  I moved in a little closer to him, pressing my chest against his and turning my chin up. “Can’t we?”

  “Can we?”

  “I think I’ve developed something of a hunger, now. It’s got to be this wolf form. Using it always makes me hungry, though it used to be for food. Now it’s… you I want. And food, to be clear.”

  “How fast can you get out of those clothes again?”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Tempting, but I came here for a different reason.”

  “And that is?”

  “I think we should do what you asked and get out of here. Tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  I nodded. “I’ve talked to the others. I think we should leave. Like you said, if we head out quickly we might catch the storm before it moves again.”

  He frowned. “Why are you in such a rush to leave now?”

  I shook my head, then sighed. “I just… don’t think my place is here. My place is wherever you are, and you need to go to the Veridian.”

  “Do you have a plan?”

  “It’s… in the works. Getting out of here without them noticing is going to be impossible, but we’re going to try and work out a distraction that we can use to mask our escape.”

  The Prince nodded, looked across my shoulder, and then back at me. “Alright. Tell me what I have to do.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The plan is set—we leave at nightfall. Melina was going to sneak around the camp and release Ollie. Mira, meanwhile, was going to conjure a shower of bright lights as she had the night I unveiled the Constellation cress back at the castle, only this time she was going to do it on a much larger scale.

  I would be with the Prince, whether the fae wanted me to stay with him or not. When Mira sent the fireworks into the sky, the Prince and I would make a break for the stone circle at the top of the hill and I would be ready to activate it, knocking down guards as we went.

  It wasn’t a perfect plan. We were splitting ourselves into three groups, and that meant it was three times as likely that something would go wrong, but we didn’t have another choice. We needed Ollie because we needed the carriage, otherwise this would’ve been way simpler.

  Getting to the Veridian on foot just wasn’t an option. It was already far enough away from us that it would take days to reach, and that was if it didn’t move. The carriage would also double up as a space for us to sleep in, especially during the night when the temperature drops, and we have no shelter from the bitter cold of winter.

  I didn’t like the plan, but it was the best we could do, and we were going to stick to it.

  The Prince stirred behind me. We had been settled on his bed for a while, ever since I’d come back from talking to Mira and Mel. He had needed to rest because his injuries hadn’t fully healed yet, and I didn’t want him waking up alone… I also very much wanted to be the little spoon after all that had happened today.

  In a world where comfort was hard to find, this was comfortable, and right. Lying on a bed with the Prince’s arm thrown over my shoulder, the heat of his body against my back, the memory of what we’d done only a few hours ago still fresh in my mind. My entire body was still tingling. I’d had to be brief with Mel, otherwise I worried she might suspect what had happened.

  And Gullie? Gullie had been asleep most of this time, tattooed against my hand, and I couldn’t blame her. It was the safest place for her to be right now, out of sight, out of danger, and safe with me. The Prince wrapped his arms around me a little more tightly and took a deep whiff of the back of my head.

  I smiled to myself. “Feeling better?”

  “Have you slept?” he asked.

  “Not really.”

  “You need your rest for tonight.”

  “I know, but I’ll be fine. I’m used to not sleeping much. I didn’t get much sleep in the castle most nights.”

  He kissed the back of my neck, setting my entire body alight. “When we are out of this place, and free of curses and trials, I will make sure you sleep perfectly well every night.”

  I shuddered and trembled. “Oh? And how can you promise me that?”


  “I will see to it personally that you are absolutely exhausted.”

  My teeth started to ache, and I was suddenly overcome with an urge to bite him. Oh Gods. “Why do I love the sound of that?”

  “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  I shook my head. “Before this, before you… I was never this open, this excitable, this hungry. What’s happened to me?”

  “I can’t be certain, but I can tell you one thing.” He arched up and turned me over, so I was looking up at him from underneath. I placed a hand on his cheek and ran my fingertips up into his dark hair.

  “What is it?”

  “The woman you were drew my interest and held it. The woman you are becoming is drawing my excitement, and keeping it.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “A little too much excitement, maybe.” I slapped my hand to my mouth. “See? I never would’ve said that before! Who the hell am I anymore?”

  “You are here to find out.”

  “Here, where?”

  “Here. In Arcadia. With me. I am a believer in fate, remember? You were meant to come here; you were meant to find me. Whatever happens next, it was meant to happen.”

  I nodded. “I guess I can believe that, too. What about you, though?”

  “Me?”

  “I’m growing and changing. Finding myself. Is it the same for you?”

  He gently kissed my forehead. “Your changes are visible on the outside just as much as they are happening on the inside. Mine are purely taking place inside.”

  “What’s different for you?”

  Cillian took a deep breath, then exhaled through the nose. “I have always been good at taking orders, following rules, carrying out my duties. I never would’ve thought I would find myself one night leaving the castle I grew up in, abandoning my duties as Prince and the Royal Selection, and… sleeping with a human girl in a tent.”

  “Just… sleeping with her?” I ventured.

  The Prince’s lips began to curl into a soft smile. “No, not—” I pressed my finger against his lips and stopped him from going any further. Someone was coming. I could hear footfalls, and they weren’t light, female footfalls, but heavy, crunchy ones.