A near-hysterical laugh broke from her throat. I’m a princess in a weird, convoluted, horrible way.
“Yes, unfortunately I am, and that is why I was able to call upon my fellows so readily.” A self-depreciating laugh escaped him. “They are my bodyguards I suppose you can say, my security force, and they are almost always with me.” He shook his head, took a few steps toward her. “I hate it, but my father insists. However, palace life isn’t for me and I spend as much time outside those hated walls as I can.”
“Which explains why you’ve been prowling the woods.”
Another laugh left him, more forced this time. “Yes, a bit.” He shrugged. “I’m trying to use my power, my royal influence, to make a difference where it means the most—with the people. Meeting their needs and listening to their problems. Helping to make an impact in their lives and show them rulers aren’t all vile.”
“That is a noble endeavor.” Then another thought occurred to her, and an ache formed around her heart. “I imagine you are popular with married as well as eligible ladies. Once they catch sight of you with trimmed whiskers and in full court dress, they undoubtedly fall at your feet for a chance of your favor.”
This time Quinn’s laughter was genuine and the rich sound of it rippled over her skin with awareness. “Perhaps. I pay no attention to such things.”
“Your father wishes you wed, I’ll wager.” Fathers always did.
“The subject has come up a few times. Until recently I’d never met a woman I deemed worthy of such a long term commitment.” Though a trace of redness crept up his neck. He tugged at his collar. “Above and beyond what I’ve told you, there is more.”
Averell rolled her eyes. “I am not certain how many more fantastical tales I can hear tonight.”
“I ask that you suspend disbelief for this next bit… or focus on your belief in magic—on its good.” His swallow was audible as the sun rose slowly behind him. “My brother and I were cursed as small children. We had played too close to a fairy witch’s domain and she took exception to it, especially when we trampled her flower beds.” He stepped closer. A couple of feet separated them. “Due to the curse, we are both wolf shifters.”
She gaped. Had she heard him correctly? So what her mother had said was true? “A wolf shifter? Does that mean—”
“Yes.” He nodded, interrupting her. “I am a wolf. Each night I shift into the form of that animal and run over the earth on the hunt.”
Cold fear trickled down her spine. She darted to her horse and yanked her bow from the pommel. “Do you kill while you are in that form?” Her hand shook and she tried to exert control over herself.
“I do.”
“For joy or for survival?”
He heaved out a breath. “Yes, on both counts.” A muscle twitched in his jaw as he searched for words.
Averell didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Do you only hunt and kill other animals?”
The horses danced and soft whickers of alarm split the sudden, heavy silence.
Quinn bowed his head. “I have killed humans or other beings on occasion.” He raised his head and met her gaze. She gasped when his eyes appeared the same amber color of the eyes she’d seen in the forest. No wonder they were familiar. “When I’m the wolf, my human part is helpless to discern the difference, especially if I cannot wrestle back control. It only knows that it must hunt, and my wolf’s voice in my head is sometimes demanding.”
It was true. He was a wolf in man’s clothing. Quickly, she drew an arrow from the quiver on her back, nocked it into the bowstring and pulled it backward. “Stay away from me. I want no part of a cursed being, no matter how much I might admire you in this form.” Her heartbeat pounded so hard it was a wonder he didn’t comment upon it.
“Well, at least you’ve admitted you find me pleasing. That is something.” He smiled and she tamped down on the urge to return the gesture.
Damn him for being so charming.
He continued and she didn’t relax her posture. “So then, is this the end of us?” Disappointment shadowed his eyes even as he curled his hands into fists. “I thought you might accept me as I am, that what we share was enough to overlook the horror I endure each night.”
Her doubt wavered. She held her bottom lip between her teeth, but she didn’t lower her arrow. It was not his fault he’d been cursed to walk the earth like this. He had to find a way to live despite it, find his own piece of happiness. Averell sighed. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one grappling with an impossible situation. “Will you shift now?”
“No. I have already appeased that side of myself tonight.”
“Good.” She nodded, but another swath of fear shot down her spine.
“Tell me why you are so afraid of wolves. Perhaps I can alleviate that anxiety,” he suggested in a soft voice, but he didn’t move from his spot. “Show you wolves are not the horrors you’ve come to believe.”
She lowered her arrow slightly. “As a child, I was once chased through the forest, cornered by a wolf just after sunset.”
“Where was your father?”
“Chopping wood. I’d wandered off. He didn’t hear my screams…” She shook her head with the remembrance. “The wolf leapt on top of me, knocked me to the ground. He pressed me to the earth.” Fear clawed at her throat. “At times, I can still feel his hot breath on my face, see his bared teeth in my mind’s eye. His open jaws gaped over my neck.” She forced a hard swallow. “I thought I would die. I couldn’t cry out for his weight on my chest.” Her hands shook and she lowered her bow further. “I waited for him to tear out my throat.”
“What happened?”
“Another wolf howled in the distance. My attacker whined and then he bounded away.” Never would she forget the intensity of his silver eyes or the sudden cease in pressure when he’d removed his paws from her shoulders.
“Ah.” Quinn nodded. “He was called by his alpha. They were undoubtedly hunting in a pack and had probably made a significant kill.”
“You… you do not have a pack?” Would it make it easier to know he didn’t? Was one wolf better than several?
“No.” He shook his head. “I am not a full-blooded wolf and therefore unacceptable to natural wolves in the area. I have my brother, and even then, we do not run or hunt together.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with a swallow. Resignation shadowed his expression. “I am… alone most of the time, neither accepted by the beasts or humans once they realize, or I tell them, what I am.”
Her heart squeezed at his desolate tone. She well knew what it was like to live life without others surrounding her. “Time moves slowly when one has no one to talk to, no one who understands,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
Perhaps they weren’t as different as she’d assumed. Yet, he was a wolf part of his life. How could she contemplate any sort of future with such a man? He might attack with no warning while she slept… Another sob climbed her throat, this one borne of despair. Why had he ever crossed her path, made her feel what she did if nothing would come of it?
“I once thought magic was a force for good, something that could be used to bring hope and peace to others, to change circumstances, but now, after the events of this night, I can see that it is quite evil. It has no place in my life.”
Quinn advanced on her position. “It’s all in how you perceive it, fair Averell. Magic does what the creator wishes it to do. It is a power like any other; it cannot work of its own accord.” He held her gaze. His had brightened to amber. “We all have both dark and light within us. The side we feed is the one that wins. Remember that as you contemplate your parentage. If what I am scares you, what you could be should terrify as well.”
Fear tingled down her spine. “It does. I cannot—will not—become what my mother is.”
“At least you recognize that. It is a start.” He came closer. “What a person is does not define them. Their actions can do that.”
“Like what you do when you’re the beast?” She narrowed h
er eyes. How could she trust him when he’d kept such a secret? “What else haven’t you shared?”
“Only time will tell, I suppose.” Though his grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, the effect pulled at her chest.
Bastard.
Perhaps it would be easier on them both if they parted ways now. Obviously, they were on separate sides of the issue of her ultimatum. They could never end the matter peacefully. Averell lifted her bow into place and quickly fired off a shot. It landed between his legs in the grass. “Next time I won’t miss. Be gone with you.” Her chin trembled. As much as she liked him and no matter how he made her feel, she refused to break his heart if she decided to go through with the task her mother had put to her… in order to spare her own life. He deserved to live, to find happiness. “Run as the wolf if you must, but leave me alone. Ask fate to send someone else to you.”
CHAPTER 7
QUINN’S CHEST TIGHTENED, not from fear but for the confliction parading across Averell’s face. She didn’t want to run him off any more than he wanted to incarcerate her for contemplating murder of his brother.
He wished her happy, and if she felt she couldn’t enjoy that with him, then he would let her go… but not without a fight. “You’ll have to do better than that if you aim to scare me away.” He shouldn’t be amused, but he was. The darling woman was at sixes and sevens, and rightly so, but he wasn’t going to budge from his place at her side. She needed him as much as he needed her.
She is ours, his wolf inserted. She is fierce.
That she is. Averell was made of stern stuff, exactly what the dull and stodgy monarchy of Annanvale needed. She will make an excellent wife. He reeled from the realization.
“You wish to be shot, then?” she asked in a quiet voice. The rays of the rising sun turned her brown tresses, bound into a thick plait and wrapped around the back of her head in a coronet, into burnished copper.
“I do not.” Yet, even as he stood his ground and held her tortured gaze, cold disappointment circled through his gut. He thought she was different than other women, had hoped she could look past his curse, his status in society, and come to care for him. She had to be; otherwise, why was he drawn to her, contemplating asking for her hand?
“Quinn, you must know that my wont is not to harm you—”
“Then don’t.” He tapped his temple with a forefinger. “Choices. We all have them.” When she didn’t relax her stance, he blew out a breath. “I won’t hurt you, Averell. Not now. Not ever.” He worked his jaw as he searched for the words he needed. “You… mean too much to me.” Was it love he felt so soon? Perhaps it wasn’t, but given more time together, it would turn into such feelings.
She narrowed her eyes as she adjusted her grip and trained the point of the arrow at his head. “Perhaps that may be so, but what happens when you shift? You said yourself you have difficulty controlling your wolf half. Will you eat me?”
Ah, she was so adorably innocent. Unable to help himself, he grinned. “There are different ways for a man to devour a woman.” Would that she’d let him be the one to show her. “Some of them are quite pleasurable.”
Her forehead creased. “How do you mean?” She slightly lowered her arrow.
Relief swept through him and he let out a tiny breath. “If I were to delve beneath your skirts and show you now, you’d cry foul and ram that arrow through my heart.” Quinn eyeballed her weapon. “You’re not ready for such scandalous adventures.” His length tightened as he contemplated drawing his tongue along her—
“Gah! You are annoying.” Averell narrowed her eyes.
Our mate is beautiful. She is a perfect match.
There is no denying that. He silently agreed with his wolf half as he stood, waiting for her to fully relax her guard.
She huffed when he remained silent. “I decide when I’m ready for something. Not you. Do you understand, Prince Quinn?”
He gritted his teeth over her mocking use of his title. “Agreed and understood.” He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Now, because our relationship is still fairly new and I harbor selfish intentions, I don’t want you to die in two nights.” One of his eyebrows raised. “Shall we give thought to a plan?”
“That is a good idea.” Though her eyes remained shadowed, she put the arrow back into the quiver. Then she hung her bow on the pommel of her horse’s saddle and stowed the quiver in one of the saddle bags. “Ah, Quinn, when one’s future has been condensed into just over forty-eight hours, things come into sharp focus, gilded in fear.”
The hopelessness in her soft voice speared his heart. “Come and rest with me. There is time enough for everything. For now, we shall merely exist and watch Day chase away her younger sister, Dawn.” He found a patch of thick, springy grass outside of the tree line and laid down. When he patted the ground next to him, she stretched out beside him, a quiet sigh shuddered from him.
“Would that we could remain like this for days, without a care or a worry.” She folded her hands over her belly and stared into the sky with a slight frown pulling at her lips. “Without thoughts pressing down.”
No one should need to suffer quick-paced events like she had in the span of two days. “At least I am here with you.” What would have become of her if he’d not met her? For the queen would have still killed her father and she would be truly alone to fight through the choices she had to make. If he’d not come to know her, when he met her at the ball and he defended his brother against her, would he dispatch her, a stranger, without care?
His choices were difficult as well.
“This is true.” She said nothing else, merely continued to stare at the brightening sky.
His throat constricted. In a quiet voice, he asked, “Please don’t kill my brother, because if you do, I am next in line for the throne. Contrary to what your mother said, I might not be the force my brother is, but that does not mean I’d be an ineffective leader.” He paused, his jaw working, his chest tight. “Yet I do not want that life.”
Averell snorted. “Your brother does?” She didn’t answer his earlier inquiry. Did that mean she contemplated following through with the assassination plot?
“He enjoys the intrigue and the politics.” Quinn grinned but didn’t look at her. “I have no patience for any of that.” Silence brewed between them. The heat from her body seeped into his side and for the space of a heartbeat he imagined what it would be like to wake up and find her in his bed as his wife. Regardless of the evil dictate put to her, he knew a powerful urge to see how she’d fare while in his world. “Two nights hence, my father is hosting a ball designed for my brother to select a bride.”
“Will you be there? I’ll wager you’ll not miss the opportunity to dance with beautiful women.” Was that jealousy in her voice?
Quinn tamped down the urge to revel in at least that small success. “I am obligated to attend the function, yes. It would be the height of folly to cross my father in this.” He grinned and looked at her. “Except now I will be guarding my brother instead of mingling.”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes and her chin trembled. “From me.”
“If need be.” He laid a palm on her belly, and when she gasped, he smiled. “No doubt you’ll be the only woman outfitted with a bow and arrow. That alone will draw attention.”
She snorted. “You will be certain to disarm me before that.”
“Perhaps.” His gut tightened. Attention he didn’t wish for her to have. She didn’t belong in another man’s arms on a dance floor, but neither did he have a right to monopolize her time.
Averell turned her head, and when her gaze met his, the emotions there tugged at his heart. She was in a horrible position, but he couldn’t make the decision for her. “I do not want to find myself killed like my father because of someone’s else’s insane plan, but what choice do I have?” The tendons in her neck worked with a hard swallow.
He wished he could take away her pain, her anguish, and replace it with everything good. “The
re is always a choice, sweeting.” It was the second time he’d used such an endearment, and her eyes widened this time in surprise and pleasure. “Just as I always have a choice when I am the wolf. Is it a constant struggle to do the right thing, to choose correctly? Of course, but then, if life were easy, what would the point in living it be?”
“Nothing worth having is unless we fight for it.” She held his gaze and her eyes darkened to sapphire. “Will you fight for me, I wonder, if the moment comes?”
“With my dying breath.” Quinn pressed his advantage, rolled onto his side and claimed her lips. When he broke the kiss, he stared into her eyes. “Know that I will support whatever decision you come to, but also know that I am loyal to my brother. My fight will be to keep the both of you breathing and prevent evil from infiltrating this realm. How, I am not certain at this moment, but I promise to do so.”
She brushed a shock of hair from his forehead and then cupped his cheek. “I would expect nothing less of you,” she breathed and then it was she who stole the next kiss.
Desire flooded him. He moved and covered her body with his as he nibbled at the corner of her mouth. She was so sweet. Her kisses warmed him. When he drew the tip of his tongue along the seam of her lips, she opened for him and he deepened the kiss, seeking out her tongue with his.
Her soft curves fit his solid form like spoons nesting in a drawer, and he couldn’t get enough. The tentative response as she fenced with him spurred him onward as did the firm curve of her fingers at his nape.
“Ah, Averell,” he murmured against the side of her neck as he dragged his lips over the silky skin there. “What are we to do?”
She shifted position beneath him, her legs falling open to cradle his hips. “I do not know, but neither do I care in this moment.” When she lifted her chin to allow him greater access, he nibbled and licked a path along the underside of her jaw.
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