Chapter 8

Aurora

The cabin is small, stuffy, with a horrible stench of animal flesh and burnt cedar radiating through the small space. There’s a kitchen fit for one person at a time, chunks of meat set out on the counter, fresh and bloody from a recent kill. The living room is a few lounge chairs facing the fireplace that runs smoke outside, some of it staying dormant indoors, making it hard to breathe without tasting the stench.

Jaxson pushes into the back room, something like a bedroom. The space is small, and the bed is nothing but a pile of blankets and a sleeping bag. I spot a male moving around in there already, laughing at Jaxson’s abrupt entrance into the room, and they exchange a hard handshake. Jaxson ruffles through clothes in a dresser against the wall and I watch him slip on some jeans and a flannel top. The rustic sight of a man so perfectly formal makes my head spin.

That’s when his brother steps into the room, a blond kid closer to my age than Jaxson’s. I wouldn’t think that they are related to one another by appearance alone. He is a shaggy haired guy, lean and somewhat scrawny compared to his brother who is struggling to not rip open his borrowed plaid shirt.

Jaxson motions his brother toward me, and I take an unknown step back, something about his brother making me uneasy as his eyes circle the length of my body. “Come here, Aurora,” Jaxson says, pulling me to his side and holding me there like his new prize to flaunt. “This is my mate, Xander.”

The second prince offers a cheeky, amused grin at the sight of me.

“She certainly is attractive, at least,” Xander says, somewhat cocky in his words. “Not much of a talker. That combination makes the perfect mate.” He shakes his head now, ticking his tongue while he inhales my scent from across the cabin.

“A commoner,” he says, shaking his head. “That’s not good, brother.”

“She is my mate,” Jaxson says, showing his fangs for a moment. “It doesn’t matter to me where she came from. She will be a royal by my side.”

“It’s a shame, her inferior bloodline, but I suppose it doesn’t make a difference to some people.” He moves to the kitchen before I can scoff at his tacky attempt at an insult, and he begins working with the animal meat on the counter. “What brings you up here today, brother? I’m only three days into my hunting trip, don’t tell me you need me to come back so soon.”

“I wanted to discuss the blue moon gala next month,” Jaxson says, pulling away from me. He ignores the remark his brother made, something he must have anticipated would happen, anyways. His warning outside was honest.

I can feel Xander staring at me while I pace to the fireplace and try to focus on the warm flames, but it doesn’t distract me enough. They begin to mingle while I feel my pulse quiver. I eye the snow outside, something I’ve only laid witness to a handful of times in my life. The weather at my old pack in the North Woods was always rainy, and dark, hardly ever any sun or snow. I’ve never really interacted with snow before.

While the guys are busy conversing about topics that have nothing to do with me, I move outside and push my boots into the snow, feeling the soft powder puff down at my steps. I reach below, my fingertips freezing at the touch of the snowy fluff, pulling a handful of it up and watching it freeze in my palm.

“What are you doing out here?” a heavy voice asks.

I spin around, tossing the snow in the air and having it rain down all over Jaxson’s face. My heart stops at the sight, watching him brush it off his cheeks while his face goes stone-solid serious. I cover my mouth with my cold fingers, holding back a horrid look of fear.

I threw a snowball at the prince of the king Alpha.

He gusts a deep breath, his lips curling upward right before he breaks into a laugh. The sound of his cackling only makes me laugh, too, feeling such a sigh of relief at him taking it as an accident. He brushes the excess snow off his shoulders and shakes his head, chuckling the whole time while I hold back a laugh with my palm pressed to my lips.

“Well, I guess it’s only fair,” he hums, reaching down toward the ground where he has slipped on a pair of boots from his brother's closet, pulling up a handful of thick snow that he pats into a solid ball.

My eyes grow wide while I turn to run, feeling the snow disperse against my shoulder, covering me in the frozen powder. I reach down to grab my own handful to retaliate. Instead, I am tackled into the snow, thick arms holding me to the ground and caging me under Jaxson’s weight while he laughs at my attempts to free myself. He pins me back when I exhaust myself and I am forced to heave for air through my hefty laps of laughter.

His eyes stick to my face, then to my lips, and I manage to break out of his hold before he has any other ideas out here. He is still a royal, I have to remind myself. They want one thing from females like me.

I wipe the snow off of my legs, the prince standing and doing the same, his focus somewhere up near the cabin where he begins walking back up the snowy hill, fighting for each step.

I wait, seeing him pull out a large metal sled with ropes up front meant for steering, although I doubt it would do any good if he was actually brave enough to take that sled down this steep mountainside. He sets it down in front of me with a churlish grin, a mischievous and fun spark in such a serious, stern prince.

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s give this thing a try.”

I eye the metal sled with such anxiety, realizing how close we will have to be if the prince and I were to sit down on its surface. I can’t possibly deny him, though, so I take a seat near the front of it, feeling him slip in behind me and pulling his legs to either side of my body. His arms wrap around my sides, pulling me back to his chest, and I feel every curve of his body against my back, the experience making me blush.

He is obviously enjoying the position that we sit in.

He grabs for the ropes and holds me tight, using his other hand to push us forward until the traction of the snow takes over and we shoot down the side of the mountain. Never mind being shy, I turn and cling to the prince’s chest, trying to hold on tight while he laughs and pulls us through the snowy mountain top, dodging boulders and trees at such a high rate of speed, I question the damage we would succumb to if we were to hit one of those things at this velocity.

I dare to look once or twice, not brave enough to watch for long before I feel the sled leave the ground and go up into the air, landing so hard that both Jaxson and I are sent sprawled out into the snow. He still keeps a hold on me as we tumble off the sled, hearing him laugh while I stay tense, scared of hitting something and getting hurt, but his arms never leave, and I stay pressured to his chest.

I open my eyes after a moment of stillness, seeing the prince look down at me while we lay out in the snow together, ice crystals stuck to his dark black eyelashes, his crisp blue eyes making me shiver, his beauty unmatched to any man I’ve ever seen.

Even compared to Luke, my first love.

“Are you hurt?” he asks, his voice in a husky whisper.

I feel my fingers curled into his shirt, unwilling to let them go. “No, I don’t think so. Are you?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart,” he hums. “First time on a sled, huh?”

“We never had much snow in North Woods. This is all very new to me,” I admit, talking more about this lifestyle of the palace and guards than I am the snow games he has me playing today. I want to say that I don’t belong here, that I don’t feel he is my mate, but I don’t dare refute the prince any more than I already have today.

“You are beautiful, my mate,” he hums, forcing me to shudder at his words. “In this form and in the other, you will make a stunning Luna one day.”

My breath hitches, my heart stopping at his claim, the mere thought of being a Luna to the royal pack of the kingdom almost breaking me to cry. Before I can protest, he pulls me closer to his chest, one hand pressuring the side of my head and pulling my face forward until his lips meet mine. The sensation of our kiss is familiar, but unwarranted, and I break away from it seconds later, unsure how to react.

My palm flies before I can stop it, slapping him square on the cheek with an audible smack.

I pull back, my hands covering my mouth as I want to scream, cry or even beg for forgiveness.

His eyes are sharp on my throat, angry and fuming.

The prince says nothing, only pushing himself to stand, brushing the snow off of his chest and legs before pulling me up by my arm with a hard yank. I gasp, trying to break out of his grip, unsure if he intends to punish me for hitting him as I had.

He releases my arm and I fall backwards in fear, crawling back a few feet to separate me from him. The more space, the more I feel safe, distancing myself until he finally relaxes his locked jaw.

He looks at me, through me, and the replay of my actions filter through my mind over and over, from the uncertainty of wanting him to kiss me, to feeling like this is all a nightmare. I didn’t want this mate and I don’t want to be used by him.