YENA

On some sort of embarrassed impulse, I actually reached up to my mouth and wiped it with my hand.

There was no drool.

I felt my face get hot.

It was unbelievable. He had such a skill for pushing my buttons. And could do it so fast.

He took one step forward and leaned against the door frame. We were face to face at a sort of four-way intersection of dark, empty hallways.

Nolan was tall and broad, and cast a shadow that enveloped me in darkness.

“Stop fucking with me,” I said.

“Well,” he replied, “you were the one eye-fucking me first.”

The dim moonlight drifting in through the windows hit his eyes and lit them up. They were hard like stone, deep green in shadow, and staring down at me with the prince’s signature brand of smoldering condescension.

A rush of desperate desire surged through me, starting at my throat and flooding downwards.

I swallowed as quietly as I could and thought about turning around. I couldn’t give him the satisfaction of being rewarded for this kind of behavior.

Lily growled in my mind.

He. Smells. So. GOOD, she was whispering.

This, I could not argue against.

He’s ours, Lily said. He is our fate.

I shook my head and lifted one foot, dragging it back slowly to step out of Nolan’s shadow.

Give in, Lily said. Just look at him. And he’s all yours.

Remember the first time?

He can do that to you again.

“Shut up!” I shouted.

Out loud.

On accident, of course. I wanted Lily to shut up. But I’d shouted that out loud to the future king of the werewolf nation.

“What did you just say to me?” he asked in that flat, emotionless tone he liked to use to reprimand me.

He took a short step backward. It let a little moonlight pour across the ground, drawing a pale white line between us on the dark marble floor.

But then he took a big stride forward.

Our bodies hovered parallel to each other’s in a long, tense moment, just an inch apart.

“I’m sorry,” I found myself whispering.

I couldn’t get my tongue to form any more words.

It was wet. I felt savagely hungry for him.

Then he put his warm hand on my neck. Pushed his big fingers up over my chin and ran them through my hair, stopping with a fistful of my blond curls balled up in the palm of his hand.

A hot shiver started my scalp and then took over my whole body.

He released my hair and pulled his hand back.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

He was still towering over me, so close I felt every rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in and out.

“Why,” I finally managed to say, “are you wandering around out here naked anyway? Were you just waiting… to seduce me?”

My voice wasn’t coming out as strong as I’d hoped it would. A breathy whisper was all I could manage.

“Don’t you have your own bathroom?” I finished.

“Yeah,” he said, “I do. But I like the one in the tower back here.”

He gestured down the dark hallway behind him.

“It has a big bathtub,” he said, “and a view of the sun setting over the forest.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’m sure that’s the reason. But since we’re here now… do you mind if I just…”

I reached up and put my hand flat against his chest, right the center of his pecs. His chest hair was still damp from the bath. His skin was clean and boiling hot.

And then, once again, in front of this gorgeous man, my body betrayed me. I couldn’t control it.

I started to turn.

My hand on his chest — it was turning into a paw. Complete with razor sharp claws.

I recoiled.

As I pulled away, my claws caught on Nolan’s towel. It fell to the floor.

I froze.

Nolan just pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against. And smiled.

My hand was my own human hand again.

I know because both my hands flew to my face and I ran away, fleeing back to my room before my brain could tell my body that this was also an embarrassing thing to do.

NOLAN

This girl was really something else.

Just when he thought she could not get much stranger… she went and did something like that.

At least Yena’s almost insane level of awkwardness often served a useful purpose. It saved him from having to give in to his desire for her.

And he needed some help with that.

Because he wanted her every time he saw her.

He needed to get that under control.

Control was everything. That was what Nolan’s father taught him.

Nolan would be the most powerful man in the kingdom soon.

One of the most powerful men in the world.

Power was what he had been preparing for all his life.

He would never be able to control Yena. He had already come to terms with that.

But he did enjoy trying to dominate her. It never worked. But it an inexplicable, infuriating way, it was fun.

But the way he kept giving in… letting his hands reach out and touch her, even when he knew better…

He had to gain control over that impulse.

It was the wolf. The wolf he thought he had tamed.

Kent was active. Nolan felt him pacing in circles, frustrated.

The part of the prince that liked to put other people down… especially commoners, for whom he had always felt a natural dislike… wanted to mock Yena for being so graceless and clumsy.

At the thought of this, though, Kent began to growl.

Lying to yourself… You know you want her, the wolf said.

You love the way she touches you.

You cannot lie to me.

Nolan became aware that he was just standing in the hallway naked, where Yena had left him.

He picked up his towel and wrapped it around his waist again.

Walking back to his room, he gritted his teeth.

He insisted, to the wolf and to himself, that Yena had no control over him. That he did not love her. Did not want her.

He insisted she was not his fated mate.

She was not even his type.

The wolf only growled in response and continued pacing, making Nolan’s heart beat harder and harder.

It was easier not to think about Yena when he kept busy. So the prince went to his study to do some work after getting dressed.

There was much to be done anyway. Everything that happened in the past week had been very distracting.

It was a little bit of everything. Family duties to fulfill. More events he was supposed to attend than there were hours for in the day.

Parliamentary briefs to read. News to catch up on.

Calls awaiting response.

Decisions to be made.

He let himself get lost in his tasks.

The moon this night was a thin crescent. The forest outside was one big, black, undulating shadow.

Nolan finished his work and stood for a moment at the window, staring out.

All he could see was his own reflection staring back.

He passed Yena’s bedroom on the way back to his own and paused in front of the big double doors.

He felt the urge to go inside and crawl into bed with her.

He would never.

He started to walk on, but as he did, he heard something.

Yena’s voice. From behind the door.