YENA

Nolan was all business as we went to meet his mother.

I couldn’t believe he was actually going to let it lie. He didn’t tease me about last night at all. But he was again cold and indifferent with me.

Given a choice between the two, I’d take the indifference over the taunting any day.

We walked a stone bridge over a big open open courtyard. It took us almost half an hour.

Then the Gamma warriors unlocked a set of heavy stone doors that rolled open to reveal a glass elevator. We rode it to the top.

My ears popped as we went up, adjusting to the altitude.

The Lycan palace had been built into the side of a mountain. The king and queen resided in the very back, in a wing that was, in part, embedded into the actual stone and earthen slope of the mountainside.

We stepped out of the elevator into a bright, opulent sitting room. Luna was sitting atop a sort of small throne, looking comfortable and effortlessly beautiful. A delicate golden crown was nestled into her thick black hair, which cascaded down her back and shoulders in loose, shiny waves.

She looked up at us and smiled.

I followed Nolan’s lead and walked behind him over to the queen. He offered her a small bow and greeted her curtly.

He stepped aside and gave me a nod.

I bowed. “Your Highness,” I said in as polite a tone as possible. “It’s an honor.”

She paused for an uncomfortably long time.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to stay bowed with my eyes on the floor. I decided to risk it and just step back.

I looked her in the eye. She stared back at me.

Her deep eyes were a lot like Nolan’s, but darker. Almost black, with just a tinge of green.

“You need to lose weight,” she said at last.

So no pleasantries, then.

“At least forty pounds before the wedding.” She shifted her gaze over to Nolan. “Your girl is not ready to be a royal bride.”

Her mouth twisted into a grimace when she looked back at me.

“There’s nothing wrong with her,” Nolan said, to my great surprise.

He spoke in the princely tone. Diplomatic. Calm and composed.

“She’s beautiful the way she is,” he continued. “She has rosy cheeks without makeup. And I happen to appreciate her plump figure.”

He wasn’t looking at me. He was talking directly to his mother.

I could not believe what was happening.

Luna hadn’t moved her body once since we walked into the room. She was reclined in the throne, sitting a little bit sideways with a soft pillow behind the arch of her back.

She tilted her head and gave Nolan an amused smile.

“Yena is beautiful,” the prince finished. “She looks healthy and happy the way she is.”

I was speechless.

Luna looked just a little surprised. She turned her gaze to me and looked me up and down with hard, icy eyes.

When she spoke again her voice was gentler.

“Twenty pounds,” she said. “Can you do this, Yena?”

I nodded.

“Of course,” I said, a bit stunned to find myself negotiating anything with a queen.

She looked at me like she was waiting for something.

“Of course, Your Highness,” I added, remembering my morning lesson.

Her red lips parted in a big smile.

“Wonderful,” she said. “That will be all for now.”

NOLAN

His mother sent Yena away and invited Nolan to sit down. A servant brought out a bottle of red wine and poured a glass for each of them.

“I see now,” Luna said to him after the servant had gone, “there is something special about the girl.”

She took a sip of wine and asked, “Is she your fated mate?”

Her tone sounded almost disinterested.

“Yes,” Nolan finally admitted.

Luna nodded.

“I was prepared,” she said, “to dislike her. I was already planning another selection party for you. One you would not ruin, this time, with antics and scandal.”

Nolan was silent. He knew it was not yet his time to talk.

“But I have changed my mind,” she concluded. “We will begin planning the wedding right away.”

The prince tried to hide his relief.

“There’s something I never told you,” she continued. “There was a prophecy made the year you were born. It concerned you… and the girl.”

Nolan set down his glass and sat further back in his chair.

“The Moon Goddess sent a message to a prophet,” she continued. “An old woman who has long since passed. She prophesied that your future Luna would have a rarer and nobler bloodline than even the Lycans, and that she would bring you good fortune.”

Nolan waited as the queen drained the last dregs of wine from her glass.

She sat up and retrieved the bottle, and poured herself another.

“Your half brother,” she said, settling back into her comfortable position, “has returned. So far he has been quiet. But I am worried.”

She looked up to the ceiling and sipped her wine. “I am worried he will try to fight you for the throne.”

Nolan felt little surprise at this news. It had always been a possibility that Adan would come back from the human world and change his mind about denying the throne that had once been rightfully his.

But he abdicated. Adan had no legal right, now, to challenge Nolan’s position in line for the kingship. To do so would be an act of treason.

“Marry Yena,” the queen said flatly, “as soon as possible. The prophecy is coming to pass. The girl will bring you luck.”

She looked Nolan in the eye.

“I fear,” she said, “you are going to need it.”

Nolan sat soaking in a bathtub of scaling hot water, mulling over everything his mother had told him.

Out the window, the sun inched into the horizon and vanished into a blue haze.

He was lost in thought, oblivious to the time.

He kept thinking about Yena’s power. How the one night they had sex, he had severely injured.

He had been almost dead.

He had woken in the cave to the feeling of Yena’s fingers sinking into the bleeding wound in his shoulder. He remembered the hot, stabbing pain.

But even that touch also felt amazing. Electric. Addicting.

He knew sex was supposed to feel satisfying. But this… this was something else.

He did not notice right away that he was healing while they fucked.

He had been in a sort of dream state. He had lost a lot of blood and was not in his right mind.

The wolf had been the one in control.

He held his breath and sunk his head under the surface of the water.

He thought about how she was that night.

She was like a goddess.

She took everything he could give her.

He had not wanted to leave her. But he had woken to a glimmer of sunrise and had to flee. He had to get back to the palace before daylight, before he could be seen.

Nolan snapped back to the present and rose out of the water, gasping.

It had been light out when he drew this bath. Now he was sitting in total darkness, in a tub of lukewarm water.

He dried himself and padded back down the hall.

He passed Yena’s room. She had left the double doors wide open and was inside, facing away from him in the dim yellow light of a few flickering candles.

She was wearing a light dressing gown, and her hair was wet.

He wanted to storm into the room and throw her onto the bed.

Rip her nightgown to pieces.

Bite into her soft skin.

He shook his head.

He hated the lack of control he had over these thoughts.

Then he heard a snarling growl in the back of his mind.

Then Kent’s voice. Laughing.