YENA

I got so relaxed in my lavender-scented bubble bath that I could’ve fallen asleep in there.

I’d picked up a design book from the school bookstore last time I was on campus, and I’d been enjoying it. But tonight it was putting me to sleep.

I decided to let myself get into bed early.

Nolan said he’d be working for just a couple hours, but that was probably a lie anyway.

Not an intentional lie. He was just always running at least an hour later than he planned.

And if he wanted to wake me up when he got to bed, he could.

He probably wouldn’t, though.

I passed out pretty quickly and slept for most of the night.

When I woke up it was dark, and Nolan was asleep beside me.

I might have laid there for hours. Just thinking.

I didn’t look at my phone to check the time. I didn’t want to move at all, because Nolan would wake up if I did.

So I stayed very still, lost in my thoughts. Watching the silhouette of my husband’s big chest rising and falling with each slow, deep breath he took.

It would be best just to commit and do this thing for myself. Do the study abroad program, and do it now. Before I lost my nerve.

Because then I could come back to Nolan later, and we could start a family. And I would not have to wonder if I had given up on something that might have been good for me.

I would not have to live with any regrets.

When Nolan woke up, he turned and looked right at me. He must have felt my eyes on him.

He reached out and touched my cheek.

I said, “Hi.”

“Hi.” He cleared his throat. “How long have you been awake?”

“A while.”

Nolan sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He switched on a lamp, putting it on its dimmest setting, then made a trip to the bathroom.

When he came back, he slipped under the covers quickly, then had one hand sliding across my stomach a moment later.

I let him curl up against my body. He rested his head down onto my chest and I stroked his soft hair.

After a little while, he sat up and put his head next to mine on the pillow. He looked me in the eye.

“I think I know,” I told him. “I know what I want to do. And I do want to go study abroad.”

Nolan did not react.

“I just think it would be best for me to do it now, while I’m young. There’s so much time for us later, Nolan. We can be apart for a little while, and then we’ll be back together as soon as you know it.”

Nolan moved his eyes, slowly, away from mine. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.

I reached out and stroked his face. His cheek and jaw were scruffy.

“Let’s talk later,” I said, “about the stuff you said we’d have to sort out. And I’m also going to start filling out the school applications.”

NOLAN

A vision of Nolan’s future flashed before his eyes. The future that would be set in motion, if Yena was serious about this.

She would be leaving him. Not for a semester. For good.

That was the only way she could go. If she divorced him.

And then, Nolan would have to remarry, and fast.

That thought made him feel like there was a pit in his stomach. He found himself clutching one hand to his chest as he thought about it.

But marriage was not optional for the heir to the throne. If Yena left, Nolan would have to find someone else to wear her crown. And to bear his children.

He could not bring himself to tell her any of this now.

Yena was right. They would need to talk about the details another time. It was too much all at once, here in the dark, first thing in the morning.

Still searching for words, Nolan turned back onto his side to face her again.

He pulled her face in close and kissed her on the mouth.

“I’ll support you,” he finally said. “Whatever you want to do.”

Yena’s body relaxed.

“Thank you,” she said. She clutched his face and kissed him hard, pressing her tongue into his mouth.

Nolan allowed himself to drift down into the distraction.

There was no use wasting any of the time he had left with Yena, if it was really about to come to an end.

He encircled her with his arms and started running his hands all over her body. Working on committing it to memory.

Yena pulled him on top of her and whispered, “Come fuck me now. Please.”

It was enough to jerk him out of his emotional spiral.

Nolan got on top of her and started putting her in place. He pushed her thighs apart with his knees. Her legs were buttery soft and completely smooth.

He stopped to give them extra attention. He started at her ankles and ran his lips up the length of her legs, stopping to kiss and worship them every few inches.

Yena was pleading with him then.

It was not his fault that the more she begged, the more his wolf wanted to taunt her.

He slid his hips close to hers. But then toyed with her some more.

Yena let out a deep, frustrated groan.

She grabbed Nolan’s face with both hands and kissed him passionately.

Then she bit his tongue. Hard.

He tasted the sharp metal flavor of his own blood.

Nolan snarled. It was less a choice than it was a reflex. He drove his dick inside the princess, growled, and bit her back, on the lip.

He lapped up her sweet blood and watched her lip heal before his eyes, like a miracle, while she enjoyed herself.

And that hot sting from her bite on his tongue. He could still feel the pain.

But he ran it all over his mouth, and could tell that it was smooth and uninjured.

Nolan was a Lycan prince. One of the most powerful wolves on the planet. But he had never felt quite so powerful as he did when Yena gave him life like this.

She wrapped her legs around him and slid her silky skin all over his body. He closed his eyes and tried to push all thoughts from his mind.

But some were getting through.

“Yena,” he heard himself saying. He did not mean to. His mouth just kept making the sound.

He kissed her and looked into her eyes. It looked like she was waiting for something.

His wolf recognized what it was.

He pushed one rough hand through her wild hair and hovered his lips over her ear. And whispered to her. That she had better be a good girl and come with him.

She shivered from head to toe, and lost control of her body.

Nolan slid out of her when they were both done. And collapsed with his face buried into her neck.

He never wanted to pull himself away from her again.