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“I can stay if you want—”

“No,” I said, wiping a hand down my face. “I’m not ready to return just yet.”

“But youwillreturn, yes?” she asked, concern in her voice.

“I’m your shadow, Briar. You can’t go far without me,” I quipped.

But she leaned down once more, pulling me into a fierce hug. “You’re not my shadow, sister. You’re my twin, the other half of my coin. I’m so sorry you ever felt that way.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just sat there and hugged her back as the crickets chirped their nighttime chorus around us. Eventually she stood up, looking down at me with love in her eyes.

“Maez will be introducing me to the pack in the grand hall if you want to join us,” Briar said, kissing the top of my head. “It’ll be okay, Cal. We’ll deal with the King. He may think we’re just pretty, mindless girls. But you and I both know we are more than that. Vellia trained us well. We can handle him. There are worse things in this life than finding your one true love.”

I grimaced as my sister walked off.One true love. I should be as light and happy as her, but all I felt was trepidation. If Grae were a baker or a farrier, maybe I wouldn’t feel this white hot poker in my gut, but he was the crown prince. I’d be the center of his pack’s scrutiny, and I was certain King Nero would try to make my life miserable because I was more than a submissive, pretty thing. I pursed my lips together. Part of me wanted Grae, hadalwayswanted Grae... but, seeing who he was in Highwick, could I trust him?

I stood with a sigh, trailing my fingers through the tall meadow grasses. I plucked a cornflower, its petals fluttering away in the breeze. The hem of the tunic swished around my knees as I paced from one end of the meadow to the other. I ruminated over every worry again and again, circling through my options and always coming up short. I knew there was no getting out of returning to the castle. At some point, I’d have to face him.

Taking one more turn around the spans, I steeled myself for what was to come. I turned back toward the city and something caught my eye. I froze.

Leaning against a tree trunk, watching me, was my fated mate.

Eleven

His dark eyes reflected gold in the moonlight as that predatory gaze tracked me. My mate. The only part of him that moved was his eyes as he leaned against the tree, and he was all the more menacing for it. Birds cawed in the distance and my heart hammered so loudly I was certain he could hear it. The knot in my gut tugged me forward, and I was grateful that I didn’t have a knife on me still.

“You should’ve told me about your father’s plans,” I said, stopping a few paces away from him, knowing I needed the distance to think.

“Yes,” he gritted out, his voice filled with regret. “I thought I had convinced my father to acknowledge you, but I should’ve known better. He lied to me, too. That is why I remained silent in his office. He already knew how much you meant to me and... and I was one breath away from snapping his neck.”

My mouth dropped open. Even in the depths of the forest, he shouldn’t have said such things. Our Wolf magic thrived on these powerful bonds, to our kings and our mates. Hurting the pack leader was a death sentence, heir or not. And I knew then that if he had stood up for me in that office, it would’ve ended badly for both of us, and yet, the less logical part of me hated that hedidn’t. Judging by that suspicious bruise on his eye, I wondered if he was punished for sticking up for me in the grand hall. I hated that I understood the reasons for his silence now. It would’ve been easier to just stay mad at him.

“What he said . . .” I gulped, reliving the moment in the King’s office. “That my parents should’ve—”

Grae pushed off the tree, the action silencing me. In a split second, his hands bracketed my face and he pulled me into a hot, burning kiss. My arms instinctively wrapped around him, the way they had yearned to a million times before. His mouth claimed mine and his fingertips dug into my neck, holding me to him. I tried to leash the desire to thread my hands through his hair, but as his smoky scent filled me, my restraint snapped. A groaning snarl escaped his mouth as his tongue lashed my own, skittering shocks of lightning shooting through my body at the contact. I barely had time for my lips to respond before he broke our kiss and rested his forehead on mine, leaving me reeling.

His eyes scorched into me as he said, “I’ve been wanting to do that since you nearly bowled me over in Allesdale, little fox.”

The immensity of what this was came flooding back into me—the power of fate, of magic, of bonds that stretched into immortality coursed through my veins.

I took a hasty step backward, out of his grasp. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Grae cocked his brow. “Why didn’t I tell you I was completely bewitched by you?” His voice was a low rumble that made my toes curl in the soil. He tilted his head, eyes trailing down my figure. “Why didn’t you tell me the same?”

“I-I...” I pressed the heel of my hand into my eye. “You’re assuming that’s true.”

“It is.” Grae’s canines glinted as he flashed a wolfish grin, and the sight of those sharp teeth made my stomach flip. “I know you felt it as much as I did when the moonlight touched your skin.” He reached out and ran his rough, calloused hand frommy collarbone, over my amber necklace, and up my jaw until he cupped my cheek. My eyelids flickered at his soft touch. “You’re my mate, Calla. You and I were always meant to be.”

I shuddered at those claiming words, turning my face into him until my lips skimmed the inside of his wrist. It felt so right—his scent, his touch, my name on his lips.

He smoothed back his thick hair, watching me with hooded, wanting eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was afraid of what my father might do if he knew.”

“And Olmdere?”

“I never wanted to stop you from helping your homeland. Believe me,” Grae said, his eyes filled with pleading. I wanted to believe him—I wanted to believe in every inch of him at that moment—but the events of the day had shredded my faith in everything I was raised to believe: the pack, our duty, the family that we’d have. Grae dropped his hand and a pained longing made me want to reach for him again. The need to touch him—to always be touching him—filled me to the core. “One day, I pray to storm the castle by your side and watch as you retake your parents’ throne.”

“But?”

Grae hung his head. “But my father is a dangerous man, more than you could ever know, and I fear what will happen if you stand between him and his plans.”