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“Perhaps if you didn’t have a knife,” he murmured, eyes shining in the twilight as his hand skimmed over her right hip, “I would not have to.”

He knows.

Wren fired out a fist, intent on punching Arrik in the nose in an attempt to break it. He responded by throwing his entire weight on top of her. All the air was squashed from Wren’s lungs in an instant. She gasped for breath, but no sooner had he slumped onto her than he knelt back up, wrapping several blankets around Wren so tightly and expertly that no amount of wriggling enabled her to get out of them.

By the time Arrik was done, Wren could no longer move an inch. She bellowed in frustration from her soft, unyielding prison. “Let me go!” she demanded, knowing any such plea was useless now. She was at his mercy…and she hated it.

“Stop fighting me!” He slapped his hands against the mattress on either side of her head and glared down at her. “I’m trying to save your fool life!”

What?

She snapped her mouth shut and blinked slowly at him. What the devil was this? Another trick?

His eyes sparked as he leaned close enough that she could count his long lashes. The prince’s hair fell around them, forming a curtain. “You’ll get us both killed if you carry on.”

“So you want to save your own skin,” she spat.

His jaw ticked. “Whether you like it or not, we are bound. Our fates are intwined. I didn’t take my vows lightly. I meant them when I said I would protect you with my life.”

“Lies,” she hissed. What was this nonsense?

His expression sobered. “I don’t lie, Princess.” She held her breath as he continued to stare down at her. “You don’t have to trust me, but you must obey me.”

No way.

She opened her mouth to retorted when he reached down the front of her dress and pulled the sheathed stiletto out. “That’s mine!” she gritted out.

“No, it’s not.” His mask slipped back into place. “It’s my brothers.”

Arrik stood up and she felt like she could finally breathe.

“Go to sleep,” he muttered before moving to the table. The prince picked up some of the food that hadn’t been completely destroyed and placed it on a broken plate, then reclined on one of the chairs by the empty fireplace.

Wren couldn’t believe her ears. “You want me to go tosleep? Oh, I see how it is. If I am asleep, I can do nothing against you raping me.”

His impartial expression slipped and turned to one of disgust. She flinched at the rage and revulsion she saw clear as day written across his face. She expected him to storm back to her side and slap her in the face, but instead the man remained as still as a statue.

“I may be the monster from your every living nightmare,” he said, very quietly, “but I would never force a woman to lie with me.Never.And besides…I do not take vipers into my bed. So, take my bed from me andgo to sleep.I know you are exhausted.”

Wren did not know how to take this. His words did not sound like lies, but even so, she could not take them at face value.

“I’m not a viper,” she replied. “Your people are.”

“You’ll find no argument from me,” he said, fatigue coloring his tone. “Go to sleep.”

You cannot afford to sleep a wink with him around.Not with the rumors of his wives.

If Arrik was not the one who killed his wives in the past—and if his three wives being murdered was not merely a story concocted by his brother in the first place—then someone else may very well attempt to kill Wren tonight. For that alone, she could not sleep, regardless of her feelings toward Arrik.

A stalemate it was.

She was unable to move, but not willing to surrender.

The moon rose fully in the sky, and though it grew a little colder, Arrik did not put any of his clothes back on. He sat almost motionless, staring out at the courtyard, occasionally eating from his plate or turning his brother’s dagger in his hands. Wren, in her state of immobility, could do nothing but watchhimdo nothing.

“I hate you,” she whispered.

“I know,” he responded. “I accept it.”