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Octavian smirked as I met his steely glare. “You’ll severely limit your options in bed partners. Why would you do such a thing when true freedom is nearly at your fingertips? As a Princess of Faerie, you could have any male you wanted to keep you company at night, regardless of whatever political marriage your mother arranged.”

“My dignity is worth far more than the freedom to fuck anyone I please,” I said, turning my face forward to look in the direction that we rode. “I can understand if you do not have any, but do not project that onto me.”

There was silence between us for a few moments as Octavian studied the side of my face. “Ilikeher,” he said suddenly, his laughter filling the air as he tossed his head back. “She has spent far too much time with the witch to be anything but amusing.”

“If I have spent too much time with the witch, I find it necessary to remind you that I may be your Princess soon. I do not look favorably on men who call me ‘amusing.’ I am far more than a source of entertainment for you,Sidhe.Perhaps one day soon, I’ll make you entertain me, and I promise you, my idea of entertainment involves spilling blood. Not sex,” I declared, ignoring the way Caldris tightened his arms around me slightly.

A warning: to back off, to retreat back into the shelter of not attracting Octavian’s attention. But to do so now would only make him think I had something to hide. I’d dug my hole.

Now I would have to lie in it.

“My sweet, sheltered Princess,” Octavian chuckled, holding my startled glare. “You can take my blood anytime. There are plenty of us who enjoy having a royal bleed us.”

“That’s disgusting,” I said, shaking my head and turning away finally. Let him think I was horrified by his confession, by the weight of it. I didn’t care, so long as everything they did was consensual, as much as I might not understand the desire for such things.

He leaned over the side of his horse, his breath fanning across the side of my face. “Blood eases the way for some of life’s more forbidden pleasures.”

Caldris growled in warning as Octavian rode forward, turning his horse around and using the reins to guide him to take careful steps backward as he faced us. “It would seem my brother has already grown attached to this potential Princess,” he said, dropping his gaze to where Caldris’s hands clenched the reins tightly. “I’ll take my chances with the other, instead.”

He rode off, shrugging. I think it was meant to hurt that I was so replaceable. That I did not matter in the slightest aside from the possibility of being Mab’s daughter.

Soon rage swelled within me as he rode up beside Aramis, protectiveness for Fallon flooding my veins. “Push it down,” Caldris murmured softly, brushing the back of his knuckles across my cheek. “Fallon is a big girl, and Imelda has had years to teach her to play this game. She’s prepared her for this, unlike you.” He nodded his head forward, pointing out the way that Fallon smiled even though I knew it was fake.

Even though I knew she wanted nothing more than to hide beneath her hood and kick the male accosting her in the balls, she played the game that I was too inept to even know. She behaved like a Princess.

But we both knew she wasn’t.

35

ESTRELLA

Octavian stared at Fallon as she moved away from the fire the next morning, his eyes sweeping over her as if he could take in everything that made her with just a single glance. I had no doubt he intended to exploit her for his own purposes, and he’d practically eat her alive.

“You’re with me today, menace,” Aramis said, surprising me as he stepped up beside me. He lifted me off my feet and onto his skeletal horse, the rib bones digging into my calves as I settled on top of it. “Try not to stab me.”

“I make no promises,” I said, smiling at him sweetly as I shrank back into my hood. From across the camp, Caldris guided Fallon toward Azra. The wolves followed at his heels, Fenrir’s nervous glance coming back to me as he let out a little whimper.

“Those damn beasts are going to fuck everything up if they keep looking at you like you’re their mother,” Aramis said, his tone scolding.

“Like I have any control over them. They’re giant wolves,” I protested, shrinking away from the scathing glare he settled on me. He swung his leg up, mounting the horse behind me and squirming away from my body uncomfortably.

“My teeth aren’t attached to my ass, you know,” I said, facing forward and biting my bottom lip to control my amusement.

“No, but I’m fairly certain Cal’s are,” Aramis whispered, keeping his voice low as Octavian approached where Caldris and Fallon patted Azra’s mane.

I watched in horror as Octavian grasped Fallon around the waist, depositing her onto his own horse with a smug grin. “Can’t let you have all the fun, brother,” he said, glancing back toward me briefly.

I clenched my fists, tucking them safely within my cloak to hide my frustration. I hadn’t been particularly fond of the idea of Fallon riding with my mate’s groin pressed into her ass, but I’d been willing to tolerate it over this.

I realized with a shock that the pulsing jealousy I felt over other women didn’t exist with Fallon. I’d never questioned what might come if she and Caldris spent too much time together, as if my soul recognized her on a level that knew she could never do that to me, or maybe it had been the bond between us and the emotional connection I’d formed with Caldris.

I shook off those thoughts, glaring at Octavian as he mounted his horse behind her and pressed entirely too close to her back. She kept her face carefully neutral, not giving way to any of the disgust I knew she felt having him touch her. “Don’t worry, Princess,” Octavian said, staring at me briefly before he winked. “I can give you a ride later, too, if you like.”

He kicked his horse into a walk, his heels digging in far more harshly than necessary. He took off at a fast trot, jostling Fallon in her seat so that she bounced into his lap.

Caldris mounted his own horse, walking up alongside us as we moved forward. “Behave,” he ordered, not even glancing toward me. I glared back, knowing without a doubt that the fucking ass could feel it even if he couldn’t see it.

“Is he really just meant to be allowed to violate her like that? What of her right to not be touched like that?” I asked.