Page 2

Nadia

Rage flares through me as I stare up at Cole Kincaid, taking in his broad shoulders, his thick black hair, his tanned skin, and slightly stubbled cheeks. And, of course, those fucking blue eyes that look like they’re staring right through me.

It pisses me off even further that I have to tilt my head so far back to look into his face. I mean, I am not a short woman.

“What are you doing here?” I sputter, already seething.

“What am I – Nadia! What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m going home ,” I snap, tossing out a hand toward the boat behind me. “Or at least I was , until –“

I gasp, my eyes flaring wide before I glare so deeply I can barely see between my narrowed lashes. “Cole,” I growl, “did you fucking cancel this ferry? To keep me here?”

He glares at me in turn, stepping forward to loom over me. “Did you think I was going to let you go , Nadia?” His voice is low with anger, all rumbly and threatening. “You’re my fucking mate –“

“Oh, lay off!” I shout, stepping back and starting to turn away. “There’s no such thing as fucking mates – you wolves just made that up as a way to keep your women in line –“

A broad hand wraps easily around my arm, pulling me back.

“I assure you, Nadia,” Cole says as he spins me back toward him. I glare at him with all the hate in my heart and try to pull my arm away. “You have proof in the existence of mates right in front of you – if they were made up, why the hell would I have picked you –“

I gasp, offended enough that I forget that I’m trying to break out of his grip. “How dare you?” I snarl. “What, just because I’m a human I –“

“It has nothing to do with you being a human!” Cole shouts, pulling me so close that my chest nearly collides with his. “It has everything to do with the fact that you’re being a god damned nightmare right now!”

“Nightmare!” I throw back, shouting up into his face. “I’m not doing anything except trying to go home !”

He pauses for a second, his chest still heaving with rageful breath, caught off-guard by the logic of my words. But then he shakes himself all over, quite wolfish, and tightens his grip on my arm. “It’s not safe for you to go alone, Nadia –“

“It’s a fucking boat !” I throw back, still shouting up into his face. “A ferry that your family owns! Are you suggesting your own company can’t keep its passengers safe?”

Cole glances over at the train for a moment. “My father’s ferry, not mine,” he growls. Which is – apparently – all the response I’m going to get.

I gasp as Cole turns back towards the entrance of the pier, pulling me with him.

“Let go of me, you asshole!” I shout, digging my heels in and throwing my weight back, making it as hard as possible for him to take me anywhere.

“Nadia, would you stop making such a scene?” Cole growls, turning to glare at me and then glancing around at the crowds of people who just…stare, watching their Crown Prince attempt to kidnap a woman from the ferry station. A little thrill of victory goes through me at that.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I return, not bothering to lower my voice. Making it a little louder, in fact, relishing the way he flinches when he hears my shout. “I’m going home! ”

“You’re coming back to the palace,” he snarls, coming close again, speaking in low, rumbly tones. “You can return home later with your father – who is worried as hell about you, by the way. We will arrange suitable transport and protection –“

“Who are you to tell me – at all! Ever! – what the fuck I can and cannot do?”

“I am your mate ,” Cole snarls, pulling me so close that my chest presses to his, his hands tight around my arms. I gasp at the sudden reality of him, the warmth that radiates from his form, the…

the very significant solidity of his body, which is all muscle under his fine clothes.

“Which means that it’s my job to protect you, even if you insist on hurling yourself through the world completely vulnerable –“

“Let me GO!” I shout, screaming the last word into his face.

Cole growls, his eyes flashing blue and vivid. A streak of fear rushes through me as I see his canine teeth extend into fangs. Something in me registers, suddenly, that it is not a good idea to piss off an Alpha wolf. They are apex predators, after all.

Even if they are assholes. Every single one.

But I have no chance to process any of this as the Prince suddenly dips low, his shoulder pressing hard into my stomach.

I gasp in sudden surprise and fear as he stands, lifting me high so that my front half dangles over his back, my legs kicking out in front of him for a moment before he wraps one steady arm around the back of my thighs.

And starts to stride towards the exit.

My gasp of shock turns into one of rage and embarrassment as I realize that the Crown Prince of Clythera is carrying me back to the palace like a sack of damn potatoes.

“Let me go!” I shriek, doing my best to sit up or wriggle off his shoulder and failing completely. “You jackass! Put me down!”

“Calm down, Nadia!” Cole bites back, tightening his arm around my legs as he strides toward the exit, his pace determined, not even glancing at the hundreds of flashes that go off as people begin to take pictures. “You’re making a scene and embarrassing both of us!”

But I’m too fucking mad to care. I let out one final, long, extended shriek of rage and despair, smacking at his back with my palms as best as I can, seething as the man who has claimed me as his mate carries me out into the sunlight – away from my boat – away from the respite of the country across the bay and home.

But even as I stop shrieking, stop pounding my fists against his back in a wasted effort to be put down, determination settles in me.

Because this Alpha Prince can carry me off any pier he wants. But he can never, ever make me love him. Or respect him. Or marry him or be his mate, whatever that means.

No, those are things I will never, ever do.

“You can fucking bite me, Cole Kincaid,” I grumble, bouncing gracelessly over his shoulder, pissed as hell but totally without recourse to do anything about it.

“Beg all you want, Nadia,” he growls. “But I wouldn’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”

I heave an angry breath as the Alpha Prince carries me off to a waiting town car and packs me away inside.