Page 41

Nadia

“It’s painful to shift?” I ask, a little breathless with surprise. I cock my head. “But – I saw you do it all the time – and it looked fine –“

“I mean, it gets easier,” he says, nodding to me. “You learn to handle it pretty fast, especially if you shift young. You eventually learn to do it in a flash so that it’s less of a bodily transformation and more of a…I don’t know. A shift . An instant thing, a trade of one body for another.”

My face twists with confusion, and Cole sighs a little, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, it makes a ton of sense if you’ve done it before. But I can see that it’s not really…translating.”

I shrug, letting him know that I don’t actually understand but that I don’t mind it so much.

“So, it hurt?” I whisper, my fingers resuming their path through his hair, nails scratching against his scalp. “The first time you did it?”

Cole groans, eyes falling shut again as he shakes his head side to side. “Fucking excruciating. Luckily my dad was there –“

“It was a surprise?”

Cole opens his eyes again to meet mine. “Not a complete surprise. There are usually signs. A growth spurt, a day when you’re…

a little off-balance, a little feverish.

And then it hits. But sometimes it hits kids out of nowhere.

Iris was alone in her bed when she shifted her first time – she was so young she didn’t remember it.

” He smirks. “But I do. We just went into her room in the morning and there was this…teeny tiny white wolf pup sitting in her bed, shaking.”

I laugh a little at the mental image even as I shake my head, feeling so sorry for her. “She must have been terrified.”

“She was,” Cole says, nodding. “But…I don’t know. Iris is tough. She took it in stride like she does everything.”

I nod, wondering if Iris really is that tough. Or if she, like so many women, just feels like she has to be.

Still, I push the thought aside, concentrating on the Prince lying next to me instead. “And your first time?”

“I was six,” he says, nodding, his eyes going a bit distant at the memory. “In the hall, walking toward the elevator down to the garage so I could go to school. It just hit …it…” he sighs and looks up at me, clearly gauging how much detail he needs. “It felt like my back snapped in half.”

My eyes flare with horror. “ Why?”

He grimaces. “Because it kind of…did. The first shift is completely physical. Your bones and your body change and snap and rearrange themselves…becoming a wolf. And your body learns the patterns that magic later makes easier, makes…instant, fast, painless.”

I gulp for him even as I frown. “Magic? It’s magic?”

He shrugs, mouth twisting to the side. “We don’t have any other way to explain it.

I mean, people have tied it to science and explained it as closely as we can.

But…yeah, the explanation that we have for why we shift into wolves?

When it comes down to it, the only answer left is that there is… some element of magic there.”

I look away from him even as my fingers continue their work, staring at the beige wall of his tent. “Magic…” I murmur.

Cole stays silent, letting me process.

I snap my eyes back to him. “And the whole mate thing,” I say. “Is that…is that magic?”

His mouth twists to the side as he shrugs again. “Well, maybe.”

My fingers stop, and I lean closer. “Maybe?”

He laughs a little, which just makes me scowl, which just makes him smile more. “I mean, we don’t know . There are theories. Some tie it to the physical, saying that mating bonds are biological – just your body pointing out precisely the right person for you to have the strongest pups with.”

“Oh my god,” I groan, pulling my hand away from his hair and smacking it across my mouth.

Cole just laughs again, shaking his head and continuing on, wisely not acknowledging my embarrassment. “But other people say that it’s…magical. The most religious-minded, like my mother, suggest that it’s a sign from the Moon Goddess regarding who she’s picked out for you – your destined match.”

“So,” I say, slipping my hand away, “your…mom doesn’t think it has anything to do with pups?”

“Oh, no, she thinks it has everything to do with pups,” Cole says, nodding deeply – which just makes me groan again and cover my whole face with both hands.

He laughs. “She thinks that fated mates have very blessed pups with great destinies. That…they’re the people who shape the world along the lines of fate. ”

“Oh my god.”

“I know. Dramatic, right?”

My hands drop, curiosity overtaking my embarrassment. “Are you a fated mate pup?”

He slowly nods. “Yeah. But…mom and dad didn’t know they were fated mates for a while.”

“Why not?”

He grimaces a little.

“Why not?” I growl, smacking him on the shoulder, wanting to know now.

“Don’t make me tell you,” he says, laughing a little. “You’ll…run screaming from the tent.”

“Cole!”

I raise my hand to smack again, and he just laughs, lifting his arm up to block it. “They were cursed , all right? A magical curse that…got in the way of them knowing. Caused a whole lot of trouble for them, when they were…just getting started, or whatever.”

I groan and fall to my side on the bed, curling into a little ball with my face in my hands.

“Nadia…“ His voice is all sympathetic, which just makes it worse.

“You have cursed me ,” I mumble. “I was very happy being a normal non-magical girl who hated royalty and wolves. And now here I am with a wolf Prince as my friend – and now you’re telling me that magic and curses are real -”

Cole laughs softly, and I feel his large body shift on the bed.

When I slip my hands down and away from my eyes, I’m not surprised to see him lying across from me, his face close to mine.

Not…not too close, not close enough to kiss - and not an inch of him touching me.

Just…close enough to talk softly, to listen to me even if I whisper.

Close enough to share secrets.

“I’m sorry, Nadia,” Cole says, smirking a little. “I didn’t mean to ruin your life.”

“Well, you did,” I mutter, my hand lashing out to smack him again on the shoulder. He grins and my hand lingers on the soft fabric of his shirt, finding a comfortable spot somewhere on his forearm. Neither of us mention it.

“Oh, come on,” he murmurs, smirking. “There’s nothing appealing to you about the possibility of magic in the world? Nothing at all?”

I exhale slowly, letting the sight of his pretty face fill my gaze, considering the question. I shrug one shoulder, narrowing my eyes. “I could curse you ,” I whisper. “For being a jackass.”

Cole laughs softly and nods. “And you’d be well within your rights, considering I came along and destroyed your entire worldview.”

I laugh and sigh, shaking my head, letting my eyes fall shut. “I’d want a Pegasus. To ride through the sky.”

I can nearly hear him smile. “ Very appealing.”

“And,” I whisper. “Maybe…I’d want to be able to help people. Heal them, you know. Just…take away pain or illnesses, do it instantly. That would be…such a benefit to the world.”

He’s very quiet for a long moment. “You have a good heart, Nadia.”

I scowl as I blush, turning my face down against his covers.

Cole laughs. “But I don’t think that would be good for you. We’d never get you out of the hospitals –“

“So what!” I return, the words all muffled.

“You’d spend your entire life healing everyone in the nation and then the world, you’d barely sleep – and then when everyone was healed you’d be all depressed that there wasn’t more work to do –“

I turn my face back, frowning at him, my brows knitted. “Again,” I say, feeling contrary. “So what?”

“So, I intend for you to enjoy your life alongside working to save everyone,” Cole says, his hand raising to brush my messy hair off of my cheek, his fingers lingering there. “If you’ll let me have any say in it.”

My eyes narrow further. “No. No say.”

He smirks, fingertips moving over my cheekbone, down my jaw. “We’ll see.”

“We won’t!”

“We will.” He nods, holding my gaze –

And – god damn it – I believe him. I kind of…want that. Him to have a say.

I stare at Cole’s gorgeous face, those deep green eyes, feeling like I’m drowning in them and happy to sink even lower.

And so I inhale sharply and bolt up straight.

Cole laughs and stays in his spot, watching me.

“Okay!” I say, completely freaked out, my voice tight. “Time for bed!”

“You’re already in bed, Nadia. Just curl up –“

I whip my head so hard to glare at him that my ponytail spins around, smacking me in the face.

Cole grins, clearly feeling wicked, suppressing a laugh.

“Oh, you brat,” I mutter, getting to my feet.

“Seriously, Nadia, you could stay here if you –“

I laugh, whipping out hand up between us, palm flat, and shaking my head at him. “Not a chance! I will sleep in my own bed, thankyouverymuch!”

Cole shrugs, easily appeased as he sits and then stands. “All right,” he says, bending slightly to snatch at the covers of his bed, hauling them up into his arms.

I gape. “What are you doing ?”

He leans past me to grab his pillow, too.

“Wha!” I huff, agape. “Why – what’re you – where –“

Cole straightens, the bundle of bedding under one arm. He smirks at me and gestures to the door. “After you, Nadia, if you’re tired.”

“Cole Kincaid,” I hiss, stepping close. “If you think that you’re –“

“Walking you back to the nursing tent? Absolutely I am. I told you my concerns about the Children of Solace – and I did not get to express enough displeasure about the fact that you were wandering around the camp alone tonight.”

“I didn’t ,” I snap back.

Cole raises an eyebrow, and I scowl, looking down.

“Tommy wouldn’t let me go anywhere alone.”

“Good man,” Cole murmurs.

“ And he got me the camping chair,” I say, whipping my head up to glare at him. “When I was intent on spying.”

Cole narrows his eyes. “Less good man. Listen, can we go? If you’re not going to be staying here, then I want to get myself settled –“

“What are you doing with all of that?” I cry, pointing to the bedding.

“Nothing,” he says, glancing down at it. Lying his stupid Prince ass off. “These are just for…fun.”

“Oh, I hate you,” I mutter, storming past him and out the flap of his tent.

“Liar,” he says, following me out. I stride quickly across the camp but Cole has no trouble keeping up with those long legs and lycanthrope lung capacity. He’s barely breathing hard when we reach the nurse’s sleeping tent.

“Okay!” I say, planting my hands on my hips. “We’re here!”

“In record time,” he says, perfectly calm, looking down into my face.

“Hey,” Tommy says, smiling at us, yawning. Amory gives a little wave.

“Hey guys,” Cole says, lifting his chin at them. “Your shift nearly done?”

“I have arrived safely!” I snap, hating that he’s ignoring me and not explaining what the hell is going on. “You can go!”

“Okay,” he says, nodding to me and turning his eyes back to his guards. “Go ahead in.”

I scoff, and Tommy glances at me, a little anxious, before looking back at Cole. “Yeah, we’re done. Replacements coming in like two minutes.”

“Cool,” Cole says, smiling at them. “Good work tonight, though you’re not supposed to loan the civilians chairs.” He points a thumb at me, and Tommy grins.

“Okay, night!” I nearly shout, done with this. I scowl at Cole as my farewell, knowing that he’s up to something. Then I turn and push my way through the tent flap, walking quickly down the little row of beds towards my bunk, my hands in tight fists at my side.