Page 2 of Blue Blood Wolf (Big Wolf on Campus #6)

BASH

T his whole escape from my royal guards so I could go undercover was proper cocked-up. Nothing was working out one wit like I’d thought it would. Being on the lam without use of my phone, credit cards, or social status was harder than I imagined it to be. Neither of my cousins had mentioned any of that when we cooked up this scheme.

Should have known better than to take advice from the two biggest scandals to hit the royal wolf family this century. Who even believed in fated mates anyway? Both bastards had claimed to have found theirs and taken humans as mates.

Ridiculous.

I hadn’t even thought to exchange what little bit of cash I had on hand. Good job, Bash. Just hand over some Bashkirian coins, that wasn’t going to immediately give me away. I was absolute bollocks at this whole secret identity thing.

I’d slept in a fucking library last night and this morning nicked some poor student’s gym bag for a change of clothes and something called a breakfast burrito before sprinting across campus to practice just as the other Dire Wolves were arriving.

It was all completely exhilarating.

Playing Rugby back home had at least given me enough skills to make out like I belonged on the football team, and I had to admit, there was something exhilarating to the sport. I doubted I’d be able to stick around long enough to actually play a game though.

The local wolf shifters hiding in plain sight on the team had agreed to not only be some cover for me, but also help me track the fucking one-bloods. They didn’t like those pieces of shit skulking around their town or their mates.

They were all good lads, the lot of them, and those that were slated to be alphas someday like me would make good allies.

I figured I had maybe another twenty-four to forty-eight hours before the Queen’s guards tracked me down. That should be more than enough time to hunt down the one-bloods’ lair and talk my way into a cute American bird’s pants. Like the stunning lass who’d just sat down next to me. The very same girl I’d jostled with at the bookstore.

There was something about her that had my wolf very, very interested. I swear her soft white skin had a glow about it.

Marking her, claiming her, and mating with her was absolutely not what I should be thinking about.

When the Wolf Tzar had reached out to Bashkiria for help in rooting out the one-bloods—werewolf supremacists who thought that we were all superior to humans—who’d been a thorn in his side since he took over and took his own human as his mate, the queen, the royal guard, and I had crossed the pond under the guise of a royal visit.

A lot of the one-blood activity had been centered around the university campus though. I’d ditched my entourage and gone undercover as a transfer student so I had a chance of finding out what the bloody idiots were doing here, or what it was they wanted, with a little bit of blind hope that I might just be able to stalk them back to whoever was in charge of the gang.

And if doing my duty allowed me a few days of freedom and the chance to chat up a gorgeous American girl who smelled like delicious ripe peaches and had my wolf’s ears pricking up with interest, well then, that was all the better.

Especially since she was the first woman my wolf side had ever taken an interest in.

I knew I’d pay later for this little bout of freedom, but eyeing the lass’s full lower lip and mouthwatering curves, I couldn’t exactly bring myself to care.

“Are you stalking me, princessa?” I didn’t know why I said that. She had admitted to being a royals fanatic yesterday. I should stay far, far away from her.

But who was I to deny destiny? My birthright was what put me into this situation in the first place. I had no choice in being the crown prince of Bashkiria. But fate? Seemed that even though I didn’t believe in it, if that fickle goddess was going to throw this woman in my path again, I could take the hint.

It’s not like she’d be my fated mate. That was only a fairytale. And only in recently in America did wolves get to chose their own mates. I’d be mated to someone who would boost the family either in reputation or power.

Certainly not a sweet American.

She laughed out loud and then covered her mouth when the row of students in front of us turned to stare. Every emotion this girl had was written across her face and she let them all out, hiding nothing. Including the lust sparkling in her eyes, even if it was tinged with a bit of embarrassment.

How nice it must be to behave in such a way. Her pure American-ness had my interest piqued. My cock’s too. Not to mention my wolf had already thoroughly chosen her as candidate number one for sowing my wild oats with.

She was about to slink down into the seat, and that would be the end of my brief flirtation with her. Nope. That was not happening. I had precious little time and wanted to make the most of it. With her. I grabbed her notebook and her hand and pulled her up and out of her seat. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

There were way too many people looking at us anyway. Eventually someone would see through my nerdy glasses disguise.

She squeaked adorably, grabbed her knapsack off the seat, and squeezed my hand. “Are you kidnapping me?”

A stalker and a kidnapper, match made in heaven. “Quite. Come along quietly and I won’t have to spank you.”

Her eyes went wide at my dirty implication, but she was definitely interested. My kind of girl. We hurried out the back entrance to the hall and into the large courtyard. The early afternoon sunshine was no place to kiss the girl in private, and that was all I wanted to do.

Something about her had my libido on overdrive. Probably the fact that she had no idea who I was and her attraction wasn’t influenced by my position. Her magnificent tits didn’t hurt either.

That damn smell of ripe peaches had my mouth watering. I couldn’t wait to get a proper taste. My wolf pressed close to the surface, enough to have my teeth feeling a bit too sharp in my mouth, and I had to coax it back down. Having a beautiful bird run screaming from me because she caught a glimpse of a mouthful of wolf fangs wasn’t on my agenda.

I dragged her along to a circle of benches under a copse of large old trees outside the library. We were all alone, exactly the way I wanted her. The clock was ticking and the sooner I could romance her, the sooner we could get naked. I wondered if students really had sex in the stacks at the library as I’d seen in movies. That sounded like fun to me.

Sex of any sort sounded like fun. There was no way I was waiting until my mating ceremony like my father insisted. One too many half-royal pups running around the castle, thanks to more randy cousins, and he had me and my social life under lock and key.

All I ever did was train, hunt, train some more, and make the occasional appearance where I had to pretend to be a mere human.

This tour of America, undercover or not, and this girl were my one chance to lose my virginity before I was mated. I pulled her down onto my lap. “What’s your name, love?”

She squirmed as if uncomfortable sitting on my leg, but I wrapped my arms around her plump rear end and held her tight.

“Anastasia, like the princess, but people call me Stacia. You’re from England, right? Or, oh, I guess you could be from some other part of Europe, but I’m pretty good at telling the difference. Geez, you’ve got me all flustered, I’m rambling and I haven’t even asked your name.” Her cheeks went pink, and I wanted to cup them between my hands and feel their warmth.

“I’m—” I had it all planned out that I would call myself some working man’s name like Harry or George. But I didn’t want to lie to her. I wasn’t sure my wolf would let me if I tried. Nobody ever saw me for me, and just once I wanted someone to. “I’m Bash.”

Thank fuck for my years at Eton and Cambridge for teaching me a British accent I could hide behind. It all added to the exchange student disguise. Ladies all around the world went a little weak in the knees for that James Bond thing. Or so the media led me to believe. I might as well give that a try. “I’ll say whatever you like and be from wherever you want me to be if you’ll kiss me.”

“What? Me?” Stacia scrambled off my lap and stood up. Her mouth hung open, and she stared at me. She looked around like I was talking to someone else.

I snagged her arms and gave them a tug to pull her between my legs. “Definitely you.”

“Oh... oh.” She blinked a bunch of times and glanced at me sideways through those long lashes.

Did she genuinely not know how gorgeous she was? How refreshing. The upper-class wolftresses in my social circles knew exactly how good looking they were and how to use that to their advantage. Every move, every scent, used to the best advantage. Not Stacia. Even her nickname was the opposite of the posh toddy’s looking to become the next Princess of Bashkiria.

I took her face between my hands and brought her mouth down to mine. Her breath was spicy cinnamon and coffee, and I couldn’t wait to taste her. Her lips parted on a soft sigh and her eyes fluttered shut. I brushed my bottom lip across hers and it was like electricity.

Her tongue darted out and my brain shut down, gobsmacked. My cock grew so hard I thought it was going to bust out. I sure as hell wanted it to. I needed her hands wrapped around me, or even better, her luscious mouth. My teeth pricked the inside of my lips, and I had to take a few deep breaths.

My wolf wanted me to bite her, to claim her, and I couldn’t. Not just because I was lying to her about who and what I was, or that Stacia wasn’t likely to react well to me sinking me teeth into her throat, but also because the future King of Bashkiria would be mated in a public ceremony to a wolftress, one chosen by my parents. That was my duty, what my country demanded.

But this right here, with Stacia warm and sweet and in my arms, smelling of peaches, that could be just for me.

I was about to drag her inside the building and see if I couldn’t find one of those dark corners and get her legs wrapped around my waist, but her phone went off with the tune of ‘God Save the Queen’ and all my plans and my cock went crashing down.

“Sorry. Crap.” She grabbed the offending thing out of her jeans pocket and glanced at it. “I gotta go to work. Dammit.”

“Can’t you skive off?” I would quite happily spend the entire rest of the day and into the night exploring her mouth and every single one of her curves.

Except for the part where I was supposed to be hunting the one-bloods. Only a woman this… perfect could make me forget my duties.

“Skive? Oh, you mean skip work? Like play hooky? Not if I want to pay rent. Broke student, remember?” Her phone chirped again with another notification tone. “Ooh. Look, breaking news from the BBC. They’ve found the car Prince Ruslan was last seen in right nearby in Rogue. Holy crap.”

Holy crap indeed. She’d already mentioned knowing about Prince Ruslan. But thus far my disguise of glasses and the student athlete clothes had worked. It might not hold up if she was staring right at a picture of me. I made like I was grabbing her phone to see the news story and fumbled it right onto the corner of the concrete bench. Crack, the screen shattered. Perfect. “Damn. Sorry, love.”

“Oh no. It’s a broken mess. Dumb thing. I guess I’ll have to go whore myself out to get it fixed tomorrow.” She frowned at the thing glumly.

“What?” Was she actually that hard up for money? That must just be an Americanism. “No. It’s my fault. Why don’t you let me get it fixed and I’ll bring it to you at your place of employment?”

Which, of course, I couldn’t do with the whole no money, no phone of my own, and no credit cards thing. But I couldn’t have her looking up the news about me. Once the one-bloods had been taken care of, I would have a new one sent to her with my apologies. No, better to do that anonymously.

“Is that your sly way of getting my number and asking to see me later? Because I say yes to both.” Her smile was as wide as the gap between our two worlds.

I pulled her down for another kiss. “You’re quite clever for figuring me out. I definitely want to see more of you.”

For a second, I didn’t think my wolf would let me let go. I wanted to tug her closer, to mark her, keep her. It took more effort than I was proud of to pry my fingers off her and let her move away.

“Why does everything you say sound both naughty and all proper at the same time?” She nipped at my bottom lip. “Wanna walk me to work? The Wolves’ Den is just on the other side of campus.”

She had a very cheeky grin that I wanted to look at for a long, long time.

“I’d rather tuck away with you and be as you say, naughty. But I shall pull on every bit of my proper upbringing and escort you to work.” I had no desire to do anything but strip her naked and taste every inch of her. I knew I didn’t have much time left, but if it meant I got to spend more time with her, I would walk her to the Bashkiria and back.

The tip across campus would have to do. It would give me the opportunity to sniff around. Twice already the one-bloods had come for one of the wolves’ human mates at the Moon Bean.

It was half of the reason why the Wolf Tzar had called my family in to help. His mother, the Troika matriarch, owned the little shop, and while she had been sly and instrumental in the revolution and take down of the Volkovs, she was only one wolftress. Against a band of thugs, she was a target. As were the women who worked for her.

I nuzzled Stacia’s neck before letting her up, and when she stood, I took her hand. I doubted I’d ever get an opportunity to walk hand-in-hand with a sweetheart ever again, and I was going to soak up every bit of a whirlwind romance with my American girl.