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I

I’m a princess, it doesn’t affect me, I’m a princess, it doesn’t affect me, I’m a princess… I repeat my ‘school-time’ mantra that always helped me to maintain an unbothered expression.

I march to my spot on Cain’s right and sit without sparing him a glance. Beta follows me to the chair next to me.

Whipped, my ass!

I try to remain calm and start a conversation with Claudia, the beautiful brunette sex worker who always sits nearby. I know Cain used to fuck her, but she’s always nice to me. I like her, and she never flirts with him, so I kind of don’t mind their history.

She asks me something. But I can’t concentrate with the phony laugh from the girl, who I assume is a prostitute, whose hands keep wandering on my husband's half-naked, blood-spattered body. Sorry, a whore, as they call them here.

My chest feels hot inside, and I can’t stand it anymore. Her voice, her tits, her wandering hands…

“Shut the fuck up,” I draw through my teeth, with the sharp point of Cain’s sword pressed under her chin.

She goes silent instantly, her eyes stuck to the blade before her.

I spare Cain a glance, waiting for him to complain about me taking his sword without asking—but we both know he could have stopped me if he wanted to. He looks at me with amusement.

“Go away,” I add, not looking at the annoying girl. She seems to know I’m talking to her, because she scurries right away. I put the sword down .

“Someone’s jealous today,” Claudia chuckles, but chokes abruptly when Atlas comes to the table and sits on the chair between her and Cain.

“Gamma,” she says politely, staring at her plate.

“Claudia,” he replies dryly, loading his plate.

It’s the first time Atlas has come to eat with us since I moved here a week ago.

“What’s wrong with you two?” I ask with narrowed eyes.

“They were true mates,” Beta answers me.

I don’t like him, but I can always count on his loose tongue.

“ Were ? Past tense? What happened?”

This time, Claudia coughs and answers me with a bitter voice, “I made the mistake of telling him what I felt, and he rejected me with the next full moon.”

“Wait, you can do that?” I ask, and they all look at me like I’m crazy. Even Cain.

“Of course, you can,” says Atlas with a full mouth. “One of you just has to say the words of official rejection during a full moon, before you mark each other.”

“Does it hurt?” I can’t help but ask. I’m really curious, I’ve never heard about it. Well, now that I think about it, I might have heard some stories when I was a kid—I never thought anyone would ever want to do that, so I disregarded them immediately.

“No,” says Atlas.

“Yes,” says Claudia at the same time, “Like a bitch.”

“Atlas couldn’t feel his mate yet, so he didn’t feel a thing,” Beta explains, “Claudia did feel her mate, so she got hit with a double force of breaking the bond.”

“And he knew that,” she spits, looking at Atlas offensively, but her eyes still have some longing in them .

So, the tattooed guy is scared of commitment? But why did Atlas do such a thing? The whole situation seems cruel if he rejected her without her consent, or giving it a fair chance. I don’t want to ask in front of her, because she’s clearly still hurt by it. And if I’m correct, she still has some normal human emotion left for him. Maybe it’s just the attraction—he’s a fine piece of man—or perhaps she’s in love. Either way, I don’t want to rub salt into her wounds.

“I have to go,” says Cain, and puts his sword under my chin in a similar way to what I just did to his girl a few minutes ago. “Asher?”

I grab the blade with my left hand and push it back from me. “Alpha?”

Claudia gasps at the blood dripping down from my palm—straight to the wine cup and white cloth beneath, but I don’t withdraw it even with the sting of silver.

“Wait for me with a bath.”

I didn’t wait for Cain. I am woken up by him lifting me from the bed and throwing me into the lukewarm water I already used.

I want to scream, but I don’t. I clench my teeth and wait for him to scrub my body like the good girl I can be.

“We have to postpone our date,” he says in the middle of the cleaning.

Whatever. I almost forgot about it. It’s not like he can do anything romantic for me. I don’t say anything back, just stare at him.

He yanks me up from the now-cold water, and starts to dry me off with his towel. I notice he is clean already; with no sign of the blood he had at dinner. I can’t stop myself from wondering what he did after he left the hall. Did he fuck that girl then clean himself before coming back to me?

I look to the side, trying to hide the influx of my emotions.

In vain apparently. He grabs my jaw and turns my face to him .

“Asher.” A peck on my nose. “Don’t.” A chaste kiss on my cheek. “Overthink.” A searing hot kiss on my mouth.

I wrap my hands around his neck as he lifts me and turns to the bed.

He stops the kiss abruptly.

“Wait, why did you sleep naked?” he asks, looking me in the eyes.

“I was waiting for you,” I try to flirt and be offended at the same time.

He chuckles and unceremoniously throws me on the bed.

“Dress up,” he says, pointing at his black t-shirt and my black cotton panties. Hmm, he must have prepared it while I was still asleep.

I put the clothes on, but a small part of me wishes he would want me naked. I was sure he would want me naked. The pang of rejection haunts my heart.

I climb under the covers and look at him standing by his desk, where he shuffles some papers.

Maybe it’s for the better that he doesn’t want me—with the things he does, I’m not exactly in the mood either. Not with this unpleasant feeling I have since watching him let that girl touch him like that…

“Stop staring at my ass,” he says bluntly, turning to face me, and my eyes shoot up to his.

I did stare, fuck.

“What did you do after dinner?” I question him, not losing eye contact.

He smirks at me and crosses his arms over his chest.

“I had an e-meeting with your brother.”

Of course, he is using his laptop with satellite internet as he pleases, but my phone is crushed. I had to draw a calendar on some paper to be able to mark the date of my period. Not to mention, I haven’t had any contact with my family since he abducted me on a fucking horse!

“Which one?” I ask, trying to sound unbothered, but I am indeed very much bothered.

“How many do you have?”

“Azur, Ravana, Balam, Pandora, Rain, and Edana,” I recite all his dead siblings' names instead of answering his question, and lift my brow to drive a point home.

He looks at me with something that failed at being a neutral expression. Is he… mad?

“Well, the gay one,” he answers finally and smirks.

“Which one?” I smirk too.

“How many brothers do you have, to be able to have more than one gay one? Is it statistically possible?” He lowers his hands and comes to bed. “The one that invited us for his birthday.”

Gregory. We were always very close, and now I don’t even get to text him.

I turn on my side and lift my arm, so he can wrap my waist with his—like he does every night. He doesn’t, so I look back over my shoulder.

He is staring at my lifted arm like it’s a dragon or something.

“What? Alpha?”

“I… nothing.”

He finally moves closer until he is completely pressed to my back and ass. His hand dives under my loose shirt to grab one of my boobs, then he pulls me to him with his whole arm.

Who would have thought a week ago that being cuddled by the ruthless bloody Rogue Alpha Prince would be my favorite way to fall asleep; and the only time I don’t feel so broken or alone?

Looking for the connection, I move my ass a little to press into him just a little bit more.

He growls into my ear immediately.

“Stop moving your ass all over my dick, Ash, I’m too tired for that.”

When the sun comes up the next morning, Cain still holds me tight. I’m not even able to get up and go pee—his sleepy state refuses to let me go. The only thing I manage is to slide to my back and prop myself up a little bit on the pillows and headboard.

When Klara comes with my breakfast on a tray, she chuckles lightly seeing him with his head on my stomach and arms wrapped around my hips.

“No wonder, Alpha is so tired with all the time he spent in the fighting pit this week.” She puts the tray near me on the edge of the bed so I can eat over my husband's head.

“Fighting pit?” I’ve never heard about it.

“Yes, that’s where we all train, Your Highness. Alpha personally fought every single warrior and officer who came there this week.”

So he was simply exhausted and not bored with me after just one sex session? My ego is certainly feeling better.

“Thank you for the breakfast. Klara, right?”

“Yes,” she bows, “You’re welcome, your Highness.”

I smile at her, she’s about to leave but stops mid-turn.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m very excited to know a real-life princess, like from fairy tales; I’ve never known one before. You are so nice and kind, and, well, Princess Edana was already dead when I came to work here, and… anyway,” she abruptly stops talking, bows, and runs out of the bedroom, probably embarrassed by her cute rambling.

I laugh at it and Cain stirs.

“Stop shaking,” he grunts and squeezes me even tighter.

Part of me wants to put my tray on his head, but he’s the Rogue Alpha Prince, so it’s probably not advised.

I try not to drop anything on him and dig into my delicious breakfast. I miss my avocado toast, but all these eggs and butter toast they serve me here are tasty too.

I’m almost done when Cain finally stretches and wakes up. He rolls on his back first—then groans and hides under the covers, head included.

I put the tray on the book on my nightstand and want to get up, but he surprises me by roughly grabbing and parting my raised knees. Almost immediately I can feel some light pressure over my underwear, right on my vulva.

By the shape of the covers, I can see his head is between my thighs, but I have no idea what he is pressing down there. Nose? Is that what couples do? It is kind of nice…

Another growl and before I know it, I feel his tongue on my clit. He must have shoved my panties aside.

“Cain, I need to pee,” I pat his head over the covers awkwardly.

“Even better. Hold it,” he growls back, slides off my panties, and starts sucking on my tiny bundle of nerves.