W hen Cain stops at the military-looking border, I can see one of the first results of our marriage agreement. Patrols of both kingdoms are talking and laughing together, instead of fighting as they have been for the past thousand years.

They saw us coming, and two of them are walking up the road we need to pass.

I hop off the bike and take off my helmet. I need a break anyway.

“Alpha Asher,” one of them bows, and I hear Cain’s scowl behind me.

I send him a look over my shoulders. He’s still on the bike, but took off his helmet.

I recognize the patrolling warrior as well.

“Damien, how’s the change?” I ask him with a smile.

“Boring but so good, Alpha. We are making new friends,” he nods his head at the other guy, whose cold demeanor suits the rogue warrior.

“She’s not your Alpha anymore,” says Cain loudly, still behind me.

“Never was, Your Highness, but respect still stands,” Damien says back, firmly but politely, making me proud.

I send him a smile. “We are invited for Gregory’s birthday.”

“Just the two of you, Alpha? No protection?”

“Rogue Alpha Prince doesn’t need babysitters to be safe, Damien,” the rogue guy says with a smirk .

“It’s still weird,” Damien shrugs, “You are the most important people in the kingdoms, Alpha.”

I haven’t thought about that before, but he has a point. It is unusual for the Alpha or the Prince to go anywhere without his most trusted warriors. Heck, they had their whole entourage last time—to the point my dad had to spread rumors about some knights' cosplay convention, so they could pass without human interference. Sure, it was before signing the peace deal, but still, no backup at all seems extreme.

I look at Cain again and shrug.

“We’re fine. No one is stupid enough to attack us. And if they are, they won’t live for long. So, can we pass?”

“Of course, Alpha. I’ve already got orders from Prince Gregory to let you in.”

Huh, I’m gone for five seconds, and Greg is already giving orders by himself right and left… I go back to sit behind Cain with a spring in my step, and we ride off after putting our helmets on.

As soon as we enter the first city of my former Kingdom, I feel ripped out of the fairytale.

Okay, maybe my fairytale is full of ruthless rogues and rapes in the dining hall; but I’m still a princess forced to live in a medieval-looking castle in the middle of a weird wolf-filled town. My new reality doesn’t feel real.

Now, when I’m thrust back into normal, modern civilization—with electricity, movie theaters, the internet, and Uber drivers… it all doesn’t feel real anymore either.

It’s not long before Cain parks his bike in front of one of the royal family’s summer mansions.

There are already a lot of cars in front of the light-up building, and by the buzz coming from the inside, I assume we are the last to arrive.

“Don’t smoke in the palace, and if you need a whore you have to call her a sex worker,” I say, standing up and taking off my helmet.

“Why would I need a whore? I already brought one with me.”

I look at him, not amused.

“What? Not funny?”

I crack a smile. “Okay, it was a tiny bit funny. But don’t even try to drop those kinds of jokes around my parents.”

Cain unlocks our bag and takes something from the storage under the seat. His leather-bound notebook.

“Your whole demeanor has changed,” he says, biting into an apple while looking at me apprehensively.

“What do you mean?”

“You are stiff as fuck.” He bites the fruit again and throws the rest into the bush nearby.

Where the fuck does he always get these apples anyway?

I turn the knob on the front doors, and they open. The only guards we met were stationed by the gate, and the hall is only dimly lit. All the guests must sit in one of the living rooms, or maybe they are eating dinner—it is getting late.

“Come on, let’s find someone who will locate us first,” I hold the doors for Cain, who is carrying our bag.

We are at the corner when I notice my favorite head, full of black coily curls, coming out from one of the many guest rooms.

“That’s my cousin,” I whisper to Cain immediately, “You will have the urge to kill her, but please don’t hurt her. Even when she says ‘totally’ for the gazillionth time.”

She turns around and smiles widely when she notices me.

“Officer Asher!” She screams, without any ounce of military respect. “My favorite Rogue Slayer girl!” She runs into my embrace, a basket filled with a bunch of stuff under her arm.

“Hi, Ella,” I hug her, hoping Cain won’t ever ask me about that nickname.

“You have a very hot bodyguard,” she starts shamelessly ogling unbothered-looking Cain, definitely not knowing what Rogue Prince looks like.

I didn’t either until we met, and she wasn’t in the palace then—so I don’t blame her. Also, I don’t correct her because that is kind of funny and I’m curious when she’ll get who he really is.

“Honestly, Ash, that’s so weird that you are married now, I wasn’t ready!”

“And I was?” I ask rhetorically, “What do you have here? Oh my Goddess, a phone?! You are a lifesaver.”

I start unpacking her gift, and login to my cloud account to retrieve all my data. I don’t even care what Cain thinks about it. I’m not a prisoner.

Right?

“After you didn’t give a sign of life for more than a day, I figured your phone must be crushed or something. Wait, Rogue Prince lets you spend time alone with such a cookie?” She asks with a raised brow, still staring at the wall of muscles behind me.

“You should see his hot Gamma, that’s always—” I start to joke, but she interrupts me…

“I bet he is all tattooed if you’re mentioning him,” she says with a knowing grin.

Fuck. It turned against me way too quickly. I glance back at Cain—he could get an Oscar for that bodyguard part.

“I bet your husband has a huge… ego if he lets you spend time with them. Does he? Have? A huge… ego? If you know what I mean.”

I roll my eyes at her not-so-subtle dick question.

“There is also nothing wrong with an average size, Ella.”

“Yeah, right. Guess which bedroom you guys got! The Gray one! When will your husband show up? I’m a little bit scared of him.”

“You should be. Are my parents not coming?” I can’t hide the disappointment in my voice, hearing their usual room is available.

“Oh, no, they are already here, but I guess marrying the most ruthless guy in the world gives you some privileges.” She laughs at her own joke.

“Hey, they canceled my cards,” I notice, while trying to order new high heels with express delivery. I didn’t have room to pack any.

“Technically, you are no longer in the family,” Ella shrugs.

“I guess so…”

“What do you need,” she looks over my screen, “Shoes? I can lend you a pair.”

“You and your tiny feet can’t lend me anything,” I laugh.

Cain throws something at me, and I catch it on impulse. I pause, looking at it. Black credit card with a fake name.

“Can we afford it?” I show him the screen. He nods, looking me in the eyes without a single glance at the sum I try to show him.

Someone’s loaded.

Or doesn’t know my shopping spree capabilities.

“So, how’s the sex with the beast?” Ella asks with a smirk, and I look up at her from my phone, taken aback. “Did you do it already, or do you have some non-sex pact? I bet he took you the first night. That totally sounds like him! What? Oh. Sorry… is it… a touchy subject?”

I shake my head at the veiled sexual misconduct accusation.

“No, he’s very considerate actually,” I said, according to the truth, wondering how much more patience Cain has before he’ll admit his true identity and cut Ella’s head off.

“That’s all you have to say? Oh, come on! We grew up together. You can totally tell me!”

I roll my eyes. “We grew up together, I can’t tell you.”

“I heard he takes all the new sex workers on the dining table in front of everyone, to check if they are good enough. Is that true? ”

I look at my dear cousin, completely dumbfounded.

“Um… I… I can’t take that picture out of my head now, thank you.”

Cain snorts with laughter, and Ella gives him a wink. Oh, my Goddess.

“So, how is your new mansion? Is it bad?”

“It’s… it’s medieval,” I say nodding. “We live in a castle.”

She looks at me blankly.

“But are there modern clothes?”

I think back to all the waist-conformed dresses that all the women working in the castle wear.

“It’s medieval,” I repeat simply.

“But there are modern clothes, right?”

I laugh at her.

“Oh, you bought me this, too?” I exclaim, looking back at the basket she gave me. There is a box of my favorite pink coloring shampoo.

“Yeah, I thought you may want to return to your roots for the few days with us. It will wash off before you have to go back.”

I’m not sure what Cain would say about my strawberry blonde hair being literally pink, or why I even care, but I thank her anyway. It was very thoughtful.

“Do you want to say hi to everyone?” Ella asks.

“Oh, no way. I didn’t marry the Rogue Alpha Prince himself, to not be able to make some big dramatic entrance.”

Ella chuckles.

“Okay, I’ll text you when everyone is ready. You have about two hours before the cocktail party starts. ”

“Cocktail party? Is it only for family or—”

“It will be more like family dinner, actually. But tomorrow, pretty much all young Alphas will be here for the main party. And on Tuesday, there is this birthday brunch, family only as well, I think. See you! Oh, I love your new hairstyle, by the way, so edgy!”

She kisses my cheek, and gives Cain another wink before running back to wherever she came from.

I guess any hair shorter than the waist is edgy for a princess.

“She’s a lot, I know,” I pat Cain’s chest as soon as she’s out of our vision, and start leading the way to The Gray Room.

“How old is she?”

“Eighteen. She’s a princess too, but not in the direct line of inheriting a throne, so… she does what she wants, let’s leave it at that.”

“Do you like her?” he surprises me with his question. I didn’t think he would care.

“I do like her, yeah. I know she’s… a lot, but she was always the closest girl to me, even more than my sisters. Who are all younger than her, by the way.”

I push open the doors at the end of the third-floor corridor to reveal an awesome, massive master bedroom with a double shower behind a glass wall. Everything is decorated in shades of grey with a few mixed metal accents. It is very modern and manly, but I absolutely love it.

I jump on the bed with kid-like happiness that doesn’t last long because someone decides to throw a duffle bag at me.

“Hey!”

“I’m going to take a shower. Being your bodyguard is exhausting,” Cain says, taking off his clothes.

I push the bag off me and stare at his massive silhouette behind an already lightly steamy glass wall.

Oh, fuck it… I take my clothes off, too, and join him there.

I tie my hair in a tiny top knot, and put the other showerhead on to relax under the warm stream of fresh water I missed so much. I take one of the guest body wash bottles and lather up my skin with apricot foam. It feels like I’m someone else. Someone I used to be before all of that .

It all feels so weird since we crossed that border a few hours before. I thought it would make me feel better, but I just feel more confused about myself than ever before.

“Come to me,” Cain says with his husky voice, but I’m not moving from my spot.

“No, uh-uh. I’m fine here,” I banter, and he growls like the wolf he is. “I don’t want my hair to get wet.”

“Two shower heads defeats the whole purpose of sharing a shower,” he says, annoyed, and I chuckle internally.

“Your cock doesn’t agree with you, Alpha,” I say, noticing his throbbing hard-on.

He growls again, closes his eyes, and leans on the wall behind him.

I roll my eyes and step toward him, turning off his water. He doesn’t react.

I kneel on the wet, hard floor and wrap my left hand around his girth. He hisses but refuses to open his eyes or move. I lick his wet shaft from the base to the tip and moan at the taste.

That makes him open his eyes immediately. He looks down, and the water from his wet hair drips on me, but I no longer care about my hair.

I smile at him and take his cock into my mouth. It’s like the best lollipop in the world. I lick and suck and moan until he can’t take it anymore and jerks inside my mouth, spilling his hot cum on the back of my throat.

“Thank you,” he says, observing me with a hot gaze from under wet black hair strands.

I give him another long lick and a suck, not able to restrain myself.

“You’re welcome,” I stand up with a smirk, and slightly red knees, and go back under my shower to finish cleaning.

He puts his shower back on.

“I don’t know what I expected from marrying some girly princess, but it definitely wasn’t… all this,” he says suddenly with a weirdly vulnerable tone.

“This what?”

“I don’t know.” He turns the shower off.

He has to pass by me to get out, so I take advantage of that and hold his arm firmly.

“This what?” This time, my voice sounds vulnerable.

“I don’t know,” he repeats himself without looking at me, “When I met you, I knew I’d fuck you as soon as you’d let me. And, I guess, that we’d have to get close at some point because we have to share a lifetime. But I didn’t think we’d actually do all these couple-level-of-comfort things so soon. We barely know each other.”

“Do we?” I ask, deciding on a whim to be the most vulnerable I have ever been.

He frowns, not knowing what I mean.

“Do we barely know each other? We are—”

I want to tell him we are so similar that sometimes I think we know each other better than anyone else—but it’s a little bit too cheesy; and it gets stuck in my throat like a painful lump.