Page 24

C ain chuckles, but it doesn’t reach his cold eyes. I let go of his wet arm, but he stays at my side anyway.

“Maybe we shouldn't make it weird,” I say, trying to compose myself before I betray my true feelings for him. “We are in an arranged marriage, after all. We don’t have to overthink if we are good enough to last a lifetime, as normal couples do, because we have to do it anyway—so we can just be ourselves.”

I mean what I say because it was arranged, with high stakes, so we’ll be together for the rest of our lives no matter what. We can act as we want, we can be ourselves, and we don’t need to pretend to make it last—because there is nothing that could change our fate. Nothing but death.

“You might be right, and we are definitely more similar than I originally thought,” he says, surprising me with honesty and guessing so well what I was really thinking in the first place.

His natural lemony scent breaks through all the apricot wash fumes, and I am struck with the sour reminder that he is my true mate, and I should be way more careful with my feelings than I just was.

He grabs my jaw to tilt my head up and gives me a chaste kiss.

“Hmm, you still taste like me. I like it.”

He pulls back and looks into my eyes as if searching for something. I remain unbothered, I learned from the best.

He finally grabs one of the guest towels and leaves me to myself .

“What the fuck?” He says after a few minutes, when I’m done with my shower and wrapping myself in the softest towel I’ve ever used.

I look up.

Cain is standing in front of a gigantic bed. He throws everything out of our duffel bag and holds parts of his infamous warrior gear.

“Where’s my suit? I packed it before—”

“You don’t need a suit. You are my Rogue Alpha Prince, and all the evening semi-formal wear doesn’t concern you.”

He looks at me with annoyance, and I have to stifle a laugh.

“Don’t act like you didn’t have at least ten different knives under that leather jacket today, Alpha. I could feel them when I was hugging you. Also, don’t act like you want to fit in because we both know you would rather wear your intimidating gear, than some boring suit.”

“I thought you would want me to fit in,” he says, but starts pulling black leather pants over his boxer briefs with a content smile.

He likes what I did .

“I want you to be you. Just don’t kill my family, please,” I say jokingly, but I MEAN IT WITH ALL MY HEART.

He shoots me another annoyed look.

“Forget about something?” he asks when I finish pulling on my black velvet, figure-hugging, knee-length, open-back, high-neck halter dress.

“I had to forgo all of my underwear and pajamas to fit that fur thing in,” I tilt my chin to his cape.

He bursts out laughing and wraps his arms around me.

“Little wolf,” he says into my hair, “You should have started our official meeting by telling me you don’t wear panties under sexy dresses at family reunions, and you wouldn’t have had to lie about not being a virgin.”

I huff with annoyance, still in his arms.

“I wasn’t a virgin. I told you already under the command,” I twist the truth into this convenient lie.

“Yeah, your mate. Will he be here tomorrow?”

I look at him blankly. Shit. I will have to thread a thin line so he won’t corner me with more Alpha command questions.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m here with you. By the way, what do you want me to call you when we are not alone? Your Highness?”

He lets me go and starts attaching knives to his leather chest-crossing belts.

“ My Rogue Alpha Prince has a nice ring to it,” he says with a crooked smile.

Oh, my Goddess, I’m screwed if he keeps smiling at me like that.

And if I have to say such a mouthful in every sentence.

“Okay, my Rogue Alpha Prince, but only if you’ll call me your little wolf,” I sit down at the vanity table to fix my damp hair.

“I set the rules here… my little wolf.”

As soon as we leave The Gray guest bedroom, Cain’s whole demeanor changes. I almost forgot how cold he can really be. But here he is, bursting with ruthless energy. The real him.

I genuinely believe this is his most authentic form. Not the sexy man he can sometimes be behind closed doors; that’s what he does for me, mainly to play with my brain. The true him is the one that can put a knife to my throat if I forget to call him the Alpha.

It’s not an act if he’s willing to strike a blow.

“Let’s take the middle doors,” I say, when we turn to the corridor by the ball hall, trying to shake off the unpleasant dread his cold navy-blue eyes just gave me. “They open to the inside so we can make a grand entrance.”

“Why is the ball hall on the same floor as the best bedrooms? ”

“Um, I guess because of the balconies? They look at the gardens, and it’s… cute?”

Did I just try to convince Rogue Prince of something by telling him it is cute? Oh my Goddess, I think I’m getting nervous.

I’m better than that! I shake my head and grab the gold handles of the double white doors. “Ready?”

He smacks my ass so hard it jiggles. “Now I am. Are you?”

I push the doors with a lot of force and stinging ass cheek—we are immediately drowned in music, laughter, and conversations. The last two abruptly end, exchanged for a few gasps, when the doors open with a bang.

I walk in with my head high and my confidence even higher. I’m a princess, I’m an Alpha, I’m a Rogue Prince’s wife —I chant in my head, while sending a slight smile to everyone.

There is a group of my cousins, mostly Royal Beta’s kids, drinking with my brother at the bar. My parents are standing with their beta by one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. There is a group of my other siblings dancing their lives out, among them my cousin, Ella.

“Fuck, I’m totally fucked!” she says loudly, when her sight stops behind my right arm, where Cain is.

I look back at him with a smirk. He’s very tall, imposing, and painfully attractive. His leather pants, straps holding knives, fur cape, and combat boots make him look as dangerous as he really is.

He steps to me and takes my right hand in his.

“Let’s go meet your mother,” he says with a perfectly unbothered look, and leads me to my parents, “I haven’t had the pleasure yet.”

My dad sends a firm stare to everyone else, and the family party slowly goes back to normal.

“Your Majesties,” Cain nods at my parents and ignores the beta, so I send him a polite smile.

He’s my uncle and my dad’s younger brother, but also, I have always liked him.

“So good to finally see you two together as a married couple,” says my father with a nod, as if we had been engaged for ten years, not ten hours.

“Congratulations,” my mom hugs me and sends a timid smile to Cain, who surprisingly takes her hand to kiss it.

“Now, I see whose genes make my wife so beautiful,” he says with a wink, and because of his devouring eyes, it sounds nothing like an overused polite thing men always try to say to their mothers-in-law.

No, he intended for it to sound very dirty, and he completely delivered. My mom’s flushed face says everything, and I fight to stop myself from laughing. She can be shy for a Queen sometimes, but she is not easily flustered, never was.

I’m sure my dad would punch him straight in the face if Cain was anyone other than the Rogue Prince himself.

“Thank you for the lemons, Dad,” I say, trying to defuse the situation and enjoying not having to call him a King, Majesty, or Alpha every time I address him outside of closed doors.

“Yes, we had a lot of fun with them in the bedroom.” Cain sends another dirty wink.

Seriously?

“Not in bed…”

“Right, it was on the bed,” he says, looking amused at my now-flustered face.

“Technically, it was all over the room—” I bite my tongue, realizing I walked into that trap all by myself.

“What? We are all werewolves here, very sexual creatures,” he continues with a shrug, clearly having fun embarrassing me before my parents.

I burst into nervous laughter and put my free hand on Cain’s bare peck.

“Ca—, Your Highness, stop. Please. ”

Goddess, I almost called him by his name. If looks could kill, I would be a dead woman by now,—I try not to be bothered by it until I really have to.

“Okay, for real, Ash, what did you do with the lemons?” My mom asks.

Why does it sound like she hopes to get some kinky tips?

“We were throwing them in the air and cutting them in half with my Rogue Alpha Prince’s sword.” It’s probably too late to save myself by using his whole title like he wanted, but a girl can hope, right?

My mom chuckles, but it doesn’t distract me from my dad’s weird tick at the sound of that bloody sword. It took so many lives of his loyal subjects, including my own warriors. Is he surprised I said we both used it? And for fun, too.

I notice my father’s beta looks lower with narrowed eyes, and I realize I still hold my left hand on Cain, and he is holding my right one in his. That’s probably too intimate for two enemies after just a week of knowing each other, I suddenly feel like a fucking traitor.

“Let’s go to the man of the hour,” I propose with a polite smile, and Cain nods at my parents before turning me around.

We have a good half of the ballroom to get to the group of very young people at the bar section, and he takes advantage of not being in anyone’s whisper-hearing distance. Not with this loud pop music, anyway.

“One more slip-up and I’ll draw blood from your tongue,” he says, biting playfully at my earlobe. I shudder under his tongue’s touch, and it’s nothing to do with pleasure.

I’m scared knowing Cain can actually do that. I vividly imagine my tongue getting cut, and I shudder again. Judging by his subtle smirk, it’s precisely the reaction he wanted.

Gregory gets off his bar stool and comes to meet us halfway. He greets Cain first, as if they are good friends, and it makes me wonder how many of these e-meetings they had been having before yesterday.

Why don’t I get to contact my family, other than by the messages sent through the creepy Rogue King ?

“Why does Ella look like a fucking ghost right now?” Greg asks, looking behind me, just after we had wished him a happy birthday.

I look over my shoulder, and there she is, all pale and terrified—highly contrasting with the group of talking and laughing people that surround her. It’s very typical for Gregory to spend time with my cousins, and Ella to spend it with the rest of my siblings. They always switched like that.

Still, Greg is my favorite sibling, and on some level, I’m even closer to him than her. Always was, growing up together with not even a year in our age difference.

“Oh, I let her think my Rogue Alpha Prince is just a bodyguard, while she ate him with her horny eyes.”

Greg bursts into laughter. “Good one! Your Highness, do we all have to call you our Rogue Alpha Prince, too?” he asks Cain with a playful wink.

“I’m not your Alpha, so just Rogue Prince or Your Highness is fine,” Cain doesn’t go easy on Greg either, but my brother doesn’t seem to be bothered by it in the slightest.

If anyone here thinks they can be friends with Ruthless Rogue Prince, it is for sure my brother Greg. He likes everyone and is the sole reason why I used to be so confident of inheriting my father’s Alpha King throne over him.

Don’t get me wrong, he would be a good King. Will be. Just not as great as I would.

“Do you want to come to sit with—? Asher, I think you need to go talk to Ella before she pees herself at my party,” Greg says, moving his eyes to our cousin again.

I look at Cain for permission, he nods.

“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of your Rogue Alpha Prince. Or he’ll kill us or something,” Greg snickers at me, at least not pointing out the humiliation of having to ask for permission for everything, then turns to Cain, “Right, your Highness? ”

I never thought I would be so unnerved by parting ways with my sick prick of a husband, but I guess I’m more concerned with my family’s life than my own.

I give Cain a last uncertain look, praying to the Moon Goddess for him to not lose patience with my carefree brother.