Page 27

W e are standing on the balcony—I try to come back to my senses while Cain seethes with anger because apparently, he feels rejected.

“Cain—”

“It’s Alpha to you!”

“Cain, come on,” I grab his arm, “That’s not fair.”

“What’s not fair is you thinking you are so above me, that you can defy your Alpha .”

I let go of his muscled arm and turn my head to the right again so he can’t see the tears that are coming down my face.

He is right. We are not equals. He is above me. I can’t tell him what I want to say right now. I can’t fight with him as a normal couple would fight. No, I have to stay quiet, bow my head, and pray to the Goddess to not be stabbed or get hit with his sword. Or knives rather.

And I do love him. A sob at that realization escapes my lips, and I cover my mouth with my hands. I feel like I can’t stop the full-on cry that is coming. So, I try to leave, head down, straight to the doors.

“You won’t leave your Alpha’s sight before he excuses you!” Cain stops me in my tracks with his authoritative, firm tone.

My lips quiver. I refuse to look at him because he does all of that to humiliate me, right?

He steps forward to me and grabs my chin with a lot of force. He moves my face up so I will look at him. But I refuse. I look down, almost closing my eyes.

He leans over and kisses my lips, but I don’t kiss him back, I refuse. He jerks my chin back up and scowls.

I slip out of his grip and fall to my knees. I want to ugly cry, but I refuse that too. Another sob escapes my lips, but I keep it together. Barely.

I look up at his angry state, our eyes suddenly meet when he looks down at me. Another quiet sob I can’t control.

He rolls his eyes, annoyed, and then does something he, as a Rogue Alpha Prince, would never do with anyone else present—he kneels right before me.

He wraps his hands around my shoulders and hooks his fingers in my hair, pulling so I keep my head up to him.

My tears are pouring down my face, but I don’t care anymore.

“Asher,” he says softly.

Just that. Just my name. I feel like breaking.

He kisses me again and this time I let him. I don’t know why. I just feel like it. I’m desperate like that, to feel anything other than the brokenness of my heart.

He seems not to care if my face is wet and salty. I don’t care either. I move my hand around his neck and pull him to me even more. The kiss is becoming hungrier and hotter every second.

“Can I take you again?” His husky voice does something to my insides.

I nod. I want that too. I just want to feel him, with all my body and I don’t want to care about anything else. I want that unbearable pain in my chest to go away.

He moves his head back, and looks at my face with his cold beautiful navy-blue eyes. He wipes my tears with his hand.

“Take me,” I’m pleading shamelessly, but full of sadness. The sadness I don’t want to feel anymore. “Take me, please. ”

He stands up, picking me up with him by my ass. My dress pulls up my thighs as I wrap my legs around his waist. My head is higher than his, and this time I’m the one to lean to kiss him.

He starts walking, going through the doors inside, but never stops kissing me. Not in the doorway, not in the hall full of people, not in the dimly lit hallway, not in the dark room we enter.

He doesn’t switch the lights on. He just strides straight to the king-size bed—where he throws me with the same force he used on our wedding night.

“Take off your clothes,” he even says the same thing.

He doesn’t have to say it twice this time. I take off my dress, strapless bralette, and boots—looking at him as my sight gets used to the dark. He’s taking his things off too.

I scoot over to him on my knees, and start helping unbuckle all the leather straps he has on today. He stops and just looks at me undressing him. I take my time, savoring the feel of his skin whenever I brush it with my fingertips. We don’t talk.

When I’m done and move back, he kneels on the bed in front of me and kisses me again. Goddess, no matter the intentions, he is damn good at it. I’m melting under his lips and tongue.

“Mmm, Cain… please…” I moan into his mouth, desperate.

He pushes me back and I want to roll over to my stomach for him, but he stops me with his hand.

He grabs my hips and pulls me a little bit closer, catches one of my stiff nipples with his teeth, and sucks before doing the same to the other one. Then, he settles between my legs and rests on his elbow by the side of my head.

He leans to kiss me again, his impressive muscles tensing, and with his other hand—positions his cock near my entrance, teasing me with the tip. He thrusts in with his own low moan, and I’m already in heaven, despite feeling so vulnerable .

He moves his free hand to my clit, buries his head in the crook of my neck, and then growls, “I love you”.

I push my hand lightly on his firm chest to make him stop moving. He does stop, and lifts his head to look at me questioningly.

Did he really say what I think he said?

He slowly starts moving inside me again, looking me in the eyes, like he is daring me to ask.

I don’t. I know he said it, I’m a werewolf, I just… I don’t want to believe it.

He loves me ? Maybe he loves sex with me.

I lift my hand to his jaw and pull him to me by his chin. We kiss again. He picks up pace both with his thrusting and circling his thumb over my clit. I already had one orgasm, but when he suddenly says “fuck!” and jerks, spilling his seed inside me, I’m too aroused by his sudden release—I climax too.

He lets me ride through my orgasm, milking his dick for quite some time—helping me with his hand until I can’t take it anymore. I’m thrashing under him, trying to get my oversensitive bundle of nerves off his torturous touch.

I can’t, I won’t, I need…

He chuckles and takes his hand off my clit, and then finally slides out. He rolls on his back beside me, leaving me sleek and dripping.

That was… intimate.

“You are wondering if I meant what I said.” He chuckles again, asshole. “You know, I would have marked you if you had said it back. I thought you would, to be honest.”

I don’t say anything, just stare, panting.

He grabs my hand and closes his eyes. “I wanted to mark you.”

I look at him curiously.

“Fuck, I still want to do it.” He snaps his eyes open, and his left hand is on my neck in no time. He leans to me, simultaneously pulling me to him, and sinks his teeth in my marking spot where my neck meets my left shoulder.

I cry out in pain and unwanted pleasure.

“You know it won’t work, right? You just harmed me without a reason,” I hiss.

He stops biting and lets me go with a pleased smile.

“You still have my semen inside of you. It might work.”

“Fuck!” I shoot right up. And indeed, something warm and sticky leaks between my legs.

“What?” He acts innocently.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” I grab my used shirt and jeans from the floor, and speed to the bathroom to wipe myself and get dressed.

I can hear him sighing and moving around the room.

“I’ll be back in half an hour,” I enter the room again. “I need to go to the drugstore.”

“What’s going on?” He has his black jeans on and looks huge and unjustifiably gorgeous.

I hesitate. There is a reason I haven’t talked to Cain about it before. He could get mad…

“We didn’t use any protection.”

I can’t believe I’ve got caught up again.

“I thought you said you… oh, you cheeky little wolf, you lied about your anticonception to my father?”

He starts putting on his shirt and leather jacket.

“Of course, I lied! I didn’t want to hear about my children being brought up to slaughter. I will kill anyone who threatens them myself if I have to!”

Cain growls.

I ignore him, grab my new phone and wallet with the card he gave me a few hours ago, and open the door.

I can hear the party still in full swing. They probably relaxed and went back to dancing and laughing after my husband left.

“Wait, I’ll go with you.”

Whatever. I run down the stairs and grab one of the keys I recognize hanging by the door, before going out to the parking lot.

“Where are you headed?” Cain asks when I pass his motorcycle.

“To my car.”

I click the key and sure enough, my light gray SUV comes to life with a beep. I don’t know who drove it here from the palace, but I’m glad they did.

I sit behind the steering wheel and start the engine. The passenger door opens and Cain hops inside. I put it in reverse and press the accelerator.

I feel Cain’s eyes on me, but I keep mine on the road.

“Are you sure you want to—”

“Take a morning-after pill?” I cut him off. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“What about killing anyone who threatens your future children?”

“Our children, asshole. You know you are stuck with me for life, right?” I correct him just to fight, I know I called them ‘mine’ before. Maybe I’m just as toxic as he is. Maybe that’s why Moon Goddess cursed me with him as a mate.

Cain just laughs at me. And it’s like a belly-shaking laugh.

“You should also know that the pill only prevents the implantation, it doesn’t harm an existing pregnancy,” I add after a moment.

“How does it actually work?” He looks out the window.

“Um, I think it does something to the wall of the uterus so the egg couldn’t, you know, attach to it?”

“Hm, ok. And are you sure you want to do that?” Cain stares at me again.

“Are you sure you want to keep asking me that?”

He sighs.

“I don’t want to be a father—” he starts talking.

“This bloodline will die with me,” I mutter quietly in a low voice, pretending to be him. He snorts with laughter.

“I don’t want it yet . But we have money, so you can do whatever you want and I can always be… absent. Either way, it’s your body—I’ll support and help you in any decision you make.”

Why is he the more mature one all of a sudden?

“Are you sure you still can’t feel your mate?” I ask, concentrating on the road, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be alive if he did.

“Are you sure you heard me when I said I don’t want to be a father?” He scoffs as if being mature was a bad thing.

“You can be mature and not want to have kids, nothing wrong with that.”

Hell, I think I don’t want kids either. Not in the world I currently live in. But I don’t say that to him. Because it is his world. Literally.

I stop in front of a human drugstore and grab my wallet and a phone.

“Can I fuck you in the car? Considering we already had to come here.”

I ignore his sudden appetite, noting he really must have been tired that last week, and get out of the car. He follows.

“Remember to act human and not intimidate them with your Alpha aura. You don’t realize it, but it’s very strong for them even if you can’t command anything. Also don’t growl or howl, they don’t do that.”

And Cain growls a lot .

“You don’t have werewolf healers?” he asks, looking at a cheaply lit-up building with a slightly disgusted look.

“We do, but I’m a princess that everyone knows, and it’s not in our best interest for them to gossip about me not wanting to get pregnant with you. Come on.”

“Oh, shit,” he abruptly stops me with his arm, “You can’t walk in like that.”

He takes off his leather jacket and puts it on me, looking at my neck with slight concern. I put my hand on the left side of it where he bit me. It’s wet, sticky, and a little bit painful to touch.

“Why isn’t it healing already?” I look at the blood on my hand, startled.

“I told you it would work.”

No, if it worked there would be a pretty metallic scar there now.

“You also told me we have to love each other for it to work, so…”

“I guess you have your answer now. And I have mine.”

He smirks and kisses me, then laughs at the annoyed face I make.

Why does he insist on making me admit I fell for him?

“Ugh, leave me alone,” I say without conviction. “It didn’t work, and you know it. I’m just too tired to heal after all you did to me today.”

“All I did? I fucked you—only twice—and it was very tame and quick, not so tiring. It was nothing. Or did you mean all the ugly crying to make me soft on you, and hard for you? Because that’s all on you, babe.”

“What the fuck, Cain? No, you know what? Fuck you!”

He laughs and I almost reach the doors, wishing I was alone right now.

“Why did you even come with me? I was perfectly capable of coming here alone. Oh my god, I am so over your toxic shit today, I can’t stand you anymore. All you do… all you do is—”

“Oh my God, woman,” he grabs my face, making me look at him, “I love you so much I can’t stand it.”

He kisses me again and then takes my hand to go inside. I follow him, dumbfounded.

He said it, again. No sex. No gain. No emotion-packed situation that clouds your judgment. Does he love me in his own fucked up way? Is it possible? How did that happen? We’ve known each other for like a week. Two, tops. I don’t even know.

“Do we really need it?”

“What do you mean? We are both alpha-blooded wolves, of course we need it!” I hiss at Cain, turning into a family-planning aisle.

Normal werewolves are less likely to have any infertility problems, but they still have to try, sometimes for many months—just as humans. Alphas though? We are fertile, alright. My siblings are perfect evidence.

“Oh, come on, I fucked hundr— I mean I fucked a lot, and I don’t have any kids yet.”

“Oh yeah, and how many other royal alpha-blooded chicks did you fuck?”

He’s silent with a stone face. I’m the only one. That’s what I thought.

I point at a poster that mentions ‘delaying the ovulation’. I was close.

“Will it work on you?” He asks skeptically looking at the ‘plan B’ boxes.

“Yes, it will,” I show him the app on my phone that tells you if something works on werewolves and if you need a standard dose or bigger, and by how much.

“Wait, that’s so cool.” He puts a huge pack of condoms into my shopping basket and takes my phone to take a better look.

“You don’t need extra large ones?” I ask about the condoms, just to mess with him, while browsing through the flavored ones. I am curious .

“Aren’t they all supposed to roll even on an arm?” He laughs lightly.

I feel how wet my shirt has become.

“Mhm,” I answer absently. My neck wound is not healing at all. Something is wrong.