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W hat the actual fuck?

Has the Alpha Rogue Prince really just asked me about my sexual experience? Not only in general, but also in front of my dad, the King, and future father-in-law, another King, at the official political meeting? What an asshole. I can't believe it.

I look at my father for some reassurance of how ridiculous it is, but he doesn't spare me a glance. I know what that means. Of course. He wants me to say whatever I have to say to secure the deal. No matter if I lose the rest of my dignity in the process.

I’m realizing that as soon as I entered the throne hall today, I stopped being his daughter anymore. In his eyes, I am already sold to the Rogues for the peace he so desperately needs for his people.

Fine.

"Of course, I'm not a virgin. I'm twenty, Your Highness," I cover my lie in a blanket of truth, telling the Rogue Prince what he wants to hear.

But it is a lie. I lied so much. I'm not a saint, but of course, I am a virgin. I'm still young, and I've been waiting for my true mate!

Rogue Prince won't be able to tell the difference anyway. It's not medieval times to pretend you can check it. I just have to act confident enough to fool him. No problem, I can be confident.

He glances at me with an unreadable look, but I'm not worried about the consequences of that lie at all. There's not any, because he'll never be able to tell .

There are no consequences except for my dignity—virgin or not. Talking about your sexual life in front of so many people you should not talk about sex with ever at all, is just the icing on the cake here.

I can live with that as long as we strike a deal that would benefit all werewolves everywhere.

Now, looking at my mate—knowing he will actually be the only one I'll ever have sex with—I suddenly regret not sleeping around while I still had a chance. Just to not give him the satisfaction of having me in that special way, I guess.

I could have had my first sex with some caring, kind, and handsome guy that I liked —I think, with a growing angriness inside of me.

Well, at least Rogue Prince is handsome. I have to give him that . Too handsome, actually. I am pretty sure that, objectively speaking, he is better-looking than I am. At least if I have no makeup on. Whatever. It's not the end of the world to have sex with someone that attractive—

Wait, why are they staring at me again?

"Excuse me, My Lords?" I realize someone must have asked me a question. I lean my head slightly in fake submission, second-guessing choosing the 'lords’ word to address them.

“What were you thinking about?” asks the Rogue Prince, completely ignoring my title, or any royal social norms, as if he was a king himself.

I bow again mockingly.

“How handsome you are, Your Highness,” I almost snort with laughter when I say it, but stop myself early enough to politely mark it as a cough.

Maybe not early enough…

Rogue Prince takes his sword out with inhuman speed and puts the end of its cold blade under my chin, bringing my face up with the force of it.

Our royal guards react immediately, raising their weapons, but not soon enough. He would have killed me already if he wanted, and we all know it .

“Don’t worry, guys, my future husband just likes it rough,” I say defiantly, looking into the dark and emotionless navy-blue eyes of my true mate.

I banter, because apparently, I don’t know any better.

My dad facepalms, abandoning his strictly royal appearance for a moment. Then somehow decides to turn my sudden insubordination for the win, because he says with a sigh, “I guess they are perfect for each other, so do we have a deal?”

Rogue King laughs, and the prince takes his bored eyes off my face—then finally, his sword off my chin.

I release the breath I’ve had to hold to not get accidentally cut.

“Yeah, we have a deal, but I won’t sign anything until we discuss the details about that access to your resources…”

I can’t stop staring at the Alpha Rogue Prince while our fathers try to determine the final details—all four of us sitting around the big oak table and a laptop in the center of my father’s royal office. I stopped caring about what they were saying after they decided on the date of the doomed wedding, despite my protests. So, I sit and stare. Why not?

With all of his leather, fur, belts, and metals, he looks more like a Viking—from the TV show my maids are recently obsessing over—than a werewolf.

Why is he not staring back? This pull I can feel between us is hard to ignore. Is he really listening to the conversation? Maybe he is. He is a future Rogue King, after all.

I don’t have to keep attention, not anymore , I think bitterly, still sour about the abrupt change of all my life plans.

Or maybe he really can’t feel the mate pull I’m feeling toward him?

If he could feel the pull, and I didn’t have to ignore mine, we would already be all over each other like any other mated werewolf pair. Or maybe—I don’t know, I can’t comprehend my own feelings right now, let alone the feelings of my biggest enemy .

I don’t really know what I’m signing with my name and the Royal Alpha Princess title when they are finally done. I don’t care. I don’t have a say in any of it. Not really.

“Let me do it,” I say, taking the scroll with the deal as soon as all four of us has signed it.

I want to secure it before I say something stupid again—something that would finally offend the Rogue King enough to withdraw from the settlement we worked on for so many hours. My back hurts. And I am a self-healing werewolf, so that’s saying something.

“Any questions before you move to my land today?” the Rogue King asks me suddenly while I roll the scroll, after I took a picture of it and send it to the royal server. His voice is nice, but he won’t fool me. He is the King of the Rogues, after all. No one should trust him.

Today , I repeat in my mind. I was still a little bit numb after the Kings decided that it would be best to move with our wedding as soon as possible, to avoid any potential planned assassination attempts.

They are right but moving there today?! I thought I would still have some time before I’d become his property.

I put my phone back into the hidden pocket in my dress. I start opening my mouth to ask one of many questions I have about their way of life. The place of women in their society, and my future duties as their Luna—wife of the Rogue Alpha Prince, but before I can decide where to start, said Rogue Alpha Prince, and asshole-of-a-mate, interrupts me rudely with his annoyingly sexy deep voice.

“You have one question, choose wisely.”

It takes all I have to not roll my eyes at him. I am moving across the world to a foreign, dangerous land, and he has a problem with me asking too many questions about it?! Screw it. Screw him!

Oh, you will, later tonight , says my unhinged wolf part, buried in the depths of my brain. Now she is talking? Where was she when I had to negotiate for my—for our— lives with three medieval-acting men?!

I turn to the Rogue King with an unruffled look.

It’s unnerving how much he looks like his son, the only differences being his older age and the light color of his skin. Well, and the fact he doesn’t make me wet. He is too scary for that, even for me.

“In that case, Your Majesty, I want to know why you had all your children fight to the death for only one place as a true heir. Isn’t it a little bit, well, risky to leave only one living heir?”

I can feel my future husband—the one who famously killed all of his siblings—glare at me; but I don’t give him the satisfaction of looking back at him.

“And who would hurt my one and only heir if he, as proven by the mentioned affair, is the strongest werewolf in the world, my child?” asks the Rogue King with an irritable smugness.

I am not your child, you fucker . I think it, but don’t say it. I politely smile instead.

“I don’t know, Your Majesty. Weren’t you afraid that his future wife—before you knew that would be me, of course, would stab him in his sleep, perhaps? Your Majesty. Respectfully.” I dip my chin.

“Enough!” My dad uses Alpha King’s command in his voice, making me physically unable to speak more. He looks at me firmly, like he wants to make sure I know I can’t keep acting that way if I want to live safely. And maybe he’s right. “You will now pledge your allegiance to your new king, as promised, and then we will both withdraw our troops from newly made neutral ground.”

Rouge King snorts as if it’s funny. It’s not.

“I’m not offended. I know she will be an obedient little wolf as soon as I become her Alpha. Let her have her last minutes of freedom,” Rogue King says with a dismissing wave of the hand, and my blood boils, “But I must say, I am surprised she’s not as timid as I thought your daughter would be, even better for my son’s needs. But don’t worry, we’ll fix her. She’ll be a good little girl in no time.”

I can’t help but wince at all the sexual innuendos my future father-in-law just said to my dad . Even better for his son’s needs ? I feel so furious and helpless that I want to cry. Or scream. Or both.

I look at my promised mate, future husband, and the biggest prick—Rogue Alpha fucking Prince—to gather what he might have been thinking about all of that, but he is occupied by looking at one of my maids with his undressing eyes.

Seriously?

I almost forgot that all my humiliation was observed by the servants, both ours and theirs, standing by the walls of the royal office. I am so used to it. They are everywhere, always.

“Sarah, go and start packing. Just for me.” I tell the maid the Rogue Prince is eye-fucking, but I don’t look at her. I am looking at him to see his reaction when he realizes I’m sending her away from his hot gaze.

“My lady?” Sarah asks confused, probably still thinking she has to move with me—I heard her talking about it with someone else.

Rogue Prince smirks knowingly. He actually smirks!

I won’t ask twice, and Sarah knows that. So, she quickly bends down with respect and does what I asked of her in the first place.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice my dad dares to look at me with concern.

“Yes, Your Majesty?” I ask my dad with a proper title, so he can keep pretending he doesn’t care as much as he does.

That’s what I am for.

“You should consider bringing a maid with you.”

“I’m fine on my own, Your Majesty, thank you.”

My dad looks at me skeptically, King of the Rogues with slight interest, and Rogue Prince looks smug as if he is still bathing in the knowledge that I was jealous of the maid situation.

I wasn’t. Well, maybe I was, a little, but that is not why I don’t want to bring a maid with me. No. It’s because I’ve heard the stories of how women are treated on their side of the border .

They won’t harass me, probably, but nothing would stop them from harassing any other girl without royal blood, like my maid—especially if she’s from our kingdom?still innocent and pure in their eyes.

Perfect for breaking.

No, I can’t do that to any of them. They don’t deserve it. Plus, I hate that Sarah always calls me ‘My Lady’. I can stomach ‘Your Highness’—but not that. I’m no lady. I’m an Alpha.

Rogue Alpha Prince suddenly stands up, honoring us with his godly tallness.

Goddess, how much I hate this gorgeous prick!

“We have to hurry if we want to have this wedding today, as established in the deal we all signed. I hope you know how to ride a horse,” he says and snaps fingers at one of their entourage, who immediately runs out of the office with his head bent down as low as he can.

I exchange confused looks with my dad. I thought they would take me to their Rogue Land after the wedding.

“What do you mean by—” my dad starts asking, but I already know what is going on over here based on the knowing, proud smirk on Rogue King’s face.

“Well, you never said anything about the wedding taking place here, did you?” he asks, but somehow, I know he only rolls with whatever his son just said.

“I knew you were too compliant for it to be good and true! You know I can’t just drive to your foreign land on a whim without preparations, and you are already here. What’s with this nonsense?!” My father is losing his temper, probably never thinking that he would lose not only me—his oldest child—but also the whole experience of giving my hand in a beautiful marriage ceremony, surrounded by friends and family.

Rogue King is staring at my father with a crooked smile. Finally, he nods at his son, the one who suggested the whole thing, now, I was pretty sure, on a whim. Just for fun to mess with me and my dad.

Bastards.

“It’s okay, Dad. Don’t worry, as I’ve already said, I’m perfectly fine on my own,” I say with the most compliant and calm voice I can master in this fucked up situation.

I want my family at my wedding more than anything. I want my mom, my sisters and brothers, and my cousin, Ella. I want our modern traditions, luxury, and fun.

But I also wanted to get married for love, so I guess none of it matters now anyway, does it?