Page 34
Back to Asher’s POV
W hen I offered to lead the combat training, I didn’t think it would be so fun!
I was looking for the library, stressed about the fact that Cain has basically been avoiding me all day, when I overheard Officer Rein saying that Rogue Alpha Prince ran out of the castle with his beta—just before they were all supposed to meet in the fighting pit.
To be honest, I was just counting on getting more raw information while wrangling some assholes.
But they aren’t assholes today. They actually listen to me and ask a lot of questions. And the fighting pit?! It looks cool, like some underground illegal boxing club. I kind of dig it! No wonder they were making so much trouble on the battlefields, despite lower numbers.
All the warriors and officers are clapping and laughing, after I show off another cool trick on one of them. I want to exit the circle, but they all beg for one more move. Some of them even argue among themselves about who will be my next victim. That’s when I see a new face pushing forward…
“Okay, one last trick. My favorite,” I say with a smile, and gesture for Cain to step inside.
His dark black hair is wet, a few loose strands fall on his forehead, and his white shirt is so soaked it’s almost transparent and clinging to all his impressive muscles—leaving nothing to the imagination. What did he do? Jumped into the pool? His sleeves are rolled to his elbows, and his forearms are covered in splatters of blood, just as his shirt used to be before getting extremely wet .
He looks so perfectly sexy, I don’t even have to try to be relaxed and distracted. I need to be relaxed and distracted to elongate my right hand’s claws against my true mate.
So, I don’t think about anything but Cain. He’s so hot and mine.
He takes a few steps towards me checking me out as well. I smirk at him, take a few casual steps forward and we meet in the middle; my left hand wrapping behind his neck, his head leaning down, our mouths crushing in a hot passionate kiss.
He slams our bodies together, mirroring my attack with his right hand, with spread-out fingers that are arranged in the same way mine are on him.
I smell blood.
But it’s not Cain’s. It’s mine.
I break the kiss and look down. Right palm up, my fingertips are resting on his hard abdomen, and my claws are long gone. I know they retracted the moment they touched his sacred body. My wolf part would never hurt him.
His wolf part, however, is still oblivious to our mate bond, so I have five long Alpha claws pierced into me—my white dress ruined.
I can’t even get mad at him for having the same plan as mine. He is my fated mate, after all. And I don’t mean it as if I physically can’t get mad at him; I can. Of course, I can. It’s just… we are somehow perfect for each other.
I can’t get mad because that thought is weirdly calming. Disappointing but calming.
“That’s all for today,” I hear the low husky voice of my Rogue Prince.
Everyone starts to walk away without a word, and Cain finally takes his bloody claws out of my flesh.
For a moment there I wonder if I will heal at all. But I wasn’t marked by him, and he has no Lycan venom in the claws, so I should be fine.
Cain firmly puts his huge palm on my wound to stop the bleeding, and cups my chin with his other hand.
“If you need more duties so badly, you can start helping in the kitchen with lunch tomorrow,” he says with an arrogant cocky grin.
I know he tries to vex me, and believe me, I am vexed—so much—after this degrading bullshit, but I married fucking Rogue Prince, and there is nothing that can break me.
Especially not some kitchen duties. I will go work there tomorrow, and I will fucking crush it and make some friends in the process.
“What, no protest?” he asks amused, with his brows arched slightly.
I shake my head ‘no’ as much as his tight grip lets me. I’m too smart to protest something like that. I leave that kind of insubordination for something more serious.
He leans down and his nose flares. “You smell like my warriors. I don’t like it.”
I begin to question my sanity in coming back to this prick.
Also, I’m not sure what he means, we all just smell like werewolves. Maybe he means scents from laundry, cosmetics, and other things even humans sometimes notice about their favorite people. Probably. But it’s a stretch, because they all live here in the castle and have their clothes washed in the same detergent, and I don’t… wait. Is that a Lycan thing?
He takes his palm from my abs and lets me go. I feel my wound slowly healing and I try to focus on it to accelerate it. I was always good at closing cuts.
“At least we are finally fully matching,” He says, moving his finger between the blood stain on my white dress, and his wet, white shirt and blood-covered veiny arms.
I turn on my heel and stride back to the castle.
‘Fuck you.’
“You better learn to block me from your thoughts already,” he spits, and passes me with an angry step .
I stop in my tracks, a little bit taken aback. Does Cain think I mind-link him by mistake again? I did it on purpose. Hmm… I shrug. Well, even better for me. The same satisfaction with a lesser penalty.
I run up to him because we still need to talk, and I’m surprised when he doesn’t turn to the dining hall. The smell coming from it is incredible, and my stomach growls. I barely ate anything at lunch, being stressed by Cain's absence. That was when I ran out of patience and came looking for him in the meeting hall.
I keep following him up the stairs. We reach the bedroom in complete silence.
Cain starts undressing himself with passive aggression all over his face. I do the same.
“So, do we talk, pretend nothing happened, have angry sex—”
He interrupts me with loud laughter that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Angry sex? Maybe you want me to spank you, too? Do you think it will help?” Sarcasm is dripping from his tone.
“Well, it won’t hurt. I mean it will, but in a good way?” I bite my lip in an attempt to stop myself from grinning stupidly at him.
He looks at me unamused, and goes to his chest of drawers for some dry clothes, I guess.
I sigh and throw the ruined dress away, then grab simple jeans and a black camisole from my wardrobe.
Cain puts one of his million black joggers on his bare butt, and then a black T-shirt that almost covers his new tattoo. He rakes his fingers through his hair with exasperation. “What are you even doing here, hm?”
“I told you, I’ll always come back to you,” I finish putting on my clothes and step toward him.
“You don’t even like me! You think you are better than me. You think—”
“I think I wasn’t prepared for how much I like you,” I interrupt him with a real confession, and I wish he would lean down so I could kiss him.
He is not the only one who likes doing that, after all.
He looks down at me skeptically, then rolls his eyes like he doesn’t believe me. He tries to turn from me, but I stop him by catching his arm.
“Cain, please. Give me a chance,” I move my hand down to his palm.
“Will you give me one too?” he asks, with his navy-blue eyes piercing my soul.
His question feels like a stab in the heart.
“Cain—”
“Just… let’s go eat something.” He leans down to absently kiss my head, interlocks our fingers, and leads me out of the room.
I sit down on my usual chair at Cain’s right hand. There is an empty seat in front of me, to his left, and Claudia is sitting on the next one. Cain’s beta, Lucifer, comes to sit beside me and I can’t help but grin at his poker face.
“So, what do you think about my brother?” I turn to him and observe his displeasure with amusement.
“Oh, you met her brother?” Claudia asks him, but gets ignored.
“Oh, he did.” I laugh.
“How does he shift into a wolf with a piercing?” Lucifer asks suddenly, eyes on his plate full of alfredo pasta with breaded chicken strips.
Cain looks at him surprised. Of course, he doesn’t know Greg has piercings. They are not exactly on display.
“Which piercing?” I ask with an even wider grin, knowing I’m stirring the pot.
Beta finally honors me with a gaze, “Tongue. What else does he have? ”
Claudia looks at us with wide, amused eyes, excited by the direction this conversation is going.
“It’s hard to describe. Do you have a phone on you with your little satellite internet?” I ask, knowing as a beta it is a possibility. If not, I will get one from Cain.
He rolls his eyes, but fishes a smartphone out of his back pocket.
I begin typing ‘Jacob Ladder piercing’ in his search engine, when he suddenly notices Cain’s tattoo. “What’s that, Alpha?”
“A tattoo. You knew I wanted one,” Cain answers but doesn’t roll up his sleeve. I’m equal parts hurt, because it is my wolf he is hiding; and glad, because I don’t want to hear his beta’s honest reaction to it.
I give the phone back.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know you finally drew something worthy of it, Alpha,” Lucifer says, and takes a sip of his wine.
My pulse picks up at the ‘worthy of it’ comment. Am I worth it?
Then he finally takes a look at his phone, and almost chokes on his red drink. “Oh, my fucking God! Wait.” He tilts his head, still looking at the pictures. “I’m kind of into that.”
I chuckle.
“Of course you are, you are true mates,” I say, before realizing my mistake. Claudia’s face falls immediately, and Beta is snickering at her.
I almost forgot Lucifer is a douche, but he has his way of reminding me of it.
“Will you reject him?” Cain asks—and this time—my face falls.
I listen carefully, hungry for all the information they might exchange now.
“It’s too dangerous, Alpha. Claudia is clearly not over her rejection, even a few years later. And remember how we had to babysit Atlas, because even though he didn’t feel anything, his wolf part still had random problems with shifting? He was off. ”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have Alpha blood as we do,” Cain points out, while putting a second helping of dinner on his plate.
Well, I guess if someone wants to be a massive beast like him, he has to eat.
“So, would you suggest Asher does that?” Beta surprises me with his question. “You wouldn’t have to think of the fucker anymore. Alpha.”
Fucker? The mate they think I have somewhere else.
“Nope, it’s too risky,” Cain answers quickly without blinking. “She feels the bond. Remember how Claudia almost went feral?”
Wait, what?
“You went feral?” Curiosity wins over being a good friend.
“Yup. I would not recommend that. I couldn’t control myself or my urges.”
“Yeah, I had to fuck her at least five times a day,” Cain says, between eating and drinking his beer.
“Hm, that’s more than you have fucked your wife in total,” I say with a poker face.
Claudia and Beta burst out laughing, and Cain sprays us with his beer.
Someone here never had his princess training . I arch my brows and take a sip of my wine gracefully.
But it’s not wine. It’s pomegranate juice like the one back at home.
“You asked them for juice for me?” I ask Cain, surprised, but he just shrugs his shoulders.
“Oh, Gaia, come here!” he yells out, and I turn around in the direction he’s looking.
A young, teenage girl with a baby in her arms enters the dining hall. She smiles at him and walks to our end of the table.
“Hello, Alpha,” she says, and gives him the baby before sitting in the last unoccupied chair, the one on his left .
She fucking gave him the baby! And he looks so natural holding it in one arm. Cain and babies? What the heck?!
“This is juice,” he points at the pitcher I used. “But you can ask for water too.”
I realize he probably knows she’s breastfeeding. Or maybe she’s just too young for alcohol and he cares about that too.
Anyway, this whole scene is so disturbing on so many levels. He literally has his wolf-killing sword resting just a few inches away from the baby!
“Can you stop looking at me like that?” Cain asks me, while bringing the baby’s cute tiny fist to his lips.
Like, what? I know at least ten different werewolf fairy tales about scary Rogue Prince, who eats babies for breakfast?
“He likes mini wolves, get used to it,” Beta Lucifer says bluntly.
“So, what will you do about Greg?” Cain asks him.
“Greg? Oh. Gregory. You know what, I might follow Asher’s footsteps and just… ignore the guy. No offense,” he looks at me, “He is on the other side of the border anyway.”
There is a commotion outside, and Officer Rein runs into the dining hall fully naked. “Alpha! The emergency meeting, right now. There was another breach.”
“Fuck.” Cain gives me the baby, takes his sword, and both he and Beta run out with that officer. A few other officers leave too.
I look down at the cooing baby sitting on my lap, and don’t know what to do.
“You don’t have to hold him if you don’t want to, Luna,” the girl, Gaia, says, looking at me with narrowed eyes.
I feel a blush coming across my cheeks.
“Oh, no. It’s fine. You have to eat; I can hold him.”
“She seems nervous because she used to be an officer for her Kingdom.” Claudia chimes in .
“Oh really?” Gaia asks with a full mouth.
“General actually, and I would be the first to run out for a meeting like that. But I’m a Luna now, so I guess I’m holding cute babies instead,” I send her a smile, and die a little bit inside.
I nearly jumped in my seat at a loud rumble sound. Thunder. Soon after, heavy rain starts hitting windows and it gets distinctly darker.
While I’m distracted, the pup tries to grab a knife from my plate, and I stop him at the absolute last moment.
Well, I guess Cain is a better babysitter than me.
Gaia reaches her hand over the table to give a baked sweet potato fry to the pup. He grabs it in his little fist and starts munching on it.
I look up and meet her untrusting eyes. She’s still assessing me. I don’t blame her.
I don’t even know how much time passes before the dining hall is almost empty. I keep holding the pup for the whole dinner, despite the overwhelming feeling of being completely out of place. Cain looked disturbingly cute and confident with him, and I know I’m still very young—he is probably about ten years older than me—so it’s not so weird he’s better with kids, but… I can’t stop wondering, if maybe I was too engrossed in thinking only about our abilities to feel the true mates’ bond, to notice that he has more maturity than I give him credit for—at least in some aspects.
I leave the dining hall alone, with a plan to crash that emergency meeting. Is it in the office? I take a few turns…
“You look cute with pups, Little Wolf,” my father-in-law’s voice stops me in my tracks, and I cringe inwardly.
It’s funny how attraction works. Little Wolf . These two words out of Cain’s mouth make me instantly wet and ready, but when Rogue ‘daddy-of-the-year’ King says it… I’m so repulsed that I want to take a shower, and scrub that feeling from my skin, until it’s raw-clean.
Scratch that. We don’t have a shower. I want to get passive-aggressively scrubbed by my husband in our medieval human-size metal bucket, until I’ll be raw-clean.
I slowly turn around toward the Rogue Kings’ voice with a fake polite smile, trying to ignore the dreadful feeling squeezing my guts. I regard it as a result of the loud thunderstorm that is heard even in these dark corridors, and not the creepy look of lust on the man’s face.
Table of Contents
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- Page 34 (Reading here)
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