Page 40

I ’m glad we are on a motorbike and not in the car, so we don’t have to talk to each other about what Cain did.

Hell, I’m pretty sure none of us said a word since I asked him if he marked me because of possessiveness, and he didn’t know why.

Or rather, didn’t know what he could tell me.

He keeps more secrets from me than I can imagine, for sure.

When we stop at the Castle grounds, it’s late in the evening, but the only werewolf we pass is a huge black guard sitting at the entrance.

I take a double look because he’s not your typical fit-looking werewolf. He is quite big, wide, and bulky. Way more fat than I’m used to seeing, still muscled though, and definitely strong. But it’s not his big figure that makes me involuntarily stare. It’s his handsome, light-up eyes and overall sexiness. He is dripping with sex…

“Not you too,” Cain murmurs with exhilaration.

“Huh?” I mumble in a trance, my eyes never leaving the big guard, noticing details like green specs in his dark eyes and stylishly braided cornrows.

The heat creeps up my cheeks, when I see a group of undressed women floating to him like moths to a flame. I shake my head and concentrate on my mate, just in time to enter the castle.

My mate.

I think we are going straight to the dining hall, where I assume people still eat dinner, drink, and socialize—but Cain turns into a different corridor, and opens the massive double doors to the bustling-with-life large courtyard. I hesitate at the threshold, my brain slowly comprehending it is a Full Moon Party—thrown for the whole pack—with a long table, many wooden benches, and a few fire pits. Cain steps in without looking at me and I’m compelled to follow.

Everyone stops what they are doing as soon as we enter the courtyard. There is silence and all eyes are on us.

I’m their Luna—marked, mated, and bonded to the pack, and they can feel it.

I can feel they do. I can see they do.

Cain grabs my hand, and leads me to the far end of the table with a smirk. With all the confidence in the world that only the real Royal Alpha can have.

Everyone bows to me, and the whispers are spreading like a disease. It sounds almost like the buzzing of a hive of bees. But I hold my head high like the Royal I am.

“Congratulations, Luna. I guess now we can all stop asking if Alpha Prince needs our services.” Claudia is sitting in the last chair on the right, looking at my mark with curiosity and surprise.

I’m surprised myself, so I can’t blame her for staring.

“What did we miss?” Cain asks her, looking around at the party that is quickly coming back to its full swing, while he pulls out a chair for me across from her—then sits between us on a huge one that looks very similar to the throne he has in the dining hall.

The only sources of light are fire pits and the moonbeam, and it does give a charming atmosphere. I notice some people have way less clothing than they should, so the hot girls floating to the sexy big guy outside were not that underdressed after all.

It’s not one of those orgies one of the reports mentioned once, is it?

“Oh, Alpha, Maggie is pregnant!” Claudia says excitedly, but her eyes keep going back to my marking spot .

I instantly guess that we missed some joint shifting. That Maggie couldn’t complete her shift as usual, when there is a baby pup already implanted in female werewolves’ wombs.

Cain exhales with relief, “Thank God, I was getting worried I’d have to try to budget for some treatments for them.”

‘Is Maggie nonbinary or do you mean ‘them’ with her partner? ’ I mind-link him using the only perk of being marked—he can no longer question why I can do that.

‘ Partner .’ He gives me a weird, cold look as if I was bothering him.

“Oh!” Claudia turns to Cain again, “Even better news, Remy is not!”

They high-five each other and he yells for the girl.

“Coming!”

“Which way?” Claudia chuckles at her own dirty joke.

“For our Alpha, both!” some black girl sits down next to Claudia.

They are high-fiving her now with a loud hoot from all three of them. I raise my brow at this overly excited display.

“I was very scared and didn’t want to be, Luna,” says the girl, Remy.

I now vaguely remember she was one of Cain’s personal whores, and a weird cold feeling floods my chest. She was scared she was pregnant with him.

Claudia pushes a bowl to me, and I start putting food on my plate—mostly roasted veggies, some brown rice, and then a piece of roast beef. I start digging in but when she never stops looking at my neck, I put my fork down.

“Claudia, just say what you want to say, please.”

She lets the air out of her mouth loudly, and throws words at me at lightning speed.

“Iwouldneverthoughtyouguyswoulddothatsoearly, your Highness.”

“Excuse me?” I ask, and she nervously chuckles.

“I would never think you guys—I mean your Highnesses—would do that so early. I thought we’d have at least a few years before Alpha—” She stops abruptly when she catches Cain’s look.

One more word and she wouldn’t have an ass to sit on at this table.

“Ahem, Luna didn’t you mention your cousins are getting married soon?” She quickly changes the subject, without any subtlety.

I pick up the fork again and glance at Cain, who is sipping his wine and summoning someone with his fingers.

“Yes, they’ve been mated for a few years now, but they are young and they wanted to finish their bachelor's degrees first,” I answer, knowing damn well that we already talked about the ‘mango pair’ in length during one of our dancing outings—so she must be fishing for some other information. “Why?”

“I heard you are taking our Alpha to your family again soon, I was wondering if it might be the reason.”

Huh. I didn’t know Cain planned for us to go there.

I look at him for some confirmation, only to be shocked at the sight of the same promiscuous girl from a week before; feeding fucking grapes to him while he’s actively observing me.

Me or my reaction.

I manage to keep a composed face and just raise my brow at him, but soon my sight is caught by the girl’s wandering hand. There is no sign of her laughter and silliness from before—she actually looks scared—but she still wants to glue herself to my husband.

I don’t want to look at that . I turn back to Claudia.

“I guess you shouldn’t be so surprised about the mark, when even with it, Alpha clearly has a lot of room to wiggle.”

She snorts up her wine, and has to grab a napkin to wipe the front of her ruined dress. Her friend, Remy, stands up, pretending she noticed someone in the other part of the yard. Smart girl .

“I heard it doesn’t hurt until they literally put their penises in someone else,” Claudia says quite frankly, putting the stained napkin away.

“Oh no, the thoughts count too,” says Cain’s gamma, Atlas, who I now realize must have approached us from my behind at some point. I was too distracted to notice he has been leaning on the back of my chair, and the loud environment was not helping either. “It all depends on the situation, but you will be in pain for sure when there’s a real reason to.”

“How do you know?” I ask curiously, knowing he doesn’t sport any mark himself. Never did.

“Did you get me a suit?” Cain asks him; and waves off the grape girl, as if she was only summoned here to show me I shouldn’t feel too confident.

“I’m surprised she didn’t get more time off after you cut her tongue out,” Atlas answers instead.

“What?” I look back and forth between the two of them.

Cain looks back at me with an impenetrable gaze, and shrugs his shoulders. “You didn’t like her laugh, so I cut it out… What about the suit?”

“Why do you need a suit? You already have one,” I interrupt them again, trying not to dwell on the horrible tongue-cutting picture that now lives rent-free in my head. Unfortunately, I know how it looks all too well, and it took me months to stop seeing it behind my closed eyes after the last time.

“The one I have is black, and we are going to the wedding,” Cain says, annoyed at me, or at this semi-formal evening wear. Or both.

So, we are going to the wedding. Cool, good to know. Why am I always the last to know?

“You don’t need a suit for that,” I am honestly surprised he even tries to be compliant. Again. “You are a fucking Rogue Alpha Prince; you will go there in your fur and cool leather thing with a sword and everything, like you always do.”

“Cheers to that,” says Atlas, with annoyance in his voice, and grabs my wine glass .

I have not been drinking it anyway, so I choose to ignore it.

“What’s your problem with that?” I ask about his attitude. He should be happy that I don’t want his Alpha to change for anyone.

“Do you know how hard it was to find a suit in his size?” Atlas scoffs and sits by me at the site Rogue Beta usually occupies, “Wait, is it juice?” he asks with disgust.

“I thought you would be mad if I don’t act civilized at the wedding,” Cain leans back in his throne-like chair.

Didn’t I show him already that I don’t want him to change, the last time we were with my family?

I glance at Beta approaching our table from Claudia’s side, and then I focus on Cain again.

“Yeah, I will be mad when you say things like ‘whore’ instead of ‘sex worker’, but your style? Sorry, but if I would want to—"

“What's that?!” shouts Beta, so I look at him confused.

He sits on the unoccupied chair next to Claudia, while staring intensely at the spot where my neck meets my left shoulder. The mark. Cain’s mark.

“Do you want to go with us to my cousin’s wedding? Meet with Gregory, maybe…” I change the uncomfortable subject to another uncomfortable subject, while putting Cain’s leather jacket back on in hopes it will cover the bite mark he gave me.

“What part of ‘I plan to ignore him for the rest of my life’ didn’t you understand?” Beta rolls his eyes at me, and then turns to Cain with a grin, “So, technically speaking, you managed to bite Officer Asher—leaving a permanent wound on her. Shouldn’t it call for a celebratory shift?”

People around us freeze in anticipation, proving that no matter how busy they seem, they still listen to all their Alpha’s conversations.

Cain gives us a lazy smile and finally nods his head. I swear Claudia almost jumps in her chair with excitement.

“Should I know what a celebratory shift is?” I furrow my brows.

“You’ll see.” Claudia is beaming at this point.

Cain gives me his sword, he starts undressing and taking off his shoes. Everyone in the dining hall and from the kitchen is now gathered around a long table. I try not to show any emotions on my face—like shock or possessiveness over my husband’s naked body—when he starts to slide off his boxer briefs in front of everyone.

He winks at me, and then I am in awe of the smoothest transition I have ever seen. He jumps—shifting into his massive black beast of a wolf form—and lands on the table before me. His paws somehow elegantly missed all the stuff that’s on it. He runs with great speed the entire length of the table, not spilling even one glass of wine in the process. When he jumps on it and spins high in the air, everyone gasps. I’m no longer surprised when he lands on all fours without tilting even one plate. He runs again, his huge black body defying major physics laws, and starts howling. Everyone, except me, puts their fists on the chest and howls with him.

I push my chair a little bit back just in case, and he continues to run, jump, spin in the air, and howl—while everyone around cheers him on. The atmosphere is catching, and I can’t help but laugh lightly. He stops in front of me, and I reach my hand to pat his silky, blue-hued black fur; but stop myself at the last moment.

I can’t pat Alpha Wolf like a cat, especially in front of his pack. Especially if that Alpha is the Rogue Prince.

I hold my hand in front of him with a smile, and he puts his cold, wet nose to it. He nibbles at my palm, so I try to catch his muzzle playfully, but he dodges it and swiftly moves forward. Before I know it, I feel his tongue on my face. He licks me from my jaw, through my chin and mouth, to my left cheek, and I hear some laughs—then conversations start to fill the dining hall again.

The show is over, but I have this massive beast in front of me, and I would give anything to wrap my arms around his fluffy-looking fur.

He moves to my neck and nuzzles the spot he marked.

I keep my hands up in a surrendering gesture, just observing his glorious wolf form. I can be mad at Cain for taking away my choice, and I might be biased because of the marked mate-bond, but I’m obsessed with his beast. He jumps off the table and positions himself between my legs, resting his big paws on my thighs, and his head on my shoulder.

I swear if he doesn’t stop playing with me, I will pat him like a cat!

I look up and notice how many eyes are on us, even though everyone seemed to go back to what they were doing before the celebratory walk, or whatever they call it.

“He used to do it after every time we won a fight with your Kingdom, Luna,” Claudia says gently with a smile, looking at her Alpha with true admiration.

Cain growls into my ear, and then lifts himself on hind legs and shifts swiftly back into his human form. There’s almost no space between my chair and the table, so I have his junk right in front of my face.

Atlas snickers at me, but I roll my eyes at him and rest my raised hands on Cain’s strong thighs.

“How does it feel?” Beta asks, and Cain moves away with a smirk, to his chair and clothes.

“What? The mark?” I’m not sure what Lucifer meant, but he is looking at me while he’s pushing the food around his plate with a fork.

“No. True mate bond without marking, how does it feel?”

I lock eyes with Cain for a fraction of a second.

“Um, well, you can smell they are your mates, you know that already,” I start hesitantly, knowing I can’t say anything that would betray my true mate is here with us, but I can’t lie either. “And you are attracted to them probably more than is healthy. But that’s a given if you believe you were made for each other.”

“Yup, they look exactly your type, and it definitely doesn’t help.” Atlas chips in, and Claudia nods.

It’s probably the first time since I’ve known them that I see them agreeing with each other on anything, and it is on how hot they look to each other .

“And sex is just better,” Claudia snorts with bitter laughter.

“Is or was? Maybe I’m just that good,” Atlas asks her, and I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Excuse me, you rejected her without her consent, and still have sex with her when you know damn well she can’t say no to you?” I’m outraged.

Claudia slightly shakes her head ‘no’ at me, probably thinking it’s not worth it.

“Can we change the law, Alpha?” I ask, still hooked at the fact Atlas can make Claudia sleep with him—even after completely breaking her heart, and probably soul—only because she works here as a ‘whore’.

Cain looks at me with perfectly concealed emotions, while readjusting his T-shirt. “What law?”

“The one that forbids any sex worker from saying no to sex in this castle, Alpha.”

Cain rolls his eyes at me. “Sure, you can draft a new law proposition and go ask the King if you want.”

My face falls at the mention of the Rogue King, but then I feel a slight prick in my temples, and I know Cain is mind-linking me.

‘ You can change whatever you want when you’re my Queen.’

He surprises me with his hidden trust.

“Wait, can she go to the King? It’s not blood written?” Atlas’ weird question grabs my attention.

“No, it’s in a regular book. I think. Fuck, good question.” Cain furrows his brows.

I want to ask what they are even talking about. Blood written ? What regular book ? What’s going on?

But I keep my mouth closed shut. I’m alpha-blooded myself, so I know how annoying those kinds of questions, or any questions really, are to Cain. I decide to ask Claudia later. She looks like she’s following the conversation. And if she doesn’t know, I’ll ask Cain when he’s in a good mood and alone with me.

“I’ll check it later,” Beta offers.

“So, what about the sex? Was it really better while you were mated?” Cain asks Claudia the crucial questions.

“Well, it had to be. I mean… the intoxicating smell, pulling, and attraction, all of that stuff definitely heightens the pleasure with every touch.”

“What pulling?” Beta asks, still attacking his plate with a fork.

He looks at me again. Expectantly.

“Well, there is this pulling that makes you… I don’t know, I try not to dwell on it, but it makes you want to be closer to them, I guess. It’s hard to explain.”

“Yes, you can’t explain it, but you feel it with your whole body. The need,” Claudia adds, and I nod.

“That sounds intense.”

I focus on my mate pull to Cain, and I’m surprised by how strong and consuming it is now that we are marked and officially mated. Overwhelming.

“It’s not intense,” I answer, trying to focus again, “Not like the pull from the marking.”

Oh. My heart skips a bit when I realize my mistake. I don’t know if chosen mates or marked werewolves, who do not feel they are each other’s true mates, have this intensive pull too, after the marking.

It’s too late to change my words, but thankfully, Cain nods; confirming he can now feel this all-consuming pull, too. Oh, is that why he’s so stiff?

“Yeah, it was more like a pull to your Alpha,” Claudia chips in. “It’s just there, not intense at all.”

I nod.

“Even when you ignore the pulling and smell, you still question everything. Because you are a true match in looks and character, even without the Moon Goddess magic. So I can’t wait to see how you will manage to ignore my brother,” I grin at Beta.

He grunts while stabbing his peas.

Cain reaches to him over Claudia, and fishes Beta’s phone out of the guy’s jeans pocket. I lean to look at the screen with curiosity. Cain opens an app and takes it off my sight when he is asked for his password.

Not a minute later he puts Beta’s phone up to his face like for a video call, and I hear my brother’s voice.

“Your Highness, what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Greg,” Cain says, and I look at Beta whose wide eyes are glued to his phone, like it’s a spider and he’s a little girl. “Can I bring my Beta to your cousin’s wedding?”

Lucifer has a poker face now, of course, so I try to focus on his heartbeat; but there are too many people partying around us and I fail miserably. Shit. There’s no TV here, let me have at least this!

“Um, if he doesn’t mind seeing me with a hot date, then sure, you can bring him, your Highness,” I hear my brother’s response, and I can imagine him trying not to smile wide while saying this.

Of course he has a hot date, and he’s not shy about it! Oh, I miss that little jackass.

“He doesn’t mind,” Cain looks at his now-furious Beta while saying that.

“Great. Oh, do you want to meet up after the ceremony, Your Highness?”

Cain nods and puts the phone down, so I wail in complaint.

“Why didn’t you give me a chance to talk to my brother?” I push my plate away and stand up, because maybe I can tolerate any physical or mental discomfort, but I won’t tolerate this kind of bullshit. “Alpha,” I add with a spat and leave the table.

I get that I don’t have internet privileges here, they don’t trust me yet—I wouldn’t trust me either. But for fuck’s sake, he could let me say supervised fucking ‘hi’ to my own brother! I march to the entrance.

I’m almost within reach of the open doors, when I hear a swish sound and feel the movement of cold air on my cheek.