Page 57
“A sh, wake up, Little Wolf,” Cain is nudging my shoulder…
With his nose?
“Leave me alone,” I grunt and try to cover my head with his pillow.
It is yanked out of my hands with the covers, and I screech when he pulls me up and hoists me over his shoulder. “Cain! Put me down.”
He swiftly slides me down his gorgeous body in a way that makes me thankful that he no longer has any knives on him, at least not on his chest.
He probably still has some in his back pocket or something.
Before my feet touch the floor, he picks me up bridal style and opens the door wider with his foot.
“Where are you taking me?” I hiss at him while I’m getting an adrenaline rush, leaving our room for the first time in over a month.
“We have our monthly movie night.”
“You don’t have movie nights here!” I hiss again, trying to hold onto him while he runs down the stairs.
He’s dressed more casually now, and his black hair is still in the bun I made.
“We do,” he insists, putting me down when we reach the first floor, but he keeps his arm loosely wrapped around my neck.
He pulls me for a chaste kiss on the temple and starts steering me further into the dark corridor. The one with his office. I was there so many times after that, but still, the first memory that comes to my mind is the Rogue Prince almost drowning me with his blood.
I try to stop but he gently pushes me forward.
“Oh, Alpha, here you are, Gamma is already picking up the movie,” Beta Lucifer’s head pokes out from the doors at the end further speeding up my pulse. “Hi, Luna!”
He goes back inside as quickly as he just showed up, and I look at Cain with questioning eyes.
“I told you, we have movie nights,” he whispers huskily into my ear, tickling me slightly with his facial hair.
It can still be a trap but it’s not like I won’t be killed by him at some point in my life anyway, so I guess we can get it over with now. Why not? I take a deep breath and go inside his office with him.
It’s dark and with my night vision, I can see there is completely no one here.
“What the heck?”
Beta was just here!
Cain chuckles at my confused face and leads me to the tall bookshelf behind his desk on the right. He pushes one of the books, the one with an emerald green spine, and the bookshelf opens like a door with a light squeak.
What the fuck?!
“What’s wrong with a secret passage? You do call it the castle,” he makes fun of me and goes inside first.
“What do you call it?” I ask stepping inside the short dark passage after him.
“The packhouse,” he shrugs his shoulders and pulls me by the hand inside whatever torture room is behind the doors at the other end.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUNA!” Claudia screams into my ear after pulling me into a crushing hug .
“Um, thank you,” I almost sound like the pack’s always insecure Doctor. “How did you know?”
She pulls away at arm's length and I can finally look around the dimly lit studio. Beta and Gamma are smiling at me from a huge L-shaped sofa. There is Cain’s laptop running in front of them on a coffee table.
I can smell the popcorn and some fruits, other than the lemony scent of Cain, who is pressing his body to my back and wrapping his hands around my shoulders—making me automatically put my hands on his forearms.
“I called Greg a week ago to ask, when I realized your father said you were almost twenty-one when we met, and your younger brother had his twentieth birthday already.”
I nod my head, still in numb shock. I would never guess he even cared enough to ask. What’s going on?
“Ash doesn’t believe we have movie nights,” Cain says, letting me go.
He sits comfortably on the couch next to his Beta, and Claudia hooks her arm with mine.
“Yeah, we do, Luna! Once a month or on our birthdays, the four of us, well now five, always come here and watch something on the internet,” she explains pulling me to the boys.
It's funny how excited her voice sounds when she says the word ‘internet.’
“Why is it the first time I’m hearing about this?” I sit on the floor between Cain's slightly parted knees.
The rug is super fluffy so it’s a good choice. I always preferred to lean on the couch itself rather than sitting normally and leaning on the too-short backrest.
“You kept dragging us out…” Claudia says and sits down on the other end of the couch.
“And it kinda felt like some college experience we saw only in the movies,” Atlas adds while browsing through movie titles from his spot between Beta and Claudia .
“And well,” Cain starts answering so I turn around and rest my chin on the arms I keep on his thighs. “You didn’t want to spend time with me.”
Because you acted like a dick back then.
“Well, I clearly did not know what I was missing,” I say instead.
“Hey, no princess talk here,” Beta grunts at me and opens the beer bottle with his teeth.
“It was light flirting, thank you very much.”
Cain grabs my jaw in his thigh grip and leads me up until I have no choice but to sit on his lap and let him wrap his hands around my waist.
“It wasn’t good, Luna,” Claudia says bluntly, “I mean, I would expect more from someone with so many ex-boyfriends.”
I was a trained princess, but I would choke at that if I had any drink right now. “Excuse me?”
“Greg told me when you asked him to take me for the shopping spree,” she says while fanning her manicured red nails.
I could swear Cain's grip on me tightened significantly.
“In school, yes,” I sigh at the unpleasant memory of learning from my own mistakes. Too many mistakes. “Before I realized they were all either interested in fucking the royal princess before she finds her true mate, or panically avoiding any sensual contact in fear of my true mate and possibly the future King. If they knew they had to fear the Rogue Alpha Prince instead, I would probably not even know how to kiss,” I try to end it with a joke but even I hear how bitter I sound.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, Luna,” Claudia says with a consoling smile.
“No, it’s fine. I mean, it made me furious but also even more determined to be the King myself. And then I started working in the army, and apparently, no one wants to fuck the military girl.”
“Why? It’s your best quality!” Cain sounds indignant.
“Thank you, I know!” I match his energy and lift my hand for a high-five.
He looks at my outstretched hand like no one ever high-fived him before. I shake it a little for slight encouragement.
He smacks his lips with resignation and finally gives me a high-five back.
“Is Gamma always the one who chooses the movie because he’s the picky one who doesn’t like your choices?” I ask the guys when I notice how furrowed Atlas’s brows are as he looks at the selection with narrowed eyes.
“Ha, ha. Very funny,” he murmurs. “Claudia asked for romantic comedy because no one has the mental capacity to watch anything heavy after—"
“Hey,” Beta interrupts him while getting closer to sniff me, “You don’t smell like fresh blood today, good job!”
They stopped commenting on my constant bleeding weeks ago. That smell became a sad constant in our lives very quickly, and even the doctor doesn’t know why exactly my scarred wounds keep opening up.
“You do smell weird, though.” He takes another sniff. “Like…”
“Stale water?” I provide and arch my brow at Cain pointedly. “I know.”
I reach for the popcorn, knowing already, that it will run out before Atlas finally chooses anything.
“What’s hard with picking a romantic comedy?” I ask with a full mouth.
“I’m looking for something without sex. Blue balls.”
“Tell me about it,” Cain murmurs under his breath.
I know Cain hasn’t slept with anyone since before we went to my cousin’s wedding, but Atlas? He probably meant just a few days.
“So, did they at least do some romantic shit to woo you over?” Claudia asks me with a half-peeled orange in her hand. Someone being fancy with the snacks!
“Oh yes, sometimes it felt like a contest to be honest.”
“So, what was the most romantic thing anyone ever did for you?”
I look down at the floor trying to think, but only one memory constantly bangs on my brain since she asked that question.
“It was Cain, I mean, Alpha, sorry, you can punish me later.”
He shifts under me, and I start to wonder if he’s getting hard at the thought of punishing my bare ass.
“Which thing do you have in mind?” he asks confidently, and Claudia arches her brows, flabbergasted.
I look him in the eye.
“When you selflessly and shamelessly helped me win my family's singing contest. The gesture was romantic in itself, but the way you sang with me… I still have goosebumps thinking about it.”
“Hey, are you free tonight? Can I schedule you?” Atlas suddenly turns to Claudia.
“Oh, so I’ll get money for it?” She fishes out her little notepad from a secret pocket in her dress. “No, why do I have… wait, the wrong date… Yes, I’m free. What scene do you want?”
Scene? Like the BDSM stuff girls in the library always talk about?
“I don’t know. A girl that’s into tattoos?” he scoffs and goes back to choosing a movie.
‘ Don’t even say a fucking word about being into tattooed guys ,’ Cain mind-links me immediately, and I realize he didn’t give me a headache, too late to be sure about it.
Did he unintentionally tap into a true mate bond abilities instead of Alpha’s ones? Or is it just a regular chosen mate bond strength at this point, and I don’t need to panic?
Claudia’s face falls slightly as if she was excited at the possible role-playing with Atlas for a moment before he cut her off.
“I didn’t know you take scheduled appointments, too,” I ask Claudia, a little bit curious about her sex worker job. I usually never ask about it, not knowing how to approach the topic respectfully—the only thing I know is that Cain lied about not paying the castle’s ‘whores’ because she is saving up for early retirement.
She talks about it all the time. Where she will live, what she will do… But she never tells me what she is doing now.
“Yes, you can book me for scenes, and I will get paid extra for those after I report them to Alpha. I specialize in anal sex, blood play, and bonding, but I don’t like the latter. I learned it only for the job. Usually, I’m booked for two-three weeks in advance, but I tried to keep this night off the schedule after Alpha told me about your birthday.”
‘What’s the blood play?’ I mind-link Cain, knowing he probably knows that, considering they used to have sex all the time.
Oh, is he into it, too? Am I into it ?!
‘And you are not putting that big thing of yours in my ass,’ I add just to be safe.
Cain smirks at me but talks to Atlas instead. “Gamma, are you into blood play too?” He asks with a bored tone, evidently just to mess with him, probably already knowing the answer.
I have to stifle a laugh.
Atlas shoots us an annoyed look.
“What?” I scoff. “Now, talking about sex preferences is taboo, but when you all grilled me about me being able to be submissive in bed in the fucking dining hall, it was fine?”
“Yes, I like everything Claudia likes, okay?” He says even more irritated looking back at the laptop.
It makes me think…
“So, you are… submissive?” I ask Beta Lucifer who looks at me even more surprised than I am.
“Do you mean submissive or a bottom?” Claudia wants to clarify. “It’s not always the same. ”
“Doesn’t matter, because I’m not either,” he says furrowing his brow now, “Why? What does your brother like and how the fuck do you know?”
They all look at me now, choosing the movie long forgotten.
“Well, we both like guys, so we talk, and… Maybe he never wanted the throne, or he just tried to believe that, knowing I’d get it anyway, even if he would fight me for it, but he is very royal-alpha-like. Dominating in every other aspect of his life, including sex. And he has it a lot. I swear, I helped him smuggle hundreds of guys since he was like, sixteen maybe. I’m not sure if he’ll ever be a King of werewolves but he is definitely the King in the bedroom as far as I know.”
Claudia laughs. “Yeah, and he likes to talk about it too! Oh, how much I would give to see him taming this beast,” she points at Beta who is now sitting stiffly with crossed arms.
We are finally watching the movie I’ve already seen, but I don’t tell them that. They are too excited about their first movie night in a few months, and I probably used to watch more movies and TV shows in a month than what they had a chance to see in the last few years. They deserve it, my birthday or not. Plus, it’s cute when I have to explain how a human president and government work.
I pretend I watch it with them, snuggling into Cain’s huge body stress-free, like I never thought I would—just inhaling his delicious lemony scent and observing Claudia’s, Atlas’s, and Lucifer’s kid-level-of-pure reactions.
I don’t look up at Cain to not reveal myself, but I’m pretty sure I can feel him staring at me from time to time.
It’s so nice to pretend to watch a movie in his warm arms, being able to spend this precious time with… well, with my friends, I realize. They might be Rogues, and the guys are assholes I can’t entirely trust, but they are mine—and they were all with me when my world crashed down, even when I thought I didn’t want them. They did respect my boundaries, and they didn’t make me talk with them when I didn’t want to—but they made sure I survived either way.
I did survive. And I am here with them, enjoying a movie I don’t even watch. I am so genuinely happy, I’m not sure I have ever felt so at peace before.
I smile to myself and snuggle into Cain even more. He did all of that for me. And this gift that he has stolen for me? It’s the most perfect birthday gift I’ve ever gotten. Wicked and priceless and so me. So, us .
I love this man.
There is no point in denying it anymore. Even if my happiness is temporary, only for this night, I still love him.
I roll slightly on my stomach, laying on top of Cain with my hands resting on his chest, and I completely abandon the romantic comedy to look at his handsome face.
He moves his eyes from the laptop to me, with no visible emotions, just one slightly lifted brow. I bite my lower lip, immediately drawing his sight to it, and reach to touch his scratchy cheek. I move my thumb over his lips.
He grabs the back of my neck and pulls me for a soft kiss. I deepen instantly. We fight for dominance for a few moments. He grabs my waist tightly, and I straddle his hips, not caring in the slightest that there are three other people on this couch. Let them see! I finally give up to his tongue, and I instantly feel him smiling with victory before pulling me even closer and kissing me with a new passion. It only makes me more aroused and lusting for him.
I start to grind on him, desperately looking for friction. Cain’s hands slide down to my hips, and he holds me in place, slightly pressing me down onto his hard-on but making me unable to move and even more desperate.
I growl, getting an instant death stare from Beta Lucifer.
‘Stop moving on me or I’ll fucking put you back on the floor and ask you to crawl. ’
I bite Cain’s tongue in response.
‘ Doctor said no sex and no activities at all, ’ he reminds me annoyingly like I didn’t hear it already, every time the guy came to our room with a sonogram machine.
“I’m a fucking werewolf of course I need activities!” I pull back .
Fuck. The cold look in Cain’s eyes makes me realize I disrespected him in front of other people, and I’ve already forgotten to call him Alpha once before that.
“Everyone out!” Cain shouts with a full alpha command directed at our friends, but he is looking at me with so much anger I expect venom to come out of his mouth.
It makes me pull back a little bit more than I already did.
“Good luck, Luna,” Beta says with a smirk and leaves, after worrying Claudia, and unimpressed Atlas.
Table of Contents
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- Page 57 (Reading here)
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