Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 32263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
She gently pulls her hand from mine and takes a step back. I watch her as she turns away and looks up at the stained glass windows that display the history of my ancestors.
My wolf growls possessively as my ravenous eyes roam down my mate’s body, taking in every delectable curve.
She is softer than any creature I have ever seen, so unlike the hard, muscular bodies of female wolf shifters. But there is strength in her too. There is nothing fragile about the way she carries herself. She may look delicate and breakable, but she is a force to be reckoned with.
I want to reach out and touch her. To pull her flush against my body and feel exactly how well she fits. I want to taste that sweet mouth and drag my tongue along her skin.
My cock gets long and hard under my purple tunic as I imagine undressing her. I’d take my time and relish every inch of her exposed skin.
Gods. Will this lustful need ever be quenched?
The swell of her breasts rises and falls with each breath she takes, and I find myself tracking the movement, imagining the warmth of her skin beneath my palms, the soft give of her body as she arches toward me instead of away. Her mouth reaching for mine… My hands exploring… Pulling… Needing…
My wolf lunges forward. Urging. Demanding. His lustful hunger sharp and immediate.
Mine.
I swallow hard and turn away. But even the air is thick with her exhilarating scent. She smells like warm wax and honey and something intoxicatingly human and feminine beneath it. I breathe her in with deep, insatiable breaths.
It kills me that I must wait to claim her. It’s three weeks until the next full moon, until the mating ceremony when mates are finally allowed to touch, to mark, to take what fate has so generously provided. It’s a sacred night, but right now, the wait feels like a curse.
I have waited half a lifetime for her, wandered without my other half for forty-one barren years, and now that she stands within arm’s reach, I am expected to wait even more.
It will be torture.
Pure, exquisite torture.
My wolf snarls his agreement, pacing restlessly inside me, already imagining her taste, her sound, the way she will look when she finally submits to the bond she is fighting with every proud inch of her spine. I swallow hard, forcing myself to breathe, to remember that she is not a wolf, not bound by our instincts or our laws.
Yet.
“Okay,” she says, turning slightly, stunning me all over again. “I guess I can stay for the night. Will I get my own room?”
My heart soars. “You will get everything you desire.”
She nods. It’s decided. “I will stay the night. If you order those brutes to treat those women like proper ladies and escort them home.”
“It will be done.”
“Home,” she says with a firm stare. “Not dropped off at the border like cattle, but right to their front doors. Safely. With compensation.”
“You have my word. They will not be harmed.”
“Good,” she says with a nod. “Because if even one of them is harmed, I will leave this castle and never return.”
“Understood.”
“And if you don’t let me leave,” she warns. “I will leave another way.”
I swallow hard, that thought too dreadful to imagine. If she took her own life, I would never forgive myself. I would be right behind her, following her to the afterlife.
“They are under the King’s protection,” I say with my body feeling unsteady. “Anyone who harms them will answer to my wolf.”
“Good,” she says. “I trust you. I don’t know why, but I do.”
That’s a good sign. It’s a start at least.
“You’ll have dinner with me?” I ask.
She smiles shyly. “Okay. I’d like that.”
“Very well,” I say, taking one last breath of her. “I will see to the females. My chamberlain will show you to your quarters.”
I stare at her for a moment longer, studying her beauty, still unsure if this is real.
“My queen,” I say, bowing my head before turning away and marching to the great doors. I don’t look back. I know I would not be able to stop myself from returning if I saw my mate’s stunning face once again.
I burst through the doors and call for Brutus, my beta commander. I order him to return every human female to their homes, unharmed.
“I mean it, Brutus,” I warn in a sharp tone. “Unharmed.”
“Yes, my Alpha,” he says, bowing low.
Next, I order the keeper of the purse to give each female a sack of coins worth one year’s labor. He nearly balks at me until he sees that it’s not up for discussion.
“Yes, my Alpha,” he says, rushing away to fulfill my command.
I order the chamberlain to get my mate’s room ready and provide her with a hot bath and the highest quality dress the kingdom has to offer. I also tell him that I will require a private dinner in my quarters with something a human would desire.