The Alpha’s Wild Princess

12

“I missed you too,” I said when we finally separated. “So much, you have no idea.” My voice shook with emotion, and her eyes were just as wet as mine.

“I tried to get my father to tell me what Nicholas had done with you, but they were keeping everything very hushed. I was so afraid something had happened to you.”

“I was afraid something had happened to you too. I saw your father at the reservation, but I couldn’t exactly ask him about you,” I replied. She smiled before we hugged tightly again; when we pulled away I pulled her over to the bed.

“Tell me everything,” she said. And I did. I told her about the reservation. How my father had called me home because he did not want me to be used against him by his enemies, but that the enemies had come for him and how he’d died in the war. My brother had fled, and I had no idea if he was alive or dead.

“Phoenix is alive,” she told me, and I nodded, relieved.

“How do you know?” I asked her and she shifted uncomfortably on the bed, looking over her shoulder as if she was afraid someone was listening.

“I’ll tell you later, but you can’t seriously be contemplating marrying him, right? Prairie, he killed Alexander!” Faye said, her voice aghast.

“I’m not marrying him,” I said, but she looked at me like I was speaking a different language.

“The entire pack is buzzing with news of the wedding. Everyone is saying it’s the union of the decade, and it will usher in a time of peace as though we have been living in the dark ages.

This is f*****g 2024, and the man killed your father!”

“I know that, Faye. Stop saying it already!”

She leaned back as if I’d slapped her, and I took one deep breath.

“Look,” I said, this time more calmly, “There are things I need to know. Things I just heard about my family, and this is the only way I can do that. I have no other option. I have to get him to trust me. Not just him, but the entire pack. The only way I can do that is by marrying him.”

I had not decided to marry him before, but as I said the words, I realized I meant it. I’d spent all day thinking about it. Now that I said it out loud, I realized it made sense. Faye seemed to agree because she was deep in thought,

“Gaining his trust is good. We can use that to our advantage,” she said ‘we’ like she was talking about something other than the two of us,

“We?” I asked. Gaining his trust was about finding out the truth about my mother, it had nothing to do with Faye.

“Don’t worry about it. I think this is a good idea,” Faye replied.

The conversation turned to other things. Apparently, she had been as much a prisoner as I had been. Except her prison had been home. Her father was one of the leaders of the elders. He had kept her home for the past two weeks for her safety, letting her out only once to see me.

Once she was gone, I wasted no time seeking out Nicholas. Clearly, my new Alpha was not just a brute he was also a liar. I realized the festive activities around the house were to prepare for our wedding—a wedding I had not even agreed to yet.

I opened the door to the study without knocking. I wasn’t really expecting him to be there, but I stopped abruptly when I found him seated in my father’s chair. He’d had his head bent over something he had been doing and looked up at me without moving any other part of his body.

His stillness was almost reptilian, like a crocodile lying in wait for its prey—attacking only when it was sure its jaws would firmly lock in place.

“You told everyone I said yes?”

He had been holding his pen in his hand, still in the same position he was when he had been writing before I walked in, but set his pen down slowly and leaned back to look at me more closely. It was a little disconcerting, being watched by him like this, alone in the study I used to hate, but all I could think about was him, and his eyes.

“Are you here to say yes?” he asked carefully,

A dry laugh came out of me before I could stop it. “And what would you do in front of the entire pack when no one shows up?”

He shrugged as if he didn’t care, but I knew he did. He would not be asking me about it so often if he did not care.

“It’ll just show the pack that you’re just like your father. You want nothing to do with peace, even though I did my best to ensure it.”

“So either way, you’re still the hero?” my voice was dripping with sarcasm, but he said nothing in reply andjust continued staring in a way that made my temperature suddenly increase.

“Why are you here, Prairie?”

It had to be the way he said my name, standing up slowly, his eyes still on me. I could not seem to move. He walked slowly toward me and my brain was telling me to move away, to abort this mission and go back to the comfort of my bedroom, but my treacherous body remained.

“I was here to tell you yes, but -

He was standing so close now I had to look up to meet his eyes. They were dark again, a midnight black that had me enthralled. I could not look away.

“But what?” he said in a deep voice that made my insides tremble.

What was happening to me? Why was I reacting this way? I hated it, but I could not seem to control my own impulses. My eyes strayed to his lips unable to look away.

“I’ll marry you,” I said in a whisper, but he was close enough to hear, and he smiled,

If I thought he was good-looking, then when Nicholas smiled he was not just handsome, he was lethal.

The fog seemed to clear from my head, and I took a step back and cleared my throat.

“Uhm, I mean, yes… to your proposal,” I said hurriedly wanting to leave the room as quickly as possible. He followed and my body finally reached my brain and I moved; he advanced again until my back landed with a thump on the door, and there was nowhere else to run.

“Say it again… say, ‘Yes, you’ll marry me’,” he ordered, and I could not refuse even if I tried. The words seemed to spill out of me of their own accord,

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

His pupils darkened to an impossible black color, and I swallowed when I realized he was leaning closer, his eyes watching my mouth like it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, and then I felt it.

His soft lips against mine. My eyelids fell closed, and a soft sigh escaped my mouth. He took advantage and slipped his tongue inside, taking my lower lip in his and sucking it.

He tasted of wine and smelled of leather and sandalwood. I got a whiff of his aftershave and he smelled like he’d just showered.

I forced my hands to remain by my side, the only parts of our body touching were our mouths, and boy I did not want him to stop. Reaching up on the tips of my toes, I kissed him back. He released a low growl from his chest, and I felt it in my center and all over.

He pulled away first, and I shamelessly followed until I realized it was over. When I opened my eyes, he was staring into mine with something akin to shock and wonder, and I knew that I had the same look in my eyes.

Oh God, I was done for.

“To seal the deal,” he said, his tone gruff, and I realized what had just happened. I’d let him kiss me, and I’d kissed him back. I’d loved it and had not wanted him to stop.

My fingers searched blindly behind me for the doorknob when I found it, I opened it with ease and slipped out without saying anything else.