The Alpha’s Wild Princess

15

PRAIRIE

T

he hand around my arm was tight until I shoved her away from me, glaring at her. She glared back.

“We have to keep moving, the Alpha wants you in your room.” Fiona snapped at me,

“I can walk by my goddamn self without you pulling me away like some stray cat out of my own wedding!” I saw a flash of something in her eyes, animosity and possibly jealousy. But I was in so much of a hurry that I was not certain.

The sound of heels coming behind us put us both on alert and we turned at the same time ready to fight, but, thankfully, it was only Faye.

“Hey, are you alright?” she said, hurrying towards me, worry written all over her face.

The guards stopped her from moving closer before she could reach me, “Hey! Let her through, she’s my best friend.” I snapped at them, but they both deferred to Fiona, who nodded at them before they listened.

I tried not to let my irritation show as Faye closed the gap between us to hug me tightly. “I’m okay,” I said to reassure her.

“We don’t have time for this we need to get you to safety.” Fiona snapped again.

“Fiona!” Nicholas’ voice interrupted whatever she was about to say, and we both turned toward him. He was not alone; Douglas was with him, and they both looked at us like we were causing an unnecessary ruckus. And then he nodded for her to follow him.

“Get her to safety,” he said to the two guards, who nodded affirmatively.

He barely acknowledged me, and I felt an unreasonable anger and jealousy start to rise. Why would I be jealous that he was walking away with Fiona?

The kiss was the first thing that came to my mind, but I pushed the thought away. I should definitely not be thinking about that now.

“Come on,” I heard Faye say behind me and let her lead me to my room.

“What was that?” I asked her when we were finally alone.

“I think I heard some of Nicholas’ men say it was the outborder weres,” she said. I was surprised. I knew some people were mad that Nicholas was the Alpha, but I never expected that they would make such a blatant attempt on his life.

The thought that he was in constant danger caused me to fear for him. It was an irrational fear when I should be fearing for my own life, but I could not seem to shake it. I had seen a tender side to him at the reception. A side I’d never seen before, and it had made me soft.

“Prairie, what are you thinking about?” Faye’s voice brought me out my reflections and I started at her.

“Did Fiona and Nicholas ever date?” I asked her. She looked at me suspiciously. Everyone had seen the kiss at the wedding and I knew she had questions, but I would let her draw her own conclusions. Even if I was still confused about the whole thing.

She shrugged before answering, “There were rumors he was going to name her as his mate before his sister died. She was Felicity’s best friend.”

“Oh.” is all I could say.

“Yeah. By the way, good play with that kiss. If you planned to make it as believable as possible, you could have fooled me.”

I heard the doubt in her voice like she wanted me to come clean about whether or not the kiss had been real, but I simply nodded.

“Yeah, that was exactly what I was going for,” I told her, lying through my teeth. She stared at me for the longest time as if searching for the truth, and then she nodded.

“Alright then.”

A knock on the door interrupted us less than twenty minutes later. I was still in my dress and Faye and I were both lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling when the knock came. The door opened and Nicholas walked in. He had gotten rid of his suit and the first three buttons of his shirt were undone. His hair, which had been placed into a low bun, was now loose. He was devastatingly handsome and I thought I might start to drool.

Faye stood to her feet while I remained seated on the floor, my gown bunched around me.

“I need to talk to my wife.” He said the words in a painfully possessive way. Faye could not hide the shock on her face. I wanted, no needed, to find fault with those words, but every part of me loved them.

“Uhm… sure,” Faye said before walking out.

“You don’t waste time, do you?” I said, trying to c***k a joke, but it fell flat. He was standing by the wall staring at me.

“Are you alright?” he asked. It occurred to me for the first time that he had been worried about me.

I tried to get up to my feet, but I failed until he stepped forward to help.”

“This dress is a monstrosity,” I muttered under my breath, but he heard me and laughed. I looked up fast enough to catch his smile; it almost gave me whiplash.

“You look gorgeous in it,” he said and I felt flutters everywhere. My heart, my stomach, under my skin. He had a way of making the simplest words sound like they had a multitude of meanings, and I was dumbfounded for a minute.

“Are you alright?” I asked him. He smiled a small smirk that ignited the flutters again.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sound worried,” he replied.

Shaking my head, I smiled and looked down but his index finger lifted my jaw back up to his face.

“Don’t hide your smile from me. It comes very rarely, and I want to see it - every time.”

They were no longer flutters but had turned into a consistent pounding that would not stop. How did he do it, make me go from angry to aroused in the space of a few seconds? I had no idea how long we stared at each other, but he took a step closer until he was close enough that I could feel his soft breath on my face.

“I’m going to kiss you now. Tell me if you want me to stop.” He gave me a few seconds to stop him, but I didn’t, I couldn’t.

Then his mouth was covering mine in a toe-curling kiss that made me moan out loud. His hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer while my fingers slid into his hair, pulling and kneading, like I’d wanted to do for so long.

He released a low growl and muttered a hard ‘f**k’ against my mouth. I whimpered in response. My fingers left his hair to find the buttons of his shirt, and he helped me, undoing them in no time at all. His shirt dropped to the floor, and his torso was bare before me.

I leaned back to stare at him, my mouth watering. He was ripped everywhere. Dark tribal tattoos and battle scars lined his abs and forearms. Scars had never looked so good on anyone. Not that I’d seen much of any other man’s torso before him.

I’d only had one boyfriend in the past, and I would barely call that a relationship, given that he had only been with me because he thought he could benefit from being the Alpha’s son-in-law. That was until he realized I held no value to my father.