I Will Save You, My Princess

A Blonde Ponytail

Luca

I hurried away from Rhiannon's room, heading for my bedroom on the other end of the packhouse. It's kind of a joke to call it a packhouse because the only people allowed to live here are my family, Greeley's family, and Charles, who lives alone.

"Lou!"

I gritted my teeth. Only one person called me 'Lou.'

Esme was waiting for me in the hallway that led to my room. Her long blonde hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, the ends of her hair curling slightly and bouncing as she approached.

Esme was Greeley's daughter and my sort-of fiance. Of course, I'd never marry her now that I'd met Rhiannon, but my dad had promised Greeley that his daughter would be the next Luna as a way to keep him in line.

She certainly believed we were meant to be despite not being mates. She took the fact that we'd each not met our mates (as far as she knew) as proof we should be chosen mates. I'd been trying to hold her at arm's length for years now, but I especially needed to avoid her now that I had Rhiannon.

"Yes?" I asked slowly, wondering if she had actually been waiting her for me. Her bedroom was on the other side near her father's.

She seemed to pick up on my annoyance and huffed. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Did you forget about the pack run? It's in, like, 15 minutes."

I had, in fact, forgotten about it. Esme and I always walked together to the pack run and usually ran together as well, mainly because my dad needed to keep up the ruse to Greeley and the pack that Esme would be my Luna someday.

Normally it wasn't too bad, but now the thought of dealing with an overly-flirty (as she always was on a full moon) Esme made my skin crawl. I didn't want her touching me.

Which, of course, is what she did when I didn't answer her immediately. She stroked my arm with her purple-manicured hand. "Is everything okay, Lou? You seem a little out of it."

"I'm fine," I said, but I knew I was unconvincing because there she was still touching my arm.

Her eyes lit up. "I know, we can make our appearances at the run and then I'll take you back here and run you a got bath or bake you something nice and let you rest."

As nice as the offer was, and despite my frustration with her, Esme was always very nice, if not misguided, there was no way I was playing at domicicity with her.

I pretended to think about it. "No, actually I think a nice long run is what I need."

She nodded, looking a little disappointed but all she said was, "I hope you feel better, then."

The thing that would actually make me feel better would be running back to Rhiannon and grabbing her and never letting go. She didn't want that though. The memory of her pulling away and saying she didn't want to be touched was fresh in my mind.

That didn't make any sense given what she wanted to do tonight . . . but thinking like that was going to put me in an embarrassing situation in front of Esme.

"We should probably head out to the square," Esme smiled brightly, finally letting go of my arm.

"Uh," I rubbed the back of my neck, "I need to change clothes actually, so I'll just meet you out there."

Esme frowned slightly, then surprised me by pushing up on her tiptoes and pressing a kiss on my check. I pulled away like I'd been stung, but I didn't think she noticed as she spun away to head to the pack meeting grounds.

I hurried into my room to change. there's no way I could avoid the first part of the pack run. My dad always makes a speech about strength or might or power. I could, however, run until I was away from other wolves and circle back around to the packhouse and sneak into Rhiannon's room.

Goddess, I hoped tonight went well. I hoped I'd be able to please her, to satisfy her. I didn't want to think about the reason why she wanted this, about giving her something to cherish before my father--

We will not let him, Alaric spoke up, sounding so sure that it calmed me down some.

As for satisfying her, Alaric sounded equally confident, We will more than satisfy her. She is our mate, and I know what I'm doing.

That did buoy my spirits a little bit. Still, I worried.

~o0o~

Rhiannon

I lay in the bare sheets, running through horrifying scenarios of my future when my cheek suddenly burned like I'd been slapped.

I jolted upright. What the f**k just happened? I'd never felt anything like that before.

Mate, Keia whimpered. I was happy to hear from her again, but damn if her words didn't worry me.

"Is he hurt?" I demanded. Was this what feeling his pain felt like?

He's with someone else. The heartbreak in Keia's words made my blood run cold.

"What do you mean? Like romantically?"

I felt Keia's affirmative response. She didn't even have to use words, I could just feel it. It was like being punched in the gut. What the hell??

I guess I never asked if he had a girlfriend before he met me. Maybe that's why he was cold to me at first. Maybe the mate bond was the only thing forcing him to help me.

Maybe I'd driven him away by telling him I only wanted s*x from him.

I mean, I did tell him he could reject me after we had s*x.

Apparently, I wasn't as okay with that as I thought I was.

Keia whimpered again. I flopped back on the bed. a rear leaked from my eye and ran down the side if my face into my ear.