Prologue
KAELLAN shivered while she knelt by the bedpost. Eyes closed, hair braided to particular twill, and hands clasped together over her restraining white dress, she anticipated for the deliberate chain of footsteps that she has been used to, all too well.
She knows it by the sound as if it has the power to pound on her chest with every pace. The boot soles would settle predatorily on the tiled floor as she heaved for a nervous breath.
A feather-light flick of a finger made her body jolt before the Crown Prince’s deep, bedroom voice harrowed against her ear.
“Relax, Vinelle.”
She could not bring herself to feel at ease.
Not when he is around, and especially not when he calls her by someone else’s name.
“Your Highness, I do not think—
“Who cares what you think?” he cut her off as he unclasped his cape before tossing it somewhere. “Do not let me repeat myself, Vinelle.”
“I cannot bring disgrace to my Luna’s name, Your Highness,” she cried for several nights in a row now and it sounded almost as if they were just playing a record at this point. “Just allow me to go look for her on my own and I will bring her back to you, Your Highness. Please.”
Instead of listening to what she said, Prince Severin Ronan, Alpha of the Phoebus Pack, cracked a devious smile and leaned in to level with her grey eyes. The spark of mischief in his amber ones sent electrifying chills down Bellastrom pack’s second-in-command and all the poor Kaellan could do was to wait for what he is supposed to say next.
“You are not worthy to look for my mate.”
“Then, please do not call me by her name when we are alone after all, Your Highness. I cannot bring such—
“I can call you whatever name I want, woman,” he warned in a low growl as he held her cheeks ironically tenderly. “Now, get up and help me undress. It was a tiring day and I do not want to soil my bed with other wolves’ blood.”
Kaellan could not do as much but close her eyes as she ran her hands on each inch of his regal clothes. The Prince even watched her closely and silently as she shut her grey irises and he could not help but to swallow with every graze and light touch of her fingers to his skin.
“You are touching my skin again.”
“I am sorry, Your Highness. Please forgive me.”
With shaking hands, she bit her lips praying she could unbuckle his belt properly this time but as soon as the full moon’s light glinted from the Prince’s eyes, Kaellan hitched a sharp breath as he caged her against his warm, burning body and raggedly breathed against her cheeks, “You are not touching it enough.”
Surrendering to the Prince’s power just before she could reach down her pillow for another dose of an inhalable sleeping powder, Kaellan begged for her Luna, Vinelle, to appear sooner so she could finally be free from what happened.
Maybe if she gets here, she will be able to forget how all of this even happened to her.
All she knew is that everything started a week ago.
