The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(29)

I love you, Zara.

Now. Forever. Always.

Axil

I whimpered, biting the inside of my cheeks to keep from crying. Then I flipped the note over, recognizing Dorian’s handwriting immediately.

Axil,

You nearly broke her last time and it’s been two years, she’s finally over you. Don’t write again unless it’s to make her your wife. Don’t show up unless it’s to offer courtship. I’ll tear you apart if I see you on my land without a lifelong promise for that girl.

She’s too good for you right now.

Dorian

I smiled at Dorian’s note and all the anger I thought I would feel for my alpha fled. At the two-year mark I was finally doing okay. I had started dating again and was no longer sulking and hating my life. Dorian was right, seeing this letter only to read that Axil could do nothing to be with me, would have sent me over the edge at the time.

“Can you believe he said that to me? That he would tear me apart? A prince in line to the throne!” Axil chuckled beside me.

I’d forgotten he was here. Setting the note on my lap, I folded and tucked it into my pocket. “I’m keeping it. It’s mine,” I declared.

He said nothing, only nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a prince?”

He sighed. “Because I had no intention of taking the throne. I didn’t want you to see me as someone I wasn’t. I wanted nothing to do with this role. I wanted you, and a small house in a village somewhere with a dozen kids.”

My heart pinched at that statement but I needed more information.

“Then why did you challenge Ansel for kingship? If you didn’t want that life?”

He sighed, running his hands through his dark hair. “Two years in captivity gave me a lot of time to think. I never dreamed my brother would be capable of such cruelty. But knowing he could imprison me and control me for so long … I knew I couldn’t let him stay king. That you and I would never be safe.”

I frowned. “I agree. But then why did you let your brother live? If he’d been controlling you against your will and you fought him for king and won – why let him keep his life?” I asked. I’d have killed him.

Axil’s wolf surfaced then, eyes glowing yellow. “Wolven law states that two heirs of the royal bloodline must be alive at any given time. Ansel’s wife was unable to give him a pup, so I had to let him live until I could marry and have children of my own.”

Everything he said made sense but my heart still hurt for how things went down. “You’ve been king for two years … you could have sent for me the day you were crowned.” I fumbled for reasons not to forgive him.

“Could I have?” he asked. “Once I became king I realized the mistake I had made. A king must only take a wife through the Queen Trials. I’d trapped myself. Part of me wanted you to enter to become mine, and the other part wanted you to stay in the Mud Flats where you couldn’t be hurt.”

The wind knocked out of my lungs as he reached up and cupped my jaw in his hands. “You’re my mate, Zara. I’ve known that since we were fifteen. Didn’t you?”

Those damn tears that usually never surfaced were back and I blinked them away quickly. “I hoped,” I said softly.

He looked at my face then, no doubt waiting for my verdict.

Was he forgiven?

My heart thundered in my chest as I weighed his words in the note, along with Dorian’s response, and then finally Axil’s invitation to beckon me for the Queen Trials. The first night he’d seen me at the registration dinner he’d said he regretted inviting me. It was because he feared I would be killed and he’d have to marry another. He did everything he’d said he would when we were fifteen. It just took longer than I thought it would.

I finally peered up at him. “You took too long,” I told him.

His face fell, hands slipping away from me and he nodded, looking stricken.

I hadn’t meant it like that, like it was too late.

Reaching out, I cupped his chin and drew my thumbs along his rough beard. “I mean, I’ve been without your lips for far too long.”

It was like something in him roared to life then. He reached for me eagerly, grasping my hips and lifting me into the air until I was straddling him. A peal of laughter escaped me. He used to always do this, toss me around on the grass as if I weighed nothing.

I’d loved it. I still did.

I looked down at him, my hair falling like a curtain around us as my lips hovered above his.

“I’ve ached for you since that day my brother forced me to leave,” he confessed and my heart constricted. All these years I’d told myself he wasn’t my mate, my future husband. He wasn’t the one. Forget him. Hate him.

“Me too,” I breathed and then our lips crashed together in a blind passion. This was no teenage love kiss. There was no tempered desire. This was five years of pent-up yearning. I opened my lips as our tongues stroked together eagerly and he stood quickly, holding onto my waist tightly as he walked with me.

I didn’t need to ask where he was going. The bed. Tomorrow I could die fighting Ivanna and so tonight would be just for us, to make up for all the nights we’d slept alone. His fingers slipped up the back of my tunic as he explored my body and I gripped the back of his neck, pressing my lips harder into his.