The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(30)

There was nothing quite like your first love. Your heart fell faster and harder, without restraint, and every love after that paled in comparison. Axil was the man I’d compared every other guy to. The impossible figure for any man to model themselves after. And now I had the real thing.

His legs knocked against something and I pulled away from kissing him for a moment to find that we’d reached the bed. Without hesitation I pulled my top off and let my breasts spring free. His gaze hooded as he took me in fully.

Then he reached forward and kissed the smattering of freckles on my collarbone that he always traced with his finger, the spot that haunted me for years when I saw it in my reflection.

A small cluster of freckles that he particularly loved.

“I’m sorry for taking so long,” he breathed. “But I promise to spend forever making it up to you.” I fell back on the bed then, pulling off my trousers as he dropped his own. Everything about this was forbidden and I didn’t care.

Our forever might just be tonight, for tomorrow I might go to meet the Maker. But even one night with Axil Moon was better than five years without him.

EIGHT

Laying with Axil and then sleeping next to him all night felt like something out of a dream. I’d imagined it so many times in my teenage years and even after. He was far more tender than I fantasized but also passionate. I tried to slip out of the bed quietly and leave, but he growled and it made me smile.

“Don’t you dare bed me and then leave without breakfast,” he scolded.

I laughed for falling into my usual ways with men. I had only bedded two others but it was casual and there was no breakfast involved.

“Well, you better hurry, I have a fight to win,” I told him.

He crawled across the bed and yanked my hand, forcing me to fall on top of him laughing.

Reaching out, he traced my hairline, looking into my eyes with a tenderness I never remembered being there at fifteen. Perhaps that came in his two years of imprisonment. It was like he was grateful for the smallest things.

“You’re damn straight you do.”

That caused me to grin. “So … you think I’ll win?” I couldn’t help the smile that pulled at my cheeks.

“I’ve seen you fight, Zara. Even when we were kids you were the strongest woman I’d ever met. You’re a survivor. I have no doubt you are the toughest amongst the wolven and will be my queen.”

I wanted to be happy about his compliment but instead bile rose in my throat. My mind was infiltrated of an image of sweet Eliza lying dead at my feet. I knew that my physical strength was unmatched against her … but I had an emotional weakness where that girl was concerned. My packmate. My sister. I could never hurt a hair on her head.

“I need to get training,” I said suddenly.

He must have noticed the shift in my mood and released me, nodding.

A servant came by with breakfast and we ate quickly and then I kissed him goodbye. I needed to get in the right headspace for this fight and being around Axil was not going to do that. I didn’t want to spend too much time with my prize before I’d won it and lose my edge.

SPECIAL_IMAGE-images/svgimg0003.svg-REPLACE_ME

“We’ve got this,” I told Eliza and she nodded, though she looked like she might be sick.

The crowd had amassed again for our doubles fight. Two more girls had made it in from the outskirts just before the cut-off time: everyone else was assumed dead. Now whoever won this fight between Ivanna, Charlize and us, would fight the girls who’d just made it back. They were dehydrated and injured so it wasn’t much of a competition.

Axil sat on his throne, high above the fighting ring, as I looked my brother in the eyes. I trusted him to get me through this and he always had sage advice, so I prepared myself to absorb whatever he was going to say now.

“You smell like him,” my brother said and looked up at the king.

I stiffened at his words, blushing and then kicking myself for not bathing after bedding Axil.

That was not what I’d expected Cyrus to say.

Leaning into me, my brother whispered, “Use that. Get in Ivanna’s head that you’ve already won the king.”

Then he pulled back and I swallowed hard, giving him a curt nod. Mind games. His specialty. Instead of taunting her about sleeping with her coach, I was going to flaunt who I was bedding. What could go wrong?

Eliza’s coach reached out and placed a hand on both Eliza’s and my shoulders, bringing us closer together. “Use your pack link and the fact that Eliza is the biggest wolf here.”

We both nodded: it had always been our strategy to use Eliza’s large-sized wolf. Her size was a great asset.

I turned to Eliza. “Do you drink mead?”

She frowned, looking confused. “Not really. I’m more of a glass of wine girl … when appropriate of course.”

I grinned. She was adorable and so proper. “Tonight, after we win, we get so drunk we forget our names,” I told her.

Her coach clicked his tongue in disapproval at my words.

That caused a smile to rise on Eliza’s lips and I watched as her anxiety fled. “Deal.”

We were ready.

I stepped into the ring, taking the sword that the advisor offered. I would not be stupid this time and decline a weapon. Not against Ivanna. He offered one to the opposing team and Ivanna picked it up. It looked like we had a similar strategy. We would stay human and protect our partner while they shifted to wolf form.