My discomfort curled into a tight rope around my chest. Ignoring it, I leaned forward to place my lips upon the king’s.
The tension rapidly left my bones.
Everything slowed and softened with the first silken touch of his mouth on mine. His taste awakened and soothed. I parted his lips, a breath carrying sound escaping me when he groaned and clasped my cheek and jaw.
Our tongues touched, and I shivered as he broke away and laid his forehead aside mine.
It took his next order for me to remember we were not alone. Low, but not so low that our company would not hear, the king said, “Do close the door on your way out.”
A little mortified, I scooted from between his legs and pushed off the desk to the floor. I kept my gaze on the ground as I passed the blond male I hadn’t once dared to get a decent look at, and forced my weakened legs to the door.
As it closed, a boisterous laugh, unfamiliar and therefore not Florian’s, failed to keep from sneaking through the spelled stone and wood.
I wouldn’t see my betrothed again for two days.
After searching the three floors and discovering only parlors, a ballroom, and locked chambers, I’d sifted through the grand library downstairs. I had plenty of books to choose from in my rooms, but I wasn’t in search of something to read. Everything was still so new, so glamorously different, I couldn’t have read if I’d tried.
I didn’t want to admit it. I couldn’t help it, and I couldn’t deny it.
I was itching to see Florian, hungry for more of his confusingly cold yet heat-inducing company. Though the doors to his quarters were locked, including the one adjoining our rooms, I could sense he wasn’t there.
When Olin escorted me to the dining room for another lonely dinner, I’d asked of his whereabouts, only to be met with a rising of his brows that conveyed his displeasure at my audacity.
I’d sighed and watched the fire burn low in the ornate hearth while eating as much as I could. Kreed was the only one who’d been half pleasant to me, and he’d indeed given me smaller servings for every mouthwatering meal.
Today, I was tired of wandering the beautiful yet empty halls and enduring Olin’s stern disapproval of my lowly presence. After lunch, I marched straight outside into the winter chill.
A guard who’d been loitering by the manor’s entrance trailed me to the edge of the drive. As I trudged in my boots toward the forest, he mercifully made no effort to join me.
Twigs snapped underfoot. Frosted spiderwebs hanging from bare branches glinted like jewels beneath the sun. I traced them with wonder and meandered deeper into the trees before I heard the faint growl.
I stilled, instinct warning me to retreat, when I caught a flash of white fur.
Then there was a whine, and that instinct changed with a jarring pulse I couldn’t ignore.
I followed the sound as though it were a song on the wind rather than a keening I’d heard only once.
Behind a large oak, blood speckled the snow surrounding her.
A female. Confirmed with the first glimpse of her dark eyes.
I crouched beside the cub, allowing her to sniff me before I gently prodded her injured leg. She growled, attempting to move. I placed a hand on her flank, and she settled. Peering through the foliage, curious as to where her mother was, I sensed nothing nearby.
I inspected the bite on her leg. Another wolf had done it.
Indecision warred, but something stronger suffocated it. Something I’d not felt before arose and outweighed any uncertainty. Not only did I want to help her, I had to.
Carefully, I pulled the cub no bigger than a fat alley cat into my arms.
The wolf wriggled but stilled when my eyes met hers and I ran my fingers over her head. The admission left me on a whisper, though something told me that even if she didn’t understand my words, she understood the emotion in my eyes. “I know how it feels to be discarded, young one.”
We trekked back through the woods toward the manor. It winked at us, dark yet glowing red through the trees.
I crossed the dirt road and stopped at the entry to the circular drive.
It was flooded with wagons and carriages. Trunks were being unloaded and carried into the manor, with Olin leading the way.
At least thirty warriors milled about. Some talked, some watched their surroundings as if a threat might emerge at any moment, and others unpacked more trunks and sacks and tended to the horses. All of the warriors wore the black-edged blue uniform.
All of them wore weapons at their waists and across their backs.
“Skies,” I breathed, knowing I could not move another step without all of them looking at me. Which would have been perfectly fine.
If I’d not been carrying a bloodstained cub I’d plucked from the forest.
I wondered where I might locate a side entrance. Then some warriors headed to the grandest carriage, and I caught sight of my betrothed for the first time in days.
My feet were moving before my brain could bleat at me to stop, the wolf almost forgotten until every pair of eyes felt like they were trying to burn a hole into my body. But it was too late to turn back nor care now.
Florian was not impressed.
Talking with one of his grumpy-looking warriors, he looked at me with a heat in his eyes that darkened to outrage when he spied the cub.
“His majesty returns.” I smiled brightly. “Look what I found.”
The fire-haired male Florian had been speaking with looked me over with a smirk, then took his leave with a bow to his king.
The king scowled at the tiny mound of white fur in my arms. His eyes narrowed on the blood covering the cub’s leg. The wolf whimpered and seemed to recoil from his gaze.
I held her tighter and hushed her. “He won’t hurt you.”
When I looked back at the king, his features had flattened. But I didn’t miss the way his lips twitched. “What makes you so sure?” His brow arched. “That is a wolf. A beast that has no place bleeding anywhere near my home.”
“I know what she is, and she’s just a babe who needs help.”
“Put it back,” Florian clipped in a tone that warned not to disobey him. “Messing with nature’s way never serves well.”
“And what if nature intended for me to happen upon her for this very reason?” I readjusted her weight in my arms. “I can help her, Florian.” I nodded insistently. “I’ll keep her in the stables. You won’t even know she’s here.”
He glared, speaking through tight teeth. “You cannot keep a wolf with horses.”
“I’m sure they won’t mind, being that she’s just a cub.”
His clenched jaw shifted.
Sheepish, I grinned and spun to leave. “I’ll see you later.”
“Butterfly,” he growled.
I hurried across the drive. The heavy stares of guards and warriors tracked my careful steps down the iced garden path surrounding the manor.
As tall as trees in the woods, the stables sat only half an acre behind Florian’s giant fortress. It felt like a short eternity as I feared being followed and stopped.
Of course, the king was right. The horses were not happy.
Snickering and shifting echoed throughout the stalls when I entered the dark.
The stable hand jumped up from where he’d been taking a nap on bales of hay. A piece fell from his slack lips at the sight of me. “What in the skies—”