Prologue

PRINCE JULIAN LYCANTHEN

ROYAL PALACE, GERMANY

My trusted assistant, Sebastian, is holding up my robe as I slip out of the rumpled bed. Long legs tangled and hands with perfectly manicured nails are sticking out from under the sheet.

"Wake her up and get Beckett to drive her home," I tell Sebastian as I shrug my robe on.

"Your Highness….where do think you're going?" says a velvety seductive voice from the bed. A second later, her sleepy face with disarray ringlets of brown hair emerges from underneath the blanket.

"I'm going to bed. You need to get home," I say curtly, ready to leave.

"But Prince Julian…we are in bed. I mean you were…" She slinks out of bed in nothing at all and attaches herself to my back, her hands start to roam my chest and my lower region. Sebastian doesn't even bat an eyelid. He has seen it all before. "Come back to bed and I'll make Your Highness very very happy." Her hands grow bolder.

I pry her fingers off me and re-tie my robe. I don't usually need to tell people twice what to do.

"Why can't we spend the whole night together?" I can sense her pouting behind me. She's getting clingy. I don't do clingy. "Why can't I sleep in your bed?" Nope, she's going nowhere near my private quarters. "Last night was magnifique, my prince." Of course, she would think so. I've been with her twice and I'm already bored. She's beautiful, most of lycan women are, but this is the last time she's setting foot in here.

"What time is it, Sebastian?" I ask my assistant as slip on my slippers before I exit the room.

"It's almost four in the morning, Your Highness," he answers after flicking his eyes at his pocket watch.

"Prince Julian! Please…" I hear her whinny voice behind us.

"Make sure she's dressed then escort her out," I tell him even though I know he needs no such instruction.

"I'll make sure she's out before anybody sees her or your mom hears about her," he replies.

I nod my head even though I couldn't care less if mother saw my latest conquest. Actually, it's better if she does. I stop walking. "Sebastian?"

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"Make sure to escort her out through the main entrance," I tell him. My smile is widening. Mother will hear about this.

"You're an idiot, do you know that?" says my cousin, Caspian, the crown prince. He has no doubt heard the tail end of my instruction to Sebastian.

"Oh, he knows," mutters Silas.

My shoulders are relaxing and my mood improves drastically as I find myself among my trusted friends. I've reached the East wing of the palace where I can be myself. Where my pack members are. My family.

As a prince of the royal bloodline, I learned very early and the hard way that not everybody can be trusted. Everyone wants something from me. Those trusted few friends that I have, I keep.

Silas is our guardian as well as head of our security. He also happens to be Caspian's cousin from his mother's side. We've been together for centuries. We are all the same height, around 6'5" but Silas, being one of our best warriors, is bulkier.

"What are you two doing out of bed at this hour? Don't you have your mates to please?" Both of them have found their mates or rather "erasthai" for us lycans. Lucky bastards.

Their mates are also now part of our small pack. Silas found his erasthai, Selene over sixty years ago. Caspian claimed Livana three years ago. Both Selene and Livana are like sisters to me.

"Livana is accompanying Aurelia to the airport as we speak," answers Caspian.

"What? Now?" I ask him. "My Rory didn't even wait to say goodbye? She didn't say anything about leaving last night." Aurelia, or Rory as I call her, is Livana's best friend. We've discovered that she's the erasthai of Commander Darius Rykov, one of our close friends. We've come to accept her as one of us, even though he hasn't claimed her yet, much to our frustration. She's trustworthy, loyal, and strong…though very short tempered. I enjoy rilling her up.

"Something must've happened last night to cause her to leave. She wouldn't say what it was…but she looked pretty upset," explains Caspian.

"Darius did mention he wanted to mark someone else," retorts Silas.

"Then he's a fool!" I growl. I can't believe he could even think of marking someone else when he's found his erasthai.

"Don't get involved," warns Silas. I'm making no such promises.

"Yeah, you're in a lot of trouble yourself, Julian," agrees Caspian. "There's going to be hell to pay when the queen hears about your latest indiscretion… leaving through the main entrance no less." he shakes his head at my newest stunt. "The hell's going to explode." Oh, I'm counting on it.

I grin and pull the door open as we reach my bedchamber. I give them a quick salute before I disappear inside. I'm waiting for hell to explode.

---

There's always tension between mother and me. I'm not the crown prince — that duty falls to Caspian — but at two hundred years old, she insists it's past time I found a mate of my own. Give her a grandchild to spoil, if nothing else. My mother has made her choice clear in the form of Lady Seraphina, the daughter of one of her closest friends. Forget the idea of finding my erasthai. Mark Lady Seraphina and be done with it.

As a lycan, we are born to recognize the one. Our erasthai. Our life force. The one who calls for our soul. The one who would mold to fit us even more so physically, mentally, and spiritually once we mark and claim her as ours. I may be a player, but when you've lived for hundreds of years searching, loneliness creeps in. I know that no amount of meaningless hookups can make me feel whole.

All those women I hook up with, they know the score. They're mostly sophisticated socialites. Definitely no blushing virgins. They know what they're in for. Just some fun.

Still, some grow clingy. Most of them hope to be the one I finally mark.

I refuse to mark just anyone. Marking anyone else will never satisfy my soul…definitely not Lady Seraphina. I will find my erasthai one day. I need to find her.

As expected, hell did explode. My mother and I had a huge argument that very morning. The argument had me destroy some parts of the palace, including my own bedchamber. The fight had also the expected result: my uncle, King Alexandros encouraged me to take a break. That means I'm free to stay away from the Royal Palace and Germany for a few years. I have a plan.

"Come on, throw the dart already," I mutter to myself after my last one landed somewhere in the middle of Ocean

Yeah, that's right. My grand plan is throwing the dart on the map to figure out where we're going to spend the next few years.

"This is stupid, Julian…throwing the dart. Really? Why can't we just pick a good college that offers a good program that we like, apply like normal people do and just go?" Livana asks, arms crossed, watching me line up my next throw. BORING.

"That's a stupid way to do it…besides, this is more fun," I disagree. "Look, the last time I did it, you ended up meeting Caspian. You still think it's stupid?"

At least I plan on going to college instead of a high school like the last time. These people should be thankful. Where's the gratitude?

"Just throw it already, Julian," Caspian says, arms crossed, clearly done waiting.

"Fine!!!! Watch and learn," I tell them, ignoring the eye roll from Livana. I close one eye and take aim.

The whole pack's gathered around the map Caspian, Silas, Selene, Livana, all of them waiting to see where I'll send us next.

"How did you convince everyone else that this is how you decide where we're spending the next few years of our lives? By throwing a dart at a map?" Livana asks as I pull my arm back.

"Yup. And you're all lucky enough to witness history in the making."

The dart whizzes through the air and lands right on the edge of the USA. Near the ocean.

"That's it! The dart has spoken. Pack your bags, everyone. We're going to California."

To my new readers, even though this book can stand on its own, I highly recommend that you read Rejected by my mate, Captured by a dominating lycan king First