MasukHe began to move, slowly at first, with careful, measured thrusts that spoke of his lingering fear of hurting me. But my body remembered his, knew exactly how we fit together. Each stroke sent pleasure spiralling through me, building with each careful retreat and deliberate advance.“More,” I urged him, fingers digging into his shoulders. “I’m not going to break, Lukas.”Something shifted in his eyes, a flash of gold signalling Ares’s approval, and his rhythm changed. He drove into me with new purpose, angling his hips until he found that spot inside me that made stars explode behind my eyes.“There,” I gasped, throwing my head back against the tile. “Right there.”He adjusted, ensuring each thrust hit that perfect spot, watching my face with predatory focus. The pressure built within me, a coiling tension that demanded release. I slid one hand between our bodies, finding the sensitive bundle of nerves where we were joined.The additional stimulation pushed me cl
The walk back to our bedroom was quiet, our fingers intertwined but our minds still processing the weight of words exchanged. With each step down the palace corridors, I felt the distance between us shrinking, though not yet gone completely. Athena had settled within me, her copper presence curled contentedly closer to Ares’s golden warmth through our bond.The fight wasn’t forgotten, couldn’t be forgotten, but the sharp edges had dulled, leaving behind something we could both hold without bleeding.The guards stationed outside our chambers bowed their heads respectfully, their eyes carefully averted. I wondered briefly what rumours were already circulating about our argument in the forest, about the King chasing his Queen through the trees. Palace walls had ears, and forest floors had eyes. By morning, everyone would know something had fractured between us, even if they didn’t know the details.Lukas pushed the door open, his hand on the small of my back as he guided me
She unfolded her arms, letting them fall to her sides in a subtle mirror of my own open posture. “And you need to understand that I’m not some fragile human who needs a big strong wolf to protect her. I have Athena. I survived poisoning during the challenge. I killed Lysander with my own teeth. I am not weak, Lukas.”“I know you’re not weak,” I said, the words coming out more forcefully than I’d intended. I moderated my tone with effort. “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. That‘s not what this is about.”“Then what is it about?” she challenged. “If you know I’m strong, if you know I can handle myself, why do you keep trying to shield me from everything?”The question stripped me bare, forced me to confront something I’d been avoiding even in my own thoughts. “Because I’m terrified,” I admitted
I followed Amelia back to my office, the weight of her fury preceding her like a physical force. Each step she took seemed to leave scorch marks on the stone floor, her shoulders rigid beneath the borrowed guard’s cloak. Ares whined within me, confused and agitated. ‘Why mate angry?’ he kept asking, genuinely bewildered. ‘Protected her. Killed threats.’ I couldn’t make him understand what was so clear to my human half—that protection without respect wasn’t protection at all. It was control. And I had promised her, sworn to her, that I would never try to control her again.The door to my office stood ajar, as if expecting our arrival. Amelia pushed it open without hesitation, the heavy wood creaking in protest. She didn’t wait for me, didn‘t look back to see if I followed. She simply assumed I would, and of course, she was right. I would follow her anywhere—across continents, into b
I turned and sprinted toward the stairs leading down to the dungeons, taking them three at a time, my bare feet silent on the cold stone. Guards stationed at intervals straightened as I passed, but I ignored them, focused solely on reaching the cells below.The dungeon’s chill wrapped around me as I descended the final staircase, the torchlight casting long shadows across ancient stone walls. I heard her before I saw her, or rather, I heard the unmistakable weight of a Command in her voice, a pressure in the air that made my ears pop as I approached the occupied cell.“Tell me about the tea,” she was saying, her voice carrying that double-timbre that meant Athena was riding her hard, their consciousness so merged that it was impossible to tell where the human ended and the wolf began. “What herbs? What chemicals? How does it work?”I rounded the corner and froze at the sight before me. Amelia st
I shifted into Ares with a howl of desperation, golden fur erupting across my skin as bones cracked and reformed. Her scent trail was already fading, copper and cinnamon carried away by the night wind. Ares surged forward, his consciousness tangling with mine as we raced after our mate. ‘She left us,’ he snarled within my mind, confusion and rage warring in his thoughts. ‘How dare she leave when we protect.’ I growled back at him, pushing through the undergrowth with punishing speed. This was his fault, our fault, and the realization sat like poison in my veins.‘Shut up,’ I snapped at my wolf as we vaulted over a fallen tree. ‘This is your doing. Our doing.’Ares’s fury bubbled beneath my skin, his golden presence bristling with indignation. ‘Protected mate. Killed threats. Did what Alpha should.’The forest blurred around us, moonlight filtering through the canopy in patches that illuminated our path in fractured silver. I pushed harder, my massive paws digging into the soft earth,
I woke to Lukas's gaze, his ice-blue eyes fixed on my face with an intensity that suggested he'd been watching me for hours. Dawn light filtered through the curtains, painting gold across his features, softening the hard edges of the Alpha King. The bruises from yesterday's fight had faded to yel
I broke the kiss reluctantly, my body humming with a strange mix of pain and desire. "I love you too," I whispered against Lukas's lips, feeling his hands tighten protectively around my waist. The fight had left me battered but oddly exhilarated. Athena still prowled close to the surface, her cop
The royal arena loomed before us, its ancient stone walls catching the first pink fingers of dawn. Guards swarmed the perimeter, more than I'd ever ordered for any event in my thirty years as Alpha King. Dominic had taken no chances, his security measures exceeding even my own paranoid standards.
I leaned back against Lukas's chest in the bath, water hot enough to steam but still not matching the fire burning through my veins. The wolfsbane felt like liquid metal beneath my skin, each heartbeat spreading the toxin despite the antidotes the doctor had administered. I tried to focus on the







