Seven

Seven

Daisy POV

What in the seven hells was Prince Gavin up to? I walked swiftly from my history class, the sterile scent of old textbooks and floor polish doing little to calm the storm raging in my mind. I knew his directives, multiple and complex, one of them being the ultimate taming of the Rogue Human. But this… this was something else entirely. This wasn’t a calculated test; it was a catastrophic loss of command.

I remembered standing in that hallway, the air thick with the electric charge of Trisha’s fear and arousal. I had been forced to drop to my knees, my head bowed, but it was the exposure of my neck that had truly sealed my submission. The ultimate sign of fealty, offered not out of fear, but out of sheer, overwhelming instinct. That growl hadn’t just been heard. It had been *felt*, a seismic command that had every supernatural being in a fifty-foot radius either scrambling to submit or fleeing for their lives.

I had served as his Gamma for my entire life, a bond forged in childhood and sealed by duty. I had never, not once, witnessed him fracture like this. He was the embodiment of control, a gentleman scholar who viewed courtly affection as a tactical weakness. He never complimented, never fawned. Yet today, he had looked at Trisha with a tenderness that was so uncharacteristic it was frightening.

And Trisha… she was a live wire, humming with a chaotic energy that wasn’t hers. Her arousal hadn’t just been a scent; it was an assault of the senses. It was a thick, honeyed wave of salt and sweet cream that coated the back of my throat, so potent I could almost taste it. It was the kind of scent that didn’t just fill the air—it filled the *blood*, making my own body clench with a sympathetic, unwanted heat. It was an olfactory violation, a public announcement of her body’s desperate readiness that anyone with a working nose could perceive from a hundred yards away.

*Wait. Arousal!?* The thought struck me like a slap across my cheek, a cascade of implications crashing down. *Could that mean… No! It wasn’t possible! Was it?* Was Trisha the Prince’s fated mate!?

As the terrifying, exhilarating thought took root, the familiar, authoritative presence of my Alpha slammed into my mind, sharp and unmistakable. ‘Meet me in the library at the lunch bell. We need to talk.’

‘Yes, Alpha,’ I replied instantly, the response pure instinct. I knew this was coming. The moment he discovered my association with her, I knew I would be called to account. I hadn’t planned for my friendship with Trisha. It had been an accident, born from defiance and a shared moment of violence. After Beta Jim had insisted on antagonizing her to test her limits, I had argued with him, his constant demands for submission finally wearing me down. He chose to do it publicly, not accounting for Trisha’s proximity.

She saw me, a smaller girl being berated by a powerful man, and she didn’t hesitate. She strode right up to him, all righteous fury, seeing a victim where there was only insubordination. When Jim, the fool, looked her over and sneered that she “looked sexy pretending to be a badass,” she didn’t even flinch. Her knee came up, fast and vicious, connecting with his crotch with enough force to make me wince. I had never seen our Beta, a warrior centuries old, submit, yelp, whine, and crumble. But he did, all of it, right in front of this slip of a human girl. Then she had simply helped me up and led me away, as if she hadn’t just un-manned the second most powerful wolf in our pack.

That was how our impossible friendship began, and I was given new orders to test her in subtler ways. In the time since, I had learned a great deal about her, or at least, the Trisha of the present. She never spoke of her past before state custody, before her emancipation. If you came close, you could see the trauma, the PTSD that lurked behind her eyes, so I never pressed. And through it all, my Gamma aura, which should have made any supernatural being twitchy, never even caused a tickle of recognition in her. Never. Not once.

The bell shrieked, and I quickened my steps, my strides long and purposeful. His Highness would not tolerate tardiness. I arrived at the library swiftly, grateful to find the back corner empty. I had only been there for a few seconds when he entered, his presence sucking the air from the room. He led me to a secluded desk and sat, his regal posture at odds with the storm I sensed raging beneath his surface.

“You summoned me, Alpha Prince?” I said, bowing my head in deference.

“Yes. I need you to tell me everything you know about Trisha. Including how you came to be her friend.”

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. I had known this demand was coming, but I thought I had more time. I sent a silent prayer to whatever gods were listening, begging for Trisha’s forgiveness, because nothing she told me would ever be a secret from him. Not to the Prince. And I had truly come to enjoy her fire, her loyalty. She would be an excellent match for his excellency, if they both survived the discovery.

“Of course, your highness. May I have permission to memory cast with you?” I asked formally.

He gave a sharp nod. We shut our eyes, and I opened the mindlink wide, letting him pour into my consciousness. In a matter of minutes, I shared with him every memory I had with Trisha, but I didn’t just show him the events. I made sure he felt every one. I shared the intricate details I knew about her, letting him experience the shimmering mix of silver and blue she loved, the color of moonlight on a frozen lake. Her deep, yearning desire for a homestead, for a piece of land to cultivate and call her own.

I shared her contradictions: the part of her that found hardworking, chivalrous gentlemen attractive, yet stubbornly refused to date until after college. The quiet moments when she’d let her guard down, revealing a deep-seated fetish for bad boys and cowboys in the books she kept hidden. Her favorite animals were any feline, of any size, and wolves. This last bit caused a low chuckle to rumble in Gavin’s chest, a sound of pure, primal satisfaction that I felt vibrate through our link.

I continued to share what she told me of her life in State Custody and her hard-won emancipation. I let him feel the walls she’d built around herself, the way she preferred living alone, the solitude a shield forged from a lifetime of not getting along with others. That her 18^th birthday was in a few months in October, and the loneliness she felt when only Erik shared it with her. I even shared the most sensitive topic: her grandmother. I let him feel the sheer, unwavering love Trisha held for her, the woman who was her true mother in every way that mattered.

I showed him the memory of finding her still, cold body, and the sacred, saintly regard in which she now held her memory. I felt his own sorrow resonate with hers, a strange and powerful empathy. I showed him her legendary green thumb, her favorite flower being a lily, and the dreams she had of gardens. I shared her strange affinity for shawls and clothes with stripes and floral patterns, and her visceral, almost violent hatred for polka dots. I felt him tuck that knowledge away for later.

Lastly, I shared her compassionate core, her unyielding desire for total equality, which was one of the main things that drove her to be so continuously defiant. Every memory I had, I shared, guarding only one because it also embarrassed me a little. He would know Trisha just as well as I did now, maybe more, including all her secret quirks. Like how her left eye twitched when she was truly annoyed or angry.

After a few moments, we opened our eyes. The air between us crackled with new understanding.

“I have a new assignment for you, Daisy,” he said, and I nodded, bracing myself for the order to end the friendship, to be sent away. I was shocked by his next words.

“You are now Trisha’s Royal Guard.”

I gasped, my head snapping up. “Why?”

He didn’t speak aloud, but his mindlink was a powerful, private wave of intensity. ‘Because she is my mate. That information is not to be shared with anyone, though I doubt it will be a secret for long. I’m only entrusting you with this information because I need your help.’

Everything made sense. The confirmation of my own suspicion. The loss of control. The raw power. The overwhelming scent of her arousal. It all clicked into place with the finality of a cell door locking. And that meant everything would change. I bowed my head once more, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Of course, My Lord. How can I be of assistance?”

“My initial approach was… ineffective,” he said, his voice low and controlled, though I could feel the frustration thrumming just beneath the surface. “It was too direct. It has put her on the defensive.” He paused, choosing his words with the precision of a general. “I require a new strategy. One that allows for close proximity without triggering an adverse physiological response on her end. Your role as her friend is now a strategic asset. I need you to help me maneuver into her orbit without causing… a panic response.”

I could feel the struggle in him, the sheer effort it took to phrase his desperate need as a tactical problem. A smirk twitched at the corner of my mouth. Even the indomitable Prince Gavin wasn’t immune. But he wasn’t forcing a mating or a marking on her. He wanted her to be ready on a personal level, which was noble.

For Trisha, I think I may have even defied him if he had tried forcing her. But in refusing to act on the bond, he was denying himself. I knew the sacrifice he was making. He would become weaker, his wolf more feral, the longer he denied their union. And the effects on Trisha would be unknown.

A regular lycan mating to a human and resisting the bond would result in the human falling ill, sometimes slipping into a coma. If they survived, all their memories of the lycan were wiped out, and they began a new existence. But the lycan never survived the severing. But to be mated to a Royal… Trisha would likely die.

I nodded, my mind already racing. I knew how to get him close to Trisha, but it would require the Prince’s full cooperation, and a humility he might not possess. “Very well, Alpha Prince. However, due to the delicate position I am placed in, I must request your permission to address you by first name under the guise of my brother,” I told him, daring to meet his eyes.

To my utter surprise, his eyes twinkled with something that looked suspiciously like amusement, and a genuine smile touched his lips. Less than a day and Trisha had already begun to sand down his sharp edges, making the world a better place, and she didn’t even know it. “What did you have in mind?” he asked.