"C'mon, Your Highness! It's been three days. You can't avoid her for the rest of her life!" Maia, as per usual, entered my room to check on me. After the dinner, which was more of a roasting session, I preferred to keep my distance. Cami's tone when she had said, 'You aren't his first and you won't be his last,' sounded like a challenge, or maybe even a threat. Maia had told me that Cami was the mayor's daughter back in Hoarfrost's main capital and that the girl was well-connected to the Alpha King. Once I knew that, I wanted to keep away from her. Who knew what she would dig up about my real identity. "I'm not avoiding anyone, Maia. I'm homesick, that's all." It was a plausible excuse, and I couldn't have someone as talkative as Maia knowing the real reason."In that case, then, you need to be cured!" Maia jumped up and down excitedly and by now I knew what this reaction meant. She had an idea...."More retail therapy?" I joked, but the memories of trying on twen

**Amber POVI didn't want him to see me like this.I was ashamed, humiliated, and tired of having a target on my back.I wanted to go back to my life before, as a maid, where no one noticed me. I felt safer that way. Now, I felt so open, vulnerable, and exposed.When the prince came in and saw tears flowing from my eyes, I cowered away from him. It wasn't because I didn't appreciate his effort to save me. It wasn't because I was scared of his proximity. In fact, I wished he was closer. It was because I knew that no matter how invigorating it felt to be held in his arms, to be nestled against his chest, that his actions were out of responsibility, and not out of love. They were out of duty, not out of kindness.He rescued me, but I presumed it was just because he needed me alive for his pack's treaty.We hadn't made an effort to see each other since the dinner and it seemed like we had understood what our purpose was: to co-exist until the we

Luckily I was wearing a pair of flats, better for running, but my red dress that I chose in the spirit of date night didn't exactly help me blend into my surroundings. I headed into the wall of trees that towered over the rest stop. It was the only direction I felt had enough natural hiding places where I could escape from Jean, who surely would have the whole town looking for me once he finished relieving himself.If only I had my wolf like everyone else my age; I could have blended into the forestry easier. I surely wasn't about to strip down and take my dress off to blend in.I wondered many times why I couldn't shift. Even Lily had shifted already, but we weren't biological sisters, so that could have had something to do with it. I wasn't jealous that she got her wolf before me, I was more anxious about whether or not the time would ever come.Maybe my birth parents were human and I never would find my fated mate. That saddened me more than never being able to shift.

**Amber POVWhile Nurse Reina was wrapping my arm in a long stream of gauze, Dylan came bursting through the door. His wide and panicked eyes landed on me and he let out a frustrated sigh, which I could tell was actually relief. "Where the hell did you go?" he yelled at me. I flinched, not expecting such anger from him. He rubbed his face vigorously with his hands and sighed. "Sorry, your Highness," he apologized, a bit calmer now. "You just freaked me out. I've been looking for you for the past two hours since Jean came back saying he lost you at a rest stop!" Dylan approached, pulling up a chair beside me and taking a close seat. He leaned towards me, grading my injury. "Don't punish Jean. It was my fault. Everyone has been suffocating me here and I needed to clear my head and talk to Prince Leonardo alone.""And did you do any talking?" Dylan asked as he raised one of his eyebrows."No," I admitted, feeling foolish. "But, I found him and

Leo kept his distance from me for the next couple of days. I wondered if it was as painful for him as it was for me. Now that our mate bond had been awakened and so had my wolf, I was in near agony being away from him and not knowing how he felt about me or what he planned to do with me.We'd left off on such a sour note that I truly didn't know how to process any of what had happened, nor the intimate moments we had shared before the mate bond existed. Had that been lust, desire, or was the mate bond actually there the whole time working in the background?Despite my uncertainty about love, I had to do something about my strength. Specifically, defending myself. Getting attacked by that red-eyed wolf awakened me to the dangers that lurked around me.Since Leo had remained cold and distant, I approached Dylan for help. Thankfully, he was more than willing and we started right away."So what made you want to start training? Was it because you got lost in the woods? Y