Page 137 of Spar of Hearts

Roderick stood beside Anya, checking Lady Rowan and Octavio’s pulses in turn.

He rested a hand on her shoulder. “She’s all right, Anya. They both are. I’m relieved too. But don’t tell Octavio that,” he said with a chuckle. She didn’t move. “So…when do you think they’ll wake up?”

Anya sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Probably in the morning. The Prince arranged for kelpie to tow us out to sea, so the crew doesn’t need to be awake until then.”

“So what you’re saying is we can be as loud as we’d like tonight,” he crooned, desperately trying to make her smile again, even if she smiled and shoved him away for his shameless flirting. But she merely stood and nodded. He swallowed down embarrassment and scrubbed the back of his neck with a hand. Maybe that was tone deaf. But why wasn’t she more relieved, elated, even? Their mission was a success, the crew was alive, and the Lupus Star was in one piece. They were bound for home and the rest of their lives together. This called for celebration, not tears.

“Anya?”

“Hm?” She blinked a few times, finally looking away from Lady Rowan. He took her hands in his and fixed her gaze. “Let’s go check on the others.”

“Right. Yes, of course.”

One by one, they checked each cabin. Most were laying down like they were preparing for a normal night. Gail, beguilingly, was on the floor. Ornella and her children were cuddled in one bunk. In the last cabin, they found Bernard cradling Annette and little Olivia in his arms. The steady rise and fall of their breaths made his own come a little easier.

“That’s everyone,” he said, exhaling as he checked off his mental list.

Anya wanted to make sure the promised mana stones were in the stern storage, and sure enough, six hulking chests were lined up. He went to open one, but an iron lock kept it securely shut.

“How do we know the Prince didn’t fill these with rocks?” Roderick huffed, clanking the lock back against the chest.

“He’ll keep his word,” was all she said. She didn’t seem to be concerned, so neither would he. With everyone accounted for and the mana stones secured, he shifted his focus back to cheering her up. He scooped her into his arms, making her yelp in surprise.

“Hey!”

“Time to go back to our cabin,” he whispered. “And I think I’d like to carry my mate over the threshold.”

She melted into his arms again and inhaled deeply, rubbing her cheek on his chest with a sigh. “I love you,” she said softly. “You know that, right?”

“I do. Though I’d be lying if I didn’t fear the day I wake up and find it was all a dream.” He pressed a kiss to her temple and opened the door with a creak, then set her on the edge of the bed.

“That’s just how much I love you. You’re my fairy tale princess. Better than that, even. You don’t wait around to be rescued. You would insult a knight for having shining armor. And if a dragon tried to abduct you, you’d shift and slip out of its grasp. You are so, so much more than a princess to me.”

The last words seemed to strike her in the heart. Her bottom lip worried for a moment before she hid her face in her hands.

“No, I’m not,” she murmured. “I’m not, I’ll never be anything more than a princess.”

While most children could only dream of being a prince or a princess, he knew what she meant. Her heart longed for adventure, for endless nights charting the stars—and all he wanted to do was steal her away from the palace to sail the seas together and declare this cabin their home.

A quiet sniff from Anya pulled him from his scheming.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he soothed. He gently lowered her hands, subconsciously stroking a thumb over her soft cheek. “Yes, you are. You’re my mate, my pack, my partner…you’re everything, Anya. And I know you’re worried about how I’ll handle all the changes that come with the palace. But I’m ready for it all, I promise.”

The ship creaked around them, punctuated by the gentle slap of waves against the hull.

“You can’t promise that,” she whispered.

He took her hand in his and held her gaze. “Anya, there are a lot of things I can’t promise you. I can’t promise that I won’t be a fool; but I’ll be your lovestruck fool. I can’t promise that I won’t have bad days—that the thorns in my mind will never take a hold. But with you by my side, I know I can conquer it every day for the rest of my life. That’s what I can promise you. I can promise you forever. I promise you my heart, my love, my undying loyalty. I promise to make adventure happen wherever we are. We’ll spar in those gilded halls, and run in the moonlight on Eteross’s shores. We’ll stargaze on the rooftop and eat mulberry pie at midnight.”

“I love you,” she whispered against his lips. “I love you, I love you. I promise to love you forever, no matter what happens.”

He wasn’t sure what she thought would happen, but he couldn’t bring himself to question her in this moment. His heart was bursting with love, and he wanted to express it to her in their unspoken language.

She sank her claws into his back as they kissed, her soft lips fitting perfectly between his. Little tastes of her teased his tongue, so sweet and so full of her in a way he couldn’t describe. He invited her deeper with a spread of his lips, and she accepted readily, gently sweeping her tongue over his fangs, then his tongue.

She fingered through his hair, each stroke gliding behind his ears, where she rubbed her fingers hard against his skin, leaving a delicious trail of her scent he never wanted to wash off. Maybe it was a result of having a Lycanian mate, or perhaps physical touch was simply his love language, but he swore every touch, every sound was more intense than ever before. He could feel her heartbeat where his fingers rested on her back, the subtle flex of her thighs down to her toes as he pressed himself against her, every undulation of her fingers on his head, down his neck, cascading over his chest as she freed him of his shirt and vest.

But strongest of all, he felt a pull between their chests. No, below their chests, deeper than that, like a spring breeze in his lungs, rushing in and out in perfect time with his own breath. Beyond that was an ethereal feeling, something he couldn’t touch or see, but he knew it was there.