Page 98 of Wolf’s Fated Bride

Once the first shots went off, nobody could stop the carnage. The Stormcrest castle, for the first time ever, fell under a rule that’s not Stormcrest. Humans live in the castle now and are using it to control the rest of our territory.

Pockets of wolf rebellion rise, but the Wardens squash them quickly with their weapons and alchemy. Within the castle, the Wardens hold my family hostage and use them against Ash. The alchemists lost control of him the moment Ash no longer needed a Regulator or meds or to purge. Now their leverage is my parents and my brother. Otherwise, Ash will wipe them all from existence. His words, not mine.

“It’s not about the cake,” I say.

He turns his chair to face me and rests his elbows on his knees. “Come here. I want to kiss your freckles before whatever you say pisses me off.”

“How can you tell it’ll piss you off?”

“It’s written all over your face.”

“What is?”

“Ash is about to get pissed off, but I’m doing it anyway.”

He kisses my nose and my cheeks. Since I’ve tanned at his beach house, I have even more freckles than before. Ash likes them. Whenever I’m near this male, I want to fuck him. I’ve wanted to bang him from the moment I laid eyes on him. “Do you remember how I volunteered to be your conduit for the signing of the treaty?”

Flames burn in Ash’s eyes, a constant reminder of his fire. “It’s not something I can forget,” he says.

“I did that because I spotted Sven in the crowd, reaching into his bag as he made his way to the front. I thought I saw the butt of a gun in his hand.”

Ash’s eyes widen, and he rears back. “And you stood between him and me?”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want him to shoot you.”

“Fuck, baby, don’t do that again.”

“Should I have let him shoot you?”

“Yeah.” He swallowed a duh.

“Do we know what happened to Sven?”

“He’s behind the city walls.” Ash leans in to kiss the side of my neck. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because we’re a couple.” The pack mates bake cakes, expecting a wedding announcement, but Ash swore we would wait until my family could join us. Stormcrest is werewolf territory, and the alchemists can’t have it. “I don’t want us to have secrets.”

Ash clears his throat. “I have something to say too.”

“Uh-oh.”

Ash scrunches up his nose, stroking his neatly trimmed beard. His beard feels amazing when his face is between my legs. He can keep it trimmed just like that. Mmhm. I withdraw all my complaints against Ash’s beard.

“When I was sick in the Midlands, I met a woman…”

My heart pumps hard. All the blood rushes into my face. I prepare for the worst by fisting my hands, eyeing the cake sampler plates, and fantasizing about slamming them all on his head.

Unaware of my violent intentions, Ash continues. “She was one of those moon fanatics who practices dark alchemy. She purged the poisons of my body, and when I was ready to leave, she said something that stuck with me. I’ve thought about it ever since.”

“Okay.” This is much better than what I thought this conversation would turn into, but just in case, I ask, “You didn’t sleep with this woman, did you?”

“What? No. What the hell? Why would you think that?”

“You started the conversation with I met a woman. Why would I not think you slept with her?”

“Because you’re my moon. I would rather lose my limbs, my heart, my eyes than do something that would hurt you.”

He can’t see how his words melt my heart. Ash doesn’t speak affectionately often enough. He’s a hard-shelled male heavily protected by emotional armor built after his sister’s brutal murder and the subsequent betrayal of his parents. But when he tells me things like this, I fall in love with him even more.