Page 21 of Knot Their Princess

What in the world is that?

It’s her.

I’m compelled to look at the beautiful woman dancing with Mikhail, looking utterly uncomfortable. Though her mask obscures most of her face, those plush lips are on full display below it, the color accentuating the deep yet bright blue streaks in her black hair.

She’s like us.

Indeed. Even if in hair only. I doubt she has our same… affliction.

Mikhail moves to do some fancy arm’s-length twirling move with the poor girl, and she stiffens like a board.

Like our cock, you mean.

Shut it. She’s a lady. And we don’t know her.

Mmm. I want to know her, though. Up-close.

The compulsion to walk over to her is strong, but I hold it back.

Do you think she’s…?

She’s ours. No question.

That seems impossible. Or, at least, improbable. The chances of finding a mate at all inside a densely populated city is like finding a needle in a haystack. For this woman to he here, right now, at this party? The odds must be—

More than eight-point-three-two-seven billion to one. Approximately.

I let out a long sigh through my nose. Thank you.

Pleasure.

When the song ends, Mikhail leads his date to his designated table just as the servers come around to take everyone’s dinner orders.

I’m starving.

You’re always hungry.

You’re always dieting.

Rubbish. We eat well to look good. And we eat more than most.

Yeah, yeah. Let’s go sit with the boys.

Cade has joined Ilya at the dais, and by the time I join them, Giovanni has disappeared, leaving the three of us alone as we lean in close to one another.

“That woman—”

“What did Giovanni say?” Cade interrupts Ilya at the same time as I say, “Is our mate.”

Cade’s head snaps to me, mouth forming an almost perfect O of surprise. “What did you say?”

Ilya doesn’t look shocked in the least, though, and I raise a brow at him.

“I know,” he hisses. “And that filth has his hands all over her.”

I peer back at Mikhail’s table where he’s seated with the beautiful woman. He’s holding her hand on top of the table while he speaks with a couple across from him.

From this vantage point, her breasts look ready to spill right out of her plunging dress.