Arit squinted at her. Grunted.
Though he traded with human smugglers a lot, he hadn’t realized their women grew that tall. She was no skinny twig, either. A bright blue pea coat against the chill didn’t mask her reassuringly solid frame nor the curves one of the other passengers ogled furtively. That one definitely was a shifter—no hiding the feral glint of his beast in his eyes nor the mottled gray mane of hair tied at his nape in a que. Arit immediately rejected him as the probable crown prince. At this distance, he could readily discern blond strands streaked through the shifter’s hair, but not enough. Besides, nothing in the media blitz he couldn’t avoid glimpsing on Dad’s kitchen TV had hinted His Highness might arrive at his next stop on his imperial visit dressed in casual red flannel and faded blue jeans, regardless of the swooning reports Nika Marisek had grown up to become a man of the people.
At least adapting the provisions at the lodge for the human might not be as much of a chore as Arit had dreaded. She seemed sturdy enough.
The shifter perving on the woman turned his head and shouted over the din of the train.
When the next passenger passed through the door to leave the train car, Arit’s breath caught.
No wonder shifters in the capitol had lost their collective minds over the long-lost royal.
Nika Marisek was exquisite.
He was blond, which shouldn’t surprise Arit, because his Dad hadn’t tuned out the wall-to-wall news coverage since the crown prince had come forward, very much alive. According to his history lessons, Mariseks were fair in coloring in their human forms, too, but where he’d expected a vapid air of weakness, the crown prince’s honey-shaded hair made him shine like the sun. Arit didn’t even mind Nika had turned his back on the traditional shifter mores of growing his hair out and had instead adopted the human custom of cutting it close and short. Those blond curls didn’t cover the prince’s nape, which would have been scandalous on anyone else, but for the newly discovered royal, somehow seemed right. Proper. Unlike the human girl, Nika had eschewed a heavy coat. A long-sleeved black t-shirt hugged broad shoulders, arms with an astonishing amount of muscle, and a flat abdomen. Blue jeans, indeed, outlined lean hips and, when he turned to speak to someone still inside the train compartment, denim also showcased a mouthwatering ass. Arit clenched his hands into fists, already itching to caress the delectable curve of the prince’s perfect butt. He wanted those thighs wrapped around him, the heels of the feet tipping Nika’s stretch of legs digging into Arit’s ass as Arit pumped into him.
Arit’s pulse doubled, trebled, shot as high as a rocket.
He wasn’t a randy teenager anymore. After the painful mistake of a botched mating with Arit’s sire, his dad had taken pains to provide guidance so his son would not also succumb to hormones run amuck. He’d taught Arit the signs of a mating heat and cautioned him through more than one that would’ve resulted in a poor match. He knew what the hot flush of his skin, instantly hard dick, and breathlessness meant.
He wasn’t sure the crown prince would. Raised by humans, living among them the past many winters, would His Highness know what a heat was? Recognize the signs?
When the prince searched the crowd at the train station with pupils blown wide with lust, doom flooded Arit alongside his own capricious desire.
Then, his sire stuck his head out of the train door.
Nothing could kill his arousal faster. “Oh, hell no,” he muttered, fury blossoming in his chest.
As if he’d heard, Nika Marisek found Arit on the busy platform and he jerked his chin in Arit’s direction while speaking to Arit’s sire.
Who didn’t even have the grace to pale or appear especially guilt-ridden.
“No, no, no,” Arit said to the security team leader who finally approached him. “Nobody told us Benjic was a member of the tour group.”
The shifter frowned. “The tour package was purchased in his name.”
“A lot of capitol shifters make arrangements through Benjic. He’s never before come along for the ride.” Arit shook his head when his sire exited the compartment to stand beside Nika on the raised platform. “He needs to climb back onto the train.”
“We brought additional security personnel from the capitol to protect both His Highness and Elder Benjic, and as your company’s guidelines demand, each bought a tour package, although learning extensive survival skills is included in our job training and is therefore unnecessary for you to provide them during our stay. Our group is large, but only a small subset of us will tax your services for more than room and board.” The bodyguard scowled. “Elder Benjic assured us that your lodge and camp could handle this many people.”
“We wouldn’t have sold the tickets if we couldn’t absorb a big group.” Irritation skittered up Arit’s spine. “The number of people isn’t the problem.” He glared at Benjic. “He is.”
From the raised platform, Nika Marisek smiled, and his eyebrows climbed into his hairline. Of course, he was a shifter. He’d heard every word of Arit’s exchange with security despite the screech of the train, but where Arit’s parentage had become an open secret among the tribes during the past many summers, perhaps the rumors hadn’t reached the lands of men, nor the newly discovered crown prince yet.
Interesting.
And so like his sire to spring a quasi-secret son on a royal who had probably deemed himself safe from a mating pact forged before the war. Arit bristled at his unwitting role in his sire’s manipulative gamesmanship. “I never agreed to this visit and I don’t want to see Benjic, not under these circumstances.”
One corner of the crown prince’s lush mouth curved.
Stare unblinking, Benjic finally met Arit’s gaze across the crowded train station. “You’ve invited me to the Urals many times.” He shrugged a diffident shoulder. “Here I am.”
Foul temper screamed through Arit, fueled in part by desire from an unwelcome mating heat dumping adrenaline into him. Instinct demanded he march to the platform and jerk Nika Marisek away, drag him far from the shrewd intrigues of his scheming sire, but heeding this foolish hormone-driven compulsion to protect a potential mate was madness. It would only feed his sire’s purposes. Still, Arit clenched the hands dangling at his sides into fists. “I want you gone.” He huffed out a furious breath. “I want you both gone.”
The security leader frowned. “You’ve been paid handsomely.”
“I’ll refund you.”