“What?” she asks, her eyes stern.
Good. She sees no comedy in her history. I like that she respects it. “I merely think the flame on your crest is…fitting, my lady.”
“Oh,” she replies, her mouth pursing prettily into a circle while her cheeks flare with color. Liana’s eyes wander my form boldly.
“Clothes, my lady?”
She brightens even further and rushes off to find the servants.
I wait in an alcove, hiding from the rest of the staff until they bring me something that fits well enough. Albeit with the stench of lion on each article. And then I am granted access to the king even at this late hour.
We approach the main room and I mutter, “So, it’s true then.”
“What is?” Liana asks.
I motion at the thrones. There are more than one. “You have three queens. How…does that work? It seems…”
Her mouth twists again when I don’t say the word, but she supplies it for me. “Barbaric…?” Liana sighs. “Yes, three queens for every king.” Her words are spoken softly but I feel some reluctance.
“You don’t approve?”
She stiffens. “Of what? It’s how it has always been.”
“But you’d change it, if you could.”
Her eyes shift away then back and stare deeply into mine, weighing my worth of her truths. She decides something from what she finds there. “To be honest, I would.”
Liana’s gold eyes are frank and open. No secrets. No manipulation. None of the wolves’ coy play. She’s a breath of fresh air. How she’ll survive in Winter, however, is another matter.
She goes on, “I’d rather there be one to a…”
“Bed?” I supply, and she cringes.
“Yes. What do you think of it, Noble?”
Is she fishing for more information about me? Does she wonder if I’ll have others in my bed? Seeing the lions, and their comfort with shared…everything, I bet that it’s a question on her mind. Do we take mistresses? Many of the wolf leaders have. Would I? Never. I was raised by a woman who believed in morality just slightly below love.
Deciding something myself as well, I pull Liana back to the alcove and inside. She stiffens in surprise, but then lets me tug her to the wall and speak into her ear. “My lady, if you and I are to be married, then I shall bed with you and you alone. Winter is cold. It is a lonely palace at times. I very much look forward to your sunshine in our court. I will promise you now, even before we are wed, that you and I will warm only each other. Share our bodies together and be one.”
She pulls back from me, her eyes wide.
I stroke her cheek. “Is this so foreign to you, Liana?”
“Why yes,” she whispers. “But you mean it, Noble? Truly?”
She looks so earnest that kissing her is my only answer. It’s a sneaky thing to do while she is so obviously unready. But she is not unwilling, and Liana surprises me by melting into this game as neatly as you’d expect a flame to fold around the very thing that it is burning.
She lets me kiss her, tasting, testing, before she begins to try her own machinations.
I let Liana kiss me how she likes, a challenge is in everything that she does, but I don’t want everything to be war between us, so I let her win while reaping the reward of her fervor.
Her kiss is asking if I am serious about promising myself to her alone, and mine is in answer equally as forceful that my word is my bond. The term ‘sealed with a kiss’ has never made as much sense as it does now. Better than a decree from each of us royals, is this shared passion and exchange of pleasure.
She finally pulls away, breathing hard. Her hair is disheveled, her face is so changed and softened, focus glazed with need, and I almost lose my control.
Liana stares at me. “Your eyes,” she huffs. “Do they do that before you change? I’ve noticed the coloring before. But, I swear, only a moment ago they were different.”
I close them and shake my head hard trying very hard not to change right here in the hall. Who knows what the rogue wolf would do with my emotions so high.
Once I have my thoughts back in order, I ask, “Don’t yours? Change, I mean.”
“Yes.” She smiles. “But not the color. You go from the deepest crystal blue to a storm in seconds. But that’s why I am asking. Stay yourself, Noble, as a man. We must speak with my father.”
She grabs my hands and yanks me from the alcove, and I almost laugh out loud at her excitement. I’m just now learning there is nothing more tempting than a woman who want to marry you and swiftly. Especially when you know the bedding must be on her mind.
But I sober immediately when I see the king on his throne.
He glares at our linked hands and then at Liana, before she drops mine and steps away.
Sinking into a curtsy, she motions at me to do the same.
I bow and swallow hard. What had I been thinking?
He’s a very big man. He looks double the size of any king before him. At least a head taller than most in this realm.
The king has dressed hastily, probably raised from the bed, but he’s alert, and his yellow lion eyes are on me like I’m already the prey.
“What do you want?” he demands.
I stand straight and say clearly, “I challenge you, sire, for the hand of your daughter, Princess Liana.”
Chapter 15
Liana
Tension vibrates in the large court as the king lion and prince wolf stare at one another. Neither cowers, or seems to blink and my respect for Noble grows when my father changes form. The commanding presence of the king in his truest form energizes his court. Our agitated audience grows hungry for blood. Noble’s blood, but Noble remains steady, calm, collected.
He permits my father to prowl around him, but maintains his scrutiny on my father, his opponent, while also asserting a sense of unconcern.
My heart, the demanding little organ, thumps a violent beat and when Noble’s attention darts in my direction I know he senses my growing discord. He quirks a single eyebrow and I press two fingers to my lips to hide my smile.
Mischief glistens in his eyes before he turns back to my father.
“My lord.” His voice beams, the confidence behind it slams into my gut and pride floods into me and spreads like wild fire.
The Noble I’ve come to know, the quiet almost timid wolf, is gone. This man, or wolf, standing before me is royal, majestic even. He’s the kind of man I’d follow, fall to my knees for. And if he’s here for my hand and heeded my advice, he’s also the man I’m to marry.
I suck in a sharp breath, sending a silent prayer to the heavens. It startles me how much I want Noble to win. How much I want to marry and bed a wolf. Not for my pride or for the union of two realms. But for myself. For the pleasure spiking through my system with just a glance in his direction.
Silly female, I chastise myself.