The Last Princess (7 page)

A low crevice normally used for storing gardening equipment
was the chosen hiding place for the male. "Are you playing dead because
I'm a bear shifter?  That only works for animals.  Personally, it just pisses
me off."  He kicked his boot into the dark grotto, hitting a flesh and
blood being. "Get out before I drag you out."

When he didn't emerge, Ulric reached in and pulled him out by
the shirt. He smelled like a fox, those pathetic, shady little creatures.
"Please, it wasn't my idea…"

Ulric gave him a shake, making the man's tremors increase.
"What wasn't?  Who sent you?  Were you hired to kill the queen?"

Wesley, Cade and Ronan joined him in the narrow corridor,
naked from shifting. "We can't find the other.  He's elusive, disappeared
like a ghost."

"She,"
Ulric corrected before returning his
attention to the blue-eyed fox.  "Answer my questions."

"He'll kill me."

"Do we look like we're ready to have a tea party with
you?  Answer my fucking questions!"

"I--I was paid.  Paid to kidnap the princess." 

He laughed out loud, as did his friends. "There is no
princess here.  Where have you been for the past few years?"

"She's returned."  He spoke like some twisted cult
member, confident in his claim.

"Sure, pal. Cade, take him to the cells in the
sub-level.  We'll deal with him after we secure the perimeter."

Ulric leaned against the wall once he was alone with Wesley
and Ronan. "There's a female loose.  If the others still haven't tracked
her outside that means she's in here somewhere. I caught her tying to sneak in
one of the hidden doorways—"

"So you're saying she could be inside?"  Ronan was
gnawing at the bit.  He was one of their more lethal members, highly dedicated
to the queen.  Ulric had never heard a complaint uttered from his lips. He
bound off before receiving an answer.  The moment the alarms sounded the Elites
stationed inside the castle would have checked on the queen and created a wall of
protection around her room, so Ulric was more concerned with searching the
outside.

"I'll head to the east, you take the west," he said
to Wesley. His friend nodded, shifted back into a panther, and raced down the
west tunnel.

****

His life had been dull and uneventful since moving into the
royal palace.  The sense of urgency in the air now kept him entertained.
Shifters scoured the grounds.  He watched from the small, stone terrace off his
bedroom.  The lot of them looked like search dogs, trying to find the fool
crazy enough to break into the castle. 

Ulric had pissed him off, treating him like a delicate female. 
He needed no protecting, and his friend should know that by now.  The tests to
get on the suitor list for a princess were nearly as involved as the ones to
become an Elite. He could handle himself in the face of danger. A little
excitement would help hedge the monotonous days of waiting for a wayward
princess.

The door to his bedroom opened and closed, capturing his
attention.  It was probably one of the guards doing another room check.  He
stepped back into the bedroom from the terrace to find someone rooting through
his dresser drawer.

"I don't think the criminal would fit in my sock
drawer," he said.  This invasion of privacy would be reported to the queen
first thing in the morning. It would give him something new to grumble about at
breakfast.

The man turned to face him—make that a woman.  Her scarf fell
partway off her head, revealing shiny black hair and a beautiful heart-shaped
face. His cock twitched, a result of the large white moon shining down through
the open patio doors and having a beautiful female alone in his private
quarters.

He'd like to think she was a gift for him to soil his oats,
but the multiple partner matings in shifter culture always included one woman
and numerous men, never the other way around. It was something founded by the
monarchy. 

"Who are you?" she asked as if he'd entered her room
and not the other way around.

Chapter
Seven

"Me? This is my bedroom.  The more appropriate question
is, who are you?"  Judging by his eyes, the stranger was a wolf shifter. 
It was easy to hold a soft spot for her own race, a natural attraction of her
wolf to his.

"You live here?"  He wasn't a royal male. She'd be
able to sense a relative. This man was new to her, a sinfully sexy wolf with a
confident swagger. 

"I'm waiting for my rebellious bride.  Personally, I'd
sooner have
you
in my bed." He stepped closer, the wind drawing the
sheer white curtains out the open patio doors where they fluttered like trapped
spirits. "Do you work here?"

She couldn't let him get too close or he'd recognize her for
who she was. And if this man was truly one of her betrothed, selected by her
mother, she wanted nothing to do with him out of principle.  His very presence
in her old bedroom was an insult, a slap in the face.  Despite his pretty-boy
good looks and mesmerizing wolf eyes, she'd never be forced to mate him.

"Oh no. I don't work here.  Just passing through." 
She touched the items on the dresser.  A few she remembered from her
childhood.  Others were not hers, including bottles of musk-scented cologne and
other masculine hygiene items. There was a small jade carved wolf on a leather
necklace.  She picked it up and examined it.  When she was little, her
grandmother used to tell her a jade wolf would guide her to one of her future
mate.  It seemed too much of a coincidence that the man waiting for her also
had the exact icon her late grandmother mentioned so many years ago. "Tell
me, why wait for a princess who clearly isn't interested in mating with you. 
It's always caused me pause."

She watched as he stepped down from the upper level by the
balcony to the level she occupied. He didn't approach her, but moved around the
room, like a predator circling his prey.  "It's an honor." He was
silent for a few moments.  "Who am I kidding?  I'm the only one foolish
enough to stick around. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my mother.  It
meant everything for her that I immortalize the lines of my father by mating
with royal blood.  So, I sit here in this gods-forsaken castle day after day,
year after year, waiting for a princess who could very well be mated like her
sisters. What I'd really like to do is free myself of this stone prison and
live my life before I have no good years left."

She hadn't expected the shifter's life story.  At least he
didn't sugar coat anything, but then again, he didn't know who he was speaking
to.  "You look like you have many good years left.  I'm surprised you
didn't leave to build your life with a real woman, rather than holding out for an
illusion of one. You're the last suitor.  All the others left, but you stayed. 
Why?" Delia rubbed the small wolf between her fingers, shifting it to and
fro.  Was this a sign? "Did you ever think maybe fate intervened somewhere
along the way?  That maybe, despite the involved selection process, you were
actually destined for the princess?" 

"Who did you say you were again?"  When she didn't
answer, he continued, "Doesn't matter.  This moon has me under its spell. 
I normally bite my tongue, but I can't seem to shut-up tonight.  I think my wolf
is trying to tell me something."

"You should listen to it.  My wolf has never led me
astray."

"Your wolf?"  He closed the distance between them,
and reached out to touch the necklace she held. "Do you like it? It was my
mother's.  She wanted me to give it to my future bride."

It was time for Delia to make her exit.  She'd said too much
when she shouldn't have allowed herself to even be seen. Her emotions were
scattered, so unlike her. She loved the fox, now felt a soul deep bond to the
one man she should be avoiding.  "Where does the queen sleep?"  She
had to find her mother, to speak her mind before she went for the weapons
lockers on the lower level.  There would be a small scale Armageddon before the
night was through.

Just then the door burst open and Ulric burst inside, all six
and a half feet of him.  The bear shifter was a brick house of solid male
muscle. His hair was cropped short to his head, the same way his mother kept it
when he was young. She'd recognized Ulric in the tunnels immediately.  He'd
changed, no longer an awkward youth, but a dominant male presence. Did he
remember her?  In her heart, she'd always felt a connection between them.  But
love, lust, and infatuation were often confused when women were young.  She
wasn't so sure what she felt back then, but she couldn't deny the little leap
in her stomach when she saw him up close.

"Close the glass doors, Alexander.  I don't want her
escaping again."

He moved in on her like a huntsman. She tucked her scarf
tighter around her face to disguise her identity.

"Escaping?  Who is this woman?" asked the wolf
shifter. She could hear the concern in his voice.  Delia was a nobody to him so
why should he care?

"An intruder.  She breached the outer defenses.  I think
she means to kill the queen."

Delia laughed.  No, she didn't plan on killing her own
mother.  As much as she'd been tempted over the years, she would never sink so
low. Deep down she still loved her.  "Let me pass or you'll both be
sorry."  Ulric may be twice her size, but she'd fight to her last breath
if she had to.  Never again would she be set on display like a bird in a gilded
cage.  She had to maintain her freedom under all circumstances. If she managed
to leave the castle tonight with her life, she would return to Caleb and accept
the love he offered.

Just thinking of the fox made her heart ache.  She'd left him
as he slept, not warning him that she was heading to the castle immediately,
rather than waiting for a new day.  The full moon energized her, spurring her
to act. Now she felt selfish for risking her life after what they'd shared
together. 

"Come here, little wolf," Ulric coaxed with venom in
his eyes.  He was a noble guard.  The markings on his arm symbolized he was one
of the Royal Elite. If she'd been given the freedom to choose all those years
ago, she may have asked to have Ulric as a mate.  Now the future was more
uncertain than the conflicting emotions impeding her judgment.  She wouldn't
hurt him, but wouldn't be captured. Both men moved in on her, cornering her
near the bedside table and lamp. 

She grabbed the floor lamp by the metallic base and swung it
out in an arch, daring them to move within her reach. "She's a feisty
one.  Let me play with her for a while before you lock her in the
dungeon."  The wolf grinned at her, a vision of sex and sin. How could her
mother think she'd be happy with such a superficial creature as a mate?  He was
supposed to be waiting for her, the last princess, but here he was ready to bed
a strange female.

"Alexander, let me handle this."  He moved closer,
and she swung, the full force of her muscles working together to deliver a
massive blow—which he stopped abruptly with his hand.  He pulled the lamp out
of her grip with ease and tossed it behind him in a clatter that rattled her
nerves. She gasped, shocked, horrified, and thoroughly turned on by his display
of strength. It was only natural for her to desire an alpha male, one who would
be a good provider and protector.  It was the law of nature, but had nothing to
do with love.  Then again, this was Ulric, the man she'd thought about numerous
times over the years.  They were terrible as a team when they were kids,
sneaking out at night, tormenting the guards, and playing tricks on the royal
family members. Those were the days she remembered with a smile, the days
before she struck puberty and the endless demands of being a princess.

"Don’t hurt her." The wolf was following their every
move like a shadow.

Ulric closed the remaining distance between them, moving with
calculated steps.  The scarf floated down off her face when she stepped back
against the wall.  She bared her fangs, ready to use them in combination with
her claws. He stopped short, straightening his guarded stance.  "Delia? 
Is it you?"

"Delia Demori? The last princess?" asked Alexander.

"Let me leave, Ulric.  I won't go to the prison. I'd
sooner die than be confined once again."

"Why the hell did you come here then?  Do you plan to
kill your mother?"

She tugged the suffocating scarf off her neck and tossed it on
the bed now that the ruse was up. "I just came to make things right."

Alexander spoke up, "It was you all along.  Somehow my
wolf knew..." He took her hand and opened her palm, and then pressed the
jade necklace into her grip and closed her fingers. "I guess this is yours
now, my bride." The way he looked at her told countless stories.  This
male wanted more from her than just her pedigree—a future, a family—and it felt
wrong to take the opportunity away from him. But she didn't come home just to
give up, falling for the first handsome face.

"I didn't return to be mated, not to you or anyone my
mother chose."  She searched the room and all exits for a possible means
of escape.  "I came to talk some sense into the queen; to create an uproar
so all shifters can finally be aware of the lives we're forced to live as
princesses.  I haven't spoke with my sisters in years.  I'm without a home,
roots, safety, a mate, or family—all because of the undo pressures put on me by
our culture."

"I'll speak with the queen first thing in the morning so
we can arrange the wedding. We'll make everything right." Then the wolf's
tone deepened, "I can't say I'm disappointed with how you've turned out,
princess." 

He had no perception of just how far the queen's rule reached.
Her choices, her feelings, her dreams—they all meant nothing in the face of her
mother's ideals. She growled, bolting away from the wolf shifter and the
happily ever after that would always elude her.