Kiara's POVThis was so not happening. I blinked but Damien was still right in front of me, choking Kaylan. "Damien, what's wrong?" Kaylan choked out his fingers prying at Damien's to no avail."Damien! Let him go!"He ignored me. Naturally. His grip on Kaylan tightened. Kaylan could no longer speak and I could see him turning red. It seemed like Damien had forgotten that this was his friend that he held like this. So tight that he could kill him. "Damien, please you will hurt him. Let him go." I placed my hand on his arm, my tone insistent hoping to get to him.His hazel eyes now a deep impenetrable black slowly slid to and locked gazes with mine. "Please." I begged earnestly. This was my fault. I shouldn't have let him kiss me. I should have been firm. If I had known Damien would see us maybe I… If he killed him, it would be on me.Relief flooded me as I watched some colour bleed into the darkness of Damien's eyes as he regained control over his wolf.He let go of Kaylan who cru
Kiara's POV. My stomach tightened with hunger pangs but I ignored it. The thought of going downstairs was too embarrassing and humiliating. It had been a day since King Damien had tossed me inside the bathtub like I was an errant animal to be handled.My initial anger and thirst for vengeance had now faded to embarrassment especially when Kaylan had come knocking to see me and I couldn't fit the life of me get myself to stand up and open the door. I thought of the kiss and how dead I had felt during it only coming alive when I thought of King Damien. No. There was no way I could let myself do something like that again with Kaylan. I knew that wasn't the only reason he came here. With the way King Damien dragged me out he would have been worried for my safety but letting him into my rooms when I knew we didn't feel the same way about each other would be wrong. My stomach rumbled again and I twisted. Maybe I should head downstairs. But the thought of seeing King Daimen again befor
Kiara's POVKeturah knew a way to get me home. I wondered why I didn't feel more elated. I thought of Damien and his confusing behaviour, the thought of the daily humdrum of sitting in this room and doing nothing. I couldn't go back to Dorian's palace after being humiliated so soundly. There was only one place to go. Home to my dad. Tears filled my eyes."I'm ready. I want to go home. "I was tired of this life and my complicated feelings for Damien.Keturah looked at me. "Get ready. You leave tonight. Remember if you are caught, I had no hand in this." She hesitated. "Try not to be caught."I grasped her hand. "I will. I promise. Thank you for everything."*********It was night and dark and cold. I tightened my cloak around me as I moved quickly. Keturah had been true to her words. I was out. It hadn't been easy but I had done it. I had escaped with the garbage meant to be disposed of. Keturah might have been concerned about the king catching us but she had arranged everything so
Kiara's POVWhen I woke up, Damien was seated on a chair next to my bedside. He was asleep. I was alive. I was alive. How? I could not believe that I had been saved by King Damien.An attempt to straighten up revealed I was far from fully healed. Wincing through the pain, I sat up. My side felt tight and dull pain tore through my leg. I recalled the hopelessness of the fight. How certain I had been of sure death. King Damien had saved me. Again. It would seem like he wasn't the villain that I always made him out to be. He even went a step further by staying here waiting for me to wake up when he could have gone to his bedroom to rest. He was a good person.I recalled the Bait situation and the way he manhandled Kaylan for touching me. Okay so maybe he wasn't a completely good person but I owed him my life. More than once now. He looked so hot even while he was asleep in a torn shirt that had numerous blood stains. My blood I realized. His dark hair fell over his face covering
Kiara's POVI relaxed in bed and turned to the side, lifting the side of my cloth off. His hands felt cool and tingly against my skin and I shivered slightly. "Does that hurt?"No, it did the opposite actually but I couldn't say that so I just shook my head. "It's fine."Damien touched the edges of my wound carefully as though he was afraid of hurting me even more. My eyes shifted from the injury to his face. His perfect jawline, his straight nose and his unusually dark lashes were longer than I had ever noticed."Take a picture.""What?" I was baffled. "If you want to keep staring at me so well you might just take a picture."I flushed and looked away. "Don't think highly of yourself. I only wanted to avoid looking at the injury to my side.""Sure." He sounded like he was just humouring me. "I'll see your leg now."He lifted the duvet exposing my bare legs and for some reason, I felt hot. My leg didn't look as bad as I expected it to be already. My wolf healing genes were kicki
Kiara's POVIf I had known the answer to that question, my life would be way simpler and filled with less theatrics. And way fewer kisses and almost kisses that messed with me. "Nothing." I said casually. A little bit too casually. "Nothing?" Kaylan deadpanned. "Yes, nothing." I folded my arms. "Why do you sound so disbelieving? The only relationship between us is that of a captor and his captive."I thought of the kiss Damien and I had literally just shared. That label was no longer strictly true but I didn't know how to define the truth anymore.Kayla didn't seem to buy my explanation. Damn him. I just wanted to have one minute without thinking or talking about Damien. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently, it was because Kaylan continued speaking. "I have never seen him act so possessive with anyone. Captive or not.""Does he usually have many captives that stay in the main palace?" I asked intentionally obtusely. "No… but it… never mind." Kaylan swallowed. "So if you aren'
Kiara's POVThe stupid dress was refusing to get zipped and I was so over it. Why was I wearing a dress? Well to go on a date I wasn't even interested in going on. Why was I going on a date I wasn't interested in?Because I was tired of pining for someone who didn't give a damn about me. How did I know he didn't give a damn about me?Well, because when I asked him to leave the room, he had. He could have stayed. Begged me or even attempted to sway my decision but no he had something so important to do that he couldn't stay. He couldn't.To make matters worse he had given his stamp of approval for this date. Or so Kaylan had excitedly told me. I hated him so much. How could he hand me off to his friend as though I was a cargo to be gotten rid of?The zip refused to budge. I was done. I would tear this fucking dress off and then I would tell Kaylan I couldn't go on the date due to a wardrobe malfunction."Allow me." Damien whispered then he zipped me up. Wait, where had he come fro
Kiara's POVI arrived in front of the palace feeling uncertain yet eager. I didn't know what I was going to say to King Damien. I began to pace, my heart racing. What was I going to say or do? Maybe I could start by saying…"Hi so by the way I think I just realized that I am insanely attracted to you and I don't know what to do."Or maybe I could say"Damien, you were right. I can't get you out of my head. I hope you feel the same way because I'm not sure I can continue like this."No, that was too tacky. Aha. Better yet I could say…"Damien. Fuck me."Okay, maybe not that last one. It was too forward and presumptuous. I couldn't imagine even saying that to him… at least not right away. I think. Now where could I find him? He would probably be in his office doing kingly duties that didn't involve stalking me. Well, I was going to interrupt that. I walked towards the staircase only to hear a crash from the dining table and a loud female moan that sounded suspiciously like Keturah.
Kiara's POVYEARS LATER"You need to let me up." I told my mate that was looking way too comfortable pinning me down. With the training I had now and my Lycan strength, I could easily flip him and keep him that way but he didn't seem bothered. In fact, he seemed amused. "Do I?"I wriggled beneath him but his legs were stable beside me and I feared that he was enjoying this position too much to remember we had an event to get to. An important one. "We need to get going. We can't be late."Damien ignored me of course as he pushed his fingers up my dressing robe leaving me sucking in a harsh breath.Sensing my reluctance to stop things before they got too far, he spread my legs wide exposing me to him. Fuck. How was this so hot? Any thought that I had of going anywhere evaporated as my thoughts condensed to Damien and his unbelievably erotic touch. He pressed his fingers against my slick arousal making me to shiver. I was so turned.I could hear the smirk in his voice as he respo
Kiara's POVI hoped that I was just freaking out prematurely.I hoped that whatever he had to say wouldn't be something that could break us. Hule seemed almost as hesitant to speak as I was to hear what had to say. "I am used to being the smartest, strongest and most important person in the room. I forgot that I am not presiding over a set of people but in a relationship where I can't just make decisions for you."Oh Goddess, was I hearing wrong or was Damien actually apologising? Today was trully full of unending surprises. "Damien."He held my hands in his much larger ones and traced distracting circles across my skin with his thumb."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have agreed to change you without your permission. I'm sorry about that, sorry for hurting you, sorry for waiting this long to come for you.My heart was a gooey mess at this point and I didn't know what he said as tears of happiness traced down my face as he kissed the back of my hands. But he wasn't nearly done turning my h
Kiara's POVThe moment that she pulled me to herself and I met Damien's eyes, I knew that I wasn't going to be the reason she got away this time. That I wasnt going to get kidnapped this time and force Damien to make an impossible agreement to get me out of a situation that I put myself in. I moved and the knife sunk into me like my skin was butter and a scream escaped me as I went down. The pain was complete and it held me trussed up tight until I couldn't tell where was up and where was down. I clutched my belly putting pressure on the wound but the knife had gotten too deep and all I could do was feel my blood seep through staining my hand. Dorian was at my side in seconds while I watched Damien go after Ashly with a heavy heart. I would have preferred him next to me but with my blood pouring out of me and the she pain cutting through me, I could gave cared less who was saving me. Dorian lifted me as delicate as he could but it still sent pain tearing through me and as he sa
Damien's POVI was angry but then these days, I was angry all the time. I was angry at the fact that a werewolf that I should have had killed had me by the balls literally and that it had been one of my people that had spearheaded this. It was so fucking annoying that it pissed me off.My anger had almost blinded in me in those early days that I was grateful for Dorian being around. Despite him being the pain in the ass that I had considered him to be, he had a surprising amount of insights to give as regards how to properly manage my affairs. That first day, I had wanted nothing more than to go charging in to rescue Kiara but Dorian stayed my hand. He warned me that no matter how much stronger lycans were compared to wolves, one thing remained the same, a man couldn't go off to fight his enemies when his own home was in disarray. I was glad I took his advice because shortly after, some Lycan communities began wearing with each other when the information that Keturah had been be
Kiara's POVThe more time that passed the least likely it seemed that this was all an elaborate hoax by Damien to get Ashly distracted. I noticed the buzz in the pack and I had no idea the lie Ashly had spun to make the pack members okay with the fact that she was cheating on their Alpha but it must have been a really good one because they seemed completely fine with it. It wasn't until I overheard two of the guards' conversation about how brave she was for agreeing to get mated to Damien to make up for their Alpha that had absconded from a death duel. So that was how she had spun it. Despite the fact that it was because if her that he had been unable to get to the fuel, she was using it to her advantage. Days were counting down to Ashly's mating with Damien but it was as though I was in some cocoon that was outside of time. I was losing my mind. There was no actual news that could interest me apart from knowing the truth if what was going on. I didn't know what day it was only
Kiara's POVI was more than surprised when Kiara summoned me to her office. Surprised and disturbed. The last time I had seen her was three days ago when she killed Keturah and hunted me down as I ran away. I had no doubts that whatever this meeting was for, it wasn't for anything good. The guard escorting me stayed outside while I entered the office and Ashly looked surprisingly calmer than the last time I had seen her. I didn't know if it was just in my head though. She looked at me from head to toe and looked satisfied with what she saw. "How do you feel now?"How did I feel about my injury that had just finished reading on it's own without any attention from the healer which could have led to silver poisoning?Wonderful. I was feeling absolutely wonderful. But I didn't say that of course. I wasn't half as strong as Keturah had been and I rather liked my head where it was. Ashly's friendly tone died a quick death. "I understand that you are nervous. You should be," Her ruth
Kiara's POVShaun was dead and I didn't know a thing I could have done to prevent it. Keturah had come for me and I was ashamed to admit that I had been scared. Scared after she smiled at me maliciously and had me held down while she took my blood and a section of my hair was noticeably smaller than the rest if it. She wanted to use me to bait Damien but I.saw that she had gotten way too much satisfaction from what she did.She would hurt me just for the fun of it. She wanted to hurt me just for the fun of it if I would but give her the excuse. Hearing her approaching footsteps along side a shuffling one awoke fear inside me and told me that it was possible she was back for more.She unlocked the door gesturing for me to come out of the cell with that same mocking smile that said she was just waiting for me to resist her so that she would break me. I stepped out unwilling to give her that chance only for me to see Shaun barely on his feet as he bled from what had to be at least a
Keturah's POVI was suspicious. Before recruiting Ashly, I knew of her predilection to be a traitor and it didn't bother me not when I planned to use her and dispose of her as soon as possible. But now that she had gone out of her way to help me when I was.certain she was like me only counting the hours until our alliance fell apart. Leaving the dungeons after acquiring the blood and lock of hair that had somehow quelled my blog odlust with regards to Kiara, I had gotten a whiff of Ashly. I had felt doubly suspicious. I was certain that she would go into the dungeons to sabotage me in some way so I left and doubled back after dropping off my possessions. That was when I overheard her telling that wolf that always hung around Dorian to warn Damien.. Smart. So that was what she planned. Selling me out to Damien to keep her hide. It was a good idea. If I had not gotten to overhear this it might have even worked. But now…I heard the wolf speak again, his voice intense with a quie
Ashly's POVMy chest hurt. Maybe it was because Shaun had betrayed me. It maybe it was because I knew I was deserving of such a betrayal since I had betrayed him first. The guards hauled him away and I turned to leave only for Kiara's sharp judgemental voice to pull me to a stop. "What are you doing, Ashly?"What did she think I was doing? Playing? Kiara always asked the wrong and dumbest questions.I continued walking and she raised her voice so high that the guards escorting Shaun away would no doubt catch a hint of her hefty words on the air. "You care about him yet you would do this?"Do what? I found to face her as she finally hit me where it hurt. Where I had already been sensitive about to begin with. She was no one to judge me. She had grown up surrounded by the best of everything. She got chosen to be the most of Dorian out of all the other eligible she wolves because of the incidence of her birth. The only unlucky stint she had was when Dorian had rejected her and once