Ms. Beale shuffled nervously and Charles looks at her. "I apologize, Ms. Beale. I don't for a moment think you had anything to do with this or blame you. Elena will tell you I sometimes get emotional and hearing this is one of those times." "It is hard to hear, and thank you for being brave enough to talk about it," I offered to Ms. Beale. "I think the public would react with similar outrage if they knew." Ms. Beale nodded at us. Having felt the full effect of Charles' power, I felt sympathy with her unease. I reached over and squeezed her arm. She inhaled, relaxed and then looked at me, her eyes quizzical. "Is it you that’s producing that divine fragrance?" Charles and I started in surprise and looked at each other. "You can smell me?" Ms. Beale hesitated. "I don't know. It's not something I can pinpoint as far as smell, but there's something there." She smiled at me and nodded. "And it's very comforting." Charles smiled and focused on organizing the crackers in front
"What's wrong?"My arms had instinctively wrapped as far around his torso as they could go. He fully embraced me, smothering me against his hard pectoral muscles."I thought I saw that man."My heart quavered slightly. "The one following us?"
It was one of the perks of being an Alpha and the boss, I thought. Within an hour of him texting both the editor of Social Scene and Matilda were sitting across from us in his office.We spent the next hour going over a plan and potential roadblocks we might encounter. It was educational to hear Sally's take on things, to hear the experience she brought of how to handle certain scenarios.When we finished and Charles offered to order in dinner for all of us, I felt confident tha
We made it through the security line, the least harried and anxious of the crowd and letting numerous people in before us. All we needed to do was observe, and some of the people around us had jobs and safety of employees that depend on if they were able to speak or not at the meeting.We stood in the back between other press people and a few cameramen set up with tall tripods. Tech workers were setting up microphones in front and a few people were already seated at the head table with name plates in front of them.
"It was intense, Cathy," I said to my friend as I sat in my cubicle trying to decompress for a minute before heading upstairs. "It really seems to have spread throughout the city.""That makes sense, Elena," Cathy's voice says in my ear as I stare out at the building opposite mine. "There are things we are encountering here in our planning department that are weird."I sit up, my brain suddenly alive again. I had forgotten that Cathy worked for a firm that did work for the city all the t
"I think I'd better step out," I said to Charles when Amy left the room. "I don't want to make her feel any worse than she actually does."He nodded but looked at me with weary blue eyes. "I would prefer it if you stayed. Believe it or not, I don't enjoy crying females."I smiled slightly and he smiled back, a quick moment of support for each other before I went out and into the conference room. I saw Jessica walk in but then take a detour and sit at her desk.
I heard the pounding in my sleep, and for a moment I squinted at the wall, my view obstructed by my comforter. But then it came again, and I sat up. My phone pinged at almost the exact same time. It was Charles. I'm outside your door. "What?" I said to the phone, now fully awake. I'd had five missed texts and two missed calls from him. I'm coming! I texted and there were no more knocks as I floundered out of bed, stepping into my slippers and pulling on my robe, the deciding it was too frumpy and pulling on a cardigan over my camisole. I scowled at my reflection, hastily brushing down my hair and scraping away some crust around my inner eye. Deep breath. I opened the door. Charles looked up from his phone, looking grave. My stomach dropped. "What's wrong?" I stood aside for him to come in, his scent mixed with stress pheromones. Something was amiss. He didn't stop walking until he got across my small living room. He looked out the sliding glass door onto the small
"Elena, there's no we involved here," Charles said about five minutes later, his large hands wrapped around a mug of freshly made coffee.He had slumped down on my couch and was leaning back, looking at the ceiling. "You already have people following you. We don't know who those donuts were targeting. I don't want there to be anything else."I sat next to him with my own cup and leaned against the cushions. "Okay, but I don't want to stop working on my story."Charles sighed. "I really need you to be okay with some security, please. If you don't care about my feelings, then think of it for insurance purposes for the company."I sat up. "What makes you think I don't care about your feelings?"He looked at me with tired eyes but said nothing. I slumped back down against the cushions."Okay," I said. "I'm not going to lie. All of this scares the heck out of me.""You can stop. It's totally okay."I shook my head. I couldn't stop now.Charles smiled and reached an arm out to me. I knew wh
For one moment after I arrived in the garden, the sun blinded me, and then my eyes cleared. Before me spread an amazing event: the wedding of our country's princess.It still hadn't fully sunken that I was that princess.The guests sat in orderly rows of brilliantly white chairs festooned in lovely shades of blue and lavender. I had chosen them because they most reminded me of the moon, and I wanted to honor the goddess at this event, as well. Without her, I would not only not have been at this wedding, but I wouldn't have been alive. She had done so much for me. The least I could do was throw a little recognition her way.I clutched the bouquet in my hand, and Theo hooked his arm through my elbow. “Are you ready?” he asked.“I'm ready.”We took a step toward the altar on the red carpet spread out in front of me, and the music swelled. The quartet played a beautiful melody full of promise and love.I didn't see the people looking at me, specifically, only that all eyes were on me. My
I signed and kept my head tipped back, inviting him to kiss my neck. Charles obliged, working himself inside me with the magic he always seemed to conjure up, driving my excitement higher. My heels fumbled for a place to rest, and finally, I settled for wrapping my legs around him, gripping his hips with my thighs and locking us together.Charles groaned and pulled us as tightly together as possible. And I wouldn't let him go. This left his movements small but the pleasure intense.His rubbing quickly brought me to orgasm, and I tried not to make too much noise and call attention to what we were doing. I really didn't want to be held in contempt for defiling the judge's bench or some such.A moment later, Charles got his release. He stepped back and tided himself, allowing me to do the same.“Now,” he asked with a grin, “Are you ready to go outside and face your adoring public, my princess?”“As long as you're by my side, I can face anything,” I agreed, hopping off the judge's bench.
“Of course,” Queen Yarrow said, “details like training successors aren't left to chance. The king and I already had arrangements made for a royal tutor, assuming that I would get pregnant one day. I'll connect you both with him. Hopefully, you can get started right away.”“So?” I asked the judge. How exactly does this work? What do you mean? She asked, looking quizzically at me. “I mean, what do I do with myself? Where do I go from here? When does all of this happen now?”She said, “The king will be escorted out of Orlune. They're probably already helping him pack. From there, he'll be on the next flight off the vampire kingdom. You get to move straight into the castle if you wish. It's essentially your house now.”“There's no, there's no legal paperwork or anything like that?” I babbled. “It just seems so abrupt.”The judge grinned. “I'll have all of that taken care of taken care of for you. So you don't have to worry about it, your majesty.”“Come, my dear,” Queen Yarrow said, putti
By now, the king’s lawyer had a hand on his shoulder, whispering furiously in his ear. The king gripped the arms of his chair so hard his knuckles were white. And if he could have turned people to stone with a look like a gorgon, the judge and I would already be statues.Still, the judge spoke as if unafraid. “The former king will serve out his sentence off the shifter continent, in the vampire countries,” she announced.A murmur went up from everyone in the gallery at that, but the judge held up her hands. “I chose that location specifically. It has been a standing tradition for generations upon generations that vampires and werewolves do not get involved in one another's politics.”“I would imagine he will find it very difficult to sway anyone into doing his dirty work for him in a country that holds itself neutral. Thereby providing anyone in Orlune that the king feels has wronged him in the safest position that I am able to leave them in.”Further murmurs rose up from the crowd, a
I hadn't even caught my breath when Charles scooped me up in the hardest hug I'd ever gotten from him. It was so hard that it almost drove the remaining air from my lungs.The rest of that morning flew by as Charles and Gwen helped me to avoid questions I couldn't answer from the press while Theo, David, and the other four guards pushed a path through the paparazzi so we could navigate our way back to the safehouse.We decided it was better to stay there than go back to our apartment, yet, at least until we made sure that any of the king's remaining supporters were under control.Gwen wore a mysterious smile on her face for the rest of that night and into the following morning. But I couldn't get her to confess to what she was up to. We'd barely finished breakfast when someone knocked on the door.Gwen hurried to answer it and admitted two people who took my breath away. One of them was Cathy!Since I didn't know the other, I ran straight to Cathy, hugging her as tightly as I could. T
It took me a long time to fall asleep that night, plagued both by worry and growing apprehension over how the next day was going to play out. It could end up being the longest, most brutal day of my life, if I had to spend it waiting and wondering what the jury was going to decide.Worse, what if they took weeks? Months? I’d go crazy before I found myself free from this mess.When we woke in the morning, Charles distracted me by teasing me in every possible way before bringing me to yet another overwhelmingly intense orgasm. I would never have thought that pleasure and pain could be such close neighbors, but he managed. However Charles and I were connecting in bed right now, it was certainly coming very close to more than I could handle.Theo must have told the chef what my favorite foods were because when Charles and I left the bedroom, breakfast was waiting for us. And it was one of my favorites. Belgian waffles with lots of fresh strawberries and whipped cream.I sat down and ate r
I kissed Charles, and he pulled back, eyeing me. “Should we be careful or anything?” he asked. “You know, for the baby.”I shrugged. “It's not like I've been pregnant before, but I would guess not. The doctor didn't say anything about that.”“And you haven't even searched things like that online yet?”I shook my head. “How could I? I've been so busy, not to mention the fact that I'm trying to keep certain people from finding out.”“Then we'll go slow and be careful,” he said.His kisses came soft and gentle, and his caresses all over my body were the same. Keeping secrets from him had been a bad idea. Now that they were out in the open, just these small touches made the connection between us feel so much more real as if I had closed some invisible distance between the two of us.This drove me to smash our lips together, desperately seeking the rest of the connection that I hadn't even realized I'd been missing.He chuckled and pushed me back. “What happened to taking it easy?” he teas
All of a sudden, a whisper of a breeze rippled through the courtroom and around my head, whispering reassurance in my ear. This breeze wrapped itself around me and then swirled out into the courtroom, where it produced an answering wind of murmuring whispers. Suddenly, everyone was shaking their heads, turning toward one another. Members of the jury shook their heads as if trying to clear them.Again, I heard a whisper in my ear, and I recognized the voice of the moon goddess. “Don't fear,” was all she said. And then her presence was gone. But the entire courtroom, everybody in the gallery, the jury, the judge, the lawyers, and even the king had all relaxed.The judge brought her gavel down and dismissed the jury to go deliberate. But this time, I wasn't frightened. The goddess had never steered me wrong yet. And she told me not to fear, that I needed to trust her and the fate surrounding her and me.I scurried out of the witness stand and back to my spot beside Mr. Wilcox. “What was
When I exited the bathroom, the importance of the day hit me in full measure. Today I was going to court. What and God's name was I supposed to wear?Someone knocked on the door, and I wrapped my towel tighter. “In a few minutes,” I called.“Elena?” I recognized Gwen's voice. “I brought you a suit for today. May I come in?”“Yes,” I said.She opened the door and entered the bedroom.“I'm just fresh out of the shower.” I bit my lip, feeling foolish. As if she couldn't gather that by my wet hair. But I seem to need something to fill the silence.She held up a garment bag. “You'll want to look your best today,” she said.I let Gwen dress me, taking comfort in the fact that she knew her way around important functions as a luna. When she finished, she grabbed my face and gave my forehead a kiss.“Do exactly what the lawyers, Charles, and I tell you to,” she said. “I don't want you to leave my son a widower before he's even officially married.”I patted her hands, which still rested on my c