Katerina POVI sighed loudly, closing my eyes as I collapsed on my bed, not even bothering to change out of the dress I had worn to dinner. After lingering in the garden for longer than was probably necessary, I felt eyes on me and looked up at the balcony to see Damian smoking in the darkness - at least I thought it was him, no other werewolf smoked as far as I knew. My back instantly straightened and I stormed back into the dining hall before he could think to corner me into an attempt to justify his actions. I wasn’t interested. So instead, I spent a tense evening watching Anka throw herself at the bears. By the time she left the room with three of the meanest looking brutes, I had had enough of playing the perfect princess. Luckily for me, the dinner party seemed to be dying down so I could easily slip back to the solace of my own room. I felt a wet nose nudge my hand and opened my eyes to see Aurora, her big pale blue eyes looking at me. “You would have hated it too, girl,”
Kat POVI clung to Enzo as he guided the bike down the dark, winding road toward the glinting lights in the distance, butterflies fluttering in my stomach as nervous energy built up in my body. I had no idea where we were going, and Enzo refused to tell me. His answer had simply been, “freedom.” So I had to accept that until we arrived, I was going to be kept in the dark. I was grateful for the warmth which radiated from his body, warming me as the cool air nipped at my exposed flesh. Winter was coming, and I was dreading the cold that it brought. I pulled myself closer to Enzo and felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled at my action, and probably loving it way more than he should. Time seemed to slow down as the town’s lights came closer, and it was only when Enzo pulled up outside what looked to be an abandoned building that I actually looked around me. The parking lot was desolated with not a person in sight, and only a few vehicles which looked as if they belonged in a scrap yard
Kat POV“How about to Freedom, and all that it represents,” I suggested and he smiled slightly as he clinked his glass against mine. I could tell that he had been disappointed that I hadn’t toasted to our relationship. Sure, I believed him about Amia, and I knew that he was the man that “Kat the thief” had fallen in love with… but there was so much that had changed and I would be an utter idiot if I believed that I was the same person I was back then. “To Freedom,” Enzo toasted, taking a sip of the champagne. A weird tension pulsed between us, and I was desperate to get the joking, happy Enzo back. I slid from the booth, tugging Enzo with me as I dragged him to the dance floor. “What are you doing?” he asked, suspicious of my actions. I laughed and winked at him, turning to face him as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I want to dance, and just forget everything that has happened.” His face instantly brightened, and he put his hands on my hips, swaying with me as the music chan
Kat POV“Not who you were expecting?” Damian laughed harshly as he pushed his way into my room. I stood by the door, my mouth slightly agape in a mix of shock and horror. I toyed with the idea of leaving Damian in my room and running somewhere else, but the look of rage in the man’s eyes made me second guess that option. “What do you want, Damian?” I asked, gathering what little courage I had in the face of his raw masculinity. He smiled slightly as he walked to the window - the exact spot he had held me mere days ago, probably remembering the way his body had claimed mine. But I wasn’t his, and I never would be. “I saw you with Enzo Castello,” he grumbled through clenched teeth, the anger returning to his gaze. “What were you doing with him?”I shrugged casually, brushing off his fury with a flick of my hand. “What has my being with Enzo got to do with you? You do not own me,” I enunciated slowly.He moved so fast that I had barely any time to gasp before he had me pinned up again
Kat POVI lay in my bed staring at the ceiling for most of the night, my mind restless as Damian’s words repeated themselves again and again. If I were to be honest with myself, they actually scared me. He seemed to be the kind of man who’s threats were always promises, and who would stop at nothing to see his goals accomplished - even if it meant destroying me. When I eventually fell asleep, it was a fitful sleep, and I woke up more exhausted than I had been the whole evening. Aurora lay on her bed, her head on her paws as she watched me. “Good morning,” I yawned, trying to summon all the strength I could to get out of bed and failing miserably. The wolf got up, padding over to me and nudging my hand before she grabbed the corner of the duvet and pulled it off me, the cool air instantly making goosebumps spread across my legs. “That’s not fair,” I pouted, forcing myself to get out of bed since it was no longer a safe haven. She looked at me smugly - if you can even say that a wol
Kat POV“Who would dare to attack a guest in our home?” my uncle fumed, pacing back and forth to the point that I was sure that he would wear a groove in the floor of his office. Vasilios stood by the window, blocking most of the light and leaving a gigantic shadow on the floor. “I don’t know, Your Majesty. But it strikes me as strange that whoever attacked Prince Dimitri and his supporter did not kill either of them. In fact, it appears as if this was a deliberate ploy to stop the union between Princess Katerina and Prince Dimitri.” I chewed on my bottom lip, trying to keep myself from blurting out that there was no way in this universe that I would ever be forced into a relationship with that brute. I would honestly throw myself off the edge of the earth before I could ever find myself in bed with the monster. “Yes, I thought that was strange too,” my uncle mused, scratching his chin as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. I froze, wondering what my uncle was planning.
Kat POV“My man has been severely injured by one of your rabid dogs,” Dimitri spat out as soon as we entered the room. Just like that, all eyes were glued to my uncle and myself, waiting like vultures for the showdown they presumed would lead to bloodshed between our species. Otis and another elderly man from the council called Yanis, sat with rather smug expressions on their faces, as if they were enjoying every moment of it.“Come, Prince Dimitri,” my uncle tried to reason. “Let us talk about this in private where we do not have such an interested audience.” Dimitri snorted and grabbed the bottle of vodka from the table, taking a swig straight from the bottle which was half empty. “And let you trick me more than you already have? You promised me a union with your niece, but instead she is willing to spread her legs for every man beside me.”A gasp ran through the room as the accusation reached the spectators’ ears, and I’m pretty darn sure that the whole kingdom would be told that
Kat POVI hid out in my bedroom for the rest of the day, not able to summon up the courage to face the vultures which made up the Royal Court. I was also terrified to run into Damian, suspecting that the man was most likely behind the attack on the bears. And even if he wasn’t, he unsettled me. The sunlight faded quickly beyond the horizon, painting the sky with brilliant pink and golden hues which faded into the darkness of the night. Winter was well on its way, the night air cool even in the confines of my bedroom. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around me as I sat on my bed, wishing that I had someone to talk to about everything - wishing that Giulia was there. Her absence hadn’t felt as profound before that moment, even with everything that I had been going through in my brief time in Slovenia. “I do miss the days when I was just Kat,” I said aloud to no one in particular - Aurora had slipped out of the room hours ago, probably sick of my moping around. I sighed and lay down,
Kat POVAnka took control in a way which left me suspecting that it had been her plan all along - hell, it had been the plan of the Council’s too. By noon, all of the flags and banners which had decorated the castle with King Mattias’s personal crest were replaced with the gaudy imitations which Anka claimed as her own. The commanders were called en masse to the castle and were ordered to swear allegiance to Anka. Those who refused were banished and their titles were stripped from them. I watched in muted horror as Vasilios refused to kneel before the crazed woman. She had stormed up to him and slapped him hard, the slap echoing across the courtyard. “I will not kneel before a usurper,” he declared boldly, meeting her eye. She slapped him again, anger flashing in her eyes as other commanders took his lead and stood, refusing to submit to her. “Banished! You’re all banished! Leave before I have you all thrown into the dungeon!” Anka’s voice quivered and she tried hard to maintain h
Kat POVEvery day before I visited my uncle, I prayed that there would be some sign that he was improving in some way or another. He wasn’t, but it was hard to grasp that I would be forced into the position of Queen when I had barely been on Slovenian soil for more than a couple of months. At least if Uncle Mattias spoke a few words I wouldn’t be forced to take the throne… surely. “Are you well, Katerina?” Councilman Otis asked over breakfast, his snowy white eyebrows knitted together making them look like one gigantic, fuzzy caterpillar. “You have barely touched your food for the past few days. Is there potentially a child on the way?” Enzo looked at me, almost hopefully and I forced a smile as I shook my head, “not that I am aware of, but you never know.” It was hard to miss the looks of horror which some of the councilmen struggled to hide - their contempt for the throne so blatant that the thought of adding an extra heir was borderline unthinkable. Anka chose that moment to be
Kat POV“The King is awake,” Enzo said softly, but not soft enough to avoid the instant interest shown by the rest of the party. I could see the questions building in everyone’s minds - questions no one would be able to answer until we actually went to visit him. “I must go to him,” I told Enzo, glancing toward my guards who were already standing with their backs as straight as lances, ready for us to head back to the palace. I have to be honest, when Enzo said my uncle was awake I assumed that he would be exactly the same way he had been the last time I had seen him, and not the shrivelled shell of a man. It had only been a few days since Jurgen and I had found him on the floor of his office, and yet the grand King Mattias looked old and frail as he lay back on his overstuffed, white pillows. “Uncle Mattias,” I smiled as I entered the room, noting Jurgen as he sat next to the window, a stern look on his face. “We have been waiting for you to return to you, and I am so glad that yo
Chapter 80Kat POVAfter a morning of lazing about and trying to recover from the impromptu house party, Enzo and I eventually pulled on some clothes and wandered down to Cassie’s house to help clean up, the three bodyguards in tow. I guess the one good thing about them tagging along was that they were extra hands, and considering how the party-goers had wrecked Cassie’s garden, I’d say they were needed. “When we find Damian, I swear he is going to be doing yard work until this place is back to how it was before last night,” Cassie grumbled, picking up a crushed tulip and sighing sadly. “It was worth it, Cassandra,” Vasilios consoled her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. “And I am sure Damian will be highly appreciative of your sacrifice.” She sighed and put the tulip in his hand before slipping indoors, leaving the rest of us to finish clearing up outside while she fixed her kitchen with the help of Elijah’s new mate, Maria. “So,” Elle sidle
Enzo POVBy the time the clock ticked midnight, Darius was already on Luca’s private plane, heading to Luca’s island territory where he would be stuck in the dungeon and watched closely by Luca’s beta. Nico had already been filled in about the sensitivity of the situation, and there was no way Darius’s presence on the island would become known. I don’t even remember the drive back to the castle, or walking up the thousands of stairs to the room I shared with my adorable mate. Her soft yawns as she walked beside me echoed my own exhaustion, and we merely shrugged off our clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor before we climbed into bed. Seconds later, sleep claimed us both.The chirp of birds outside woke me up, the room filled with bright sunshine and the most delicious scent filled my nose. It took a moment for me to realise that the scent came from Kat. Her hair was splayed out across her pillow and shone golden in the morning sunlight, making her look like a mythical being –
Kat POV How the hell had I been so stupid? Truth was that I had been so wrapped up in my own self pity that I hadn’t even really noticed the change in the man I had believed was Damian. But now, watching the way he languidly leaned back in the high backed armchair, a smirk on his stupidly handsome face that I was quickly coming to hate, I realised that every interaction I’d had with Darius had some blatant clues. And now Damian was paying the price, locked in some cage somewhere, having believed his brother’s lie about thinking Aurora was a spy. He had been so desperate for a family - so desperate to be accepted that he trusted the man who sold him out as easily as if it were a game. I watched as he baited Jurgen, my bodyguard’s concern for my uncle becoming a game to the man I can only assume had a serious psychological problem. “I guess you will have to pray that King Mattias recovers to be able to answer that question,” Darius drawled - and if he were a teenaged girl, he probab
Kat POV“Alright, speak,” Enzo said in a voice which left no doubt that he was close to snapping. We had all gathered into the living room, the man we had all thought was Damian had been plonked down into the high backed armchair, and had to suffer through the off key “happy birthday” song as we all pretended that nothing was wrong. “Someone is watching from the top of the hill,” Vasilios had muttered under his breath as he had flung his arm across the stranger’s shoulders, laughing loudly as he guided the man indoors. Luckily he and his mate were in-tune with each other to a point where Cassie had declared loudly that we would be cutting the cake indoors, and that was that. “If you’d like to keep your life, you may start at the very beginning,” Luca drawled casually as he leaned against the fireplace, his one foot crossed behind the other. The stranger swallowed hard and glanced at Elijah before he gripped his hands together tightly and began his explanation. “My name is Darius.
Enzo POV “Darius?” Eli asked again, stepping toward where the rest of the guys were standing. I frowned in confusion. Darius? Who the hell was Darius? “Too much hard liquor on the plane again, Eli?” Vasilios joked good humouredly as he patted Eli on the back. “That’s Damian.” Eli blinked hard and shook his head, as if to clear it, but even from where I stood in the doorway to Vasi’s house, I could see how pale he looked. And judging by the look on Eliana’s face, so could she. I darted forward, grabbing his arm as reached his side. “Looks like you’ve been working too hard since I abandoned you to bring Kat back here,” I forced a laugh. “Let’s get some coffee into you, and you can give me some feedback before we join the party.” Even though all eyes were on us, I knew that my friends and family would brush this aside like nothing happened. That’s what they were good at - the subtle art of pretending everything was okay when there was an inferno of shit happening behind closed
Kat POVTo say that I was starting to hate my life may be the understatement of the century. The three bodyguards trailed behind me like puppies and I could do nothing without them hovering. Even going to the bathroom had become a chore, and just a few short hours after they had been assigned, I found myself shouting, “can I please pee in peace?” So by the time Saturday came around, I was fully ready to be free of the trio for a few hours. “Are you almost ready to leave?” Jurgen asked as he closed my bedroom door behind him and leaned against it, looking a lot less formal than he usually did in his jeans and a Metallica t-shirt. Enzo raised an eyebrow at him, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the t-shirt or because Jurgen was still playing babysitter. Either way, my mate remained quiet as he helped me with the zip on the back of my dress. “I just need to fetch the cake from the kitchen, and then we can go,” I told the two men, checking my makeup one last time. I was incredi