The deaconess looked lost for words as she walked over to me. Her mouth was opening and closing, like she didn’t know what to say or how to start. “I guess you heard that I’m moving out,” I said. “They had us sign contracts.” She frowned. “Promising not to tell anyone outside of the palace, about what is going on with you and the prince…” “That makes sense,” I said. “I’m sorry to have to tell you goodbye, but I guess this is it.” Rafaela stood there for a moment, still looking like she couldn’t bring herself to speak. “Thanks for everything,” I told her. “Miss Yena,” she finally said, “You must know, there will never be another princess like you again.” Her big, round eyes were filling up with tears. “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else I could say to that. She shook her head and said, “You don’t understand.” “Understand what?” Then she reached out and to
EVAN He was lost in thought, breathing in the fresh, cold air outside, when Evan heard the car approaching and rose to stand. The driver opened the back door for Yena and she stepped out of the car. Evan sighed. Somehow she’d gotten even more beautiful. It was incredible, how that was happening… Yes, Evan had been loving Yena for a long time. But her transformation recently was nothing less than amazing. When they were in high school, his feelings for Yena made him act like a jerk to her sometimes. He just hadn’t really known what to do with himself around her. For a long time, he felt like it was wrong, because she was his sister. But Yena was adopted, and so it wasn’t quite the same. And when she left home to run away with Nolan, that was a real wakeup call. Evan had waited too long and he’d missed his chance. It all happened so fast. Yena was still only eighteen, and the prin
Yena dove into her bed, landing in the middle of all the new, big fluffy pillows and laughing. “It’s weird,” she said. “Everything’s so different now. It feels really good to be back here though, that’s for sure.” She grabbed a pink velvet pillow and held it to her chest. Then looked at Evan and smiled. “You’re different, too,” she said. “Like you finally grew up or something.” Evan shrugged. “Guess it had to happen at some point, right?” She giggled. He had a vision of diving onto the bed on top of her, pinning her down, and kissing her. Yena raised an eyebrow at him and asked, “What?” “Nothing.” Evan shook his head. “I guess I was thinking that you… you really grew up, yourself.” Yena looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Suddenly she started looking very sad. Evan’s mind was still running through the vision where he was lying on top of her i
It sent Evan right back to memories from childhood, when they did that a lot, any time their parents were being too annoying. It was a little bit of a secret language between him and Yena. “Well, I dunno about all that,” he said. “Last week the neighbor’s cat got stuck way up at the top of one of the big overgrown trees in the front yard. That was pretty exciting.” Yena laughed, and Tina joined in. Peter grunted defensively and mumbled, “I’ll do the trees this week.” Evan and Tina both looked down and tried to suppress doubtful laughter at that. Under the table, Yena gave Evan’s ankle a light little touch with her foot. It gave him an unexpected shiver. He looked up at her and she mouthed, Thank you. All he could do was smile back in response.#YENA Tina had made all my favorite foods. It was like a big “welcome home Yena” themed feast. I hadn’t been expecting to feel so happy tonight… but
ADAN It was Lucy who first told Adan that Yena was moving back to her parent’s home, where she’d grown up, in the town right next to the college. But then Adan got the parent’s house under surveillance. He had someone posted down the street, parked in a car with dark tinted windows, who watched and made sure that Yena arrived at the house and went inside.The spy kept his eyes on the door all through the night, and in the morning, he called Adan with an update. “A young male, the brother, left the house first on his own early this morning,” the man reported. “Dressed in athletic gear, went off running toward the mountain. Then your subject came out.” “And?” “And I’m following her now. She took a little stroll down the street to a bakery, where she just went in. You want me to go inside, or keep eyes from the street?” “Don’t go in,” Adan said sharply. “Text me the address.” He threw on a jacket and shoe
YENA Seeing Adan was strange, like déjà vu or a dream that feels too familiar. And it was suspicious, how he was always running into me, supposedly on accident. After he left the bakery, I got a creepy feeling, like I was being watched. But there was literally no one around. Just the one, tired employee sitting in the back room, resting her head on one hand, and using the other to highlight in a big textbook she was reading. No one out in the parking lot. Hardly even any cars parked along the main street, and they were all far away. I shook off the feeling as paranoia. It was just that I was feeling so calm and peaceful, and Adan really startled me, showing up out of nowhere.As if the universe couldn’t let me have one moment of escape, without reminding me of what drama my life has become. Seeing him reminded me of Lucy, for some reason. So I called her when I got back to Tina’s house. “Yo
ADANHey, Yena. It’s Adan. Sorry to text you out of nowhere, but I was hoping we could talk?He looked at the text and read it back to himself aloud. Saying it in a few different tones. Making sure it sounded casual enough.She replied almost right away.How did you get my number?Adan smiled. He loved when he could predict exactly the way a conversation was about to go.You don’t remember? You gave it to me a while back. Sorry I n
Tina insisted I spend the next day with her.“Today is a day for baking pies,” she said, pointing to the window. It was lightly storming outside, with steady rain and dark clouds.I let her get it started, enjoying several cups of coffee in the morning while she made the dough. I was never any good at that part, anyway.“Are you afraid to get your hands dirty now, my daughter?”“Very funny,” I replied. “To be honest, I never really liked getting my hands dirty, even before.”
YENANolan took one look at me, as I stepped out into the surprisingly bright morning light, and placed a hand flat on his chest. His mouth dropped open, releasing a sigh.I watched as his keen eyes roved the entire length of my body, taking in every detail. From the clear glass peep-toe high heels on my feet, to the dress, the earrings, the hair, and… the finishing touch: my golden laurel leaf crown. The one Nolan gave me the first time we married, which marked me as his Luna.I had to stop in my tracks and catch my breath, myself. This, I realized as I took everything in, was the wedding of my dreams.To my surprise, our friend Cindy was standing under the very center of the vine-laced archway – she was clearly all set up to be the officiant for our ceremony. She grinned and winked at me when our eyes met, as if to say, Surprise! The King and Queen stood to one side of the aisle, eyes on me as I walked down with my parents, each with approving expressions and slight smiles. At Nola
Evan smiled broadly at the sight of me and Lucy in our dresses, our hair and makeup all done up. “Whoa,” he said, going wide-eyed. “You girls look incredible.”“Oh my Goddess, back at you!” I cried, making my brother blush. Evan was all cleaned up, had even gotten a haircut, and he was wearing a gorgeous, expensive tuxedo with a boutonniere in the lapel that matched my bouquet. “What is all this?”“Oh. Didn’t you know? I am the Best Man.” He grinned guiltily, cheesing with his teeth clenched.“Oh, that is so…” I felt tears pinging at my eyes, thinking about Nolan making the gesture of asking Evan to stand beside him at our ceremony. That must have been what they were discussing at Tina’s. “That’s sweet, Evan. I’m sure it means a lot to Nolan. Thank you.”He shrugged, starting to look awkward.“Be right back, guys,” Lucy said, heading for the fancy little half-bathroom that was directly across the hall from my studio.“Yena, I’m really happy for you,” Evan said to me quietly once she w
“Can I see it?” Nolan asked. His green eyes lit up with curious excitement.He and I were just finishing dinner together, and I’d told him all about my day with Lucy and how hard we’d worked to finish my wedding dress for tomorrow. I was absolutely thrilled with the end result, but my eyes were also tired from all the focused work and lack of breaks, and my fingers were stiff from so much sewing. It had been a while since I had done this much detail work in such a short period of time. “Hmm.” I thought over Nolan’s request. “Can you wait? I think it’ll be more fun if you see it on me tomorrow for the first time.”He nodded reluctantly. “I can wait. If I must.”“I’m so excited.” I beamed. I didn’t mean just about the dress. “This is going to be really fun. Thank you for doing this with me.”Nolan offered me one of his own big, beautiful smiles in return. “I’m excited, too. And listen, I had an idea…” He pushed his dinner plate away and turned his full body to face me.“Oh? What’s that
Nolan shook his head and mumbled “no” between soft little kisses. “I don’t want to do that to you too much, Yena. Not if I don’t need it.”I hummed out a reproving, “Hmmm…” and used a single finger to gently guide Nolan’s face up to mine. “You don’t have to hold back with me, you know.”Suddenly, while he held my gaze, I felt Nolan’s big dick starting to swell, tapping against my thigh.“Bite me. Drink my blood. Please.”My voice took on a silky quality.“I want you to. I think you do need it.” I moved my mouth to his strong neck, planted a soft kiss there and then dragged my lips up to his ear. “And you know that it feels good for me too, right?”I teased his ear with my tongue, and Nolan groaned.I angled my hips up toward his, and soon he was easing himself inside me while I breathed deeply and mumbled lot of little begs for him to keep going.He moved one hand to the back of my head and fisted a sloppy bunch of my hair.My eyes flew open—I didn’t realized they’d fallen closed. His
YENAWatching my adoptive mother embracing my giant husband right now was hilarious.Tina did this to everyone she loved – and who knows why? – tried to show them how much she cared by embracing them in tight, smothering bear hugs. If I hadn’t known it before today, I knew now that she loved Nolan like family, because she appeared to be trying her best to strangle him to death.The look on my Alpha’s face was what was killing me. Nolan didn’t know what to do, how to escape Tina politely and with dignity. So I sacrificed myself to save him, squishing between the two and taking the next big hug from Tina for myself.“Oh, I was so very happy to hear from you, sweetheart! To what do we owe this visit?”Tina released my bear hug and started playing with my hair, fluffing it up and pulling loose curls forward over my shoulders. I could tell she was admiring how long it had gotten.“Well, we have something to invite you to,” I said vaguely. “But I’d rather wait to talk about it till we can a
NOLANThick morning fog rolled through the cemetery in a hurry, kissing the edges of headstones that cluttered its path. It dissolved under the slow footsteps of three black-clad mourners crossing the dewy grounds as they picked their way toward the yawning mouth of an open grave.A lone priest in a long black cassock stood waiting near the casket. In one hand he clutched an old book, a fragile artifact bound in soft purple cloth. The other hand rose in greeting as first Nolan, then Yena and Cindy came into his view, stomping out fog in their wake.Nolan let go of Yena’s hand when they reached the old man’s graveside. He exchanged some words with the priest, with whom he’d earlier spoken on the phone, and then made introductions between the holy man and his wife and good friend.“An honor to meet you all.” The priest bowed his head. “I am very sorry it is under these circumstances.”The man was middle-aged, but his voice sounded weathered, perhaps permanently hoarse from decades of ov
YENAI’m not sure how exactly, but I felt Nolan’s presence as he approached from down the hall. I looked up, expecting to see him in the doorway, but he was not there yet.The sound of his footsteps on the marble floors hit my ears next. Then finally my prince appeared, pausing at the threshold of my studio and raising his hand to knock on the open door. He met my eyes instantly, since I’d been watching for him. “Hey.” He lowered his arm and stepped inside.“Hi. How’s your mom?”“She’s good. She seems to like the idea of the vow renewal ceremony.”I stood as Nolan reached my desk. He bent to kiss me, his arms wrapping around my waist. I circled his neck with my forearms and let him lift me up off my feet for a second.He put me down, pulled away and smiled. “You’re in a good mood.”“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you.”He shrugged. “Maybe I am. Kind of strange.”“Being in a good mood is strange?”Nolan stepped away and started a slow stroll around the room. “Honestl
Nolan teased me with his fingertips till I was writhing, unable to stay still though he had a tight hold on my body and kept me seated in his lap. His mouth was busy on my neck, alternately breathing heavily to take in my scent and giving me hard, sloppy bite-kisses that felt like they’d leave bruises.I ran my fingers through his hair, slid my hands down his neck and all across the broad muscles of his shoulders.And grumbled impatiently, “Oh, fuck me.”“Thought you’d never ask,” he said, then he stood up with one easy step, turned, and threw me down onto the bed.He climbed on top of me. My legs wrapped back around his middle like they belonged there. His mouth went my ear and he licked the edge of it, giving me a chill.Then he whispered, “Any other requests?”“Hmm. Just a question.”He arched one of his dark, thick and lovely eyebrows. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”“Do you want me to be quiet this time?” I asked. “Or do you want everyone on this train to hear what you can do to me?”The
I had not meant to bring up the subject of sexual fidelity. But that’s what I did, by accident.That’s what a wedding ring represents, isn’t it? And here I had gone and asked my husband if he ever took his ring off. Just after we reunited after being separated.“No,” I answered, shaking my head. “I’ve never taken my ring off, not since you gave it to me. When I thought you really wanted to divorce me, I thought about it. But it seemed wrong and sad and I never could do it. And I didn’t mean to imply anything by asking you that…”He arched an eyebrow. Said nothing. And kept watching me, with less and less patient curiosity, as I continued on with my efforts to remove his wedding ring.My little plan was not going super smoothly so far.“Yena. Why are you trying to take that off?”“Hush,” I said, giggling nervously. “I will explain in just a minute. I only want to take it off for a second, okay?”“Okay.” An amused smile tugged at his lips, but his eyebrows still looked stern.“Why didn’