AFTER THE BALL, we went to Lorenzo’s office and we were joined by the priest, his parents, and two other witnesses. Lorenzo’s mother suggested we do things this way, in the hopes that it would be less intimate and we wouldn’t try to push things further. I felt the nausea push up because I was so nervous, but when Lorenzo pulled me into his arms, my entire body relaxed.“Just keep your eyes on me,” Lorenzo whispered as I tried to swallow, but my throat had suddenly gone completely dry! I nodded and heard the priest talking, but I was so focused on Lorenzo that his mother had to remind me I had to answer the question!“Ariana, are you here willingly and do you willingly agree to be marked?” The priest asked again and I swallowed before nodding. “I’m afraid I need you to use the word.” He leaned forward as if he was trying to whisper.“Yes.” My breath caught in the back of my throat as I looked at the priest, but I instantly returned my attention to Lorenzo. I searched his eyes for that
IT FELT STRANGE, talking to people, and walking down the passages knowing what I did. It felt as if they could tell what I did, but I knew Lesley made sure you couldn’t smell it on me. When Lorenzo put his hand on my back at breakfast, I jumped and he frowned.I quickly explained it away by saying I had a nightmare, but he frowned. I could see he wasn’t believing me, but it wasn’t the right time to tell my fiancé that I played with myself! I breathed deeply and smiled before telling Lorenzo that everything was okay, and he didn’t have to worry. All through breakfast, I had to fight the urge to think about it. I knew that once I did, everyone would be able to smell my arousal.I couldn’t afford to distract Lorenzo today. Not today. Not on the day, he was finally going to set the slaves free. I could feel the energy buzzing in the castle after breakfast as we made our way out of the castle. The people were gathered on the lawn to our right and the slaves were chained up to our left. I f
IT STILL SOMETIMES FELT like I had to pinch myself to believe that this was now my life. I was about to become the queen of the werewolves. My mate was the king. I was living in a huge castle and had people doing things for me. Hell! People even helped me to get dressed! I could take a warm bath every day. I was given three incredibly delicious meals a day … On the boat, I was lucky if I got one meal every three days and I only got the chance to wash when I had water left after cleaning something on the ship. The people that went through the same were free and had their own homes. Some of them returned to their packs, but most of them no longer trusted anyone. They stayed because they trusted our king. They trusted the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with. That strange feeling was slowly growing less, but it was still there. When I arrived at breakfast, Lorenzo looked excited and I couldn’t understand why. After breakfast, he asked me to join him in his office for a meet
THERE WERE FLOWERS AND FOOD, and cakes! Place settings and seating charts. There were so many things to take care of that I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Our wedding was going to be the wedding of the century.I was completely speechless sometimes at the scale at which this wedding was growing. The previous weddings had nothing on ours. It was truly going to be the event of the century, and it all revolved around Lorenzo and me. Our meetings died down a little and I was grateful for that since I really needed to pay attention to the wedding arrangements.The slaves had settled in nicely in their new homes and I made sure to check on them as much as I could, but with the wedding around the corner, it was becoming a little tougher. I loved seeing them laugh and seeing them growing healthier by the day. Their wounds were healing … Their physical wounds at least. What worried me was their emotional wounds.I still carried mine, and I knew they still had theirs. I wanted to d
THE CLOSER THE WEDDING DAY CAME, the more intense things became around the castle. People were no longer smiling as much. You could feel the excitement, but everyone was focused on the job at hand.I had one more dress fitting to attend before we got married and the only events remaining after everything were the rehearsal in the church and the rehearsal dinner. In two days, I was getting married to the king of the werewolves. I was going to become the queen. I had three ladies-in-waiting, and one girl who helped me the same way Lesley used to in the beginning.I had spoken to Lesley about being the first in line to find a husband and she was over the moon, but she felt a lot like I did when I first heard about this so-called program of the queen. Nervous. Finding a husband was a nerve-wracking experience. It wasn’t like finding a mate, and Lesley also didn’t know how that felt, since she hadn’t seen her mate yet.Her main concern was how she would feel if she saw her mate after she g
LESLEY AND THE GIRLS woke me up with a huge breakfast in bed in the early hours of the morning. The excitement in the air was so thick you could choke on it as everyone around me rushed around to get things ready while I was supposed to stay calm and just enjoy every moment. I took a long hot bath filled with rose oils which helped my aching muscles that had been tensed up for the past week and had just gotten out when an army of ladies joined us to make me look the part.The queen joined us a little later and I tried to listen to the conversations around me, but I was so damn nervous, all I could think about was what it was going to feel like when Lorenzo finally marked me. After my talk with the queen, I felt more confident that I was making the right choice to marry Lorenzo, but … I shook the fears out of my mind and breathed in deeply, forcing myself to focus on the conversations.My hair was being pulled in every direction while I was told to first close this eye and then that, b
All those agonizing nights I spent imagining what his touch would feel like was finally over. Lorenzo’s hands softly stroked the very thin material of my night dress. He walked around me, staying close as his hand slipped over my body. It felt as if the air was so thin that I could hardly take a breath.“You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen in my entire life.” His voice was filled with a hunger I hadn’t heard before. It sent shivers down the back of my spine. I gasped as he stood beside me and pulled me so close that I could feel his arousal. I was still wondering how that would fit inside me when he slowly started to pull my night dress over my shoulders and let it drop to the floor.He kissed my shoulder and I shivered as his hot kisses burned my neck, but I was lost. I was completely lost in him. His hands slipped down my arms and up my sides. It was torture. It was utter torture to let him touch me without doing much, but I was lost in him. I didn’t want to stop hi
WAKING UP with Lorenzo’s arms around me was so incredible. I didn’t have the words to describe it. I breathed in his scent and our scent hit me right between the eyes. A huge smile broke out all over my face before I realized that our staff would be walking into this very room any second!“Where are you going?” Lorenzo’s voice was soaked in amusement.“Our staff are going to walk through that door at any moment!” I tried to wriggle out of his grip but he held on far too tight. “Lorenzo! Let go! I need to take a bath! You need to take a bath! We need to …”“Hide our scent?” His lips touched the crook of my neck and goosebumps burst out all over my skin. “We are mated, sweetness, and they will all know exactly what we did because we got married yesterday.” He kissed me some more and I felt as if I could just melt right back into him. We might have only spent one night together, but he knew exactly where to touch me to make me wet all over again. An hour later, we were in the shower when