“Congratulations!” I blurt out, trying to save the moment. I squeeze Cain’s leg and give him a pointed look as I get up from my seat and approach them. He follows me, “This is amazing. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nina. My name is Asheron.”“I know, you’re the new Alpha. My dad hates you,” she blurts out as soon as I approach with my arms extended for a hug, so I stop before touching her, unsure. Justin sighs and gives me an apologetic look, but Nina opens her arms to me, so I hug her.In terms of height, I guess she’s only an inch or two shorter than Georgie, but she’s definitely thinner and absolutely weaker. Poor thing, I feel like I’m going to break her if I squeeze too hard.“I’m sorry for thinking you were part of the staff, Nina, but I’ve never seen you before, so…” Cain murmurs. I know he feels uncomfortable because he’s not joking or going up to her for a hug, he just looks her up and down, “I’m Cain.”“Yeah… hi,” she says, giving Justin an uncertain look, “I think your famil
“Eugene is right, this is a fated situation and your opinions won’t change that,” Justin speaks in a stern voice. Everyone falls silent, “This went just as badly as I expected. You’re all immature and rude. If you have complaints, take them up with the Moon Goddess. I’m taking a break from all of you.”“Justin, I’m sorry…” my mom tries to say, worry in her eyes. Justin raises a hand to stop her, “You caught us by surprise! You could have said something earlier.”“Yes, I should have said something earlier and not put my mate in an uncomfortable situation where my family insulted her repeatedly-”“Actually, this is exactly what I expected from a royal family,” Nina says, shrugging. Throughout this entire conversation, she’s seemed chill, like she doesn’t care one bit about what we’re saying.Honestly… I like her. I really like her.“I promised Nina she was wrong and you’d be kind. Annoying, but kind. Now you made me break the first promise I made to her,” Justin snaps, his eyes falling
“That’s Gerard, my best guard. He is looking after her,” Eugene replies. Fuck this Gerard guy, “Guys… back up, you’re suffocating me with your jealousy and I’m not even joking.” He’s right, Asheron and I are throwing off crazy jealous scent. “Let me see more then,” I demand, snatching the phone from his hand. As soon as I have it, Asheron takes it from me to be the one in control, of course. Asheron quickly swipes through the photos of Georgie in Paris with her assistant and friend, Jos. And that Gerard fuck. Then… Georgie in a bikini on the beach. It’s a modest bikini, but still, most of her body is exposed and she’s way too close to Gerard. And far too far from us. On a beach, without me.That’s a low blow. I always begged and begged her to get away from Asheron for at least a week so she could travel with me and she always said: no. But now she can travel. With that guy. “Where is this?” I ask Eugene, my shoulders are so tense I feel them up in my ears. He’s watching us as
{ Georgette }Thailand is crazy gorgeous. And crazy fun. Now that I'm no longer scared about death, I'm more open to actually enjoying this trip with Jos and even Gerard. When he's relaxed and around nature, he's a fun guy. And even though I still have nightmares, I refuse to think about those two guys during the day. I really hope they're having fun together, fixing up their new pack... and I'm also waiting and planning for the moment when I come back home, tanned and happy, and I remind them I'm never, ever going to step foot in Fox. Not even in a million years. I've been away two weeks as of today. We've been planning to hit up some other country and keep this party going. Jos and Gerard are flirting like crazy now and I've been trying to play cupid, but Gerard is way too professional to give in. I had to tell him straight up, I don't care if he has a romantic affair with my assistant. He got so red, it was adorable.To them, this is now a romantic trip, so they have no issues
I have no idea what’s going to happen when she comes back, but I’m sure Cain cannot be left to handle it. He’s angry, so he’s going to lash out and make it all even worse. I need to be the first to speak to Georgie.There’s a flutter in my stomach when I think about seeing her again. It’s been a little over a month since she left and we left things on such a bad note last time, I just want to hug her and let her see nothing bad happened. I’m alive, Cain is alive, and she’s alive. We’re all here, there’s no reason to stay apart. But I know it’s not that easy. And my sweet baby is incredibly resentful, so I’m not expecting her to forgive me easily. I’ll still try, though. Over and over again, I’ll come back and grovel my ass off. I’ll even grovel on behalf of Cain, the other most resentful person I know. They really had no chance of ever working out on their own. They need me.And I fucking need them. All of us together, that’s the way it has to be.➿➿➿➿“Cain,” I grab his face and f
I scoff in annoyance, and I look back at Asheron. His light blue eyes are still focused on me and in that moment I allow myself a single second to take a deep, relieved breath. I’m glad everything turned out good. And I’m just now realizing… this is the first time Asheron is here as the Alpha of Fox, not the Alpha of Blues. It’s weird, I won’t lie. And the more everyone talks and talks about Fox, the angrier I get. I truly want nothing to do with that pack, I don’t even want to hear the stupid name. Fox. Buagh. “So… am I the only one confused?” King Henry asks and I already know he’s going to say something stupid because that’s just him, “Why is Princess Georgie still Princess Georgie and not Queen Georgie?” “They’re not married, she’s no one’s Queen yet,” my dad butts in, which I’m very thankful for. I just nod, not in the mood to explain to everyone here every little thing that happens in our relationship. I can see Cain opening his mouth, but he shuts it a second later
“Oh, you want war?!” Cain asks with an hysterical laugh, then he hits the table with both hands, “Then we’ll have war. Easy.” No one is paying us any mind. They’re just looking at us, annoyed. They know we don’t mean it. “I have more power than you two, dumbass. I would destroy you.” “Oh, you’re going to kill us?” He asks in a tone that makes me want to grab his hair and pull it… and I would if there wasn’t a huge table between us, “I don’t think so, Georgette. You’d cry non-stop. Wah, wah, wah. As always. Crybaby.” “Stop this, for God’s sake,” my father mutters beside me, but to me, there’s no one else in this room but Cain. I also ignore the other murmurs of around us. “You’re the crybaby, and guess what?” I snap, “I hate you.” “Fine, I hate you more,” Cain spits back, standing up. God, his eyes look wild. And his hair looks in the perfect length I like, his shoulders look bigger than usual, his lips look so good… “And I hate that you broke up with us because that took away m
"Cain, what is this?" I ask while they're still struggling. He looks at me and I just sigh when I recognize the defiant look on his face. He's in a mood for a fight or a fuck or both. "She declared war against our pack, she wants to kill us," he growls while Georgie is trying to set herself free. I don't believe it for a second and I know neither does he, but I'm guessing they had a public fight. That’s awesome, just what we needed, "She must die.""Okay then," I roll my eyes, "Let her go now. This fight is silly. We have more important things to talk about than a war that's never happening.""With the way I feel right now, it might actually happen," Georgie growls, breathing like she just ran a marathon and with her pretty hair all mangled. I sigh and decide to walk the three steps separating us so I can brush her hair away from her face, "Do not touch me.""Sorry," I sigh and lift my eyes to Cain, "Stop now, I’m serious. Let her go."Cain orders. He sets her free, but Georgie doesn
"I don't like you, what are you doing in my palace? I thought I told you, your family is banned from my territory," she says that directly to me. "He showed up unannounced, babe." "I come here in peace," Cain says and takes something out of his pocket. It's a card. Nina frowns, but she can't fight her curiosity so she walks closer to grab it, "It's a 'shut the fuck up' coupon to use on my mom. You can give it to me at any point if you ever need to tell my mom to shut the fuck up. I will do it for you and I will be aggressive about it. She deserves worse for being such a bitch that day. I'll take the fallout for you." "To be honest, I'm not that scared to do it myself," Nina murmurs, but a smile starts to grow on her face, "However, this is appreciated." "Can we start over?" He asks, taking a step closer, "I am actually very, very cool. I swear." "Mhm, I’ll be the judge of that," Nina says, punching his arm like she usually does when she's play-fighting with her brothers. Cain tu
"I can't fucking believe I said that," he says, covering his face in shame, "It was extremely disrespectful, I'm truly sorry. And I guess you're right, this isn't new, I just haven't fully gotten over it. Of course I will one day, this is still new. But you're my girl, I do desire you a lot, you are very pretty in my eyes. I just can't wait for you to grow up some more." I nod with a sigh. "I'm not angry, not like last time," I assure him, Justin takes a deep breath in relief, "But I don't love to know I make you feel guilty or bad. It's good that we haven't had real sex yet, I don't want it to be a bad experience for either one of us. I want to feel wanted and loved. So, I think what we should do is... put a pause in the sexual aspect of our relationship." "What?" He gets tense and looks at me like I'm crazy, "That's not what I want." "Yeah, but it's what I want," I say, clenching a fist. It's not what I want at all, but fuck him for making me feel like wanting me is wrong, "Not
"I'm sorry you had to hear all that, I really am sorry," the King says, looking down in embarrassment, "My wife..." "Don't worry, I get it. Justin shouldn't have surprised any of us with this news, it's not something easy," I say, eyes set on my mate's. He's totally freaking out, "I think I've caused enough damage, can we just go now?" "Yes," he almost whispers and just gives one last look to his dad before grabbing a suitcase so we can leave, but he stays silent as we walk out, all the way to the car. And even when he starts driving, "I'm sorry, Nina." "You should be. This was 'that bad' and then some," I mutter, looking out the window, "About everything else you said… don't even say sorry. It's simply what you feel and I understand, let's leave it at that." "No, no, I don't want us to be at odds again," he says, his hands tightening on the steering wheel, "I want to clarify, I didn't mean I'm not attracted to your or that I don't like you, that's the opposite of the truth." "I
"Let's go," Justin wraps an arm around my waist and he leads me outside. "Wait, son, I'm sorry I haven't said anything. I was just processing and..." the King finally speaks and I try to stop and hear him out, but Justin keeps me moving. He doesn't even give his dad a look, he takes me all the way to the foyer. "Wait for me here, I'll go pick some stuff, then we're going back to Fox," he says and leaves, almost as fast as he brought me here. I sigh and look for a chair so I can get comfortable, but when a couple minutes pass and I realize Justin is probably going to take a long time, I start wandering a bit. It's so weird that this place has so many corridors and different living rooms. Like this one. It's exactly the same as the last one I entered. I don't know what specific purpose it serves but... I stand very still when I hear footsteps coming closer and then two different voices. I gasp and look around for a place to hide. I find a little closet and run to hide in there.
"Cain!" Justin roars and a couple of seconds later I feel some relief and I can breath again as the huge man gets lifted and my fated mate comes to my rescue. He grabs my arms and picks me up, "Are you okay, Nina?" "No," I complain, my whole body hurts, especially my ass and my chest. The guy crashed against me like he had a personal vendetta against me, "What the hell? Who is that hippopotamus?" "Nina," Justin sighs, still not happy with me. He moves away to let me see the guy and points at him. I know who he is as soon as I look at his face, "This is my brother, Cain." He looks like a younger, less manly version of Justin. "I'm so sorry, kid, I totally didn't see you," he says with a grimace, he's still trying to recover too. He looks at me deeply and frowns, "Since when do we hire minors, dad? Isn't child labor illegal here?" Great. Amazing. So, Cain is an asshole. I sigh and look at Justin, he looks even angrier now. I don't know how this is going to play out if my ma
During the drive to his pack, Justin tries his best to make me feel less nervous. I'm sure he can smell my stress, fear and nerves all mixed up in my scent. Thankfully, he assures me over and over everything is going to be fine and he asks me so many questions to get me rambling that I actually start to get distracted. Until we get to Kallistar and I enter the pack for the first time in all my life. I swear it's like a new filter is unlocked to my eyes. So much color, everywhere. There's even a big welcoming mural, as if a lot of people travel from Fox to Kallistar. The grass is really greener over here, the sky is bluer, the roads are so perfect and clean. This is a whole different world for me. I'm almost scared. Because I know this is basically my pack now. But I kind of like my ugly, old, messed up pack. It has character. It's full of working people who are always willing to help one another. No one thinks they're better than other people in Fox but I'm sure over here everyon
"So, that means... I have to be the one to do something about it?" I ask, swallowing in nerves. Justin lies down next to me. "Not necessarily if you don't want to. All I'm saying is... I need to relieve some pressure," he says, "I've been so stressed about the conquest and scared about my brother possibly being in danger. And you being mad at me. I was so fucking tired and stressed." Oops. I guess that's my fault. Or his, for pissing me off to begin with. "Well... if you tell me what you like, I could help you," I offer, excited again. To touch him, make him feel good. It's my right, after all. But again, Boring Justin gives me a look that says he's not that sure, "Do I really have to beg a man to let me make him come? That's not fun, Fated Mate." "No, no, it's not like that. It's not like I don't want you," he rushes to say. I squint at him. He keeps saying that but not showing me, "I just... don't feel... okay. Tell you what. If you really want to touch me, you can do it."
I wish we could do it again (and again, and again) but I have a feeling Justin will get in his own head again. He just can't accept me for some reason. This past few days I've been doing research in fated mates. It's always what I thought it should be... instant love. Instant passion. Instant love-making. Obviously, because what else is it going to be when you find the literal love of your life? People never fight it... except for him. And why? Because apparently he doesn't like the way I look. Or, he does, but then he feels guilty about it. I sigh and roll in bed. My nose catches his scent in the sheets and I moan, feeling all tingly again. I gulp and my hand moves down south to relieve the pressure, but then I gasp when I remember why I woke up so early today. I jump up and run to put on my clothes on go to work. ➿➿➿➿ Justin and his brother were successful. When I get his text in my new super fancy phone, I almost pass out with relief. He told me a few times that it wasn'
That makes her look up at me again, confused. "We're going to get the territory today. I could technically die out there," I say, even though I know the chances are slim to none. I guess I just want a little kiss. For me, but for her, too. { Nina } One little kiss. This man who has been practically ignoring me even though he invaded MY home is asking me for a little kiss? After grinding his dick against me last night? He has some nerve. "Okay," I say, because... what am I to do? I've been waiting for this opportunity the whole fucking time. I’m not the one who hates this bond. I know I shouldn’t be so easy, but I am. I want that kiss so bad. Justin licks his lips and ends the distance between us, but not too fast. He takes his time, looking into my eyes for a few seconds. "I'm really sorry I made you mad," he whispers, melting my insides, "We've only been mates a few days and I already fucked up, I can't even begin to explain how shitty I feel. I'm just trying to do t