Page 37 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

Then I turned to Dmitri. “Seriously?” I said to him. “What are you doing?”

Dmitri lifted a finger. “I ask for one thing. One fucking thing. Just one.” He turned his back on me and stalked out of the stable.

I stared into his wake, debating if I should go after him or stay here with Johannes. Considering I’d spent all of last night and this morning with Dmitri, I decided to stay. I turned back to Johannes.

He was still holding his jaw. “Nothing fucking happened!”

“You told him to cancel his plans with her so that you could sleep in her bed?”

He groaned. “Yeah, but then I changed my mind about all of it. Something about watching her… I just want her to be happy, that’s all. I swear.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I’m going after him,” said Johannes, pushing past me.

“I don’t know if that’s a great idea,” I called. “After he gets mad like that—”

“I have to explain.”

So, then I was reluctantly following Johannes around until he caught up with Dmitri, who was halfway to the knife-throwing target area by the time that Johannes got there.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” said Johannes to him. “It’s like some kind of omega witchcraft. But I was lying in bed with her, and she was sleepy, and I knew that I wouldn’t try to do anything that she didn’t want. If she wanted to sleep, I wanted to sleep, and it was just… I don’t know… bigger than me, somehow? It was kind of amazing, and I’m telling you—”

Dmitri hit him again.

Johannes staggered backward. “What the fuck, dude?” he practically screamed. “I’m trying to explain to you—”

“She’s. Not. Yours,” said Dmitri in a very low voice. “I’m letting you have time with her, and I can stop that at—”

That was when Johannes tackled Dmitri and they both went sprawling on the lawn.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that someone from the castle security had taken off at a run, coming directly for us. He was probably on his walkie-talkie, calling in reinforcements.

Dmitri punched Johannes again, and Johannes tried to punch Dmitri, but Dmitri wriggled away, under Johannes, and then security was there, pulling them apart. At first, it was just one guy, but soon there were about six of them.

Dmitri kept trying to get at Johannes, but Johannes gave up pretty much immediately. I wasn’t really surprised. Johannes wasn’t much of a fighter. I don’t know that he’d ever been in a fist fight in his life. But now, he was going to have a very bruised face.

I sighed heavily.

I hadn’t even had a chance to see the omega since we got here.

Was this how it was going to be from now on? They were going to hate each other? I really hoped not.

9

aurelie

HE WAS LATE.

I didn’t know why I’d expected him to be on time. It was stupid of me.

Around 11:45, a servant came to fetch me from my room. I was taken down to a little spot on the grounds where an elaborate picnic had been set up near a stream that wound through the gardens. Though it was a picnic, there was a small metal table flanked with two folding chairs. The food was set up on another table nearby, and there was much more than we could ever eat.

Near the table was a small waterfall and a bank full of wildflowers, and everything was beautiful.

I sat out there, by myself, eyeing the croissants hungrily, until 12:20.

Then Dmitri arrived.

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