Page 211 of Rogue Alpha Prince

What the fuck?!

“What’s wrong with a secret passage? You do call it the castle,” he makes fun of me and goes inside first.

“What do you call it?” I ask stepping inside the short dark passage after him.

“The packhouse,” he shrugs his shoulders and pulls me by the hand inside whatever torture room is behind the doors at the other end.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUNA!” Claudia screams into my ear after pulling me into a crushing hug.

“Um, thank you,” I almost sound like the pack’s always insecure Doctor. “How did you know?”

She pulls away at arm's length and I can finally look around the dimly lit studio. Beta and Gamma are smiling at me from a huge L-shaped sofa. There is Cain’s laptop running in front of them on a coffee table.

I can smell the popcorn and some fruits, other than the lemony scent of Cain, who is pressing his body to my back and wrapping his hands around my shoulders—making me automatically put my hands on his forearms.

“I called Greg a week ago to ask, when I realized your father said you were almost twenty-one when we met, and your younger brother had his twentieth birthday already.”

I nod my head, still in numb shock. I would never guess he even cared enough to ask. What’s going on?

“Ash doesn’t believe we have movie nights,” Cain says, letting me go.

He sits comfortably on the couch next to his Beta, and Claudia hooks her arm with mine.

“Yeah, we do, Luna! Once a month or on our birthdays, the four of us, well now five, always come here and watch something on the internet,” she explains pulling me to the boys.

It's funny how excited her voice sounds when she says the word ‘internet.’

“Why is it the first time I’m hearing about this?” I sit on the floor between Cain's slightly parted knees.

The rug is super fluffy so it’s a good choice. I always preferred to lean on the couch itself rather than sitting normally and leaning on the too-short backrest.

“You kept dragging us out…” Claudia says and sits down on the other end of the couch.

“And it kinda felt like some college experience we saw only in the movies,” Atlas adds while browsing through movie titles from his spot between Beta and Claudia.

“And well,” Cain starts answering so I turn around and rest my chin on the arms I keep on his thighs. “You didn’t want to spend time with me.”

Because you acted like a dick back then.

“Well, I clearly did not know what I was missing,” I say instead.

“Hey, no princess talk here,” Beta grunts at me and opens the beer bottle with his teeth.

“It was light flirting, thank you very much.”

Cain grabs my jaw in his thigh grip and leads me up until I have no choice but to sit on his lap and let him wrap his hands around my waist.

“It wasn’t good, Luna,” Claudia says bluntly, “I mean, I would expect more from someone with so many ex-boyfriends.”

I was a trained princess, but I would choke at that if I had any drink right now. “Excuse me?”

“Greg told me when you asked him to take me for the shopping spree,” she says while fanning her manicured red nails.

I could swear Cain's grip on me tightened significantly.

“In school, yes,” I sigh at the unpleasant memory of learning from my own mistakes. Too many mistakes. “Before I realized they were all either interested in fucking the royal princess before she finds her true mate, or panically avoiding any sensual contact in fear of my true mate and possibly the future King. If they knew they had to fear the Rogue Alpha Prince instead, I would probably not even know how to kiss,” I try to end it with a joke but even I hear how bitter I sound.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, Luna,” Claudia says with a consoling smile.

---