Page 15 of Protected By the Wolf Prince

“I’m afraid if I tell you, that you will look at me… differently,” I finally admit, terrified that it will change everything between us. And if he rejects me, it could ruin everything.

His head jerks back. “I vow that I will not. Now, tell me.” He brushes his thumb across my cheek. “You are my best friend. You know you can tell me anything.”

Best friend.The words are sharp barbs in my already bleeding heart. “What if I wanted more?” I inhale sharply as the words escape my lips unfiltered.

“Your letter.” His eyes search mine. “Is that what this is about?”

I avert my gaze, unable to look at him as the truth leaves my mouth. “I prayed that you would not participate in the mating chase in Winterhold.”

He stills for a moment and then cups my chin, tipping my face back up to his. I lower my eyes, afraid to see rejection in his. “Why did you ask the goddess for this?”

Emotions lodge in my throat, and I cannot answer.

“Luna, look at me.” His voice is gentle but insistent. “Please.”

I lift a tear-filled gaze to his and the words come tumbling from my mouth, unbidden. “I cannot stand the thought of you with someone”—my voice hitches—“who isn’t me.”

His green eyes widen a moment as if in disbelief. “You desire me to be yours and yours alone?”

Swallowing hard, I steel myself and then nod softly.

A handsome smile curves his mouth, and then he crushes his lips to mine.

My heart pounds in my chest, and pleasure coils tightly within. His kiss is not soft and tender as I’d always imagined. It’s demanding and intense.

His fingers tangle in my hair, angling my face up to his. “You are mine,” he growls fiercely as he stares deep into my eyes.

Surprise parts my lips on a gasp, and he plunders my mouth, curling his tongue around my own. A small whimper leaves my throat at the delicious sensation as he explores my mouth, kissing me like a man possessed, devouring me with his lips and his tongue.

When he finally pulls back, my entire body is ablaze, and I’m breathless and panting.

He frowns. “How could you ever think I would want anyone but you?” My heart flutters. “Do you not remember the vow we made to each other?”

My mind drifts back to the summer when we’d turned sixteen. He chased me in the woods, as he always does, but this time, when he caught me, it was different. As if something were charged in the air between us as he scented my neck. Beneath the light of the silver moon, he took both of my hands in his own.

His eyes searched mine, as they do now. So serious and earnest, as if staring deep into my soul. “Will you pledge yourself to me, Luna?” he asked. “Swear to me that you will take me as yours, when we are grown. Me, and no other.”

“I pledge myself to you, Malak,” I whispered solemnly in reply. “I will take you as mine. You, and no other.”

“That was a lifetime ago, Mal.” I frown. “We were young, and—”

“It was three years. Hardly a lifetime,” he counters. “And we were not children then, Luna.” His green eyes study mine with a piercing gaze. “We swore ourselves to each other.”

Hope sparks in my chest. “What are you saying? That… you meant it?” I ask cautiously, worried that I’m wrong and my heart will be shattered.

He traces his fingers lightly across my jaw and down my neck to my shoulder, leaving a trail of fire in their wake as he continues down the length of my arm before taking my hand in his own.

He lifts our joined hands, his dark eyes glittering in the moonlight as he presses a tender kiss to my knuckles. “You are mine,” he says solemnly. “And I will take no other as my mate but you.”

“What about our parents?” My heart simultaneously plummets and soars. As much as I want him, it’s an impossible situation. “You are Prince of Winterhold, and I am… no one. I am just the daughter of an ambassador. Our fathers hate each other. Our kingdoms are always at each other’s throats, and always on the brink of war.”

“I do not care what my father thinks.” His green eyes search mine intensely as he threads his fingers through mine. “I told your father that I wanted to ask for your hand.”

My head jerks back slightly. “When?”

“Today,” he says. “Before you left.”

He was so desperate for us to leave quickly, and now I wonder if this was why. “He did not tell me,” I murmur. “He said that you would probably find a mate this night, during the chase.”

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