Page 71 of Fake Fae-Ancée

Kai’s nostrils flared. "How many more times? Claudio is like a brother to me. We are friends. He’s married."

I knew all that. But it didn’t matter.

Kai sneered. "Tell me, Your Royal Highness, what else am I supposed to do, being your little arm-candy-queen? Enlighten me, oh mighty one!"

"You are not to give people any ideas!"

"Apparently, I gave you some ideas," she snapped and at the same time flushed excessively. "You — touch me once and think that makes you entitled to what, own me?"

Yeah…

"No, but I won’t allow you to jeopardize our plan!"

"Okay, maybe I have to be clearer!"

She rose to her full height — that went more or less up to my pecs. That lethal sparkle in her eyes could have melted a bank safe.

"You and I are not a thing." She pointed at me and then at herself, the ring on her finger sparkling. "This is a ruse. This is fake! I am not your fiancée, I am not your wife. In fact, we are getting divorced. I wanted to be divorced from you all the damn time! The only problem was you not signing the damn papers, back then when I had them sent to you! You better not forget that!"

"How could I ever forget that," I roared. "How could I ever forget that the one woman I ever was stupid enough to love wouldn’t trust me the one time it really mattered, but instead dumped my ass and got a divorce lawyer? What happened to our vows? What happened to for better for worse?"

We glared at each other. And here was it, the reminder why this — we, us, the entire Kai-Yuri-thing — was a horrible idea. I was done. So done.

"We’re going to end this now, so there’s no confusion anymore." I turned and roared:"Bates!"

My butler appeared mere moments later in the doorway. "How can I help, Your Royal Highness?"

"We need the divorce papers," I said, looking at my wife. "And two pens. Thank you."

Kai

As Kalinin signedthe papers with a flourish, the roaring adrenaline inside me stilled. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even frown. As if everything inside me had reached the lowest point of temperature there was.

"There." Kalinin threw the pen on the table with a clatter, and rose. Bates, hovering in the background like the helpful drone that he was, flinched.

Kalinin shot me one more glare, laden with everything that had been festering between us for years. Guilt and anguish and desire and all the other stuff we could never say to each other.

His jaw worked and I sensed the shifter inside him stir, that monstrous Bear, king to all animals, ruler of the boreal forests. It clawed at the fabric of reality, wanting to break through. Kalinin growled once, a furious sound, like thunder crackling in the distance, before he stormed out of the room.

Seconds ticked by. I just sat, numbed, a silent ringing in my ears, as if a bomb had gone off right in front of me.

The papers lay on the table, white against the dark wood.

"Aren’t you going to sign, milady?"

Bates’ voice rang in from far away. Like I wasn’t really sitting here. Like everything that had just happened was just another one of those weird dreams I kept having lately.

This was all I’d ever wanted. Those papers. With his name right at the bottom, a black, angry line on creamy white paper. My eyes raced along the lines. Yuri Alexejevic Kalinin. No Rex, no roman numeric, no Prince of so-and-so. Nothing. Just his name.

Divorcing me.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah," I heard myself say. Like I wasn’t really here. Like a totally different person than me was taking up the other pen with fingers that trembled for some reason.

I unscrewed the lid, pulled out the pen. The golden nib shone. Yeah, I would sign this thing now. No big deal. We would go through with our plan — the ruse, the ball — regardless, because there was no other choice. I would help Kalinin get his throne back. It didn’t matter if I signed now or later…

My hand trembled.

Afterwards, I would be free. Or homeless, depending on the way you looked at things. I would pack my stuff, book a plane ticket to somewhere far away and just disappear.

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