Chapter 57

The next morning, a knock came early on the bedroom door. Fortunately, Elva and I had risen with the dawn and were already dressed.

Expecting the nanny, I headed for the door, yet when I drew it open, the person on the other side surprised me.

“Nicholas. What are you doing here?”

Behind him, Mark cleared his throat. Immediately, I realized my error.

“Prince Nicholas,” I corrected. After last night, I had become entirely too familiar with him. I had to be more careful, for both our reputations, not to address him so informally. Especially in front of others.

“I came to see Elva,” Nicholas said.

“Nick-lass!”

The rules of propriety, however, did not extend to my three year old.

Elva rushed toward the door. Nicholas bent down and scooped her up into his arms. Elva giggled as he lifted her.

I’d already told Elva that we would be staying around for a while longer, but she didn’t seem to quite believe me. Now that she could actually see Nicholas, it was like those remaining worries had been washed away.

“Come in and play! I want a tea party.”

“Okay, okay,” Nicholas said.

When Elva got too squirmy, he set her down. She snatched his hand and pulled him further into the room.

Nicholas looked at me as he passed. Unlike so many times before, when he gazed at me now, his eyes held a certain measure of warmth. Ever since last night, when he learned I hadn’t betrayed him – at least not out of choice – he had been softer toward me.

It wasn’t anything like when we had been dating, when his affection was obvious and carefree. But it was less harrowing than the looks of cold indifference I had grown used to the past few weeks.

“Are you joining us for the tea party, Piper?” he asked.

“I… well…” I wanted to say yes but I had other plans. Plans that might show up at any moment.

Like right now, as Julian sauntered into the room like it belonged to him. When he spotted Nicholas, he didn’t even slow. Instead a smile quirked his lips.

“Oh, good morning, brother.”

All the good cheer vanished from Nicholas’s face. “What are you doing here, Julian?”

Julian picked at his nails, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Oh. I’m taking Piper on a date today.”

Nicholas glanced at me. Julian wasn’t wrong, though under Nicholas’s scrutiny now, I kind of wished I could deny it.

“It’s true,” I said.

Nicholas’s gaze hardened as he sliced it back to Julian. “There was no official date announcement.”

Julian shrugged. “After what happened last time, can you blame us?”

“If you had followed the rules –”

“Rules are boring. Piper and I have plenty of fun on our own.”

“The tea party, Nick-lass! It’s starting!” Elva tugged on his arm.

Nicholas grit his teeth, looking for all the world like he wanted to physically tackle Julian, but the little girl on his sleeve held him back.

“It’s fine,” I said, stepping between the two men. “I’m okay with this.”

With me in his line of sight, Nicholas’s anger dimmed somewhat, though his annoyance was clear in the downward turn of his lips and the chill in his eyes.

“How?” he asked.

“It’s just how Julian is,” I said.

How I wished I could tell him the truth! That these ‘dates’ with Julian were just excuses to investigate the underground that had taken my wolf.

But Julian had rightfully pointed out the Nicholas was a stickler for the rules. This entire conversation only evidenced that.

Nicholas clenched his jaw but didn’t say more.

Julian waved me toward him. “Come on, Piper.”

I broke for a minute, to whisper goodbye to Elva. “Be nice to Prince Nicholas.” She’d barely paid attention to me, still trying to tug Nicholas to where she’d set up her plastic tea cups and stuffed animals.

When I went to Julian’s side, Nicholas finally gave in, joining Elva at her makeshift tea party. But I felt his eyes on me the whole way to the door.

“How do you plan on getting to this mansion you mentioned?” I asked, once we were out in the hall. Julian’s Beta, Brian, fell in step behind us. “We can’t take that flashy car again, if we actually want to keep it secret this time.”

“It would be too conspicuous to drive. Even if we escaped the grounds undetected, the bad guys would quickly notice our arrival.”

“What’s your plan, then?”

He glanced at me. “Can you ride a horse?”

I haven’t ridden since the academy, but I thought I could still manage somehow. So I nodded.

“Good. We’ll have to sneak there though. Brian?”

Brian widened his stride to walk at Julian’s side. “Yes, Prince Julian?”

“Run interference, yeah?”

“Of course.” Brian increased his pace, breaking ahead of us, likely to block the path of any guards or unwanted onlookers we might run into – or who would run into us.

Texts began to pour into Julian’s phone near instantly.

Following Brian’s instruction, we were able to follow a path that lead us away from absolutely everyone. We didn’t even see a single servant until we reached the stables themselves, where the stable hands were preparing two horses for ride.

“Your Royal Highness,” they said with a bow as we approached. They’d been expecting us.

“Take the mare,” Julian said to me. “She’s gentler. Better for a rider out of practice.”

I hadn’t told him the last time I rode, but he’d seemed to surmise it all his own. Julian was like that, noticing things. I wondered if I had any secrets I could keep from him. He already seemed to know everything about me.

I put my foot in the stirrup and mounted the mare. Once I was in the saddle, my horse-riding days returned to me quickly. Although in almost every memory, I had been by Nicholas’s side. I felt a bit hollow, not having him here now.

Julian, from atop his horse, received another text. “Brian is in the security office. We have to go now to avoid being seen on the cameras.”

Following his lead, we rode our horses out of the paddock. Once we were past the fence, we urged our horses to run. I rode in Julian’s shadow as he expertly maneuvered the terrain.

I remembered how after he and Nicholas had saved me from the boar, they had claimed that no one knew the area around the palace better than them. Julian continued to show that now, expertly avoiding fences and too-high cliffs that might hurt the horses.

We rode for an hour or so, seeing nothing but wilderness, until he finally slowed at the edge of a clearing. I slowed my own horse beside his, until we fully stopped, hidden just behind a tree line.

Past the clearing stood a massive mansion, almost as large as the palace itself. Someone very important must have lived there.

I almost asked Julian who it was, when suddenly I felt something, like a pull in my chest.

It stole my breath away.

Julian noticed. “Piper?”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even think to formulate words.

All I could do was focus on this pull, this tether that begged me to follow it.

Was this my wolf? Was it calling to me?

The danger of the moment was forgotten. Everything else was too.

“Piper!” Julian must have seen what I was about to do before I did, but he wasn’t fast enough to close the distance and grab my reins.

He tried, but I was already kicking my horse forward and tearing across the field as fast as the horse could go.

“Wait!” Julian gave chase. I could hear a second set of horse hooves pounding into the grass, echoing those of the animal beneath me.

I wouldn’t slow. I couldn’t.

My wolf was here.