Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

RIVER

N o. No. No. No. She had not just seen Apollo naked, and Lachlan had not walked in on it.

She covered her face as heat rose through her body, and her wolf yowled.

Stop! She told her wolf. Don't think of him. Don't want him.

Too late. Apollo had decided not to play fair, or maybe he'd just decided there was no use wasting time; either way, he'd just shown her the entire package. The entire beautifully tanned, ripped, muscular, and slightly larger package than Ares.

"Highness?" Lachlan questioned. "Are you okay? I can get the car and have you out of here before he realizes we are gone."

She uncovered her heated face and looked at him. "Thank you, but I don't want you to be in the middle of… whatever this is."

He looked like he wanted to say something but instead turned away.

"Lachlan?"

He turned back. "Yes, Highness?"

"I… Uhm… I think I want to go for a run."

"Of course."

"Could you wait outside the door to open it for me after I've shifted?"

Lachlan bowed. "Of course."

"And Lachlan?"

He looked at her. "I appreciate you agreeing to come. I hate to put you in this position. I'm sure this is quite awkward for you."

He looked at her for a moment. "Significantly less than for you, I'm sure." He bowed. "I'll wait outside, Highness." He closed the door, and River swallowed hard before sinking into a well-loved denim couch.

She hung her head in her hands and then grabbed her phone from her hoodie pocket. She swiped the screen. She needed to hear Ares's voice. She'd promised Apollo she'd spend time with him, but she'd never promised not to check-in. Besides, Ares was probably already worried out of his mind.

She dialed the number he'd programmed into the phone and waited.

Nothing happened.

She tried again and again nothing happened. She looked at the screen. No signal. None at all. Not even one bar. She walked from one end of the cabin to the other, raising the phone high and dropping it low to see if she could find a connection. Nothing.

She shoved her phone back in her hoodie and looked around the room. Something was off. It took her a minute, but she realized what it was. She ran to the bedroom on the left side of the house and scanned the room before heading to the other side and scanning the second room.

No television. No radio. No Alexa. No computer. There were no electronics in the cabin anywhere. Nothing.

Well, what the hell did Apollo expect them to do instead? Her cheeks heated at memories of his hard-naked body.

Nope. They were not doing that. She'd not even done that with Ares… not really.

The breeze blew through an open window, and the scent of the woods called to her. Her wolf whined, wanting to be let free.

Well… just because she wouldn't fall for Ares didn't mean she couldn't run with him. It was only fitting that she be polite.

Her wolf howled, and River sighed before unzipping her hoodie and dropping it to the floor.

River reveled in the fresh air that trickled over her skin as she sprinted through the forest. It'd been too long since she'd been able to run. Much too long.

The city wasn't a great place to be a wolf. And she'd been too busy to drive out to the pack to run with them. Not that Cherry would have ever let her. So the feel of the dirt under her paws and the crunch of the leaves left her feeling rejuvenated and free.

It hadn't taken long for her to find Apollo. He'd not gone far, and her wolf instinctively ran straight for him. In her wolf form, the pull of the mating bond dragged her closer to him than she wanted, but there was no stopping it. She'd unleashed her wolf, so she had to go with what her wolf wanted, and her wolf wanted to sniff, play, and run- and she wanted to do it with Apollo.

Slut.

It wasn't like she hadn't been allowed to feel the bond between River and Ares growing. Even so, the greedy beast wanted Apollo as well, and there was nothing River could do to stop her.

They spent hours running and romping, and when the sun began to set, he took her out to a cliff, and they watched dip below the horizon. Through it all, he didn't push her, didn't try to dominate her, didn't ask for a single thing from her. He was simply a companion to be with.

As the stars brightened in the sky, they stretched under them and stared at the moon.

"I love it here," Apollo said.

She'd not heard his voice in hours and hadn't realized he'd shifted back into human form, so the noise startled her, making him chuckle. She made sure to keep her eyes trained on the sky.

"Come on. I want to talk to you."

She continued to stare at the sky, though her wolf wanted to take in his naked body again.

"I promise not to look at you. I will be a total gentleman. I will keep my eyes trained on the sky the whole time. Scout's honor."

She glanced at his face. Seriously?

He chuckled. "Okay, maybe I wasn't a scout, but I am a gentleman. Sometimes. Not always, I will be honest, but one thing I will tell you about me is that when I give my word, I never break it. Never."

His eyes grew serious and she knew he meant what he said.

Reluctantly, her wolf gave up control to River, and she shifted to human form.

"Ah, there she is."

She folded her arms over her chest. "I thought you said you wouldn't look."

"I'm not. I can smell you. You smell different in human form than you do in wolf form."

She'd never noticed that before, but he was right. He did smell different in wolf form than he did in human form. His wolf form smelled… wilder. She couldn't explain it.

"Aren't the stars beautiful?"

She sighed. "I miss seeing them when I'm in the city. I grew up in a place like this and used to love laying under the stars."

"Me too."

She glanced over at him, and he smiled.

"Maybe I should make you promise not to look at me," he teased.

Her cheeks heated. "I… I'm… making sure you aren't looking at me."

He lay silent for a moment. "River, I don't know what my brother told you about me, but I promise I will never lie to you, and I will never go back on my word."

"Nothing," she said.

"What?"

"You said you didn't know what Ares said about you, and the answer is nothing. Until I met you today, I didn't even know you existed."

He snorted. "Doesn't surprise me. He's always been like that."

River's wolf bristled. She didn't like Apollo talking bad about Ares.

"You do know that talking bad about Ares won't win you any points with me or my wolf, right?"

"Oh, Kitten, trust me, I have plenty I could tell you if I wanted to turn you against him. What I said was simply the truth."

Pet names? Already? "Kitten?"

"Oh, you don't like that one. Okay, how about Sweetheart?"

"Meh."

"Meh? Well, we don't want you to have a meh pet name. How about Pookie?"

"No, thank you."

He chuckled. "Hunny Bunny?"

"Next."

"Lover Muffin?"

She didn't even bother to answer that one.

"How about, Princess?"

She snorted. "That one is new."

"What do you mean?"

She blew out a breath and sat up, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Let's just say I've always been more ride-or-die bitch than fairytale princess."

"Well, my fairytale princess would definitely be a ride-or-die girl, so it's perfect."

"Except everyone calls me that now."

Apollo shook his head. "No good. Kitten it is."

River laughed and looked over at him. His eyes turned black. He sat up so fast that she flinched.

Apollo's fangs lengthened, and he growled. "He bit you."

"What?"

Apollo raised a tentative hand and touched her shoulder. Goosebumps rose on her skin, and her wolf howled.

River slapped her hand over the spot he stared at.

"My brother bit you. Marked you," Apollo accused.

"Yes… I mean, no."

"Yes or no?" His muscles twitched, and his voice held a threatening tone.

"Yes, I was bit by your brother, but not Ares."

"What does that mean?"

"I guess he's your half-brother?"

"Titan bit you?" The rage in his voice cut right through her.

"About four years ago. He found me in my pack and attacked me."

"He claimed you? Without your permission?"

She didn't want to go into it again. River sighed. "Short story. He attacked me. I stabbed him a bunch of times with a potato peeler. I rejected him. My mom shot him. My Alpha kicked him out. I moved to the city and went to art school."

Apollo stared at her neck. "I'll rip his heart out with my bare hands."

She nodded. "That's pretty much what Ares said after we were attacked in New York."

"You and Ares were attacked in New York?"

How could twin brothers who disliked each other immensely have the same hair-trigger temper?

"Yes. Titan apparently had been watching me the whole time without me knowing. A bunch of rogues attacked. I'm not sure. Ares said it was me, but they didn't come after me. They attacked Ares and the others. All Titan did was scratch me."

"He hurt you?"

"Just a scratch. It was weird, though. We'd been in a crowd walking down some stairs, and he just… scratched me. I didn't even realize it was him until a moment later. My wolf told me it was him. I'm not sure why I didn't smell him beforehand. Maybe it was all the people. She decided to redirect the conversation. "It was in the opera house. We'd just finished watching Carmen."

Apollo stared at her for a long, tense moment, and then his posture relaxed a fraction. "I would have let them kill me if I'd been forced to sit through an opera."

River couldn't help but chuckle. "I liked it."

Apollo shook his head, and his eyes morphed back to hazel. "No thanks. Ares can have all his fancy prissy theater stuff."

"And where would you rather go?"

He shrugged. "Riding my bike. Camping. Hunting. The occasional concert or monster truck rally."

She nodded. "I like riding too. Not as much as I enjoy running, of course, but since I didn't get to run until about four years ago…"

"You never ran before four years ago?"

She shook her head. "I didn't find out I was an Omega until Titan bit me."

Apollo's brow furrowed. "How is that even possible."

She sighed.

Apollo watched her for a moment, then laid back down and stared at the sky. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me everything right now. We have time. Lots of time."

River looked out at the stars. Time. Time with Apollo… Her wolf was conflicted. She wanted to spend time with Apollo. But she also wished she could return to the estate and be with Ares. His imposing, protective personality spoke to her like a match spoke to gasoline.

"Your turn."

River glanced at him and, upon seeing his nakedness, looked back at the sky again. "What do you mean?"

"What is your pet name for me going to be?" A rueful smile crept over his lips.

Many nicknames came to mind. Scoundrel. Rake. Cad. She was pretty sure he wouldn't like any of them.

"How about Mate?" he offered.

"Uh…"

He chuckled again. "Too soon? That's okay, Kitten, you think about it."

It amazed her that their tempers seemed to be the only thing similar about the twins. Ares had been demanding and overbearing, forcing his way into her life and commanding her heart. In the end, it worked, but… Apollo's easy air made her relax, like she could be herself.

She yawned, and her eyes fluttered shut.

"It's been a long day. Why don't I get you back so you can rest?"

She breathed in deep and curled on her side into the earth. "Can't we sleep out here?"

"You'd want to do that? Won't you get cold?"

"I'll shift." She instantly did so.

"You're serious."

She blew out a breath and allowed the sounds of the forest to invade her. The crickets chirped, and in the distance, an owl hooted. Memories flooded her of sleeping out in the woods at Bianca's side with the pack or even alone. She'd not realized how much she'd missed it while living in the city until that moment.

A soft hand stroked down her body. "You sleep, Kitten. I'll make sure that nothing disturbs you."

* * *

APOLLO

Apollo lay still, watching the rise and fall of her silvery body with each breath. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Apollo's wolf whined and paced, wanting to be released to be closer to her. To lay his head on hers and wrap himself around her and feel the heat of her body.

His heart went out to her, and a part of him felt guilty for pushing himself upon her, but he had no choice. Ares always took what he wanted but not this time. This time, Apollo would fight. Fight for himself. Fight for the crown. Fight for her. He didn't care what it cost him. She would be his.

His thoughts turned to the mark on her neck. Titan. Damn, son of a bitch, Titan. Why hadn't Ares told him? Even if Ares didn't want him to have River, he should have told Apollo about the threat to River's safety. Just thinking of Titan attacking River, scaring her, biting her without permission, had his wolf ready to take down the world to burn Titan alive and eat his heart.

Titan had been a thorn in his and Ares's sides their entire lives. His mother hadn't been their father's fated mate. He'd been close to fifty when he'd finally found their mother. It'd been five years after he'd let the loneliness and fear of no legacy take his sense, and he'd chosen Titan's mother to bear him an heir. It had only taken a month for her to get pregnant. Ultimately, when their father found their mother, all hell broke loose with Titan's mom.

Apollo knew Titan hated them and wanted the crown for himself, but he never would have thought Titan would have been so desperate as to try and claim an Omega without her consent.

He decided at that moment that no matter who River chose in the end, he would do whatever it took to keep her safe from Titan. After all, whether she took him or Ares to mate, she would still be his Luna and Queen of the entire Lycan and shifter world. It would be his duty to protect her until the day he died.