1

aurelie

I DIDN'T KNOW why I thought he'd be here.

It was stupid of me.

I didn't know why it stung either. I'd met him a handful of times, only a handful, and he'd never spoken very much to me.

The first time we met, we were both children. We were present at the ceremony where the marriage agreement was signed. It's a common thing done amongst families in the peerage, especially when it would mean the combination of lands and titles and all sorts of things. His country, Valhn, and my country, Castille, bordered each other, and our lands butted up against each other.

It had been a discussion for many years to combine both lands between the two families, to form an alliance that would be financially beneficial in many ways.

So, anyway, he was eight and I was six, and I had to wear a dress which I liked because it was pretty and ruffly but disliked because it wasn't very comfortable, and he was buttoned up in his suit. He had very white-blond ringlets back then, though his hair had darkened to a honey color in the ensuing years, and icy blue eyes. His eyes were still that blue.

He looked me over while the agreement was being signed and then he looked elsewhere. Later, when his mother prompted him, he said that I was very pretty, he guessed.

We were kids, though, and they were forcing us to do it.

And anyway, the next thing I heard, he'd presented as an alpha, and the whole contract was null and void for the next seven years.

As an alpha—the first alpha of his generation presenting amongst the titled peerage in Valhn—he was the heir to the throne. And as an alpha, he couldn't just marry anyone, because he would need an omega.

I thought, for those seven years, that I'd gotten out of it.

And then I presented as an omega, which was a source of sheer excitement for everyone except me, I suppose.

That was when I met him for the second time. I was eighteen. He was twenty.

He arranged for me to have dinner with him at the castle in Koch, the capital city of Valhn. I was a freshman in college at the time.

He stood up when I came into the room, looking stricken. He didn't eat any of his dinner, just picked at it. He looked at me from time to time, his gaze nervously darting over to me.

I knew why we were there, as crass as it might seem. It was to see if he got a knot when he was with me, to make sure we were compatible. For my part, I thought he smelled rather divine, like nothing in the world. I kept having these awful, embarrassing urges to crawl into his lap and curl up there, rubbing my cheek into the middle of his chest.

He left midway through the dinner, when someone came to tell him he had a phone call, and I heard him speaking in a low voice on the way out. "Thank goodness for a break in this exercise in discomfort."

Discomfort? Seriously? He was an arrogant jerk, I decided, but he still smelled good.

He never did come back. Someone else came in and said he'd been called away for something important.

So, I went home and promptly went into the most violent heat I'd ever been through, heat suppressants be damned.

He sent word he wished to renew our marriage contract. I had a choice, sort of. My family said that I could say no, but I didn't see any reason to say no, not at that point.

There had been this silly, silly part of my life, when I was very young and very stupid, and I'd thought that there was some way I could be with Corentin, but that was never really going to happen, regardless. And now that I was an omega, it was impossible.

So.

It didn't matter. I had to have an alpha.

Prince Dmitri was an alpha. He had golden curls and blue eyes and he smelled good.

I said, yes, I'd marry him.

I saw him one other time, when the contract was signed again. He touched me that time, ran his fingers reverently over my cheekbone and whispered that he was pleased I'd agreed.

So, I don't know, maybe that was why I wished he'd come.

I remembered the feeling of his fingers on my skin, how brilliant a sensation had coursed through me at his touch, like the spark of fireworks against the dark winter sky of the New Year.

But he wasn't here.

Here I was, in a very nice dress, standing up on the outer stairs of my family's estate while all the servants were in several rows in front of me and my parents and sisters stood behind me.

The car had pulled up and the driver was opening the door, but it wasn't Prince Dmitri getting out of the back. It was Prince Johannes, second in line to the throne, another alpha, and some other man. They were both not even wearing suits, just casual clothing. They had on jeans, for goodness sake.

Prince Johannes had dark hair pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, stubble on his chin, and the same sort of startlingly blue eyes as Prince Dmitri. Did everyone in Valhn have such blue eyes?

He hurried up the steps to me, with the other man coming behind him, and Johannes was talking as he climbed to me. "We had no idea we were going to be formally received, Princess Aurelie. You have to forgive me, because if I'd gotten word, I would not be wearing this. You must be incredibly insulted. You should think of a very inventive way to punish me." He grinned at me, blue eyes sparkling. "I deserve it."

"Not insulted," I said. "It's fine. Your clothes are perfectly, erm, fine."

Johannes snickered. "We'll change," he said. "Pop right upstairs if you can spare a room? We do have luggage. They're insisting we stay overnight on the way to the capital."

"But it's only a four-hour drive," I said.

"Yes, well, princess, we couldn't have you sitting for too long," he said, giving me a sly grin.

"I'm not a princess yet," I said.

"Ah, yes, just a lady, then. Lady Le Blanc, please excuse the oversight of our not coming to greet you properly. We are wretched in our guilt," said Prince Johannes, giving me an impish grin, as if we were sharing a secret. "We will go up and change."

"Don't be ridiculous," I said. "I'm the one who should change, really. I should put on traveling clothes."

"Yes," spoke up my mother, smooth and coiffed as she came forward, putting her arm around me. She addressed Prince Johannes, "The two of you simply must come into the sitting room for some refreshments, would you?"

Johannes looked out over everyone gathered. "You were expecting Dmitri."

"Oh, no, he's quite busy, I'm sure," said my mother with a laugh. "You mustn't insult yourself, Prince Johannes. Of course we gather here for you. Having you here is quite an honor."

"He should have come," said Johannes, shrugging. "Nikolai, you said so." He turned to the other man.

This was the first time I got a good look at him. This man didn't have blue eyes. His eyes were dark, very dark, almost black, but with a sort of hint of something purple in them as they glinted in the light. His hair was short-cropped, nearly black as well, and his face had an angular, animalistic quality to it.

"This is Nikolai Wolff," said Prince Johannes. "He's a combined royal adviser and bodyguard, I suppose?"

I wasn't surprised to hear his name was Wolff. He looked like a wolf, like some sleek, lupine predator. He arched an eyebrow as he caught me looking at him, his expression arrogant. Like what you see? he seemed to say.

I blushed.

"Where are your manners, Aurelie?" said my mother pointedly.

I offered Nikolai Wolff my hand, curtsying.

He seized it, pulling it to his mouth, and he kissed my knuckle.

And the wind shifted, and suddenly, I could scent them both.

I had scented Prince Johannes before, during the contract signing when Prince Dmitri had touched my face. He'd smelled good then—alphas always smelled good—but this, somehow, combined with whatever the scent of Nikolai was, it was too much.

I staggered backward, clutching my chest, my body alight with need and desire.

Both of them went stiff.

I had perfumed, I realized. "Pardon me," I said in a shaking voice. "I need a moment." I turned, pushing between my two younger sisters, and scrambled into the house, desperate to get away from their combined scents.