“Desmond, as you know, has been with you all day.” Lucas’s tone was smooth and unreadable. “I called him when things were secure, around seven this morning, and he assured me you were safe.” Desmond was staring at me, and I didn’t dare meet his eyes. “He told me you were exhausted, reasonably, and suggested we allow you to sleep through the day. He stayed with you to make sure you were protected.” This time a little anger seeped in with the last word.

I looked at Desmond and smiled weakly, unable to put the warmth into it I would have liked. He didn’t smile back, but his eyes had lost the hard edge they used to have around me.

“I arrived after sundown, letting myself in,” Holden added, “and found both your wolves here.”

Desmond made a noise of disgust when Holden said sundown. Of course they were perfectly aware he was a vampire. The hostility was evident. I couldn’t tell which part bothered Lucas more—that I’d slept with Desmond or a vampire having such easy access to my apartment.

“Holden is my liaison with the vampire council.” I figured honesty here couldn’t hurt. Lucas already knew I worked for the council. “They wouldn’t allow just anyone access to them, and because of what I do I need to be able to communicate with them directly. Holden…” I indicated the stone-still vampire, “…uh, Mr. Chancery? He’s my guy on the inside.”

I looked at Holden, trying to ignore the twist of a smirk on his lips and his small derisive snort. I hoped he was not willing to out me as a half-vampire for the sake of it. I’d trusted him for six years and had to believe I could trust him still.

“Close enough. Who are the dogs?” He validated my explanation, then negated any goodwill I had garnered him all in the span of a few seconds. I was surprised they hadn’t made some sort of introductions since Holden had obviously told them his name. He must have just arrived. I was also impressed he was asking for introductions at all considering he was already aware of who they were, having watched them kidnap me two nights prior.

Holden was a snob like most vampires. He believed werewolves were at the bottom of the supernatural totem while he and his kind were at the top. Vamps wouldn’t even feed on weres if they could avoid it. They considered lycanthropy a contamination in the blood. Sig had told me that, one of his little side comments that made me wonder how much he knew.

“Lucas Rain is the werewolf king of the Eastern states.” I inclined my head towards the grumpy blond werewolf in the chair adjacent to the loveseat.

Holden nodded to Lucas. “Your highness.” I had never heard a royal address sound so belittling. It’s amazing what two hundred years can allow you to do with inflection alone.

“And Desmond is…” I struggled for a moment, searching for the most appropriate way to introduce him. “Lucas’s second-in-command.”

“Well, well…” Holden met my eyes, “…quite the lupine social climber these days, aren’t you?”

“At least one of us is making an advance.” I instantly wished I hadn’t brought up his stunted progression in the council. I was largely to blame for his stasis, and drawing attention to it in front of those he considered lesser beings was a low blow.

Lucas and Desmond watched the exchange without interruption, and then Lucas rose to his feet. He came to stand in front of me, looking down with a small smile.

“You’re okay,” I said again, hardly able to believe it even with him this close.

“Of course.” The warmth of his tone made it seem like there had never been any doubt, and perhaps there hadn’t. What I didn’t know about werewolves could fill volumes. Was last night’s fight to the death tantamount to nothing more than a big-dog pissing contest?

No, I couldn’t believe that. Marcus’s intent had plainly been to kill Lucas. That Marcus was crazier than a Batman villain and had murdered his own daughter didn’t make me feel any better about the rivalry. He would stop at nothing to take the throne away from Lucas, and maybe my soul-bonded wolf king was being foolish not to take the threat more seriously.

I ground my teeth but didn’t know if it was out of frustration or worry. Holden was watching only me, dismissing the wolves’ presence as if they were nothing more than furniture. I tried to catch Desmond’s eye again, but he had decided to use the vampire as an excuse to ignore me and was putting his role as my bodyguard first.

I sighed more heavily and looked at Lucas again.

“Can I have a word with you?” I said, which caught Desmond’s attention, his eyes flicking a quarter of an inch towards me. “In private.”

Lucas’s gaze traveled to my bedroom door, and I shook my head. “Out in the hall.” The smell of the bedroom would be a dead giveaway. It was one thing to suspect Lucas already knew what had happened last night, but there was no sense in literally rubbing his nose in it.

“Okay.” He opened the door and stepped back to let me exit first. Holden edged partway out of his seat, and Desmond took a half step towards him and growled.

“Boys, do you think you can call a truce for three minutes? I’ll be right outside, and I doubt he and I are going to kill each other.” I cast a wary glance at Lucas. Nothing in his face supported or contradicted me.

Holden and Desmond said nothing, but returned to their uneasy staring contest.

I stepped into the tiny hallway that separated my apartment from the street entrance stairs, and was only a little surprised to see Dominick standing there. What did surprise me was discovering how relieved I was to see the grinning blond werewolf alive.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Ditto. Things got pretty gnarly in there.” Judging from his smarmy smirk, he wasn’t too shaken up by his near-death experience. “Did you take good care of my brother?”

I flinched and it must have shown because Lucas’s face became serious, and Dominick stopped smiling.

“He’s inside,” Lucas said. “Can you give Secret and I a moment, please?”

Dominick nodded and ducked into my apartment without another word, shutting the door behind him. Alone in the closet-sized hallway with Lucas, I was very aware of his physical presence. He was easily a foot taller than me, and standing this close to him in the cramped space, I had to force my gaze up to meet his eyes. With no one else around, I was anticipating the full wrath of his anger.

And why shouldn’t I? I’d betrayed him.

No matter how I’d justified it in the heat of the moment, Lucas had staked his claim first. It had been he, not Desmond, who told me about the soul-bond, and it had been he who led me proudly before his pack as a potential mate.

What had I, his would-be queen, done in return? I’d left him in danger and used the rush of fear and near death to excuse being unfaithful to him before I had proven myself worthy of his respect.

I reminded myself, flipping the proverbial coin, he had been the one who kept the secret of my soul-bond with Desmond to himself in order to monopolize me. And he had been the one who asked Desmond to protect me, knowing the bond would make it impossible for Desmond to let anything happen to me.

I was beyond conflicted. Did I feel bad about sleeping with Desmond? No. I didn’t regret it for a single second. And why should I? Two days ago I hadn’t known either of them, and now I was thrust into a world where people thought I was a princess and part of my destiny was to be with the men the fates had chosen for me. So I’d slept with someone I felt a strong attraction to, but I felt bad because it might hurt someone else.

I hadn’t asked for any of this. I didn’t want to be a princess and I didn’t want my future mate selected by supernatural forces. Denying that I felt something for both Desmond and Lucas would be a lie, but when and if I picked one of them, it would be on my terms. As it was, I wanted to have them both, which made me think it might be easier to choose neither and just stay single.

“Lucas…” I began, but wasn’t sure what to say next.

He met my eyes and all the tension in his melted away. Suddenly I was in his arms and he was holding me so tight I couldn’t breathe. I molded myself into the embrace, moving my arms around his back, which relieved the pressure on my lungs.

I laid my face on his chest and breathed in the warm, musky, living smell of him. Thoughts of staying single had vanished the second he touched me. His body was hot under my face and hands, and I resisted the urge to cry from relief no matter how badly I wanted to. My blood-tinted tears would give too much of me away.

“I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.” He spoke into my bed-tangled curls. “I don’t know what I would have done if we lost you.” His use of the plural mirrored Desmond’s last night. “Desmond told me he thought he watched you die last night.”

So they had been talking before I woke up. How much had Desmond told him?

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the softness of his shirt, apologizing for nothing specific.

His hand looped into my hair, wrapping strands around each of his beautiful, long fingers. I was willing to bet his parents had made him play piano, violin or guitar. Something to make good use of such tapered fingers.

He used my hair to tip my head back without being rough about it, then bent to kiss me. It was not like our first kiss at all. There was no politeness. Instead he kissed me with the intensity allowed only for situations like these. We had both thought, however fleetingly, the other might have died last night. The desperation and yearning in the way we kissed said more than we could convey with words.

Lucas backed me against the wall with a loud thump, and I was forced to stop his probing hands before I let us go further.

“Lucas, about last night…” I felt the foolish need to be upfront with him even now with his wide palm under my shirt and his mouth at my neck. The hallway smelled like frosted cinnamon buns, and my breath was coming in short, panting gasps.

“Forget last night,” he murmured into my skin.

The door to my apartment swung open and Dominick peeked out. Lucas and I both turned our heads to look at him, and I was relieved. Who knows how far I’d have gone without an interruption. History showed my self-control with werewolves to be somewhat limited.