Kai climbed over into the tub and began to use the sweet scented soap Merrial handed him. He refused to be bathed like a child, but Merrial still insisted on standing by to hand him things and help dry him off. She firmly declared it to be her job, and he didn’t want her to be fired, did he? She stood now holding a towel with a huge smile on her face.

“Is he handsome? Oh goddess, Kai, I’ve never seen any male better looking. Not that I’ve seen many outside of pictures, of course. He’s so tall, even taller than you, with big muscles. He has dark hair and strange, glowing red eyes, but they’re most compelling. A handsome face too, with high cheekbones and those lips. My old mother used to say to watch out for the ones with the plump bottom lip—they’re supposed to be very passionate. He’s all male, that one. I never had a male, myself, but if I had to have one, he would be the one I’d want.”

Kai pressed his fist against his stomach where the butterflies were dancing madly. “He’ll know the minute he sees me, Merrial. He’ll know I’m not a woman. Dear goddess, what if he says something in front of the council?”

“Oh stop your worrying. He won’t know. How could he possibly know just by looking at you? All the Scythian women are tall with broad shoulders, after all, and you have a beautiful face. Just don’t say much to him and keep your head down.”

Since Kai was old enough to understand, they’d been telling him much the same thing. Believing him to be slightly brain damaged, they tried to protect him as much as possible, and always keep him calm and non-aggressive. They taught him to pretend to be a female, to walk and talk and act like one. The women of his planet were warriors and hunters, fierce and muscular, so no one thought it all that strange that Kai was strong and athletic and grew to have a warrior’s physique. Another saving grace was that Kai had long, beautiful eyelashes and full lips, and his hands and feet were small for a Scythian and almost delicate, so it wasn’t difficult to pass him off as a real person. The women showed him when he reached puberty how to dress himself to conceal his birth defect. By wearing high collars and by strapping and arranging his genitals in such a way that there was no tell-tale bulge between his legs, he’d managed to avoid detection. Most fortunate of all was the fact that his father’s people had almost no hair on their bodies and even their beards were sparse. Kai took after his father in this way, and thus saved them all from discovery. When a few hairs came in his upper lip and his chin, they were plucked with alacrity and the secret was safe.

Kai sighed heavily as he finished rinsing off and stood up to step from the tub. Merrial handed him a towel and then bustled around finding his hair brushes and combs for him to make himself presentable. When he’d finished, she brought him the straps to secure his genitals and a pale blue shift and robe for him to wear, along with matching slippers. When he was dressed, he turned to her and sighed. “I guess I’m ready.”

She pointed to the counter. “Lip gloss.Eyeliner.”

“No, Merrial, let him see me as I really am. I can’t be a party to tricking him any more than we already have. I won’t wear cosmetics, and that’s that.”

Merrial folded her arms and tapped her foot on the floor. “All right.Send your poor mother to prison. Maybe they won’t execute a woman of her age.”

“Merrial,” Kai groaned.

“No, no, you’re right. Let the dungo fall where it may. Of course the council will know she couldn’t have kept this secret all alone, so your servants and most of hers will no doubt be arrested along with the two of you. You’ll be all right. You’ll simply be re-assimilated back to the goddess, but the rest of us! Our lives will be forfeit as well. But by all means, keep your conscience clear.”

Since he was seventeen, Kai had his own servants, handpicked by his mother, and all of them were either her former women or closely related to them. Their loyalty was above question.

Kai glared at Merrial and snatched the lip gloss from the counter, smearing it angrily and haphazardly across his lips. Merrial gave a little cry of displeasure and found a tissue to wipe it back off, and then grasped his chin in her hand while she carefully reapplied the pink gloss. Kai held still, but blew out one impatient breath after another as she applied the eyeliner next. Finally, she had him ready to her satisfaction and patted his cheek fondly. “You’re such a sweet child, despite your little fits of temper. Your alpha can’t help but love you.”

“Hmmph!” Kai grunted and strode away from the chamber on his way to the reception hall. Merrial ran along behind him, fretting.

“Not such big steps,” she whispered fiercely. “Slow down, Kai, remember you’re a royal princess. They’ll wait for you.”

Kai paid her little mind as he strode furiously down the hallway. Brushing past the guards who looked at him with surprise, he flung open the door and stopped dead still in the doorway. Standing beside his mother, head bent a little as he listened carefully to what she had to say, was the most magnificent man Kai had ever beheld. Admittedly, he hadn’t beheld very many, but surely there were no more beautiful creatures to be found in all the galaxies. The man was, at least, a head taller than Kai’s mother. His hair was thick and dark, but cut short on the backs and sides. A few curly strands fell over his broad forehead as he tilted his head down solicitously toward the queen. His shoulders were broad and muscular, and when he looked up as Kai entered, his eyes were the most remarkable shade of burgundy, like the skies in the north at night when the twin suns set.

The alpha was surrounded by several other large males, surely Lycans as well, almost as imposing as the man standing by his mother, yet Kai only had eyes for this one man. In his heart, Kai knew this must be his Lycan. Furiously, he tried to remember what they told him his name was, and at last he came up with it—Lucas. Lucas Balenescu. What a noble-sounding, regal name.

Kai felt Merrial poke him with her elbow, and he started forward, remembering to take careful, small steps. He lowered his eyes as he got close to Lucas, because by now the Lycan had turned his gaze on Kai fully, and his close regard was taking Kai’s breath away. He stepped forward, holding out one big hand as Kai got closer to him. Kai reached out to take it and that’s when it happened.

The second Lucas’s fingertips touched Kai’s, a jolt of pure electricity seemed to jump from his body into Kai’s. Both of them gasped and the alpha literally reeled away from him, falling back into one of his companions. Kai heard him cry out, and would have cried out himself from fear except for the fact that the lightning bolt that struck his fingers had traveled up to his head and then shot back down to the thing between his legs, which unaccountably made his knees so weak he sank to the floor. Merrial’s arms went around his waist to support him, and he glanced up at his mother in horror. The queen rushed over to him and knelt beside him.

“Don’t worry,” she murmured to him. “I’ve heard about this. If this is what I think it is, there’s nothing to fear—in fact, we can rejoice, because this means you are his true mate, his beloved, and there can never be any other mate for him.”

“Whatever it was, I felt it too. It was like an electrical charge.”

His mother laughed delightedly. “That means the match is very strong. He won’t be able to resist you.”

“But-but I thought…”

“Shhh…” his mother cautioned him. “Say nothing. Let me handle everything.”

The queen sprang to her feet, and turned her steely gaze on the Lycans grouped together around their alpha. He had already recovered and was pushing them all away, protesting that he was fine. He pulled away from the one standing closest to him and brushed past Queen Ashlan to where Merrial was helping Kai get to his feet.

He fixed Kai with a burning glare that swept over him from his head to his feet. “What-what in all the worlds are you?” he asked softly.

Chapter Two

A stunned silence fell over the assembled council members. Queen Ashlan gasped, glancing over at the council as if to gauge their reaction to his softly murmured words. From the moment he’d touched her, he’d known she belonged to him. Against all odds, he had found his true mate—in a female. But how could it be possible? He’d never before been attracted to a female—he found them pretty and even charming, but no female had ever stirred him sexually. His previous sexual partners had all been male, and indeed, even Ivan’s curse had foretold that all the alpha descendants would prefer other men. His own father and his uncles had to use surrogate females for their offspring.

This beauty before him had almost made him lose all control, and he hated that feeling. It was a weakness that he couldn’t allow in himself. The moment he touched Kai, such strong surges of possessiveness swept over him that he could barely stop himself from wrapping his arms around her. The word mine seared through his brain and he felt his incisors drop from his gums, and his claws tingled in his fingertips.

When he’d fallen back into Blayde’s arms, he heard Blayde whisper, “Oh gods.” Blayde had been the first of the alphas to find his mate, and Lucas knew he well remembered what that looked and felt like. Blayde would have recognized the overpowering instinct to rut with a mate, and his fingers had tightened on Lucas’s biceps. “Hold on,” he’d said, leaning down and putting his mouth against Lucas’s ear. “You’ll hurt her if you approach her like this.”

Lucas nodded, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it. “I know,” he growled. Finally forcing his incisors up, he took a deep breath and looked back over at the princess. He saw the beautiful, tempting Kai clutch her chest. He instantly regretted the harshness of his words if they brought such pain to those already sad brown eyes. “I-I mean, I’m sorry, Princess, if I startled you.” He managed a very creditable bow. “Your great beauty distracted me.”

Kai inclined her head, dropping her eyelids over those incredible eyes, and her mother, the queen, seemed to heave a sigh of relief. Perhaps his strange reaction had made the queen think he was rejecting Kai. Nothing could be further from the truth. Now that he’d seen Kai, touched her, he could never be parted from her, no matter what. He would fight any man or woman in this assembly who tried to take Kai from him. He no longer had any fears about being able to get it up for her, either—he was hard and aching for her even now.