He smiled faintly and brushed a stray curl from her cheek. “That’s unfortunate for me, since my heart is long since dead. These days, it’s merely waiting for the rest of me to catch up.”
His pain pulled at her, perhaps because she’d been trained to use the magic inside her to ease a man’s agony. She touched his arm, and there was no hiding her sympathy. “Perhaps you need a priestess who was good at her job instead of one who failed in every way.”
“And perhaps you are a bit naive.” Karim lifted her hand and kissed it with a gallant flourish. “How do you think I wound up dead inside?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t--”
“Cousin.” Rais’ deep voice interrupted her words. “Do you do anything these days besides charm the ladies?”
She jerked her hand back as if she’d been caught doing something illicit, which was absurd. But heat still flooded her cheeks as she leaned back against the wall and stared at Rais. Tall, powerful, a man with violence lurking close to the surface. Not as handsome as Karim, perhaps, but harder and stronger in ways that still warmed her body.
Karim’s laughter was edged with warning. “Charming the ladies is a full-time occupation, I assure you.”
Avani found her voice. “You’re back from the front so soon. It’s good to see you. I hope you’re well?” It sounded polite and distant, but at least her voice didn’t tremble as much as her hands.
“Depends on who you ask.” He stared pointedly at Karim, who finally sighed and scooted half a foot away. “How have you been, Avani?”
“I’m adjusting to life at the court. Your mother was kind to invite me in time for the full moon celebration tonight. I hear it’s quite an experience.”
“It is.” Rais lifted the glass of wine from Karim’s hand and finished it without taking his eyes from Avani’s face.
“Thieving bastard.” But Karim dropped a kiss to Avani’s cheek, then leaned in close to Rais. “Make her cry, and I’ll show you a few painful old warrior’s tricks, pup.”
Avani watched Karim’s retreat before turning her gaze back to Rais with a frown, unsettled by his rudeness. “Perhaps I’m not going to enjoy court after all.”
“Why is that?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Because you’re a king here. Not the man I--” She caught the word before it escaped only by digging her teeth into her lip. “Not the man I know.”
Uncertainty flashed in his eyes, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. “You say that as if I can’t possibly be both.”
“Why were you so unpleasant to your cousin?”
“I--” He snapped his mouth shut and stared at her. Slowly, his expression hardened into a cool, impassive mask. “Excuse me. I have duties to attend. I implore you to enjoy the celebration.”
He turned on his heel and stalked off through the crowd, leaving Avani alone with a dozen gazes fixed on her.
She wasn’t that sheltered. Rais had challenged his cousin. Over her. What she couldn’t fathom was why. It could be nothing more meaningful than a long-standing rivalry, or the remnants of possessiveness in a man who had so recently claimed her body.
Or he could want more. A dangerous, giddy thought. And maybe a second chance.
Rais ran through the forest which grew thick on the royal grounds. All around him, he heard rising howls as his fellow wolves sounded the call of the hunt.
Only they were soon to be his subjects, a fact he reminded himself of sternly. He had responsibilities, a calling that ran through his royal blood and demanded his service. Tonight, he ran for the last time as a servant of the king. The next time his mother held a celebration...
“You’re a king here. Not the man I know.”
Avani’s words had cut. He supposed there would never be a time when he didn’t feel entitled to most of the things he wanted; he hadn’t been raised to embrace the virtue of self-denial, and it was difficult not to feel as if the world was yours when it was true at least of everything you surveyed.
But he was a good man, and he cared about his people. His recent foul temper was entirely to blame for his confrontation with Karim, not a generally poor disposition. His cousin understood that, but Avani--
Perhaps Avani just didn’t care.
“You’re a king here. Not the man I know.”
But if he weren’t the king?
His smooth stride faltered, and he skidded to a halt, all four paws digging into the loamy earth of the forest floor. Was that what she wanted, for him to be another warrior, finished with his service and ready to start a family?
Avani bounded past him, a small pale wolf who ran with an excited joy impossible to hide. But she slowed as the rest of the court thundered past, her paws slipping as she checked her run and turned to watch him.
He sat and watched her. If she stayed, maybe they could talk. Maybe they could figure things out.
She lunged, fast and surprisingly graceful, and nipped at his shoulder. Then she took off running back the way they’d come, angling into the deepest part of the woods.
He followed her, helpless to do anything else. The call of the moon sang in his blood, demanding he answer her challenge. Demanding he cement his claim.
His long strides overtook hers on the bank of a small creek running through the grounds. He nipped at her flank and jumped, twisting to land in front of her. Panting, he waited.
The full moon still shone bright over head, but they’d run for hours already. Avani collapsed to the forest floor as magic swelled, and began to shift. With power thick in the air already the change flowed over her, leaving her na**d and panting softly on the forest floor, her cheek pillowed on her arm as she watched him.
His own change stole over him in a maddening rush of magic and lust. “Stand up, Avani.”
He could smell her arousal, knew the rush of the change and the call of the moon would touch her, too. She smiled and came slowly to her knees. “I don’t know if my legs will hold me.”
Rais dragged her up and held her against him. “Do you hate the man I’ve become?”
Her eyes widened. “Of course not.”
He slid his hand into her hair and urged her head back. “Then why is my mother trying to find you a mate who isn’t me?”
She wet her lips, the gesture nervous. “You told me not to compromise my decision for you. I have decided I will never take a mate for love unless it is mutual love. A mating of practicality would be far preferable to loving you while you tolerate me because you made a vow in haste and find me lacking.”
“I don’t find you lacking,” he told her hoarsely, drawing her h*ps closer to his. “I nearly challenged my own cousin over you.”
“You barely know me,” she countered even as her body pressed tight to his. “Perhaps it was unfair to ask you to fall in love with me first. We’re at war, and there are more important things than my heart at stake.”
Her full lips called to him, and he shook his head to clear it. “You don’t think I could love you.”
“I don’t know.” She’d submitted to him gleefully in the bedroom, but he’d never in his life seen the brittle vulnerability that filled her eyes as she stared up at him. “Could you?”
Could he? She was a gentle soul, kind and thoughtful, and he’d never heard her say a cross word to anyone but him. “I could, if you let me in. If I let you in.” He touched her face. “If we both stop fighting it.”
She closed her eyes. “When you left me, it wasn’t because I wasn’t...enough?”
“No, Avani.” Rais kissed her forehead, her cheeks. Her mouth. “You gave me so much. Almost everything.”
“Almost?” It was barely more than a whisper against his lips.
“Almost.” He laid his hand over her heart and caught her mouth again, this time urging it open to slip his tongue inside. She tasted like wine, and moaned when his tongue found hers.
She kissed him hard, hard enough that her teeth scraped his lower lip before she pulled back with a gasp. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you for my mate.” He lifted her into his arms and laid her out on the cool grass. “I’ll give it all up if that’s what you want. I’ll just be Rais, and you won’t have to worry about the court.”
Her eyebrows drew together and she reached up to brush her fingers lightly over his cheek. “You want me that much?”
The answer was simple. “I need you.”
She swallowed and shifted her touch to his lips, and her wide dark eyes turned wondering. “I didn’t imagine it, did I? The magic... It feels like you’re in my blood. With the trainers it faded in seconds or minutes, but I felt you days later. I felt sick from needing you. I thought it was just a broken heart.”
Instinct had led her close to the truth. “It was, in a way, and I felt it too. My unit’s healer didn’t want me anywhere near the front lines in my condition.”
“Your family has power. Not like ours. Stronger. I’ve seen Zahra hear people’s thoughts.”
“The royal bloodline has its gifts along with its advantages,” he admitted. “Sometimes I have visions. Does that bother you?”
“No.” She lifted her head and kissed him, a soft brush of warm lips over his chin. “Not unless you’ve had visions of our doomed love you’re not telling me about.”
“Nothing like that.” It had been ages since he’d had an outright vision. His precognitive ability mostly manifested itself in hunches these days. “Is it too late? Will you let me court you like you wanted?”
He felt the sharp sting of her teeth against his jaw as her arms twined around his neck. “Will you start right now?”
Need swelled in him again, calmer now that she’d accepted him, and Rais moved until his h*ps were nestled against hers. “I should have started weeks ago.”
Her body was soft and perfect underneath him, and her breath fell hot against his skin and she nipped along his jaw until her lips found his ear. “How wicked that would have been. You all but stole a novice from the Temple, you know. The gossip is already out of control.”