He was completely naked under them, and when he answered my question it took me forever to remember I’d even asked one. “He wanted the crown. Kian was always the first in line for anything to do with ruling the bears. He loved his royal life. I can’t ever believe he would just up and leave without telling us. I blamed the wolves for a long time, but I always knew deep down it wasn’t anything to do with your people.”
He slipped my bra off my shoulders before expertly unhooking the clasp. My underwear bottoms disappeared just as fast, and I no longer had any idea what we were talking about.
My body throbbed with need as Kade scooped me up and lowered us into the almost-full bathtub. It was huge, lined with dark tiles that curved near the bottom of the tub. There was a small ledge near the back, and resting upon it was a chunk of freshly cut soap, a few cloths, and what looked like a pumice stone. Grabbing up the soap, Kade dipped it into the water and then started gently rubbing it over my chest, arms, legs.
He rested against the back wall, and I lay across his body as he caressed me. Whomever made this bath so huge deserved a hundred gold coins. Or more. The hot water was like heaven, and I sighed as the scent of something floral and a bit medicinal hit my nose. The soap had some sort of oil in it, made from plants for sure.
After a few minutes, the sight of his huge bronzed hands running across my body was too much for me. I tilted my head back, spinning around to straddle him. Our heavy breathing mingled together, the steam rising around us as our gazes remained locked.
We moved at the same time, our lips clashing with a bruising passion built from days of stress and lack of alone time.
“I love you,” I moaned between kisses. He deserved to hear those words every single day, because he was worthy of all the love in the world.
His eyes were beyond dark now, like a whiskey aged to perfection. “You are everything to me, Ari. If anything happens to you, I will destroy this world.”
He was serious. I could see that in the darkness of his gaze. “I would do the same for you,” I said, pressing my lips to his again.
This kiss sealed our vow that we would follow through, should either of us not make it out of here alive. My worries were buried then as Kade’s hand slid along my body and into the water. Worries would not ruin this moment for us, this was about our love, and for now I would take every second I had with my mate. He was my happy place. My everything.
Chapter Five
Winter woes.
That night I slept soundly and reasonably content, considering the circumstances. When I was curled in the arms of my mate, a lot of my worries disappeared. A lot, but not all.
As the early morning hours neared I became restless, tossing and turning, waking and falling back into fitful sleep. The first slivers of light were creeping through the double bay windows of our room when I was sucked into an unnatural, deep slumber. I recognized the sensation straight away; it was another one of those weird dreams. I didn’t fight it this time, knowing Violet might be trying to contact me again. A forest sprang up around me, dark and twisty, ancient looking, with a distinctly ominous feel to the air. Turning in a circle, trying to take everything in, I let a gasp escape when a pale figure came into view. Violet. She was quite a distance from me, tied to a tree. The ropes were tight, cutting into her arms, her head hanging limp to one side.
A genuine fear saturated my body as I ran toward my best friend, heart pounding in my chest, her name ripping from my throat in a scream that would haunt me. I could sense no heartbeat, feel no warmth. I thought she was dead until an almost inaudible moan came from her. With what looked like more effort than she was capable of giving, she lifted her head. Her body was bruised and bloody, and there were weird streaks of black ash on her porcelain cheeks.
“Ari…” she whispered as I neared. “Don’t touch me,”
Screw that. I knew it was just a dream, but I was going to cut her down. Bending low to the forest floor, I scrambled around until I finally found a rock with a bit of a sharp edge. I then stood ready to saw the bindings that were cutting off the circulation to her arms.
“Don’t. Touch. Me,” she urgently pressed. “If you touch me, they will know. They will see.”
Tears trickled down my cheeks as a sob escaped, followed by a few more. “How can I help? What are they doing to you?”
I couldn’t leave her like this. There had to be something I could do.
She took a few deep breaths. Speaking through her pain was clearly hard for her. “Ari, don’t trust Isalinda, or Luca, the winter prince. He has a secret … a dark secret. I got it out of him, by magic and … I think they’re going to kill me.”
“No!” My wolf and I both roared, and for a moment I lost control of the beast inside. My hands half shifted, along with my face. I could feel the slight muzzle and sharper teeth. I had to breathe deeply, using every meditation skill I possessed, to get myself back under control. As my bones shifted again, back to normal, I took a step closer to Violet.
“Look at me, Violet.” I injected all of my alpha power into that command. “You hold on. Do not give up. You do whatever those royal bastards want you to do. You must stay alive. There are no other options.” Her pale eyes never left me, and despite the pure aura of broken she was emitting, I sensed the slightest hope there also. “I’m coming for you, my friend. I’ll run the entire way if I have to, without stopping, but I need to know you’re still fighting too. I’m not leaving this world without you. Do you understand me? Nothing is more important to me than you.”
Violet’s eyes were still boring into me, and mingled with the pain and hope were some pure beams of love. She finally gave me a slight nod, wincing as she did. She swallowed roughly before whispering, “The prince—”
“Give him whatever he wants.” I was getting desperate now; her protective instincts were going to get her killed.
“He’s your father…” Her head went slack as she lost consciousness.
Nothing could have prepared me for what Violet had just said. My entire body had a visceral reaction. My skin tightened, my muscles twitched, and the sound of breaking bones shocked me out of my stupor. The dream was collapsing around me now that Violet was unconscious, and my wolf was reacting to my emotions. Fur sprung up across my arms, bones cracked as my wolf broke free from the cage I’d been keeping her locked down in.
I never planned on shifting in the Otherworld. I had no idea if they could sense the shifter magic here. Too late to worry about it now, there was no controlling either of us in this moment.
Dear God … my mother had slept with the prince of the Winter Court. I couldn’t comprehend how that was even possible, and yet … Violet would never say something like that unless she was a hundred percent certain. The trees in the dream forest were uprooting now, crashing down around my wolf. She dodged them with her nimble grace, tipping her head back and howling to the darkening sky above. The tree Violet had been tied to remained, but all that was left of my friend was a pile of ropes upon the leaves.