His heartbeat thudded against her ear. Slow. Calm.

Hers, on the other hand, was trying to crack a rib.

For three full seconds, neither of them moved. She could feel his chest rising against hers, steady as a drum.

He removed the hand covering her mouth and signaled for her to be quiet.

Her better judgment was somewhere on the forest floor, twelve paces back. She had not bothered to retrieve it.

Keeping one arm around her waist, he gently led her into a cave she would’ve missed completely because it was tucked behind boulders and looked like a dead end.

When they were fully inside, his other arm went around her too. She was shivering, and in no position to say ’who the fuck are you.’ The bar of decency was rock bottom low.

He felt like warmth wrapped in sunlight, and smelled too damn good to complain.

His thumb traced slow circles on her back. She didn’t notice until he stopped abruptly, his entire body stiffening against hers.

Warning sirens should have been blaring in the back of her mind, but they weren’t. In fact, her body was full-on leaning into him like she’d known him for years, and her brain was too tired to argue.

The sound of leaves crunching under heavy paws echoed off the boulders, followed by the low, frantic snuffles of a wolf tracking. They were close. Too close.

"If you’re found on these lands, they will kill you."

He blinked down at her, opened his mouth, then shut it. She wasn’t sure if he was human or had a wolf, but either way, he’d be outnumbered.

The noises grew closer. It was no longer a matter of if, but when they would be discovered. Her heart beat furiously against her ribs.

The math: let a stranger die who was trying to help her, or go be a problem outside. She was getting alarmingly comfortable with making decisions that looked insane on paper.

"Don’t leave this cave until you hear them gone," she whispered, pulling out of his arms.

"Wait."

She didn’t.

In a blur, she was outside of the cave, just in time to stop Cassian’s wolf who was already there.

The man had a gift for being exactly where she did not want him.

He shifted back to human form.

"Well, well. Looks like the golden child has a little secret father will be interested in."

He said golden child the way other people said tax audit.

"Lovely to see you, Cassian. You’ll have to be more specific." Her voice was calm.

"Don’t play coy. Though I heard you played hero yesterday. This will cancel that out."

Behind him, Tyler Draven approached, shifting back into human form. The Beta’s son had always been nice to her. "She is a white wolf. I’ll be damned."

"I don’t know what you’re referring to."

"You’ve always been a terrible liar, Gwen," Tyler said, smirking. "Too many people saw you."

Stupid. Considering she had lied about her wolf for five years since her first shift, and not one of them had caught it. The fact that the streak ended tonight was a budget issue, not a skill issue.

More wolves closed in around them, shifting as they came.

"Bind her," Cassian ordered with no warmth in his voice. "Should the prisoner attempt flight, the rope becomes silver."

"Riveting dialogue, Cassian. How many times did you practice that one in the mirror? Be honest."

Snickers erupted behind him. Whoops. Usually they didn’t laugh.

The gold rose in his eyes the way it always did right before he proved he was his father’s son. He stepped forward and didn’t hesitate, backhanding her hard enough that she stumbled and tasted copper.

The laughter died like a snuffed torch. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Her hand found her lip. When she pulled it away, her fingers came back red. Her eyes watered, briefly, against her will. She swallowed it down, straightened, and faced him head on.

"Cassian," Tyler clipped. "She is just surprised you are threatening silver on her."

A warrior moved towards her with rope. Tyler intercepted him.

"I’ll do it."

She watched, detached, like it was happening to someone else, as rope wrapped around her wrists, which were still raw from the silver the night before.

Tyler wouldn’t meet her eyes until he finished and was back at Cassian’s side.

"Why are you wet and half dressed?" Cassian demanded.

"I decided to go for a swim for fun in the middle of winter, Cassian." Her voice was dry as sand.

Cassian’s brows knit. He seemed to not understand if she was serious or not.

"Careful not to think too hard. You’ll hurt yourself."

More snickers came. Again, not what she intended. They never laughed at her jokes. This was new.

He moved to backhand her again, but Tyler stepped in between, eyes on her face. Either he was pretending not to notice or just oblivious. She wasn’t sure.

He touched her hair, which was frozen. She blinked at him in surprise. He’d never touched her before.

Then he sniffed.

"Who touched you?"

Her insides twisted. The whole point of her stepping out was so the hiding caveman wouldn’t be brutally slaughtered.

"You’re going to have to be more specific. The part before or after I traded myself to save three-hundred people in a throne room."

Cassian gave a dark, unimpressed laugh. "Father was preparing to send an army to retrieve you. He’ll be disappointed that his little prized jewel has been keeping a secret. Won’t he now?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but a cough came instead. Followed by a wave of dizziness. Maybe hypothermia was catching up, or it was sheer exhaustion. She wasn’t sure. All she knew was the ground came up to meet her.

The last thing she heard was Tyler and Cassian’s muffled voices.

✦✦✦

"Princess. Wake up. Please."

The please was what did it.

Guinevere cracked her eyes open to her own bed, her own room, and an omega at her side. Warm. No chains. No ropes.

Civilization. She had missed it.

"Princess, your father requested to see you immediately. And to wear this," the omega said.

A white dress with gold accents. It was beautiful, and expensive.

That meant her father needed her for something or to impress someone. The ’I have a daughter and I love her very much, please notice’ starter pack.

The bath was hot enough to sting. Mary worked oil into her hair with hands that had been doing this since Gwen was twelve. The slow drag of the comb. The warm steam. The smell of her own skin coming back to her after twelve hours of cold and silver and forest.

Her father had ordered her to be made beautiful in a very specific way, and she did not want to know yet why.

There was a knock on her door, and a crown was delivered to her. She raised her eyebrows. Whoever was downstairs was important enough for the full costume.

She glanced at the omega who was watching her.

Mary was wearing the face of a woman with bad news she had been told not to share. "What you did in that throne room for us... I just want you to know that it was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. And we support you."

Guinevere blinked, momentarily stunned by her words. Mary had always been kind, but people usually distanced themselves from her. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Thank you, Mary. How worried should I be?" She flashed a grin. "On a scale from one to should-I-escape-through-the-window, what are we working with here?"

Mary laughed at that, then lowered her voice. "I don’t think he’ll harm you, Princess. But there are visitors here and I’m not sure of the nature."

"Visitors?"

Plural. Always worse when it was plural.

"Yes, Princess. You’ve been out for twelve hours."

Guinevere’s stomach dropped. Twelve hours wasn’t a nap. That was a coma with branding.

"How many visitors, Mary?"

Mary did not answer right away, which was its own kind of answer.

"Enough that your father had the entire west wing cleared, Princess. And the east."