Chapter 26
HANNES
“Leave me the fuck alone!” I half-growled, half-whined to myself, like an idiot, and rolled on the bed, my arm falling to the side.
It was the middle of the night, but my wolf had been pushing against my skin since I left Natalia’s room, demanding to be with his mate.
Demanding to be set free.
Letting him mate with Starlight had been the biggest mistake of my life. I snorted at my own thoughts. Who was I kidding? My wolf had been in control the second I shifted, no one was stopping him from taking what he deemed his.
And so, each night he just fucked with me, not letting me sleep until I went to her. So, I did. I sat outside her room every night, my back to the door so he could feel her close while Natalia and Starlight peacefully slept on the other side—with their two true mates.
Frustration cut through me, and I tossed and turned on the bed for the millionth time, refusing his demand. Unfortunately for him, I was staying right here, reminiscing of how fucking unbelievable Natalia felt in my arms today.
How sweet she’d tasted. How tight her walls had squeezed the life out of my head when I pushed it inside her for a second. Just a second, to calm my desperate need. And how desperately she had wanted me too.
“I only bend over for you…”
I growled, tossing once more.
My entire body became alive while holding her… even when she was crying.
I’d vowed on my life to protect her, the very reason why it tore through me to see her hurt so badly once she finally remembered the attack. It took everything inside me not to rip the door off and carry her out of my mother’s room before they could help her remember, but she and Isis were right.
If Natasha was going to heal and become the best version of herself, she couldn’t keep blocking the pain and the loss churning inside her. She had to face it… and that was exactly what she had done.
I was so fucking proud of her.
The Moon Goddess might not have originally chosen me for Natasha, but she was perfect for me. She was everything I needed and more.
My wolf, my beast, and I were obsessed with her. Entranced by her, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, but I had risked everything to be by her side, and nothing was going to pull me away now.
Prickling seized me when the urge to get off my ass and run to her room returned, and I feared Natasha, Natalia, and Starlight had shattered everything I was and rebuilt me as I was meant to be…
With a full chest growl that reverberated through the night, I kicked the rumpled sheets off my legs and stood, rubbing the drowsiness off my face. I just wanted to sleep, was that too much to ask?
No one had told me that falling in love made us this selfless.
The feel of my sharp obsidian claws dragging across my cheek as I rubbed my face alerted me that, once again, I had partially shifted with the struggle.
I hadn’t even noticed. Unintelligent words left me as I shook my arms and legs, letting go of the patches of fur and claws that had protruded from my body with my internal battle not to go to her.
Never in my life had I not been in complete control of the three sides of me, not even when I was a pup.
She did this to me.
My resolve was pretty much non-existent when I wasn’t with her, and the mere thought of her drove me—
Chatter awoke in my mind, and I turned toward the door, tuning into it.
“Can you hurry up, Star?” Natalia complained. “You said you could take us to his room, but we are still stumbling through the freaking dark halls.”
“How dare you?! Also, what happened to you calling me Starlight?”
“Well, you are still calling me Bitch, so I’m not sure you deserve me using your full name.”
My lips stretched into a grin, and I walked closer to the door.
“So. Are we there yet?”
“Have patience, will you! Ye of little faith.”
“Yes, I am starting to lose faith in you.”
“This isn’t like our other two homes. This place is huge, and the guys’ rooms are not right next to ours.”
“Yeah, what the fuck is up with that?”
“Seriously.”
They agreed, and it took everything in me not to crack up and give myself away. It was true that this place was enormous, and unfortunately, the only rooms with next-door access were those for the Moon Prince or Princess and their Iron Knights.
We’d had to make other arrangements here, which meant our other mates and I were not close to her. At all. Short of us reconstructing a wing of the castle, it was impossible, and this was a historical place.
My mother would literally kill anyone who took a hammer to the wall.
Not that it mattered since we could be by her side whenever she needed us. Never mind the fact that Dante and André had pretty much spent every night in her room since we arrived.
“Just be patient. We are almost there.”
“How do you know?”
“I can smell—How many times do I have to explain Wolf Shifter’s senses to you, Bitch?!”
Silently chuckling, I looked to the bed, dread immediately gripping me. My sheets were completely torn from the claws while I tossed and turned through the night. This was not the first time either, I was running out of bedding.
Shit.
Hurrying to the closet, I grabbed a fresh set and pulled off what was left of the others, replacing the bedding before she arrived. My gaze flew over the room when I heard their steps just on the other side of the door—I was out of time.
Opening the window, I threw the bunched-up, torn sheets out and dove for the bed, lying an arm over my face.
“This is his door?” Natalia asked, unsure. “Why are his heartbeats accelerated?”
“I don’t know… nightmare?”
Taking a deep breath, I forced my heart to settle and heard the door slowly open. A soft click followed when she closed it and proceeded to tiptoe toward the bed. So much for calming down. The moment she slipped in next to me, my heart began running a marathon.
Her hand gently pulled up the bed sheet over her, and she carefully settled on the edge of my chest so as not to wake me. Natalia smiled against my skin like she had completed her impossible mission.
Lowering the arm from my face, I wrapped it around her waist, pulling her up until her cheek rested on my peck and her body was half on me.
“You were awake this entire time?”
Opening a single eye, I noticed her lift her head to look at me. Her hand splayed over my abs as she arched a daring brow at me.
I arched my brow right back at her. “You didn’t think you had successfully snuck up on a Wolf Shifter, did you?”
Her gaze dangerously narrowed on me, even as her lips twitched in amusement, and I was gone.
That was it.
That right there.
The way she glowered at me and arched her eyebrow, daring me to say one more thing and she would hand me my ass… It had stolen my fucking heart.
There weren’t many in the ReinheitWolfe kingdom or outside of it who would even dare look at me, the Iron Prince, that way. Not if they knew who I was and what I could do.
My other hand lifted to her jaw, and her eyes fell closed the second my touch reached her skin, my fingertips stroking the side of her delicate neck.
My wolf rumbled with the feel of Starlight so close.
Everything about our mate was perfect. I was addicted to her scent, to the feel of her skin, to the sound of her voice, to the strawberry hue of her cheeks when they flushed with embarrassment or arousal, to her enticing red irises, and even the beautiful gleam of her snow-white fur under the moonlight.
I especially respected the way she could chew someone up and spit them out with words. That was a skill. Her sharp tongue and her I-can-do-it-all attitude did things to me that she could never imagine.
I fucking loved a strong woman. I was raised by one. I grew up surrounded by female Alphas, and Natalia was just like them.
Frankly, my Beast particularly loved that about her. She was nobody’s fool.
Giving in, Natalia lowered her head to my chest and snuggled closer, slipping her leg between mine.
My entire body sang for her, and I held her tightly to me, wrapping my other arm around her waist. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to enjoy the fact that, for the first time, she was the one who couldn’t stay away.
Maybe I would finally be able to sleep.
… And then her fingers began to trace the lines of my bond tattoo, enticing every cell of my body.
“What did you see?” her voice was barely audible, and I wasn’t sure if it was because it was the middle of the night or because she was hesitant to ask.
“What do you mean?” I lifted my gaze to her face, watching her continue her exploration of my arm tattoo.
“When my mo—Natasha’s mother—came to find you and tell you. When she revealed you were chosen for me, what did she show you of our future?”
Sadness and fear gripped my heart. I knew this moment would come, the one when she discovered I was a fraud, I just hoped it wouldn’t.
“I didn’t see anything…” I hesitantly replied.
“What?” she tilted her head up, looking straight into my eyes. “What do you mean?”
Reinforcing my heart, I settled for the truth. The last thing I ever wanted was to lie to her.
“After we spoke about you, she offered to show me, but I didn’t want to see.”
Confusion clouded her bi-colored eyes, and perhaps disappointment did too. “Why? Both Dante and André saw themselves with me, our future, why wouldn’t you want that too?”
“Because I didn’t need anything influencing my first impression of you.”
My hand returned to her jaw, caressing her bond tattoo with my fingertips, and desperately wishing my crescent moon was already there among the others, confirming my place as her true mate. Until that happened…
“I already knew I wanted you more than anything I could ever want. I craved you, Natalia. I dreamed of you. I wanted to fall in love with you, the real you, not the fantasy of what we could be in an uncertain future.”
“Holy shit,” Starlight breathed through the bond. “Take me. Take me now.”
Ignoring her, I held Natalia’s gaze, appreciating the way her heart began to race with my words.