Chapter 30
Valarie
I stumbled into our suite, shucking off my useless shoes and heading straight for my room.
It was close to dawn now—just a few more hours and the sun would be up. The moon was low but still full in the sky.
My wolf should be quieter now that we’d run, that was how it always happened, but instead she was still restless. I clenched my teeth to keep from pacing and fought her down again.
My muscles ached from the running and play-fighting.
I turned my mind away from Gabriel quickly, focusing instead on the fact that Sophia had won the Hunt.
She would be the next Alpha female, leading all the packs at the King’s side.
Raquel would be thrilled. She’d favored Sophia throughout most of the Hunt.
Exhausted by the thoughts, I barely managed to get out of my clothes without falling over and left them in a trail from my bedroom to the bathroom.
Picking my hair up off my shoulders released a small shower of leaves that crinkled as they fell, coloring the rug in gold and maroon.
I pulled the shower curtain shut and started the water, feeling my shoulders relax at the sound. Already, a good-sized bruise was forming on my upper thigh. Gabriel had gotten his jaws around me there and used just enough pressure to make a point.
Smoothing my fingers over the area, I stepped into the large bath, feeling hot water begin to numb my skin.
What exactly had happened tonight?
I’d only gone into the woods to satisfy my wolf, who apparently couldn’t be held back. I’d always been able to control her before, but my guess was that all the tension and stress these last weeks had forced her to surface.
Now that it was over with, I was mostly happy I’d gotten it out of my system. Running had felt good, especially in an unfamiliar forest where it had actually been a challenge to navigate my surroundings.
But then Gabriel had found me. How did he always manage to find me?
The pack had run in the opposite direction. When he’d shown up between the trees, I should have submitted immediately but my knee-jerk reaction was to tease him a bit.
These were his woods, but he obviously hadn’t been running at his full potential. Did he ever get out, I wondered? I couldn’t imagine having such wonderful forests so close by and not being able to run them. That was a nightmare.
We must’ve tussled and ran for at least an hour. Long enough that it was surprising he wasn’t missed. But the sound of the fighting had drawn us both away.
Finding that Sophia was the one engaged in sparring with Caroline wasn’t that much of a shock.
She’d gotten a good start on the others, and I knew from the wound on Edith’s leg that it had been Sophia’s work.
She’d taken the females down one by one (probably not having to worry about Daniele very much) until only Caroline was left.
The feel of the hot water on my upper back made my head roll forward and I groaned in satisfaction. Everything inside me was loosening now, and I could feel angry tears wanting to fight their way up. To distract myself, I thought back to the end of the Hunt.
Everyone emerging from the woods, Gabriel with Sophia first, followed by the small wolf I identified as Charles once he changed back. Then the betas, and me, still in the trees, scrambling into my clothes quickly.
Gabriel didn’t seem bothered by standing naked before so many other wolves. He glanced only briefly at Sophia but took her hand anyway, walking toward his mother once his pants were on.
In the now-waning moonlight, I’d been able to see the bitemarks on him… would anyone bother asking where’d they’d come from?
And that had been the end of it.
The group had come back to the palace, betas peeling off into the city to tell everyone what had happened. There would be a formal announcement later today.
I was so lost in the cloud of steam and uneasiness that I almost missed the click of the door opening.
I hadn’t locked it.
Grabbing the loofa, I switched it around so that the handle could be used as a weapon. Without any hesitation, I whipped back the shower curtain and stood stark naked, wet, and ready to bash someone’s head in.
Gabriel stumbled back and braced himself against the countertop, face shocked.
“What the hell…?” he started as I yanked the curtain back and somewhat around my body. As if he hadn’t already seen me naked… more than once.
“What are you doing!?” I screeched, dropping the loofa onto the bath rug and pushing my matted hair out of my eyes.
“What am I doing? What the hell are you doing?”
Sputtering, I reached up to adjust the shower nozzle so that I could talk without inhaling water. The spray battered loudly against the tile wall.
“I’m showering,” I grit out.
Gabriel’s eyebrows relaxed and he looked me up and down quickly. The shower curtain was clinging to me, leaving little to the imagination.
“I can see that,” he said dryly.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
I didn’t know whether to rip the curtain closed and ignore him or get out and start berating him for his idiocy. So, I did a bit of both.
Unfortunately, even with the curtain closed I still felt very exposed.
“What if someone had caught you on the way here? And how did you even manage to get away?”
“Everyone is very excited about the choice.” He said it flatly, making it clear how he felt about the situation. “Most people, including the staff, are celebrating. My mother whisked Sophia away. I doubt she’ll be back before dawn.”
“Well, that’s nice, but that doesn’t mean you can just barge into her rooms now that you’re her…”
I trailed off lamely, pushing my hair back behind my shoulders and staring down at my toes.
The shower curtain pulled open, and Gabriel’s eyes bore into me.
“You were right. I had to make a choice.”
I’d finally gotten what I wanted. The tone of his voice made it obvious he was serious about this; finally understanding how important the whole thing was. Without realizing it, my shoulders dropped and I turned away from him, facing the wall, willing the tears not to well up.
As I tried to blink away the frustration, I heard the curtain slide closed again, and then the sound of Gabriel rummaging around.
I waited, body tense, for the sound of the door.
He couldn’t stay. Even if Sophia wasn’t coming back for another hour or so, it wasn’t safe for us to be seen together. Now more than ever.
There was a light rustling sound and then the vibration of someone else getting into the shower. I half-turned, mouth open, and tried to pull myself together at the sight of Gabriel fully nude before me.
The flutter in the pit of my stomach was ridiculous. I’d seen him naked before, only a few hours ago at the end of the Hunt, when he’d been holding my princess’s hand!
But the King’s posture was gone now. He looked tired, and I looked closely at him, taking it in. He was still beautiful. But he looked more ordinary now somehow. Less like an alpha and more like a regular man who just wanted a few moments to breathe.
He glanced up at me through his already damp bangs and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to get out. So, my mouth snapped shut and I turned back toward the water, adjusting the nozzle so that it sprayed on both of us.
The warmth of the shower relaxed my body again without my consent, and I found myself softening.
I could hear Gabriel’s breath evening out behind me as he relaxed too.
Then the sound of him shuffling, turning I assumed, and glanced back to see that I was correct—he had turned so that the spray of water hit his broad back, and I blushed to see the bite marks from earlier in the night.
“I’m sorry about those,” I murmured, hand half-raised to touch them. But I stopped myself short.
Gabriel looked over his shoulder, his gaze dropping to my breast before going to my face, and he said with only a little sarcasm: “Yes, your princess already asked me about them once we were fully dressed. I haven’t quite come up with an explanation yet.”
My eyebrows raised as I considered his options.
“Well, you could always say Charles gave them to you in a sparring match,” I supplied, and he laughed at that, shoulders rippling beautifully. Just the sight of his skin, wet and taut, made my stomach twist deliciously.
I turned back to the tile wall quickly.
Gabriel sighed long and low. His breathing was relaxed now but loud in the small area. I shivered to think of how close he was; just a short reach away if I wanted to touch him.
I pressed my eyes shut tight. Because I did want to touch him.
I’d tackled him, bitten him, dodged and faked him out in the woods, all of it in wolf form—the form that felt almost as natural as my human body, if not more so sometimes. And I knew he’d felt the same way. It had been obvious from his wolf-ish grin.
Crushing any thought that told me to do otherwise, I turned quickly but carefully on the balls of my feet and reached out to brace myself against his back.
The muscles tensed as soon as my fingers touched his skin. He straightened but didn’t move any more than that.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” I murmured, my eyes on the dip of his lower back and the muscled planes of his ass. I pressed a thumb against his vertebrae and put my other hand on his waist, feeling for the ‘v’ of the muscle there as it roped inward.
“Good,” he murmured back, shoulders relaxing as my fingers continued to find the edges of his body and work at them softly, releasing the tension. “I don’t want to,” he all but whispered, and there was more meaning in that statement than just talking about what had happened tonight.
Giving in, I stepped forward and leaned against him, pressing my breasts just under his shoulder blades and my hips against his ass. His thighs were so much bigger than mine, his skin so much paler. He took my hand carefully and turned it upwards so that he was looking down at my wrist.
“You have freckles here,” he said softly.