He bows his head, pale lashes fanning against broad cheekbones. “Run away with me, Princess? Come with me to my home in the mountains, meet my people… be my bondmate. My wife. Would you like that?”
It’s reckless. Crazy. I lived for my dream of marrying Lord Eorl, but it’s Valen I love. So I draw shaky breath. “I think… I really would.”
He looks up, emotions warring in his amber gaze. “Is this real? Do you really want it?”
“Yes, Valen. I want it. I want you.”
“It’s hard to do worse than that bastard,” he jokes, but there’s a vulnerability in his gaze, as if pushing me to contradict him. “I’m the better choice.”
“You’re better than any other man,” I whisper. “I realized a few things, and foremost among them is that, had Lord Eorl been nice, I still would have preferred you.”
His gaze clears. “You would?”
I laugh quietly. “Where is your confidence?”
“Smashed to pieces. You mean too much to me. I have no confidence in myself. Only in you.”
I slide both hands over his broad shoulders, then lock them around his neck. “Then trust me when I tell you that no man in the world compares to you.”
His grin melts into a sweet smile. So sweet, I have to kiss him, and I tug him down to reach his lips. We kiss, long and deep, and then a shadow looms over us.
“Oh, great,” Konstam says. “Keep complimenting him. He will become insufferable.”
“He will get airs,” Darian agrees, “and his head will be too large to get through the door. That would be so impractical.”
Valen growls, breaking the kiss and turning his head to glare at his friends. “Fuck off. Don’t you have something else to do?”
I turn to grin at them and…I’m faced with two very naked men.
Oh, Gods…
A little snort escapes me. I avert my gaze from their powerful bodies and their bare crotches, the cocks dangling between muscular thighs where, I notice, no knots are apparent.
“Cover your dick, you dolt,” Valen barks. “You, too, Dar. She’s only interested in my dick, not your tiny twigs for pricks.”
“That hurt,” Darian mutters, putting on a wounded air, but he covers up his crotch with his hands.
Well, most of it. These men really are endowed down there.
“Apologies,” Konstam says, also covering himself. “We don’t have any clothes once we shift. Normally, we stash our clothes somewhere we can return to, but this time the plan was to run home, so… we just shredded what we were wearing.”
“It’s okay,” I say, muffled against Valen’s shoulder. “I just… didn’t expect it.”
“You will see a lot more of this once we get to the mountains,” Darian says.
“More naked men?”
“I meant dicks, but yeah, men. And women. And children. We don’t bother too much with modesty.”
“Or clothes,” Konstam adds.
“That’s right.” Darian’s smile is definitely wolfish. “We don’t like clothes. They itch.”
“Shut up, both of you,” Valen snarls. “Are you trying to scare her away the moment she decided to go with us? Are you crazy? We do wear clothes, Princess. Don’t listen to them.”
“Oh, we wear them,” Konstam says. “We just get rid of them at every opportunity.”
“Fuck. Whose sins am I paying for?” Valen drops his head until our brows touch. “You’re going to change your mind, aren’t you? Why would a lady like you mate with a savage wolf who dislikes clothes?”
