My ears were laced against my skull, showing my complete and utter frustration. Lips were pulled back to show glittering daggers that knew not how to harm. This was the fault that had chased me from my home. I was unable to neither confidently go forth and avenge my parents’ deaths, nor defend the throne that was rightfully mine. My training was not complete. Father had sparred with me time and again, but I knew I was not truly prepared. That and the emotions that blinded me would have forsaken the fight from the start. But now, as I glared down at Leonidas who submitted willingly beneath me, I knew that perhaps if I could harness my rage and pain I would someday be capable of using it against the usurper. So many thoughts swirled in my mind that when he reached forward and placed a kiss upon my chin I was taken aback. Ears that had been plastered against my skull released and pricked towards him, and my lips fell to cover my salivating jaws. Brows furrowed as I stared back into his eyes, but I did not move away, did not relax the rest of my bodice as I held my place powerfully over him. I would not fully let my guard fall, and at his first remark my hackles bristle slightly, irritated with him once more.

It was easy for me to recognize the pain in his eyes. I had seen it in my own reflection whenever I dared look into the waters from which I drank. I was being selfish – I not the only one to feel loss. Where I had lost parents, he had lost leaders. He had suffered much the same as I, but such a fate had befallen him at a much younger age. He had lost his parents when he was but a pup. I was a grown wolf, I should be able to cope with this much easier than I was. And some part of me knew that blaming him for not being there was asinine. He was not mine, as much as I wanted him to be. Though I felt a peculiar sense of possessiveness over him, I could not dictate where and when he came and went. He was a free wolf just as I was. Still, I could not disguise the pain that I had felt in his absence.

He kept his eyes locked on mine, an endeavor which had once been a contest between us, trying to hold each other’s gaze for as long as possible to ascertain who the dominant was. But that was not the case here and now. Its cause ran much deeper than that. So many emotions flickered in his technicolor eyes, some of which I readily recognized and some which he was exposing to me for the first time. I remained silent through everything he said, not necessarily at a loss for words, but rather choosing to hold my tongue so that it did not burn him when we were both in such a state of anguish.

Finally he broke our enduring stare, tipping his head back to expose that ivory blaze of fur that coated his neck. My eyes traced down his neck, easily detecting his carotid as well as his windpipe. Further my eyes wandered, taking in his broad chest and subdued posture. Did he think this was what I wanted? My jaws darted forward open and ready to take what he offered. But they closed upon his throat gently, the points of my canines slicing through his fur to rest delicately against his skin. I put exuded the slightest amount of pressure, just to let him feel the force that my jaw contained. After a moment, I withdrew and my eyes narrowed as I waited for him to return his gaze to mine. “Do you think that is what I want? To harm another life when already so much has been lost? If you do you do not know me at all. I am no Princess, not anymore. I am a Queen, and I will take what is mine with blood and fire – when the time is right.” There was notable control in each syllable that I spoke. “And if you wish to serve me, then you will be at my disposal from this day forward.”

If he wanted to help me, he would be at my side or within my shadow at all times. I would not let the fact that I loved him interfere with what truly mattered – my training, honing my ability to fight so that when the time did come, I could reclaim my throne upon the mountain that rightfully belonged to my family.