Being the princess of all werewolves is not easy, but finding a mate is harder. Annabeth's royal life is turned upside down when she meets her mate, Kate.
Soon, she finds herself stuck between two choices: her duties to her family, and her love for...
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Ann freezes, hands sliding out from under my dress, the last remnants of warmth lingering on my skin like a broken promise.
I let go of her, unraveling my limbs to keep them to myself. She hasn't said a word yet, her heart beating so rapidly, and I fear it might gallop out of her torso.
"Charlie." I clear my throat and place a hand on Ann's chest to gently, very gently push her back before I hop off the desk. Still a frozen taciturn chunk of shock, Ann needs the same amount of time to turn that I need to put my dress back down or, respectively, back up in all the right places.
When I dare to look back at Charlie, I'm surprised to see his face contort in a mixture of emotions. A hint of anger, a touch of confusion, a bit of surprise, and a thick veil of apprehension. "Are you- Are you okay?" he asks me.
Why does he ask me? Me, of all people? My brows knit together and match his expression, and once again, I look up at Ann, hoping, praying she would finally start talking.
But she doesn't, so I answer him. "I- Erm, yeah. I'm okay."
"You sure? You-" He throws Ann a dangerously daring glance," You don't have to be." He takes a hesitant step closer, eying Ann warily from the corner of his eyes.
I glance up at Ann and feel slightly stupid for doing so again. But she is only opening and closing her mouth like a dying fish, and I think about how her skin shines in the dim light; she looks a bit pale.
But it's not only Charlie who's startled us, someone is tugging along with him, and my eyes grow wide as I stare at their intertwined fingers. He brought a woman with him, a petite brown-haired girl with mousy features. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all. She looks like the lovely girl from next door, like someone who would rather read a book outside on the porch on a sunny day than drink behind the school with the cheerleaders; she... looks like the kind of girl I would want to be friends with. She looks nothing like the girls Charlie usually fools around with, making her all the more interesting.
Ann seems to notice her too, and for the first time since we got caught, I can see a flicker of life in her eyes. "What are you trying to impl-"
He growls at her. "I'm not speaking to you."
I can feel the tension between them growing by the second, and soon it's thick enough to be cut by a butterknife, and without further contemplating it, I step in the midst of them. "Charlie, I'm fine."
The pain flashing across Ann's face jolts like a hot knife through my guts. "What do you think I am?" she asks him, not showing the same touch of vulnerability in her voice as on her face mere heartbeats ago.
"Powerful." He doesn't say more and leaves the meaning hanging, but some anger in him seems to vanish as he takes a few steps back, and I let myself relax the few inches to lean on Ann while exhaling loud enough for everybody to hear it.
