Being the intended mate of a royal is the duty of a lifetime.
To Princess Peregrine duty is everything. From the day she was born she was groomed to save her realm from extinction. With a lineage like hers, she was destined for one thing and that is...
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I awake to the feeling of hardened muscle wrapped around me protectively. Looking down, I see an inked arm firmly holding my waist. Timber. I snuggle myself backward enjoying the feeling of being with him like this. Even though he said he would sleep on his respective side of the bed, he must have instinctually found me in his sleep.
A creature of the Land Realm is in my bed and I am wrapped up in all that he is in this moment. Verboten or not, I do not care. I hear a deep rumbling come from behind me as he begins to wake. He nuzzles his face in my hair, breathing me in deeply.
"I want to wake up every morning like this. I want to make you my queen, have you in my castle where I can protect you and keep you safe." He grabs ahold of my waist lightly, as he places a soft, tender kiss on my earlobe. "You should be in my arms every morning and every evening." Every time his lips touch a part of me I feel an immediate fire but that is quickly squelched by the fact I just remembered something.
"Oh no." I launch myself up into a sitting position when I remember I am supposed to shift with King Raven this morning. Timber lets out a fierce snarl as he sits up next to me, scanning the room for danger. "Calm yourself, everything is well. I am just supposed to go flying this morning." His features look feral but soon relax when he sees that I am fine.
"You are a creature of the Sky Realm and can fly at any given time." He cocks his head in confusion. "Why do you seem so tense about it?" I look away from him, feeling the guilt swell inside of me. "Unless you are supposed to be flying with the king this morning. Then I can see why you might worry since he may find me in your bed." I stare at the blanket that is covering us, feeling an overwhelming sadness penetrate me. "Pere?" He grabs my chin, making me look at him. "Are you shifting with him this morning?"
I nod, feeling tears in my eyes at his words. Timber was the only man that I have ever shifted with privately. To shift today with King Raven was like a betrayal to him and I know it, even if he does not want to admit it.
Timber is on top of me in an instant, spreading my legs apart with his knees. He sinks down slowly and searches my face for a moment, looking for some kind of hesitancy from me but I give him none. I beckon him with my eyes, wrapping my legs around his waist, never feeling as vulnerable in my life as I do now.
"We belong together." He murmurs down to me and I can do nothing but nod up at him, feeling an overwhelming amount of emotion overtake me.
He lowers himself even more, until his body is flush against mine. His grey eyes hold mine for a moment before claiming my lips. My legs lock around his waist and my arms around his neck. Before long, our bodies start to move against one another in a way they never have. All of him is against all of me and the feeling is igniting my entire being one fire.
Timber groans into my mouth as he rolls his hips into mine, making me feel a very specific hardened part of him. He is grinding himself against me, over and over, making my body ache for him in a forbidden way. Once he frees my lips I gasp for air and cry out at the radiating pleasure that is beginning to form between my legs.
"Timber..." I whimper out as the sensation continuously builds. An aching need to relieve the pressure in me becomes prominent. "Oh by all of the realms..." The words are barely legible from my tormented mouth. I push my hips upward, meeting his with my own, not caring how indecent it is. I do not care about anything in this moment. There is only the two of us here on this bed; in all of the realms. Just us.
"That is it, Pere." He thrusts against me more and a thick and heady scent begins to fill the room, both of our scents. "We belong together; to each other." Just before his potent aroma can begin to saturate me completely, scent my skin, the door to my chamber is quickly opened.
"Princess the king is..." Lady Wren's eyes widen in mortification at the scene before her.
An atrocious and feral sounding snarl leaves Timber's lips as he shields my body from Wren. His head is cocked over his shoulder, teeth bared at her protectively. Something about it I find enduring but also slightly terrifying, which I am sure Lady Wren is exactly that right now.
"Princess," her voice trembles and then becomes more bold, "King Raven is on his way to your chamber as we speak. He will be here at any moment. He..." she shakes her head in petrification as she takes in a shirtless Timber, "he cannot be in here. If the king finds him in here you know what will happen." He will throw him in the dungeon. He will kill him. She does not have to say those things because I am more than aware.
I press my hands firmly against the firm chest that is still on top of me. Timber has not moved a muscle. He is crouched over me, caging me in protectively. I push a few more times before he shakes his head and starts to back off of me.
"You must leave." I say, up to his conflicted face. "You must go. The king cannot find you here."
"There is not time!" Lady Wren shouts at the two of us as she flits about the room. She grabs a bottle of fragrance and begins spraying it throughout the space profusely. She's trying to rid the room of what would have been our certain demise. "Prince Timber, clothe yourself!" She begins throwing his things at him wildly.
"Calm yourself, Lady Wren." Timber slips off the bed causally and cooly.
"I cannot calm myself when you have put both of your lives in danger!" She yells at him, making his features harden and flatten. She does not realize in her commotion that she is down-talking a future king and I can tell that it peeves him. "You must get dressed, Princess. You will be expected to be in formal attire."
I hop out of bed feeling my arousal between my legs as I do. I hear a low growl come from Timber and know he can sense it too. He was the reason for it, after all.
"Quickly!" Lady Wren insists as she holds up my attire. "You need to get out of that thing as soon as possible. We may not have the sense of smell the Land Realm does but I can assure you that King Raven will smell Timber all over you. The longer you stay in that the worse it will be." I hold my arms up and let her remove the garment from my body. She grabs the bottle of fragrance and sprays in on my naked skin, trying to mask Timber's aroma.
Lady Wren makes quick work of making me presentable. The entire time she does, Timber keeps his back toward us respectively. Once I am finally dressed, hair finally combed and braided with my crown placed atop my head, does he turn around. The look on his face is one of pure longing and never more in my life have I wished that I was his.
Just as he takes a step forward, looking like he wants to embrace me tightly, is there a knock on the other side of the door.
A/N: I've taken the "coming soon" off the title of this book because I plan on updating regularly. There should be a new chapter out once or twice a week! I hope you're all enjoying the rewrite so far.
