“You’ll breathe,” he said, the vow thickening his voice. “You’ll be safe. If there are things you miss from home—herbs, books, familiar comforts—say the word. I’ll see to it myself.”
The following silence wasn’t strained this time. It settled between them with the hush of leaves above their heads. It felt less like absence and more understanding.
“Thank you, my lord,” she said.
He wanted to say: ‘Call me Alexander.’
But not yet. Let her offer that name when she chose to, when trust came more naturally between them.
Ahead, the road curved toward open fields. Alexander straightened again, but not before letting his hand fall lightly to her waist—brief, grounding, warm.
She didn’t pull away. He smiled then, not out of lordly duty, but with a private, dawning pleasure.
For the first time, he wondered if fate had not been kind to him after all.
CHAPTER 12
JINGYI
They paused once along the road for a simple meal and hot tea. Afterward, JingYi checked on Conrad and found the boy asleep in the back of a wagon. His wound, thankfully, had not reopened. When Lord Wulfbane asked if she wished to ride with him again, she found herself agreeing at once.
For the briefest instant, his expression changed. Not a smile, for he didn’t smile easily, but she thought she saw his shoulders ease. His voice softened when he gave his men the order, enough for her to wonder if her choice had pleased him after all.
She told herself it was only to escape her ladies-in-waiting. Or perhaps it was for the clean air. The healthier posture of horseback riding over a carriage bench.
Sensible reasons, all of them.
But when his hands lifted her once more into the saddle, and she felt the solid line of his arm steady her, she couldn’t deny the truth.
No matter how she tried to reason otherwise, it was his nearness she sought.
She told no one—and would tell no one—that even during the short break, she had missed the scent of leather and sun-warmed wool, the faint musk of skin, the heat radiating from his chest and soaking into her spine. His presence had curled around her, and she’d leaned into it more than she should.
She’d dared not look up too often, but when she did, she caught his sharp jawline, the pale hair neatly braided along his temples, the hard gleam of his eyes as they scanned the horizon. He looked carved from something older than the world—stone and ice, fire and silence. But when his gaze dropped to her, it softened like spring melting frost.
“I should’ve sent your ladies to ride with the soldiers and given you the comfort of the carriage,” he said. “Forgive me. I find myself yearning for your company.”
Her heart lurched. She stared at Duskwane’s mane, afraid to look back. What would a proper Omega princess say at a moment like this? One raised for courtship, trained to answer an Alpha’s attention with polished wit and soft allure.
“I—I fear . . . my company is not much of a prize, my lord.”
A puff of warm breath ghosted her nape, and some part of her—the part bred to respond to an Alpha’s nearness—thrummed at the contact.
“Not much of a prize,” he echoed. “Then how come I find myself seeking it?”
“Perhaps my lord has been deprived of company for too long . . . that you would seek mine.”
He huffed. “I’m not so starved for company as to confuse one voice for another. I seek yours because I desire it, though judging by your surprise, you’d sooner think me mad than to believe it.”
Her breath tangled.Desire. He’d said it plainly, as if wanting her were the simplest truth in the world. Men didn’t look at her that way, didn’t speak to her that way. A flutter of panic pulsed low in her belly. Her hand drifted instinctively to the small pouch at her belt, its texture a grounding presence.
But he was still waiting for an answer, and her thoughts scrambled. She bit the inside of her cheek.
“I . . . I’m sorry, my lord,” she said. “I don’t know how to respond in a way a man would find pleasing.”
He was silent while her shame burned red beneath her veil.
Then he said, his voice low, “It’s a strange situation we’re in. Strangers, yet already married by proxy. Tomorrow, we’ll stand together as true husband and wife. The road ahead may not be easy, but I give you this: you may always speak to me in whatever manner you choose. And you may always be yourself. If there is anything I value most in the world, it is honesty.”
