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The day’s festivities had taken more out of Lexi than she thought. The party was a wild success. Though she had spent the entire night with a Xander-shaped shadow, she had a terrific birthday with family and friends.
“I had fun with you tonight,” she ventured.
“As I did with you, gorgeous.” They shared a smile. He returned his attention to the road, and Lexi looked out the window at the passing greenery, dark with the night.
With visions of the evening coming back to her, she found herself feeling cozy in the car. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep on the drive to her new home.
Her dreams were strange. Obsidian wolves ran in circles around her. A large, glittering crown sank down around her, protecting her from the wolves. A jostle from a bump in the road woke her momentarily.
She drifted off for a second time moments later. Her dreams returned in vivid colors. Her sleep was restless and left her feeling more tired than ever. The next thing she knew, Xander was lifting her out of the car. She was roused enough to realize what was happening but not enough to fight the action.
“Hey, I can walk …” she sputtered, not making any effort to get away. Her eyes were still heavy, and her body wasn’t obeying her mind’s desire to move.
He chuckled low, and she felt it rumble through his broad chest. He pulled her a tiny bit closer, and she reflexively curled into him. He leaned his chin into her hair. She felt his warm breath on her scalp.
“I know you can.”
His grip on her didn’t change, and she didn’t fight it. This was the first time in a very long time that someone carried her this way, and she couldn’t deny that it was nice. She felt the safety of his arms and found herself succumbing easily.
He was strong and confident, and he carried her like she weighed nothing at all. His scent billowed around her like a morning mist, and it cradled her deeper into her drowsiness.
As they moved through his palace, she didn’t have enough consciousness to take in any of the scenery around her, and she lazily dozed off and on before they reached the master bedroom. He shifted her slightly and opened the door with ease.
They were clearly entering his bedroom, and her attention was piqued. She tried to make out some details of the room. Unable to focus her eyes, she gave up and leaned back into his chest. She felt him chuckle again before he leaned over to place her on the bed.
Suddenly, her senses instinctively went into a defensive mode. She feared for the first time that he was about to make a lot of decisions without her permission. Her heart began to race with her consciousness coming back.
Much to her surprise, he removed her shoes and tucked her feet under the covers. Not bothering to undress her, he pulled the soft and heavy comforter over her. She was instantly warmed, not just by the blanket but by the gesture.
He left the room after that. She expected him to climb in next to her, to want to stay with her as if it were their wedding night. But he left her to settle into the big cozy bed with no pressure coming from him or the situation.
Her mind eased quickly with the exhaustion in her limbs and the warmth of the blanket. She was reassured by the sweetness of Xander’s actions from the beginning of the evening until this moment, and she realized she was less afraid to be in her new home than she had expected.
She felt a wave of fatigue flow throughout her body. With her mind only half-conscious, she thought that maybe he wasn’t anything like what people said about him. Maybe there was something sweet underneath the coarse exterior.
She could smell his scent lingering on her, much like the warm blanket over her. She breathed it in and drifted off to sleep, feeling safe and happy.
FOUR
XANDER
Xander sat alone in his study the morning after Lexi’s birthday celebration. He had left her alone in one of his luxurious bedroom suites while he stayed in a separate room, but he hadn’t slept a wink. His wolf was gnawing at him, her scent of fresh lemons and calming lavender nearly choking him into oblivion.
Of course, he had known all about matehood, as did any shifter. He had no idea, though, as to the power of it. It was like a glowing string attached to his body, a gravitational pull constantly dragging him back to her. He knew it as soon as he saw her, with her slender, strong body, the scattering of freckles across her gorgeous face, and the green lighthouse glow of her eyes. He was enamored with her right from the beginning, which was slightly inconvenient despite being matched up from an early age.
He was staring out the window with calm jazz music playing in the background and the steam from his coffee swirling in the foreground of his vision. The study not only had a stunning view of the twin mountains and the wide, glistening river between them but was on the top floor of the East Wing of his palace, where all the private rooms resided. He watched the water flow, diamonds scattered about from the reflections of the sun.
Xander was a solemn and prepared man. He had known who Lexi was before meeting her, and he had made an effort to design the area of the palace where her private rooms would be to her liking. He had learned all of her hobbies and interests when he signed the contract years ago.
It was prudent to have things planned ahead, as he was the king, after all, and there was much to consider. He was thankful for Maureen, his head enforcer, who also acted as his adviser when it came to small but vital details.
One of those details that morning pertained to the shade of the reading room he had constructed due to her interest in reading and writing. It sounded tedious, but it irked Xander, a man who had much bigger problems on his mind to deal with.
“The pink trim,” he said when Maureen came to him. “We have to change it to yellow. Somehow, the information we gathered was incorrect.”
Maureen, who was a wolf shifter herself, was tall and mighty and had worked alongside Xander for some time. Xander, a man who was considered stoic himself, often had a hard time reading her. Her face was plain, she rarely smiled, and she considered her words carefully. Xander often imagined the sound of metallic wheels spinning when he spoke to her, not always entirely sure of her intentions.
“Wake the contractor immediately and get him over here,” Xander ordered, scribbling down notes in his designated notebook. “I’m concerned that if we managed to miss something so petty as the color of the trim, we might have missed something far more crucial.”
