Chapter 83: 84: The Royal Closet

ALEX

I lie in bed, my body completely exhausted from the events of the last few days, but my mind running at full speed.

~You’re so close, Alex.~

~Finish strong.~

~Just like Dad would want.~

Anxious thoughts tumble through my head about the unification ceremony and meeting the president.

The cameras.

The speeches.

The whole world watching.

I’m ripped from my thoughts as the door crashes open.

“Ariel?”

My mate charges in, ripping off her royal gown with a fury and marching toward the closet in her underwear.

I grin as my eyes trace her curves, but when she disappears into the closet, I realize this isn’t part of a striptease. She didn’t even glance my way.

I sit up quickly, then go over to the closet and peek inside. “What’s going on, babe?”

As she shuffles through her clothing rack, pulling tracking clothes from the hangers, she shoots me a look.

The look I’ve come to know all too well.

The look she gets when she’s about to do something she knows I’m not going to like.

Something crazy.

I’ve learned that when she gives me that look, there’s not much I can do to stop her.

“Where are you going?” I ask.

She tries to flash me a reassuring expression. “I’ve gotta go find Natalia.”

“Where did she go?”

“I…I don’t know. Out of the pack. I sent her away. I told her she should go to the Scripture Pack for rehab, but I’m not so sure she’ll go.”

I knew Natalia was driving her crazy, but I didn’t know it had gotten ~that~ bad.

“I wish you had told me. We could’ve dealt with her together.”

“Alex, the less you have to deal with my fucked-up family, the better.”

“So she’s somewhere out there right now?” I ask. A girl like Natalia wouldn’t last a second in the wilderness alone.

She nods. “That’s why I have to go find her and bring her back.”

I take her hand, turning her toward me before she can pull on a black turtleneck.

“Alex, I know what you’re going to say,” she quickly adds when she sees the look on my face.

“The unification ceremony is tomorrow,” I say. “I need my luna by my side.”

“I may be able to make it back in time, Alex, but I can’t promise anything.”

I let go of her hand and turn away. Of course, I understand, but after everything we’ve put into this ceremony…

I want to share that moment with my mate.

“Well, I know better than to try to stop you,” I say. “But I just wanted my mate in my arms tonight.”

She looks at me sadly, and I wrap my arms around her as she puts her head on my chest.

“I know. I’m sorry, Alex,” she says. “This is all because of my fucking mom. She was the one who leaked my healing powers to the press.”

“Fucking Dianne,” I say, kissing the top of her head.

“How did I let her influence me so much? Same manipulative mothering, different daughter.”

“Well, even if you try to get her out of your life, that doesn’t mean she won’t have an influence on you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I still worry about what my dad would think of me every day.”

She looks up at me, the expression of understanding growing on her face.

Ariel and I may have different demons, but when it comes to this, we understand each other perfectly.

“Is that why you’re going forward with the unification ceremony?” she asks softly.

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “It might be.”

Ariel rises up on her toes, gently kissing my neck. I close my eyes as she punctuates her words with her lips on my skin.

“Trust ~yourself~, Alex.”

“It’s hard to do that when the whole kingdom is losing trust in me.”

She stares at me with those sunflower eyes I will never get tired of.

“That’s not true. You’ve got a queen right here who trusts you completely.”

ARIEL

“Do you have to leave right now?” Alex asks.

I nod.

“And what if I don’t see you before the ceremony?” he asks, taking a step closer, his eyes drinking in my body.

His smirk tells me exactly what he’s thinking.

And as much as I want to, I do need to go.

“Alex, I need to leave…”

His finger traces down my back, unhooking my bra. “Well, your king needs you to stay for just a little while longer.”

“Does he?” I say, as my bra drops to the ground.

“In fact, the fate of the entire Royal Pack depends on it,” he growls.

Alex’s hands grip my hips and pull me closer, and we stare at each other. He knows I have to go, but right now a simple goodbye won’t do.

In the silence, our eyes scream out one thing:

~I need you.~

He pulls me in for a deep kiss that tells me exactly how bad that need is.

I let out a soft moan as he pulls my body even closer, his bulge racing to full hardness under his jeans.

I want every bit of my skin to touch his as our bodies press together.

I know I should leave, but I can’t pull away.

Not until we’ve had our goodbye.

I’ve needed this, and so has he. Our crashing lips erase everything else for a moment.

Everything except the burning desire for him to fuck me hard and fast.

Right here in our walk-in closet.

~Right now.~

I pull off his shirt and throw it aside, letting my fingers glide down his abs and feeling his muscles tighten as I get closer to his crotch.

Hungrily, I undo his belt, pulling his pants and briefs down in one motion, and cradling his expanding shaft in my hand while we kiss.

I feel him roughly grab my ass, fingers sliding down to touch my wetness, and then he lifts my legs and picks me up effortlessly. I moan from the impact of him pushing me back against the wall.

With a swoop of his arm, he sends all of my unworn ~luna-appropriate~ stilettos crashing to the ground as he places me down on the bare shoe rack, pulling my panties off seamlessly after.

There isn’t anything in the world that can distract my hand from guiding his now fully erect shaft inside of me.

In one hard thrust, he fills me completely.

I grab his shoulders and grind against him, pulling and thrusting madly at the same time.

~Goddess, the fucking pleasure!~

With each rocking thrust, more shoes and clothes fall off of their racks around us.

I lean back and cry out his name, gripping the clothes rack above me for support while he grabs my hips and thrusts faster, letting out those little sighs he makes when I know he’s close.

I feel the pulsing euphoria fill my body, and we lock eyes in the final blissful moments.

He lets out a low growl as he cums, and I quiver, gripping him tightly inside me, hungering to hold on to this feeling for as long as I can.

He pulls me closer, giving me gentle kisses, touching our sweaty brows together.

“I love you,” I say breathlessly.

“I love you too,” he says. “Now go get your sister.”

“You’re really not gonna try to stop me?”

“I know better than that at this point,” he smirks.

I kiss my mate passionately one more time before slipping out of his arms, even though it’s the last thing I want to do.

I pick up my tracking clothes and combat boots off the closet floor, which is covered in half of our other clothes that we knocked down during the passion of the last few minutes.

“But will you at least let me send some warriors with you?” he says. I look at his muscular, naked body and resist the urge to stop putting on clothes and push him down for another round.

“No. This is between me and my sister. I need to do this alone.”

He kneels down as I finish tying my boots, and I can tell he’s trying to hide the worry on his face. He takes my hand.

“In case you ever forget it, I trust you. I trust you’ll make it back in time.”

A grin spreads across my face, and I kiss him deeply once more.

***

I enter the royal garage, moving past the glossy vintage cars that belonged to Alex’s dad but that Alex himself never touches, toward my trusty motorcycle parked in the far corner.

I tie my backpack with rations for the next couple of days onto the back.

After all, I don’t know how long this is going to take.

But I need to be prepared.

I swing my leg over the motorcycle and insert my key, but I’m stopped by a stern voice behind me:

“And where the hell do you think you’re going?”

I turn to see Dianne standing by a sports car, a scowl on her face.

~Shit.~

I ~really~ could’ve done without seeing my mom again today, but I have to give it to her: she has a real talent for showing up right when you don’t want her to.

“To find Natalia,” I say coolly.

“Ariel, you can’t just ride off into the night! You’re a queen. You have a duty to perform here. Goddess, what will the pack think?”

I grit my teeth, trying to contain my anger. I wanted to have this conversation later, but she’s forcing me to say what I feel.

“That’s what you’ve always cared about, isn’t it?” I say. “Status and reputation. You’ve always pitted me and Natalia against each other, trying to mold us into who ~you~ wanted to be.”

Dianne goes pale, a look of shock on her face.

“I...I was wrong,” she says timidly. Now it’s my turn to be shocked.

Instead of pushing any criticism back to me like she usually does, she looks at me with genuine hurt in her eyes.

Is she ~really~ admitting that?

“I chose the wrong daughter. It was ~you~ I should’ve been kinder to.”

I shake my head, disappointed but not surprised. Of course she doesn’t see the problem here.

I turn the key in the ignition, and the engine roars to life, the sound bouncing off the garage walls.

“I also made the wrong choice,” I call out, slipping on my helmet. “I never should have trusted ~you~.”

I turn the throttle and the engine roars, drowning out anything else Dianne has to say, then I take off toward the palace gate.

Toward the rapidly darkening woods.

And hopefully, Goddess willing, toward Natalia.