Chapter l454

Chapter 0454

Julian and Nicholas continued to barrage each other with different attacks. Fur flew. Teeth chomped. Claws slashed, drawing blood.

At each overly–vicious blow, delivered by each of the two brothers, I flinched forward, wanting to stop the fighting. But Mark’s extended arm kept me from impulsively rushing forward, and in those few moments of hesitation, I remembered Mark’s warning.

Stepping between two fighting werewolves, Alphas no less, was a dangerous proposition. The two princes could quickly heal from each other’s inflicted wounds, but I wouldn’t be so lucky.

And, as I watch more closely, I noticed that even the bloody wounds given were not given purposefully deep. It was though, even as they lashed out at each other in rage, they held themselves back as well, never giving wounds too serious to not immediately heal.

Beside me, Bridget was calmly sipping her tea. Maybe she had noticed that already, and that was why she was so calm. If she knew them both as children and young adults, and if she had borne witness to these fights in the past, she would know from experience that, even angry, the two brothers wouldn’t seriously harm each other.

Again, I felt jealousy rise within me. I wished that I had known them when they were young. wished I could be as ingrained in their memories as Bridget was.

Eventually, Julian and Nicholas backed away from each other. They were huffing deep breaths from their efforts.

Nicholas shifted back to his human form first. His face and clothes were covered in dirt and grass–stains and dried blood, but there were no outward bruises or cuts. His face did, however, remain contorted in anger. He was still absolutely furious.

He didn’t say a word, just glared at Julian. Then, he turned from all of us and stormed back toward the palace.

Every muscle in my body itched to follow him and set all misunderstandings straight, but I forcibly held myself back. I doubted I would be welcome.

Bridget looked at me. “Think about what I said, Piper. You really should be more responsible.” Then she followed Nicholas, walking as casually as she had when she arrived.

Mark sighed. He nodded at me, then hurried after his master, giving Bridget a wide berth as he passed her.

–

Now alone with Julian, I looked over at him. He was still in wolf form until he sat down in the grass. Then, abruptly he shifted into human form. Like Nicholas, he was covered in dirt and grim, dried blood and some grass, but no bruises or cuts.

He laughed as he rubbed some of the dirt away from his cheek, where early Nicholas had struck him hard. “I forgot how jarring Nicholas’s right hook is.” He laughed. “I guess I deserved it.‘

Relieved they were both unharmed after such a vicious–looking fight, I flopped down onto my backside on the grass beside him.

I

+15 BONUS

“You didn’t deserve it,” I said.

“I kept you out all night,” Julian said. “Made him worry. Made him think I took your virginity.”

I looked away, toward the tree line. The rising sun hadn’t yet reached high enough to break through the many limbs and leaves of the forest canopy. It was dark as night among the tree trunks.

“He has no right to be angry about that,” I said.

“Sure,” Julian snorted. “Forget that the man is in love with you.”

I slouched my shoulders. “He’s not in love with me.”

“Piper,” Julian began, but I didn’t want to hear his reasoning. Not now, when it made so little difference.

“He’s with Bridget,” I said. “He can’t be in love with me.”

Julian rubbed his jaw next. “Guy doesn’t fight like that if he’s not pissed. And a guy doesn’t get that pissed if he’s not jealous as hell. And a guy doesn’t get jealous as hell if he has no feelings for you.”

I deep, full bodied sigh escaped me. I truly didn’t know what to believe. But I knew for a fact that it really didn’t matter. If Nicholas had feelings for me, as Julian suggested, then he had to bury them for the sake of the crown.

And if he had to hide his true feelings for a crown, then what use was it to think too much on whether his feelings were real or not.

“By the way,” Julian said. “What did Bridget say to you? I saw her standing there next to you. I saw the two of you talking.”

Oh, no. How could I tell him? But I guessed that I had to. His heart was as tangled in this mess as mine was. We had an unspoken pact between us to share what we discovered about Nicholas and Bridget together when we discovered it, no matter how much it might hurt. I couldn’t go

back on that now.

“She gave me a bit of a warning, I’d say,” I told him. “She said… Well…” I inhaled a great breath. It was painful even to repeat it. “She said that since she and Nicholas are together now, I should just leave him alone.”

“Well, shit,” Julian said, curtly. He turned his head from me. “Guess that’s that then.”

“T

guess so.” Bridget’s confirming the relationship eliminated any remaining sliver of hope that the relationship between her and Nicholas had been something in my imagination. At least, that hope was cut for Julian. Me, personally? I still wanted to hear it from Nicholas.

Though I knew I was likely kidding myself.

“What if we just avoided everyone else for the rest of eternity,” Julian said. “Start over with new names, new faces. Or hide forever.”

If it was just me, I might be tempted, but I had Elva to consider. As appealing as it was to run from my problems forever, I knew it wasn’t possible. Julian likely did too. Sometimes he did things like this, talked just for the sake of it.

+15 BONUS

He loved his outrageous plans.

“Where would we go? Who would we be?” I asked, joining in on the fun. The idea of an escape, however impossible, was a fun change of mind. I’d rather talk about silly dreams than about things that continued to hurt us.

He laughed a little, though it sounded a tiny bit sad. “We could be whoever we want to be, Piper.”

That seemed unlikely. How would we live without money? I tried to picture Julian attempting to work an everyday job, and couldn’t quite picture it. A prince as a waiter? Or working in retail, getting hassled by costumers?

The vision made me laugh.

He looked at me. “What?”

and

–

“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to offend him or worse. He might see my vision as a challenge go out to attempt to prove me wrong. “Though there are some obvious flaws in the plan.”

“I suppose,” he admitted. “It’s nice to think about, though.”

“It is,” I said.

There were many reasons to stay where we were. Elva’s health, for one. Less dramatically, we still needed to learn the results of the theater event. They’d likely be released soon.

“I have to stay and see this through,” I said.

“Yeah,” Julian said, and some bitterness seeped into his voice. “Yeah, me too.”