The Last Princess Read online

  The intruder was near, lurking through the numerous corridors, the great stony maze. He began to remove his shirt so he'd be ready for a sudden shift. With the material coiled in one hand, he kept his back flat against the wall as he heard one of the secret passage doors being unlocked. If the intruder infiltrated the castle, he could go for the queen. Ulric had to ensure this problem didn't pass the outer walls.

  He lunged forward, swinging around the hidden entrance before slamming the intruder against the wall. Ulric hadn't expected a female. She was tiny compared to him. He loosened the grip he had on the back of her neck and took a cautious step back. "Turn around," he commanded. She eased her small frame around until she faced him. He couldn't see her features with the black scarf that covered her head, but he could have sworn he recognized her scent. "Show yourself."

  Those yellowish-green eyes stared up at him through the darkness, transfixed. "Ulric," she murmured. At that moment the main alarm sounded, the blazing sirens deafening, capturing his attention, distracting him for one second too long. He caught movement in his peripheral vision. A second dark figure raced through a distant passage. Were these trespassers working together? If not, who was the greater threat? All the recent complacency of the Royal Elite was backfiring as he'd predicted.

  When he turned back to the woman, she was gone. He twisted his head to each side, and then spun around. How could she move so fast? He raced back down the stone passage. The voices of the other Elite echoed through the tunnels, spotlights scanning the grounds beyond the entrance. He burst out of the passage, breathless, his bare chest slick.

  Blake ran up to him from the left. "What the fuck is happening?" he shouted to be heard. Blake was the rookie, only entering the Elite in the spring. They'd all had their laughs breaking him in, but the determined set of his eyes made Ulric proud. The wolf would no doubt rip apart any threat, as he was taught in his training, rather than bow out with his tail between his legs in the face of real danger.

  "At least two have infiltrated the outer wall. They were in the tunnels only moments ago." There was a vast tunnel system between the moat and the interior of the castle. The staff and residents were well acquainted with its secrets, but an intruder would be easily lost, confused long enough to be caught. "We need to shift and flush them out. One is a female," he added.

  Blake didn't stall or ask questions. "I'll scent them. Female or not, the intruder will pay." He dropped to all fours, not bothering to save his clothing. Another rookie mistake. He'd learn soon enough when all his money went to the purchase of new clothing. The wolf shifter bound off, disappearing into the darkened treeline. Where had Alexander run off to? That soon-to-be royal wolf had probably retreated to the safety of the castle. Preserving his life was of utmost importance, but Ulric would never hide and allow others to protect him. He needed to be in the heart of the action, deal with the threat personally. His role as royal guard was well suited to him, but it still wasn't enough.

  He could see countless shifters prowling the area now. He'd head back into the tunnels to hunt. That female could still be trying to gain access to the castle interior. He dashed through the tunnels, testing the air as he moved. When he turned another corner, he could smell the acrid scent of fear and body odor. He smiled to himself. His bear roared, craving a chance to get his paws on the bastard who slipped by their perimeter.

  A low crevice normally used for storing gardening equipment was the chosen hiding place for the male. "Are you playing dead because I'm a bear shifter? That only works for animals. Personally, it just pisses me off." He kicked his boot into the dark grotto, hitting a flesh and blood being. "Get out before I drag you out."

  When he didn't emerge, Ulric reached in and pulled him out by the shirt. He smelled like a fox, those pathetic, shady little creatures. "Please, it wasn't my idea…"

  Ulric gave him a shake, making the man's tremors increase. "What wasn't? Who sent you? Were you hired to kill the queen?"

  Wesley, Cade and Ronan joined him in the narrow corridor, naked from shifting. "We can't find the other. He's elusive, disappeared like a ghost."

  "She," Ulric corrected before returning his attention to the blue-eyed fox. "Answer my questions."

  "He'll kill me."

  "Do we look like we're ready to have a tea party with you? Answer my fucking questions!"

  "I--I was paid. Paid to kidnap the princess."

  He laughed out loud, as did his friends. "There is no princess here. Where have you been for the past few years?"

  "She's returned." He spoke like some twisted cult member, confident in his claim.

  "Sure, pal. Cade, take him to the cells in the sub-level. We'll deal with him after we secure the perimeter."

  Ulric leaned against the wall once he was alone with Wesley and Ronan. "There's a female loose. If the others still haven't tracked her outside that means she's in here somewhere. I caught her tying to sneak in one of the hidden doorways—"

  "So you're saying she could be inside?" Ronan was gnawing at the bit. He was one of their more lethal members, highly dedicated to the queen. Ulric had never heard a complaint uttered from his lips. He bound off before receiving an answer. The moment the alarms sounded the Elites stationed inside the castle would have checked on the queen and created a wall of protection around her room, so Ulric was more concerned with searching the outside.

  "I'll head to the east, you take the west," he said to Wesley. His friend nodded, shifted back into a panther, and raced down the west tunnel.

  ****

  His life had been dull and uneventful since moving into the royal palace. The sense of urgency in the air now kept him entertained. Shifters scoured the grounds. He watched from the small, stone terrace off his bedroom. The lot of them looked like search dogs, trying to find the fool crazy enough to break into the castle.

  Ulric had pissed him off, treating him like a delicate female. He needed no protecting, and his friend should know that by now. The tests to get on the suitor list for a princess were nearly as involved as the ones to become an Elite. He could handle himself in the face of danger. A little excitement would help hedge the monotonous days of waiting for a wayward princess.

  The door to his bedroom opened and closed, capturing his attention. It was probably one of the guards doing another room check. He stepped back into the bedroom from the terrace to find someone rooting through his dresser drawer.

  "I don't think the criminal would fit in my sock drawer," he said. This invasion of privacy would be reported to the queen first thing in the morning. It would give him something new to grumble about at breakfast.

  The man turned to face him—make that a woman. Her scarf fell partway off her head, revealing shiny black hair and a beautiful heart-shaped face. His cock twitched, a result of the large white moon shining down through the open patio doors and having a beautiful female alone in his private quarters.

  He'd like to think she was a gift for him to soil his oats, but the multiple partner matings in shifter culture always included one woman and numerous men, never the other way around. It was something founded by the monarchy.

  "Who are you?" she asked as if he'd entered her room and not the other way around.

  Chapter Seven

  "Me? This is my bedroom. The more appropriate question is, who are you?" Judging by his eyes, the stranger was a wolf shifter. It was easy to hold a soft spot for her own race, a natural attraction of her wolf to his.

  "You live here?" He wasn't a royal male. She'd be able to sense a relative. This man was new to her, a sinfully sexy wolf with a confident swagger.

  "I'm waiting for my rebellious bride. Personally, I'd sooner have you in my bed." He stepped closer, the wind drawing the sheer white curtains out the open patio doors where they fluttered like trapped spirits. "Do you work here?"

  She couldn't let him get too close or he'd recognize her for who she was. And if this man was truly one of her betrothed, selected by her mother, she wanted nothing to do with him out
of principle. His very presence in her old bedroom was an insult, a slap in the face. Despite his pretty-boy good looks and mesmerizing wolf eyes, she'd never be forced to mate him.

  "Oh no. I don't work here. Just passing through." She touched the items on the dresser. A few she remembered from her childhood. Others were not hers, including bottles of musk-scented cologne and other masculine hygiene items. There was a small jade carved wolf on a leather necklace. She picked it up and examined it. When she was little, her grandmother used to tell her a jade wolf would guide her to one of her future mate. It seemed too much of a coincidence that the man waiting for her also had the exact icon her late grandmother mentioned so many years ago. "Tell me, why wait for a princess who clearly isn't interested in mating with you. It's always caused me pause."

  She watched as he stepped down from the upper level by the balcony to the level she occupied. He didn't approach her, but moved around the room, like a predator circling his prey. "It's an honor." He was silent for a few moments. "Who am I kidding? I'm the only one foolish enough to stick around. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my mother. It meant everything for her that I immortalize the lines of my father by mating with royal blood. So, I sit here in this gods-forsaken castle day after day, year after year, waiting for a princess who could very well be mated like her sisters. What I'd really like to do is free myself of this stone prison and live my life before I have no good years left."

  She hadn't expected the shifter's life story. At least he didn't sugar coat anything, but then again, he didn't know who he was speaking to. "You look like you have many good years left. I'm surprised you didn't leave to build your life with a real woman, rather than holding out for an illusion of one. You're the last suitor. All the others left, but you stayed. Why?" Delia rubbed the small wolf between her fingers, shifting it to and fro. Was this a sign? "Did you ever think maybe fate intervened somewhere along the way? That maybe, despite the involved selection process, you were actually destined for the princess?"

  "Who did you say you were again?" When she didn't answer, he continued, "Doesn't matter. This moon has me under its spell. I normally bite my tongue, but I can't seem to shut-up tonight. I think my wolf is trying to tell me something."

  "You should listen to it. My wolf has never led me astray."

  "Your wolf?" He closed the distance between them, and reached out to touch the necklace she held. "Do you like it? It was my mother's. She wanted me to give it to my future bride."

  It was time for Delia to make her exit. She'd said too much when she shouldn't have allowed herself to even be seen. Her emotions were scattered, so unlike her. She loved the fox, now felt a soul deep bond to the one man she should be avoiding. "Where does the queen sleep?" She had to find her mother, to speak her mind before she went for the weapons lockers on the lower level. There would be a small scale Armageddon before the night was through.

  Just then the door burst open and Ulric burst inside, all six and a half feet of him. The bear shifter was a brick house of solid male muscle. His hair was cropped short to his head, the same way his mother kept it when he was young. She'd recognized Ulric in the tunnels immediately. He'd changed, no longer an awkward youth, but a dominant male presence. Did he remember her? In her heart, she'd always felt a connection between them. But love, lust, and infatuation were often confused when women were young. She wasn't so sure what she felt back then, but she couldn't deny the little leap in her stomach when she saw him up close.

  "Close the glass doors, Alexander. I don't want her escaping again."

  He moved in on her like a huntsman. She tucked her scarf tighter around her face to disguise her identity.

  "Escaping? Who is this woman?" asked the wolf shifter. She could hear the concern in his voice. Delia was a nobody to him so why should he care?

  "An intruder. She breached the outer defenses. I think she means to kill the queen."

  Delia laughed. No, she didn't plan on killing her own mother. As much as she'd been tempted over the years, she would never sink so low. Deep down she still loved her. "Let me pass or you'll both be sorry." Ulric may be twice her size, but she'd fight to her last breath if she had to. Never again would she be set on display like a bird in a gilded cage. She had to maintain her freedom under all circumstances. If she managed to leave the castle tonight with her life, she would return to Caleb and accept the love he offered.

  Just thinking of the fox made her heart ache. She'd left him as he slept, not warning him that she was heading to the castle immediately, rather than waiting for a new day. The full moon energized her, spurring her to act. Now she felt selfish for risking her life after what they'd shared together.

  "Come here, little wolf," Ulric coaxed with venom in his eyes. He was a noble guard. The markings on his arm symbolized he was one of the Royal Elite. If she'd been given the freedom to choose all those years ago, she may have asked to have Ulric as a mate. Now the future was more uncertain than the conflicting emotions impeding her judgment. She wouldn't hurt him, but wouldn't be captured. Both men moved in on her, cornering her near the bedside table and lamp.

  She grabbed the floor lamp by the metallic base and swung it out in an arch, daring them to move within her reach. "She's a feisty one. Let me play with her for a while before you lock her in the dungeon." The wolf grinned at her, a vision of sex and sin. How could her mother think she'd be happy with such a superficial creature as a mate? He was supposed to be waiting for her, the last princess, but here he was ready to bed a strange female.

  "Alexander, let me handle this." He moved closer, and she swung, the full force of her muscles working together to deliver a massive blow—which he stopped abruptly with his hand. He pulled the lamp out of her grip with ease and tossed it behind him in a clatter that rattled her nerves. She gasped, shocked, horrified, and thoroughly turned on by his display of strength. It was only natural for her to desire an alpha male, one who would be a good provider and protector. It was the law of nature, but had nothing to do with love. Then again, this was Ulric, the man she'd thought about numerous times over the years. They were terrible as a team when they were kids, sneaking out at night, tormenting the guards, and playing tricks on the royal family members. Those were the days she remembered with a smile, the days before she struck puberty and the endless demands of being a princess.

  "Don’t hurt her." The wolf was following their every move like a shadow.

  Ulric closed the remaining distance between them, moving with calculated steps. The scarf floated down off her face when she stepped back against the wall. She bared her fangs, ready to use them in combination with her claws. He stopped short, straightening his guarded stance. "Delia? Is it you?"

  "Delia Demori? The last princess?" asked Alexander.

  "Let me leave, Ulric. I won't go to the prison. I'd sooner die than be confined once again."

  "Why the hell did you come here then? Do you plan to kill your mother?"

  She tugged the suffocating scarf off her neck and tossed it on the bed now that the ruse was up. "I just came to make things right."

  Alexander spoke up, "It was you all along. Somehow my wolf knew..." He took her hand and opened her palm, and then pressed the jade necklace into her grip and closed her fingers. "I guess this is yours now, my bride." The way he looked at her told countless stories. This male wanted more from her than just her pedigree—a future, a family—and it felt wrong to take the opportunity away from him. But she didn't come home just to give up, falling for the first handsome face.

  "I didn't return to be mated, not to you or anyone my mother chose." She searched the room and all exits for a possible means of escape. "I came to talk some sense into the queen; to create an uproar so all shifters can finally be aware of the lives we're forced to live as princesses. I haven't spoke with my sisters in years. I'm without a home, roots, safety, a mate, or family—all because of the undo pressures put on me by our culture."

  "I'll speak with the queen first thing in the morning so w
e can arrange the wedding. We'll make everything right." Then the wolf's tone deepened, "I can't say I'm disappointed with how you've turned out, princess."

  He had no perception of just how far the queen's rule reached. Her choices, her feelings, her dreams—they all meant nothing in the face of her mother's ideals. She growled, bolting away from the wolf shifter and the happily ever after that would always elude her.

  Ulric caught her in his arms. Her breath hitched as she hit the hard length of his body. He was so warm, so strong, and so familiar. She looked up at him, studying his strong jaw, full lips, and dark eyes. Was it the power of the moon in the darkened room or genuine feelings for the bear shifter that stole her breath? Why hadn't she fought to get away yet? She felt protected in his embrace—even though his job as a Royal Elite would be to capture her, to bring her to the queen for punishment. Ulric was her heart from a childhood past, a window into happier times.

  "No more running, Delia," he whispered.

  "What do you expect me to do, Ulric? Fulfill a prophecy that goes against my better judgment, one that alienates sisters from each other? I should be able to choose my mates or choose not to mate at all."

  "You can't abandon your calling, princess," said Ulric. "You'll condemn us all if you don't mate."

  "My sisters will carry on the lines. There's no need for me."

  "Do you realize the hell I had to go through to get on the suitor list—the tests, the challenges? Then I had to sit back and wait for my fickle bride to return while I was the laughing stock of the palace."