I frowned down at the piece of dried tiger meat from last night.

“Eat it,” Max ordered.

“I’m working my way up to it,” I whined.

“You need your strength.”

“How many calories could this possibly have? It’s lean meat.”

“Eat it.”

I closed my eyes and shoved it in my mouth. It was just like steak…but gamy and flavorless and a day old. “I think I preferred the grubs,” I complained.

“I’m sure we’ll have our fill of that too before this is all over.”

I groaned. Choosing love tasted gross.

We headed south, cutting east and then west to avoid roads and populations. While I didn’t know much about this realm, I trusted Max’s ability to get us safely to Deabru territory. “Have you talked to her since the break up?”

“We didn’t break up. She told me she was dying, ordered me to be okay with it and then married my greatest enemy.”

“So… I’ll take that as a no.”

“I spent most of that time on Earth, watching over Julian.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I have to be. This is more important than what she did to me.”

“I could hate her for you.”

“What?”

“You be the bigger person and act like you’re totally over her and I’ll give her stink eye and be a total bitch to her.”

He laughed. “Why would you do that?”

“Because she deserves it. Not to mention it sounds like fun. Don’t you think?”

“No matter what you say, you won’t get a rise out of her. She prides herself on controlling her emotions.”

“What an ice queen. Okay, challenge accepted.”

“Kiera…”

“You heard me. I’m going to make bloodsucker Barbie lose her shit in the middle of court, she’ll be so humiliated. Vengeance will be ours.”

“There are more important things at stake than getting revenge for something that happened so long ago.”

I waved him off. “Oh yeah, saving Julian’s kingdom. We’ll get around to that too.”

“Kiera…”

“What? Just because I helped you escape doesn’t mean I’ve signed off to letting some vampire keep my best friend in bondage. He and his sister can fight their uncle for the throne, hopefully they all die in a bloody massacre and you get chosen as their replacement.”

“You do see the fundamental flaw in that plan, right?”

“Who says the king of vampires has to be a vampire?”

“The other vampires.”

“What do they know?”

“What am I going to do with you?” Max snatched me up and threw me over his shoulder.

Since it was obvious he wasn’t doing it so we could move faster, I kicked and flailed. “Put me down you bastard,” I said laughing.

He smacked my ass and I laughed harder.

We were supposed to be running for our lives, but there was something about being with him that made me feel like nothing bad could happen. That night we made camp in a cave. Max hunted down a couple hares and I went to sleep wishing I’d shown that roast and potatoes far more respect than I did. Oh well.

We zigzagged our way south until I couldn’t stand to spend another day in the remnants of my princess dress. He mentioned a village not to far off and we decided to sneak in and grab some clothes.

We were at a farmhouse not far from the village spying a line of laundry drying in the sun. “Brown woolen dress, here I come.”

“Do you know how much that fabric itches?”

“Meh, we’ll deal. Now come on.” I crept across the open field making a b-line for the dress. I pulled it down just dreaming of a long soak in a lake when I noticed I wasn’t alone. A little girl, about four or five, with blond pigtails, clutched a rag doll as she watched me with her saucer eyes.

I put on my biggest saleswoman smile. “Well, hi there, what’s your name?”

“Are you stealing Mommy’s dress?” Well the kid knew how to get to the point, I’d give her that.

“No. I’m a friend of your Mommy’s, I’m just borrowing it.” If you’re Mommy’s friend, what’s her name?

Smart kid. “Okay, I’m not you’re mom’s friend—”

She took a big breath in preparation to scream.

I held up my hands. “Wait, wait, we’ll buy the clothes.” I looked over at Max who was standing there with a pair of slacks under his arm looking bemused. “Shut up and loan me this place’s equivalent of a twenty.”

He tapped the side of his head.

I tilted my head unsure of what he meant, and then I felt the weight of it. With everything that happened I forgot I was walking around with a head full of swag. I pulled out a gold comb encrusted with emeralds and offered it to the little girl.

She accepted it and said, “I want one for Molly too.”

“Molly?”

She pointed to her rag doll.

“You run a hard bargain.” I offered her a pin with an emerald at the tip.

She took it and ran towards her house. “Moommmmy, I made us rich.”

Max and I took off in the other direction. We got to the lake before we could stop and talk. “If they are still looking for us—”

I cut him off. “They aren’t even thinking about us. We’re stuck here, so we can’t warn Julian. And after it was over with Lucius would have let you go anyway. Why would he lose another twelve guys trying to come after you when he can just send his people to Earth.”

“He doesn’t know what we can and can’t do. If we can get to Claudia before he gets to Julian, we can put a stop to this.”

I attempted to get out of my corset, but I couldn’t undo the back laces. Max noticed my struggle and started to untie me as we spoke. “How is your princess going to save the day?”

“She’s a queen now and she’s not mine. She’s queen of the most powerful army in the realm, if she threatens war, Lucius will be forced to back off.”

With the corset loosened, I slipped off my dress and stepped into the cool rushing water. “Unless he figures out she’s bluffing.”

Max stripped off his suit. It hadn’t faired much better than my dress, but I still hated to see it go. “She can’t bluff. It’s her brother. I’m sure if she knew what was going on, she’d put a stop to it.”

He had a point. I dipped my face under the water adding to the reasons I didn’t like Claudia. She’d be yet another obstacle in getting rid of Julian. It was bad enough I’d have to figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t upset Max, now I had to worry about being stopped by a vampiress.

I emerged from that water just in time for Max’s cannonball sending a wave of water slamming into my face and knocking me over. I sputtered my way back to the surface. “Max!”

He brushed back his raven black hair, laughing. “This was your idea.”

“I never asked you to drown me,” I said using my palms to send a wave in his direction.

His smile softened as he settled down. “You know, you were really good with that kid back there.”

I shrugged. “I love children. I always wanted my own little league team.”

“Really? So why don’t you have any?”

I sighed, pushing the water back and forth as I spoke. “Never met the right guy. I’m fun.”

He quirked a brow. “Fun?”

“I’m the girl that drinks you under the bar. The one that’s down for a threesome. The one you take to Maui. I’m not the girl you bring home to meet the fam, and I’m certainly not the one you give a ring to.”

“So threesomes are on the table, huh?” There was that devilish grin again.

I threw more water at him.

He laughed as he grabbed me, dragging me into his embrace. “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.”

“Would your mom have liked me?”

“Oh, my mom would have loved you, doubly so if you managed to drink me under the bar.” He kissed my head and I closed my eyes wanting to soak him in.

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“Want kids?”

“My own little league team.”

I was glad he couldn’t see the stupid grin on my face. “So, why haven’t you started a family yet? Too busy babysitting Julian to find a baby mama?”

“Well, it’s not like just any woman would do. We’d essentially be starting our own pack. It’d take an extraordinary woman for something like that.”

“So what are you looking for?” I asked teasingly.

“Well, first and foremost she’d have to be tough. A true alpha female.” Check.

“Secondly, she’d have to be good with kids. After all, how we raised our children would determine the fate of our clan for generations to come.” Check.

“She’d also need to have a good sense of humor. Times get hard sometimes, and I’d need the kind of woman who could share in my joy and make me laugh when I feel like I want to cry.” Check. Check. Check.

“But most importantly, she’d have to be someone I could trust. Someone I knew always had my back.” Big red X and a buzzer sound. Chicks intent on killing his best friend need not apply.

I pushed away from him and he let me go. “We should probably get going. I’m starting to get cold.”

We got dressed in our incredibly expensive rags and Max was right, it itched like nothing has ever itched before.

We continued on our journey, as I silently contemplated the choice I had to make. Abby’s safety or my happiness, it seemed the universe wasn’t going to allow me to have both.