After we returned to the castle, Harrison was summoned to some kind of briefing. He left me in the library, which contained thousands of books that looked to have never been touched.

A clearing throat caught my attention and drew my eyes across the monstrous room, where all the walls not filled with books were lined with aged maple.

“Hello?”

The male stepped forward. It was Oscar, from the night before.

“Atlas, can we speak for a moment?”

“Of course.” I looked around for his sake, making sure the alpha wasn’t hanging from the ceiling or something.

“Not here.” With two fingers, he waved me toward the door. I smelled no deception on him, so I followed. Oscar stopped at the entrance of a closet that was the size of my old apartment. “In here.”

I stepped inside, thinking that I would find brooms or mops, but instead I found a makeshift living area with a few chairs and a shabby table.

“I apologize. There aren’t very many places that are safe here.”

“It’s fine. What did you need to talk to me about?”

“I wanted to warn you about some things and to ask your intentions. Everyone is getting their hopes up, but I’m the skeptic.”

He sat down once I did, and I motioned for him to continue. My heart jumped into my throat in anticipation.

“The warning is about saying anything in certain places of the house. There are very few places that are safe. I’m sure Harrison will tell you. The other is that not everything is what it seems here. Look beyond the mask. Don’t trust anyone.”

“Even you?” I said, with my eyebrow cocked.

“You can trust your kind, Atlas. We would never betray you. I wanted to invite you to a place where you can see what’s really going on here.”

“And where is that?”

“The Terrace. Just ask your mate. He will know where it is, though he has never been. Don’t be surprised if he bucks against the idea. He’s been brainwashed too long.”

“Brainwashed?”

He ticked his head to the right and stared down the door. He heard something.

“Back to the library, Atlas. Quickly. You know the way?”

Oscar pushed me out the door, not waiting for the answer. I looked both ways down the hall and spotted a painting I’d remembered passing.

The castle was a maze, but I feared that getting lost in this place was the least of my worries.

* * *

The walls of stone seemed to close in minute by minute. Harrison’s father didn’t leave the next day or the next. We spent our time in an endless schedule of increasingly boring blocks of time.

You can learn a lot about someone when you’re confined in a space with them. My mate was kind, but at the same time aloof to the staff. This might have been because he’d been taught to act this way, or maybe it was his father’s disposition coming through.

He was also oblivious. He was like a child playing in a playpen while the world burned around him. He wasn’t doing anything about it, but at the same time I wondered if he even knew the severity of the world outside.

I would have to show him before he became alpha and turned into his father.

That was, if I didn’t die of boredom first.

I even played chess with my mate just to pass the time.

He didn’t seem to notice my little spurts of time away from him. Either that, or he didn’t care. The servants of the castle were more than willing to divulge information to me, since I was one of their kind. I’d snuck to the kitchen and even the laundry rooms to speak to them.

My mate was ignorant on so many levels.

A knock on the library door startled me. Jerking out of my chair, I rose to answer the door, knocking over all the pieces except Harrison’s king.

“Let the servants answer the door,” Harrison whispered to me. I’d come to know this whisper as the ‘helping Atlas stay out of trouble’ whisper. The things he told me to do in this whisper were not meant as commands, but precautions.

I’d always been pretty independent before, but having Harrison keep me safe didn’t bother me.

In fact, I kind of found it endearing.

“Ah, here is the happy couple. Your mother and I are going to meet with some of the clans in the west. We will be gone for just a couple of days. Dolrich will be coming with me.”

Waiting for Harrison to have some kind of reaction to his father taking a cousin with him on a trip for official business, I stayed quiet. Not calm, but quiet.

I looked back and forth between father and son, waiting for a protest or at least a flash of disgruntled emotions, but there were none. Apparently, both of them were content with the status quo.

“Excellent. Are there any tasks you would have me do while you are gone?” Harrison sounded like the girl from Rohan in Lord of the Rings, all prim and proper about official duties.

“No. I have everything taken care of. You and Atlas just . . . do whatever you do.”

There was a hint of perversion when the alpha referred to me and his son. Every. Time.

Harrison nodded. At first, I thought he was afraid of his father, but more and more, I believed it to be tolerance.

It was as if Harrison just didn’t care. What kind of future leader would he be if he didn’t care about the kingdom—just let it all swirl around him while he sat on his chairs and walked in his libraries and ordered food from the phone?

Twenty minutes later, the car with the alpha and his queen pulled from the driveway.

We both watched from the window of the library, directly above the main entrance to the castle.

“When can we . . .”

Harrison gasped slightly. It wasn’t safe for me to speak. I’d forgotten. It was like living under a dictator instead of an honorable leader.

I’d have bet Harrison would be an honorable leader if he was given the right opportunity. We waited in the library another half hour. My legs nervously bounced the entire time, mostly because I knew we were waiting for a sign of the alpha being gone.

The sign that we could leave this place.

“Why don’t we go take a walk in the gardens?” Harrison asked, already almost halfway to the door.

“Okay.” This place was so weird.

We strolled through the maze of flowers and trees. There were shrubs shaped into beings and animals, Edward Scissorhands style, and roses whose blooms were twice the size of any blooms I’d ever seen.

“Yeah?” Harrison lifted his cell to his ear. I hadn’t even heard a ring.

“Good. Thank you, Ric.”

“Ric?” I asked in total confusion. There had to be another Ric.

“Yeah, that Ric. My father keeps enemies. I keep friends. Sorry, I forgot the hand thing.” He took my hand and squeezed. “This garden is always safe if you need to come out and scream or tell me something or you know, drag your mate out here to make out.” He laughed and shrugged. Not even sorry for tempting me.

All of a sudden, I was in some kind of bear soap opera.

“So I can trust Ric, too? If I needed something?”

His expression grew serious. “If you need anything or find yourself in a situation out in the Falls, you can go to any member of the Court of the Sun and the Moon. They are all allies, so to speak. As my mate, you will be protected.”

“And as the future queen?”

“Maybe it’s time for you to show me your ink.” He was changing the subject. Fine with me. I didn’t really want to talk about being the queen anyway.

“Oh. Here.” I pulled at the collared button-down shirt, one of many that my mother insisted I bring. She mistook a castle for a preppy private school.

“It’s a bear, no, it’s two bears. One looks like mine.”

I shrugged. “They might as well know who I belong . . . who my mate is.”

He moved in closer. I could feel the rhythm of his breaths against my neck. “I thought it would look different to me than it does to everyone else.”

My blush rose to my cheeks, putting the red roses around me to shame. “Um, if the mating is ever completed, it will change to something else that only you can see.”

Harrison’s eyes grew to large circles. “Oh, that must’ve been what took so long. Addie must’ve used a good bit of magic.”

“She did. She had some predictions about us.”

“Oh?” He cleared his throat. “What were they? We are safe here.” He must’ve seen my apprehension.

“That we would change this clan. Actually, she said we would change the future of all bears. There was more, but it was . . .”

“Was what?” He took another step toward me. His warm hand brushed mine, sending tingles down my spine and making my stomach pull tight. The scent of my mate overwhelmed me when he got this close. It was all I could do not to pretend this was all real and let myself fall for him.

“Nothing. Just that we would have a lot of children.” The words spilled from my mouth faster and sloppier than I’d ever spoken before.

He said nothing, so I stole a glance at him, still standing too close.

He winked at me. “Sounds like fun. Let me know when you want to get started on that.” With a kiss to my new tattoo, he left me there, panting.