Night echoes into the early morning. It’s still dark out, a darkness where shadows cannot follow. We wait, my mother by my side with Noble’s parents next to her, anticipating the outcome of a battle not yet birthed. The other wives and my sisters sit behind us.

His parents, who had been summoned by the lion court to witness this battle, look distraught. His mother appears so frail in her uncertainty of Noble’s outcome. It makes me wish I had never asked Noble to fight for me. That I’d never chased him into the prairie after I saw him watching me in the first place. Then he wouldn’t be here, his life in the hands of so much unknown.

From my seat in our large auditorium, I look for my father among the tall grass of our battlefield and sense him before I spot him. Or not him, but the slight, shuffling grass as he stalks forward, hunting his prey. My future husband.

My prince wolf, who urged me out of his room six hours prior to this moment with a lingering kiss on my swollen lips. I twist my hands on my lap as I sit quietly on my throne, not permitting my emotions to cross over my features.

But I worry. Unaccustomed to fighting alone, Noble is at a disadvantage. He’s smaller than my father. He and his pack are patient hunters, sometimes studying their prey for days before they go in for the kill. Unlike the lions who are opportunists and pounce at first chance. The warm weather and our terrain further tip the scale in the king lion’s direction.

A natural born hider, Noble doesn’t see my father slowly approach him across the field. I lean forward, wanting to warn him. My mother nudges me with her elbow and flashes a smile I can’t return.

“Your wolf will make you proud,” she assures me.

She can’t know the pride that already fills me. Him, fighting in a foreign battlefield, against my father, without reservation, just so I can stand by his side as his wife is more than I can ask of any man. Yet, I asked him, and he complied with a ferocity unmatched to any male in my realm.

Noble lowers, his muzzle curling back as he turns his attention to where my father prowls. He takes a few decisive steps back and when my father lunges, he darts through the grass, making my father crash into the hard, unforgiving ground. My father rises quickly, shaking his coat.

Their attention slams into the other, tension rising throughout the auditorium as the two opponents square off. They circle one another, and Noble seems to take in everything. My father’s stride, the angles of his body, and I know from the brief studies of wolves that Noble is assessing my father, looking for weaknesses.

Noble snaps his jaws and lunges forward before changing directions and running past my father. Confused, my father turns in Noble’s direction. I clasp my hands together, my fingers digging into my flesh as realization dawns on me.

Noble doesn’t fight with the brute force of my father. He is, after all, wolf, not lion. I almost giggle at the thought. My future husband is far cleverer than I anticipated and is testing my father. In doing so, he now holds the upper hand and sets the pace for the fight.

Irritated, my father growls as Noble circles him. He darts through the grass, far enough my father can’t pounce on him, but close enough my father can’t regroup and take control. When Noble stops, my father moves to him. Slowly, so slowly he might as well not be moving.

As if not troubled by his large enemy, Noble yawns. My father pounces. I close my eyes. My mother gasps, and I reopen my eyes.

Swiftly, Noble sprints away from my father and when he’s behind him, he jumps on my father’s backside. My father roars, thrashing his body as he inclines his head toward Noble. Noble digs deeper into my father’s flesh. Finally, my father grips Noble with his sharp teeth and shakes him off. Noble falls to the ground with a loud thud that rings in my ears. With calculating eyes, my father stalks to my wounded husband and I stand, wanting Noble to see me so that he knows I’m still on his side.

Even from a distance, I see his eyes. The black shade that’s overtaken his gaze and I know he’s fully changed. Fully wolf, and he no longer knows what he’s fighting for.

Fisting my hand, I press it to my chest and whimper, not knowing if I’m worried for Noble or for my father.

Again, my father lunges, and when he reaches Noble, Noble’s body twists and he jumps so that he again is in on top of my father, his sharp teeth drilling into my father’s neck. My father’s strong jaw closes around Noble’s flesh as they wrestle for position, neither showing any sign of retreating.

I turn, unable to watch any further and face my mother. “Stop this,” I urge her.

She shakes her head, her eyes shining with the same worry that possesses me. “I cannot,” she says, her voice strong. “It is up to them to stop.”

“They won’t,” I whisper. “The king’s pride won’t let him. And Noble…” I drift off, turning my attention to his parents and they understand my unspoken plea.

Their son is rogue. There is nothing human left in the wolf.

My father roars again and I spin on my heels to face them. Resolute, I square my shoulders and prepare myself to witness death.

Death of my father or death of the man I thought I could love.

Lion and wolf tumble across the battlefield, the sounds of war thundering through the auditorium. Although smaller than my father, Noble’s strategy has tired the great king who’s barely able to stand. Poised for the final strike, Noble rushes to my father, who closes his eyes in defeat.

“Noble,” I whisper, my voice breaking as my eyes fill with tears.

He stops, and after a few beats the wolf glances up at me. Trembling fingers cover my mouth as we look at one another. Still staring at me, he shudders once, his beautiful black fur trembling with the gesture, before he changes into human form. Cuts and bites mar his body as blood spills, painting his skin a crimson red. I take in a desperate breath and bow my head to him, my gaze never falling from his.

“We’re done,” he announces and looks down at my father. “I’ve won your daughter’s hand in marriage.”