Returned to the castle after hardly any time has passed, I dress in my rooms, confused by the fact that the wolf had finished hunting so swiftly.

The night is young. The wolf had hunted, yes, but strangely enough, he’d not strayed far from the castle.

I stalk through the halls, uncertain of what I’ll do when I arrive, but my feet take me to Liana’s room as if they have a mind of their own.

Oren’s there, he’s standing in my way.

“You said no one could enter, sire.”

“Careful, Oren,” I mutter.

His raised brow is my only reply, but he steps aside. “Perhaps I could run with the pack, the night is still young.”

“Yes,” I say, realizing just now he’s withstood his own change all this time.

Oren looks weary from the fight. He rushes away, almost as swiftly as I had before.

When I open the door, I’m greeted by an angry, gigantic ball of fur. Despite my very manly self, I yelp and barely catch the teeth and claws before they can decapitate me. The lioness stops attacking me, and my wife rises from her paws to her feet, changing so swiftly, that I am still trying to fend off myself from the assault.

“I’m sorry!” she shouts.

“What in all of the realms, Liana!”

“I thought it was your guard! I thought to escape and go after you.” She glares at me, breathing hard. “I should be with you, Noble. By your side. Not trapped here like a prisoner.”

“Prisoner…?”

“Yes.” She flings a hand at the door. “I’ve checked. It’s barred, locked tight.”

“For your protection.”

She motions to the bruising that is fading, but still visible on her beautiful skin.

I realize in the moment, I am arguing with a very naked and angry wife. It’s not entirely terrible.

“No one will harm you ever again, Liana.” I take two large steps forward, and she stands her ground.

I cup her chin in my hand. “Never again. I swear it.”

Her golden eyes show hesitation. Not fear, but something else…distrust.

I glance around. I don’t have a sword, but I have a knife. Pulling this, I slice it across my hand, then bow to a knee and offer her the blade. “On my honor, on my life, I swear it by this blade, Liana, Princess of Lions, Queen of Wolves, that if anyone should harm you again under my roof, that you may then press this blade between my ribs and put the cold point into my heart.”

I sense her reluctance, but Liana takes the knife. “It’s a beautiful blade,” she says, her eyes turning mischievous.

“Do you accept, my lady?”

Swift as a snake, she presses the point of the blade under my chin, forcing my gaze to meet her eyes. Measuredly and with meaning she says, “And you will never again point your sword in my direction as well, King Noble.”

“Yes,” I whisper, entranced by the fire in her eyes, “I swear.”

She could cut my throat right now, and the sight I should die by is one of a goddess of the realms taking what she deems is owed. Long seconds pass, and I sense the change before I see it.

“Then yes, Noble,” she whispers, touching my cheek, dropping the knife, “I accept.”

Something passes between us until I am on my feet, and in one smooth motion lifting the queen off of hers. I carry her not to the bed, but to the window where I throw aside the curtains, then push open the glass, letting in the cold rush of winter.

“Noble!”

“The moonlight,” I say, feeling it strike me at my core.

Liana in my arms, the blue glow reflecting off her skin, it does something to me.

Her fingers stroke the base of my neck. “Is this some sort of wolf tradition?” she asks, her breath brought short as I sit her on the edge of the window, naked.

With the chill at her back, I’m working at my clothes until I can bring our warm bodies together.

“It’s part of my promise to you,” I say.

“Is it?” Her eyes are wide with surprise, but the light inside of them is dancing.

I don’t answer. I kiss her collar bone, and move her hair to the side and busy myself with more available goosebumps. Holding her with one arm around her back, lest she fall out into the open air, my body is now demanding that Liana and I do what we should have been doing the entire of our wedding night.

“Your promise?” she prods.

“Oh yes,” I gasp, because she has bitten the stubble along my jaw, and her claws have found my back from nape to rump.

“I promised you protection,” I say, pushing her legs wider, “to keep you safe.” I press myself between them more firmly.

Liana is the gasping one now. “You can’t always.”

“I can’t always.”

She wraps her legs around my waist when there is nothing between us but fast breathing, the cold making our desperation visible in wisps of fog.

This is not the quick and heated cheat before our wedding, a swift romp in the bed, no, this is our vows made true in the flesh. Even with all the frustrations, mistrusts, and misdeeds between us, we push and pull, kiss and tug, and make sure the other knows that it is merely a truce struck because we cannot seem to be apart from one another.

Not in the physical way, at least.

“I cannot always protect you, but I promise to lick your wounds,” I murmur as I kiss her bruise on her breast, and Liana hisses, cat eyes narrowed. “And I will…”

She pays me back from deep inside and I stifle a moan. “You will what, Noble?”

“Forget… I forget…” And I do forget everything but this woman in my arms.

“Liana,” I say, as a swear word, in worship, in desperation. “Forgive me. Forget with me.”

Beyond her is the forest, the moon, and the wolves are there---all of my priorities in that order.

Her eyes close. “Yes, my king,” she whispers taken by the same flood that rises in my ears. “Yes…Noble.”

Whatever sounds we make…they are echoed in the woods by the howling of wolves.