The meeting with Alexandre was a risk. Every time I leave Arrowhead Mountain it is a risk, but it was better to meet him down here, in the nearest town, than risk him coming up to the cabin. For all the precautions that Alexandre takes, there was always a chance that he might be followed.

And if Alexandre was ever followed then we’re both as good as dead. The rebels would gun me down as soon as they saw me. Then they would cut my head off as proof that they’d finally murdered me. After all, it was what they had done to my parents.

If I was killed in Beauville then at least the rebels wouldn’t find out about Arrowhead Mountain.

The mountain is a sanctuary for me and my younger brothers, who each have their own cabins on the mountain, close to mine. As long as Arrowhead Mountain remained a secret then they could survive. They could continue the fight. Because this fight is all that we live for now. It doesn’t matter that we’ve been living in hiding for the last two years. It doesn’t matter that we are risking our lives. Me and my brothers will do whatever it takes.

Our parents were betrayed, killed in cold blood, and my father’s own brother was the one that gave the order to have them killed. I would give anything to see my uncle pay for his crime and that is all that matters to me now. I live for the day that I will finally kill him.

I know that, no matter how long it takes, my parents death will be avenged. My uncle’s rebellion will be put down.

Luckily for me, Uncle Luka had made one major mistake.

When he killed his brother and sister-in-law, he’d failed to kill us too, his nephews.

If he’d succeeded there would have been no one left to stop him taking what he wanted most. The thing that he valued above the life of his brother and his brother’s family: my father’s crown, the crown of Askovia.

With the King and Queen dead, and their children missing, my uncle got his wish. He was made king. Well, Luka may have been crowned king, but he will not reign for long on the throne that he stole.

When my brothers and I fled Askovia, we swore that one day we would return and make Luka pay. He will not get away with his crimes.

We were able to get to the US and to the remote piece of land that belonged to my mother’s family. Uncle Luka had never been told about Arrowhead Mountain. It was our safe haven from him. Arrowhead was a place where I could plot my next move, the steps I would take to get my revenge. I have used the last two years well and I am so close that I can almost taste the victory.

I have my own network of people still loyal to me and to the rightful heirs. Alexandre is my courier. He passes my messages to my people in Askovia, giving them my instructions and relaying information back to me.

My youngest brother wants to gather evidence and have Luka arrested and tried by an international court. He wants Luka to spend the rest of his life rotting in some European prison. I don’t want that. I just want him dead.

And I want to be the one that does it. I want to wrap my hands around his traitorous throat and squeeze. I want him to know that I’m the one reclaiming my families place on the throne.

Of course, Luka knows that he isn’t completely safe, even on the throne of Askovia. He knows that we survived, and he must realize that I want revenge. If he catches wind of where we are hiding, he will send his men to finish the job he started with my parents, and kill us all. It wouldn’t take much for Luka to send his hitmen to track us down once he knew where we were. The smallest, slightest clue could be enough. Even the small town gossip of a place like Beauville, would reach Luka’s ears if someone said that they had seen the missing Prince Gabriel.

All my plans will be worthless if he can get to me before I can get to him.

That’s why I’ve taken every precaution against being recognised. I lived on Arrowhead Mountain, a place that most people believed was totally uninhabited and inaccessible. I had my meetings with Alexandre in hidden spots, like this dank alley. I even grew out this beard to help mask my face.

It’s been two years since I’ve been in the news. Askovia is a small country, but the royal family is well known. Tabloids and celebrity gossip magazines have published photographs of me since I was a young boy. My face was just too well known. I had thought that by coming here, far from a metropolitan city, I would be safe. I thought having my meetings in Beauville would mean that I would never be seen, or at least recognised.

My every thought was consumed with my need for revenge, my every action was towards my one goal, and then she opened that door and changed everything.

I froze as soon as I saw her. She was beautiful, that struck me immediately. But, in that same second, I saw that she was afraid. She was looking around wildly, her face was twisted up in fear.

It was her terror that pulled at my heartstrings. I couldn’t stand to see any woman in distress. I hated to see that expression on her perfect face.

Perhaps it was my Askovian blood, but I would always intervene to help a lady in distress.

I stared at her, trying to understand what trouble she was in and what had brought her, panting and scared-looking, into this alley. Whatever it was, I knew I would do everything in my power to make things better for her. Then another figure lumbered into view, stumbling through the back door. Some leering drunk was chasing after this beautiful woman.

I barely held back my disgust for a man who clearly had no honor.

Still, it was a relief, because this was a situation that I could easily fix. I didn’t have to ask her what was wrong, I could see plainly enough for myself. This drunkard was a lecher and he was trying to put his hands where they didn’t belong.

The drunken slob paused as he realized that he was no longer alone with his quarry, and he started to yell.

Admittedly, I hardly paid attention to the words he yelled, I simply saw that he was yelling his crudeness at a beautiful woman as if he had some right to her. He had been lucky to just stand in the same bar as her and breathe the same air as her.

She flinched back from him, her fear and disgust was palpable.

Seeing that, I saw red, my blood boiling with anger. No man should make a woman feel unsafe!

How dare this sleazeball imagine he was worthy of her attention. Not when she was clearly trying to get away from him!

Without even thinking about the consequences, I stepped up to him, reaching past the woman, and punched him. Hard.

The drunk crumpled to the ground, weak and pathetic.

But, it wasn’t that simple. As my fist flew towards him, I had seen something in his little, hate-filled eyes. There had been a spark of recognition. Somehow, that drunk had recognised me.

I pulled my arm back, my body relaxing now that I’d dealt with the threat.

But the threat wasn’t really gone. What was I going to do now that I’d been recognised and my plans had gone south. All the precautions I’d taken over the last two years had been blown apart in a matter of seconds.

I looked down at the woman. She was still breathing heavily from her ordeal. Her tight, white t-shirt clung to her womanly frame. Her chest was heaving as she gulped in air, and it made her tits bounce, heaving and delicious. She looked up at me, wide-eyed and innocent.

It had been years since I had been so close to a woman, but she wasn’t anything like the women I’d known back in Askovia. She didn’t have that pampered air of a lady in waiting. She didn’t have the plastic look of the women who came to my father’s court, angling to snag a Prince as a husband. This was a real woman, like I’d never seen before and I wanted her. I knew, there and then, that she would be mine.

Alexandre interrupted us, almost gave the whole game away by addressing me as ‘Your Highness’. Luckily, I managed to stop him before he’d finished saying my full title. I sent him away. There was no need for Alexandre to hang around and give her time to memorise his face too.

And, to be honest with myself, I liked having her attention focused entirely on me. I wanted to be alone with her, without Alexandre being a distraction. I wanted to be the only man she was looking at.

Her small body next to mine felt so right. I knew then that I would make her mine.

The easiest way to make sure that my identity remained secret would be to kill the drunk who had recognized me. Except, I couldn’t do that. He was an innocent. Sure he was not an honorable man, but he didn’t deserve to be killed for that alone.

I was going to have to risk leaving him alive.

Luka had put a bounty on my head and would pay handsomely for any information on my whereabouts. But, Beauville was a small town just off the highway. Just because Luka might find out that I’d been seen in Beauville, that wouldn’t be enough to track me down to Arrowhead Mountain. For all Luka’s men would know, I could just be passing through Beauville as I travel around the USA.

I looked back to the woman again. She was like an angel, stepping into my life. Her blonde hair falling just past her shoulders, her beautiful face shone with an openness and vulnerability that beguiled me instantly.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked, in her cute American accent, as she took a step away from me. I could see in her eyes that she was thinking about running away from me. Silently, I dared her to try. She was in my sights now. There’s was no way I was leaving here without her.

Her back hit the closed bar door and I stepped closer, pressing forward and watching the way her body reacted to me. Her mouth fell open, her pupils dilated and her cheeks blushed pink.

I’d had years of training in my father’s court. I’d spent my life moving in the highest political circles in Askovia. I knew how to read body language very well. But I didn’t need to be an expert to read hers now.

Her body already knew that it belonged to me.

I wanted to see more. I wanted to follow that blush, down from her pink cheeks. I wanted to chase that reddening skin with my mouth, kissing that blush down her neck, down her chest until it got to her bouncy tits and the nipples I could see outlined as they rose up through her thin t-shirt.

I wanted her to feel what it was like to be worshipped like she deserved.

Just looking at her made my blood run hot, a scorching heat that I knew was going to consume me if I wasn’t careful. I could see her arm, weakly searching for the door handle behind her back, as if she was only pretending she wanted to open the door.

I could tell myself that I needed to stop her leaving - for her own good.

Luka’s men would torture anyone that had been seen with me. I simply couldn’t leave her behind to be picked up by them. That was true enough, after all. But I knew in my heart the real reason I couldn’t let her go. She was mine. I had known it from the second that I looked at her.

I had to make sure that she was safe and the best way to do that was to take her back to Arrowhead Mountain. She would stay there until after Luka had been deposed and then…

Well. I couldn’t imagine ever letting her go.

But for now, she was coming with me. I put my hand on the closed bar door, making sure that it stayed shut. A few strands of her hair brushed against my hand and I wanted to grab a handful, I wanted to feel those golden tresses in my grasp.

“You, sweetheart, are coming with me.”

I could see her body reacting to my command by the way that her tongue darted out to dab at her lips, as if she was daring me to kiss her. Her hips shifted against the closed door, like she wanted me to take her right there and then. Oh, I wanted to, but my angel deserved better than an alley for our first time.

Plus, we needed to get of Beauville before someone else saw us.

“I am not!” she said, belligerently, “I’ve got to get back to the bar. My boss knows I’m back here. If I dont get back soon, then he’ll come looking for me.”

Her eyes sparkled as she tried to warn me off. It was amusing to see her try, cute even. Like being threatened by a kitten. This close to her I could smell the sweet scent of her, the sugary smell of her shampoo and then something underneath that. A bewitching, feminine scent that belongs just to my angel, emanating from her skin.

I want to feast on that, lick her skin with my tongue, taste her for myself. I could feel myself salivating, thinking about tasting her. What the tight peaks of her nipples would feel like on my tongue. What her pretty little pussy would taste like, as I sent her to heaven with my face buried between her legs.

Just thinking about the things I want to do to her was driving me wild.

I needed her. She was coming with me.

“It’s too dangerous out here, you’re coming with me,” I told her. She frowned slightly, a worried look on her face.

It was strange, what that little frown did to me.

I’d spent all my life knowing, as the eldest child of the King of Askovia, that one day I would be King. I was raised knowing that it was my duty to protect my people. But I’ve never felt that urge so strongly, or for just one person. Looking down at her, I knew I would do anything for her. I never wanted to see that fearful frown on her face again and I would do anything to make sure that she knew I would protect her from anything in the world that wanted to harm her.

“Who are you?’ she said in her soft voice.

“I’m the one saving you, darling. Let’s go!” I said, putting my hand on her arm to guide her towards my motorbike.

She started to protest again, talking about her boss.

I wasn’t going to be responsible for innocent bloodshed.

I looked into her eyes and told her she was coming with me. Like the good girl she was, she knew when to listen. But as I spoke all I could think about was how soft her skin felt under my hand. How right it felt to touch her. I didn’t want to release her.

I don’t think I would have, if I hadn’t known that we were about to get onto a motorbike and that she would be pressing that sweet little body up against me all the way to my cabin on Arrowhead Mountain.