Amelia swallowed hard as Nick—Rennick—dropped his hand. “Are you okay?” The lack of warmth in his voice added to her confusion. He looked and sounded terrifying, like a weapon created to destroy, yet his touch was gentle like his letters.
Well, some of his letters.
Taking a closer look, she noted his light green eyes, short, messy hair, and light stubble that begged to be touched. Her mate.
Her eyes flicked to the large owl tattoo on his chest again as she recalled a letter he’d sent years ago, telling her about it. “I hope you don’t hate it,” he’d written. She definitely didn’t.
“He brought the letters and gifts?” she asked, pointing at Finn, who looked everywhere but at her.
Rennick’s hand went to the small of her back and directed her in the opposite direction of the library. “Yes. Magic bound me to my kingdom until today.”
She nodded absent-mindedly, following him without a second’s consideration while going over everything she thought she knew. The boy who she’d seen over the years wasn’t Nick. Mortification stopped her in her tracks, and Rennick stiffened and looked down as she stared at Finn’s back.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, following her line of sight. Grabbing Finn’s shoulder, he whipped him around. “What did you do to her?”
Finn tried to shake out of Rennick’s hold to no avail. “Nothing!”
Amelia buried her face in her hands and groaned.
Someone hit the ground with a grunt before two large hands gently wrapped around her wrists and lowered them. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” she lied.
Rennick stared for a moment. “I can feel your embarrassment.”
Great, a walking lie detector. Her throat dried. “I…” Gods, she wanted to die. “I thought he was Nick—you—bringing me things, and I…” If ever there was a time for a chasm to open and swallow her whole, now would be it.
He looked from Finn to her, his serious demeanor never wavering. “And what?”
Averting her eyes, she mumbled, “I slept in only my undergarments on top of the blankets sometimes for you.” She covered her face again.
The air around them thickened with tension, and when she peeked around her hands, she saw every vein in Rennick’s neck straining against his skin as he turned ever so slowly toward Finn.
Finn cursed for the hundredth time and backed up. “I never looked at her like that, Ren.”
His words didn’t deter the giant angry fae, and Amelia dashed forward, instinctively wrapping her arms around her mate’s middle.
He stopped, though his body still vibrated with anger. “You would defend him?” His tone sent chills skittering across her skin.
“It’s not his fault.” She sounded more confident than she felt. “He couldn’t control what I wore. Be thankful I didn’t sleep naked, because I considered it.”
“You’re making it worse,” Finn warned her, still backing away.
Rennick’s eyes finally moved to hers, his features transforming into something akin to lust. “You wanted to sleep naked for me, little mate?”
She was all too aware of his bare chest pressed against hers, heating her blood to molten lava. “Yes.”
He freed his arms from her hold and grabbed her face gently. “You will.”
Finn breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank fuck.”
Amelia walked silently beside Rennick, trying and failing to come to terms with the situation.
After putting Finn’s face to Nick’s letters for years, it was difficult to convince her brain that Rennick was Nick, not Finn. When you thought something for so long, you couldn’t change it overnight, no matter what your brain knew to be true.
She’d fucked herself to images of Finn countless times, and her desire for Nick was tied to Finn’s face. Embarrassment would apparently be her closest companion today.
Rennick stopped abruptly and gently raised her face to look at him. “What’s wrong?” he murmured. His eyes searched hers, worry lines etched across his beautiful features.
I want to crawl into a hole indefinitely. “Where are you taking me?” she asked, in lieu of an answer.
He dropped her chin and tilted his own to the north. “Home.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “My home is that way.”
He looked past her and furrowed his brow. “Your home is with me now. We’re going to my palace in the Mountain Kingdom.”
Questions pelted her brain like hail. “You’re from the Mountain Kingdom? Why didn’t you tell me you were that close?” The ride from Friya to the Mountain Kingdom border wasn’t far. To think he’d been that close all along… wait. “You live in a palace? Are you a nobleman?” Did noblemen live in palaces? She didn’t know, but a worse thought occurred to her, and she backpedaled. “Are you a royal?”
Rennick ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up more. “I couldn’t risk telling you anything. There are people who would hurt you because of me.”
Amelia stood motionless as her brain slowly caught up to what he’d said and realized she didn’t know him at all. She’d been a fool to think she did.
“I’m not going to the Mountain Kingdom.” Yesterday she would have gone to the edge of Eden with him, but that was when she thought she knew him. She’d pictured the wrong man and thought he was a warrior who protected his kingdom like other men throughout their world. Not… whatever he was. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you a royal?”
Rennick angled his head to the side. “I am the king, and the climate there is no different than here, if that is what you’re worried about.”
The king? A human mated to a fae king was laughable at best. The fact he thought the weather was her issue showed how little he knew her.
“I don’t want to uproot my life here.” The lie tasted foul on her tongue, but she needed time to think before being thrust into whatever new life awaited her. “I have friends.” Sort of. “And Eddy.” Who she couldn’t find. “And I don’t know you.”
“You know part of me,” he said matter-of-factly before his voice dropped dangerously low. “Who is Eddy?”
Her eyes narrowed. “My fox. The one you send sweaters for. Unless that wasn’t you either.” She glared at Finn, pissed at him as well. They’d tricked her, and what was worse, she’d let them.
There wasn’t enough information in his letters to form anything definitive, and the facts never lined up. How many times had she asked herself how he could bring her things but never talk to her? Godsdammit. She was a fool.
Rennick’s body relaxed, which pissed her off even more. “I will bring you to visit your friends as often as you wish.”
How easily he thought she would follow his lead, but she refused to back down. “I wish to stay.”
He pursed his lips and turned to Finn. “Head back to ensure everything is ready for our arrival. She and I will retrieve her fox and whatever else she needs.”
Had he not heard her? She wasn’t going.
“Do I need to send guards with more horses and another carriage?” she heard Finn ask as she turned and walked away.
“I will buy a carriage here and hire a driver,” Rennick replied. “No guards are needed. We should be home by nightfall—where are you going, love?”
She walked faster, contemplating if running would be worth the exertion. His long legs would no doubt catch up to her in one stride.
When he appeared at her side without a sound, she screamed, grabbing her chest. “Don’t sneak up on me,” she snapped.
He smirked but wiped it away when her eyes turned to slits. “Fae are naturally graceful and stealthy.”
“Then wear a bell,” she grumbled, picking up her pace.
“We will go to the boardinghouse first to gather your things,” he said as though she wasn’t trying to escape. “I need to know how many trunks you have before buying a cart.”
He reached for her hand, but she slapped it away. “For the last time, I will not leave my life behind because the Mountain King thinks I’m his mate.” She was three seconds from losing it. “And if I did want to go, I can’t just disappear without a trace.”
Not that anyone would look for her except Clover and Miss Bea, but Rennick needn’t know how pathetic her life was. It occurred to her that as she’d aged, she’d never bothered getting close to anyone because she thought she’d leave with him one day. The thought made her scowl at the man, who stared too intently after her.
He looked amused, and she stomped through the snow like a petulant child. All these years she’d waited for him to come, and now that he was here, she wanted him to leave.
No, you don’t, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Fuck you, too, she whispered back.
He’d omitted crucial truths about himself, making her question if anything he said was true.
“Did you mean everything you wrote?” she asked without thinking, praying he couldn’t hear the desperation in her voice. Or feel it.
He stopped abruptly. “You think I would lie to you?” He didn’t sound offended; he sounded hurt, and she wanted to snatch the words back.
She grappled for something to say to reverse what she’d done. “You lied about who you were.”
His nostrils flared slightly. “I never lied to you. I couldn’t reveal anything about my true identity, but I never lied.”
He hadn’t lied about coming for her. Her eyes flitted to his fighting leathers and broad, muscular, bare chest. It was obvious he trained often, so he hadn’t lied about that either. It might be reckless or stupid, but she believed him. What other choice did she have?
“You’re ordering me around without asking what I want. I am not a dog.” She crossed her arms defiantly. “In your letters, you were more considerate than this.”
Rennick stared at her for the longest time before taking her hand. “We can make a decision together, and if staying here is your wish, then we’ll stay.”
We’ll stay?
Her heart kicked up a beat at his submission. Can a king live in another kingdom? Doesn’t he have duties?
Nodding dumbly, she squeezed his hand and started toward the boardinghouse.
Rennick ducked his head to step through the doorway of Amelia’s small room. He’d seen glimpses of it through her window over the years, but never the entire thing.
A small nightstand sat next to a modest bed tucked into the far corner of the room. Next to her closet on the opposite wall sat a worn dresser adorned with various items, including the mold of his hand. A small overflowing bookshelf stood next to her writing desk near the window, and an old stone hearth took up most of the fourth wall.
It was small, but it was her, and he loved everything about it.
“Welcome to my home,” she said lamely, chewing on her bottom lip. “I know it’s not much.”
He smiled and grabbed her desk chair to have a seat. “I love it.”
She held out an arm to block his descent. “I don’t know if that will hold you.”
He frowned down at the chair. “Your furniture is not safe?” Now that he looked at it, the woodwork did look shoddy.
Picking up the repugnant piece of furniture, he debated the best way to break it into a thousand pieces.
Amelia grabbed the other side of the chair. “What are you doing?”
“This doesn’t need to be in here if it’s unsafe,” he said, wondering why she’d want a chair that could kill her. “I’ll buy you a new one.”
“My chair is fine,” she protested, trying to tug it from his grasp. “Just because it won’t hold your gigantic body doesn’t mean it won’t hold mine.”
He narrowed his eyes at the piece of furniture. “I would rather not chance it.”
“Put my chair down,” she said sternly, making him smile.
It creaked when he set it down, earning another glare from him. “Where would you like me to sit?”
She motioned to the bed behind her, and his smile turned wolfish. “Not for that,” she huffed. “Sit.”
Rennick lowered himself onto the small bed, grabbed her around the waist, and brought her to his lap.
She squeaked, looking at him with wide eyes. “I can sit down on my own.”
“I didn’t want you to sit in the chair,” he half-lied.
Extracting herself from his hold, she stood and turned to face him. “You said if I had questions, you would answer them.”
Curiosity was a good sign. “Ask whatever you wish.”
She hesitated a moment before crossing to her desk and removing a stack of papers from the top drawer. Rennick tried to read them over her arm, but after picking up the first page, she stuffed the others back inside the old desk.
“I kept a list.” She sheepishly held out the paper. “I didn’t want to forget anything if you came for me.”
“If?” he echoed. “You thought I’d not come?” Had he not been clear in his letters?
She sat down beside him with a half-hearted smile. “Sometimes I thought your letters were in my imagination.” Her hand gestured toward her closet. “The gifts you sent were the only pieces of tangible evidence I had to prove you were real.”
“You kept them all?” His chest swelled with pride. “I was afraid you didn’t like some of them because I never saw you use them.”
Amelia squirmed, and he could feel the guilt as if it was his own.
“You didn’t like them?”
“It’s not that,” she replied, choosing each word carefully. He didn’t miss the fisting of her hands when she said, “Ora and I don’t have the same tastes.”
Her jealousy pricked at his insides, and he fought a grin. It was nice to know things weren’t one sided.
“She is an old friend. Finn and I have known her since we were children.” He leaned down and softly kissed the top of her head. “Nothing and no one in this world could compare to you.” He tapped his chest. “Can’t you feel it?”
She ignored his explanation and peeked over the edge of the paper in his hand. “Question number three.”
He scanned the page. “Why can’t I feel your emotions?”
Setting the paper down, he studied her carefully. She should be able to feel his emotions. A royal and their mate could feel each other’s emotions immediately, but then again, a royal had never been mated to someone without magic before.
“Because you don’t have magic,” he guessed. “When we marry and complete the bond, you should be able to feel what I feel.”
“Okay.” She exhaled loudly and took the paper from him, reading it over. “Why did your letters disappear?”
“Finn stayed until you read them, and when you were done, he used glamour to take them back.”
She blinked a few times before asking, “What is glamour?”
He tried not to grin at the cute line forming between her brows. “It’s a magic that fae possess. For normal fae, it only works on humans and animals. It makes them see what the fae want them to see.” He held up the paper and used glamour to make her see a cup, then laughed when she blanched. “Royal fae’s glamour works on everyone except other royals.”
“Royals can glamour other fae, just not other royal fae,” she stated slowly, as if memorizing materials for an exam.
“Yes, and their lack of glamour is why humans can’t come into the fae kingdoms freely.”
At her confused expression, he explained, “There are animals within our forests much more dangerous than those in the Human Kingdom. Fae can hide themselves with glamour when needed. Humans cannot. Before the barrier, many humans died within our forests.”
Her eyes almost popped out of her head. “What?”
“It’s why the gods returned long after creation and created the barrier.” He knew the human rulers chose to withhold information regarding the fae, but he hadn’t expected it to be the basics.
“You know the gods?” she whispered, her skin turning white as snow.
He threw his head back with a booming laugh, something he hadn’t done in a long time. “I’m only twenty-five. The gods have not been in this world since they erected the barrier. All fae children are taught the history of our world in school.” He felt her humiliation and pulled her into his lap again. To his satisfaction, she let him. “They filter much from the humans. You had no way of knowing.”
“Why do they keep us in the dark?”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “Your rulers made that decision long ago. If you’d like, I will have a copy of every history book throughout the fae kingdoms made for your personal library.”
She perked up. “Personal library?”
His lips twitched at her excitement. “I had one built for you at the palace.”
The way her eyes lit up put the moon to shame, and before she could reply, he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, vowing to kiss her every chance he had. “Have you made a decision about where you’d like to live, or do you need more time?”
“If I hate the Mountain Kingdom, you’ll let me move back?”
Did she think he would deny her anything? “We will move back. I will follow you anywhere, little mate, even to hell if that’s where you wish to go.”
