Braiden “My King, we are ready when you are.” Samuel r epeats the exact words I have heard for years every time I have to go anywhere outside pack lands. We know the drill—loads of security and loads of press. Tonight’s charity event at The Madison Hotel was for the most influential people in the world. You couldn’t buy yourself onto the list if you tried. “Where is Ava?” I ask Samuel as we walk through the pack house. “She is waiting with Nick out front. The schedule is tight. No wiggle room with this trip,” Samuel advises as we reach the front door, where Nick and Ava are chatting with Mary and Sarah. I left Ava with Mary this morning with instructions to show her around, particularly the rehabilitation section of the pack. I’d hoped it would help her with her pack integration hesitation issues and the trauma she experienced when she was younger. This would hopefully nudge her towards taking the st ep to be my Queen. What I hadn’t anticipated was the irrational jealousy that surged through me when I saw John hunched over my mate. If I had less control, John might have faced a far worse punishment than simply being ordered from the room. “My King,” Mary says while Sarah looks up at me with a big smile, the joy she always has when she sees me comforting. Children cared less about who I was and were just themselves with me. It was refreshing. With them, I was just Braiden. “Mary,” I greet. “How is my favorite girl?” I ask Sarah, who beams at the attention. “Can I go with you? Mommy wants me to go have a bath, but I don’t want to,” Sarah wines, her face morphing to a pout as Mary rolls her eyes. “You can’t go with me today, but if you wash up, I think dessert is on the menu. But only for those who listen to their mommies,” I warn, her eyes lighting up as she pulls on Mary's hand. “Come, Mommy, let's go.” Mary smiles and waves us off as three black SUVs pull up. My gaze meets with Ava, who looks at me with a strange smile before she blushes and follows Samuel to the middle car. At least this trip might give me time to learn more about her. I want to know what all her smiles mean, what she is thinking. I want to know everything. Once settled in the back, we pull off, heading to our first destination just outside the pack borders. “Is this how it always is?” Ava asks me, breaking the surprisingly comfortable silence we have been in for the last ten minutes. Aside from my mate, I have other things on my mind, including the actual reason we were going to the function tonight. “What is?” I ask her, not sure what she is alluding to.
“This. The three vehicles and all the security. Is it always like this?” she clarifies, her hand waving around in the air as she speaks. It’s adorable. “This is mild. It will be much worse when we get to The Madison with all the paparazzi. But yes, this is how it generally is. I am the King.” I forget this is her first introduction to a social event outside the pack. It would be different if I were a regular wolf or just an Alpha. But I am not. “Don’t you get tired of it?” Her beautiful green eyes search my face for an answer while her brows dip in a frown. “I know nothing else. My father was King, and before him, his father. I grew up knowing only this,” that is all I can say in response. It was like asking someone if they got tired of being a person. “That doesn’t really answer the question. Isn’t it lonely, always being so... untouchable?” Ava has shifted her whole body now to face me, me the focus of her attention. It makes me want to puff my chest out. To beat my fists against it in some sort of primal victory display. This was what Ava did to me. She made me feel like she was looking at Braiden. Not at King Braiden. She made me feel special. Especially because I knew she didn’t give a shit about my title. Or her future one as my Queen. While most women would jump at the opportunity to be Queen, she didn’t. And it was refreshing. Countless women, even human, had voiced their desire to stand by my side. None fit that role until now. “I’m not untouchable. You can touch me anytime.” She rolls her eyes, realizing too late what she has done. “If we weren’t already here, you would have been settling your debt in the back of this car,” I growl out while Ava glances at the driver briefly as embarrassment dusts her cheeks a beautiful pink. “You’re up to five. If you continue at this rate, you won’t sit for a month when I finally dish out your punishment,” I say, not giving her a chance to respond as I exit the vehicle, which has come to a halt. Ava gasps when she gets out of the vehicle. “You’re kidding, right? Are we flying there?” Her voice is incredulous, and she doesn’t even resist when I grab her hand and lead her toward one of three helicopters located a few feet in front of us. “My King, we are ready,” Samuel says, walking towards one of the helicopters. Ava and I would fly in one, he and Nick in another, and other members of my royal guard in the third. I help Ava in and then climb in beside her. All the blood has drained from her face, and she looks around nervously. The pilot hands us headphones so we can talk to each other and him. “You’re going to be okay,” I tell her, leaning over her so that I can fasten her seatbelt. Her heart is beating erratically, the small vein in her neck giving her away. Her eyes lock with mine as I yank on her seatbelt, confirming she is strapped in. The pilot, prompting that we will take off, has me sitting back in my seat as I secure myself. “It’s only a fifteen-minute flight from here. It will be over before you know it.” I hope telling her this will allay her fears, but as we take off, she grabs my hand, her eyes wide with apprehension. Which is luckily short-lived. The late afternoon sky dusts the horizon with pastel colors, creating a picture that is hard to ignore, especially from this perspective.
All the tension dissolves as a large smile stretches across her face. “Wow, my—Braiden,” she corrects quickly, almost using my title, when I quirk my eyebrow, “this is amazing.” “I’ve seen better,” I say, looking briefly at the view and then back at Ava. “You’ve seen better than this?” she asks, her hand swe eping the horizon. “I’m looking at it now.” I can see she wants to roll her eyes. Internally, she is, and I laugh, something I don’t do often. Yet she has made me laugh three times already. Three times more than I have in years. “Does that line work on all the women?” she asks but smiles as she does. “I’ve never had to use lines until now. Most don’t need convincing. They know a catch when they see one.” That makes her laugh, and I smile, loving this light-hearted mood we are in. It makes me want to ditch the evening and stay in our hotel room talking all night—perhaps more. But we had to attend this event. The government had given me a lead on The Underground, a group responsible for our species' death, torture, and experimentation. While they were one among many groups, they were the largest and the ones who appeared to hold absolutely no conscience or have a moral line regarding what they would do to us. Or who they would do it to. No one was safe. Babies, toddlers, children, women, men, the elderly. They took anyone they could get their hands on as long as it was a werewolf. The experimentations ranged from mild to absolute torture, with most not surviving. Or if they did, they were scarred for life, wishing they were dead instead. As King, I had a responsibility to our people. It was my duty to protect our kind. “Where did you go, Braiden?” Ava’s soft hand on mine pulls me from my thoughts, her beautiful eyes scanning my face. It is good that she doesn’t have access to my thoughts yet. I don’t want her to worry. “Nowhere. I’m fine.” I smile reassuringly, her head tilting to the side as she continues staring at me. “That’s the first time you’ve lied to me. You’re not very good at it. You know, if you told me, maybe I could help you.” She removes her hand from mine, the residual tingle making it feel like her hand is still there. “If you became my Queen and let me mark you, we wouldn’t need words. We could just read each other's minds,” I counter, her face turning to shock. “Is that true?” I nod in answer to her question, her head shaking fast left and right, a no being voiced without words. “So, you would be able to hear everything I am thinking. Everything.” She drags out the last word, her cheeks flushing red as she does. “Yes. And you will finally hear all the ways I plan on taking you. All the ways I plan on making you mine.” She shivers at my words and looks away, her thighs clenching firmly as she tries to hide the effect I have on her. “You shouldn’t be speaking like that. What if the pilot hears you?” She scolds, still not looking at me. “I’m the King. I can say whatever I want. Especially to my future Queen.” She doesn’t have to look at me for me to know she is rolling her eyes.
“Another one on the list. Looks like you don’t want to walk for the rest of your life at this rate,” I say, laughing when she looks at me exasperated. “I wasn’t even facing you. That one doesn’t count. Besides, you said you wouldn’t do anything until I asked.” She smiles smugly, her eyebrow lifting in a challenge. “As stubborn as you are, you will not only ask me, you will beg me, Ava. And when you do, I will take my sweet time teaching you what lies on the other side of your stubbornness.”