Then again, Noah still had Peter under lock and key, waiting to figure out what the hell to do with him. And Noah had spoken with Elena earlier in the day. So it seemed unlikely that Katya had left.
Right now he needed advice. He put in a call to his parents in Boston and relayed the situation to them. But what he heard in response made his blood boil. Noah listened quietly, arching a brow as Conner argued vehemently with his parents. He couldn't believe what he was hearing!
"What did they say?" Noah asked when Conner ended the call.
"They want me to continue with the project and not do anything to disrupt the political and royal structure of the Carpathians."
"That was it?"
"Dad said if I was going to go around indiscriminately dipping my pen in unknown inkwells, I had to deal with the consequences."
"Christ! Painful metaphor there."
"No shit. That means we stay and I have to commit to being Katya's mate if they're going to force the issue."
"Who are they?"
"Hell if I know. I don't even know how their government is set up, or if the Braslieu principality is self-governing. I guess we'll find out when we trek up there."
Noah tilted his head. "You're taking all of this amazingly well."
"I'd like to put a hole through the fucking wall with my fist right now." Frustration boiled inside him, threatening to erupt. What he really wanted to do was call a halt to this entire mess, grab the next plane back to the States and forget he ever met Katya. The prospect of her winning the game of deception she'd so expertly played stuck in his throat like a twenty-pound lobster.
"So where do we start?"
"The last place I want to. We have to go find Katya and figure all this out."
*
Katya tossed the few things she'd brought along into her small suitcase and gathered up her paperwork. She stopped and stared down at months' worth of preparation and hope, feeling as if she'd let her people down.
She stared at the open front door, feeling out of sorts. The sun was shining on a cool, crisp day. A day to be outside breathing in the fresh air and renewing her spirits.
But that's not how she felt. She felt abysmal, shattered and dark. Despair settled over her like an angry storm cloud, obliterating the bright light outside.
Without the help of the Devlin Foundation, the Carpathian wolves were in danger from hunters and those out to destroy them. The Devlins had been their last hope. And she'd screwed that up.
"I can't believe Conner thought you'd machinate such a devious scheme. What an arrogant ass."
Katya allowed a smile at Elena's diatribe. "I'm not sure I blame him. If the situation were reversed, I might have thought the same thing."
But it wasn't true, and Conner hadn't believed her. He'd said hurtful things to her, crushing her heart. But she couldn't really blame him. By Carpathian law, they were mated now. Not by his choice. And frankly, not by hers, either.
Circumstance had thrown them together. She should have told him last night what would happen if they had sex. If she'd had a clear thought in her head at the time, she would have told him. But her mind had been fuzzy, her emotions scrambled after what happened with Peter. Then she'd consumed way too much brandy. And Conner had been there. A lifeline in a moment of crisis. Warm, comforting, and totally irresistible.
Desire flared and ignited at the memories of what they'd shared last night. She hadn't expected sex to be so overpowering, so all consuming. Once she'd started down that road, the urge to mate had taken over. Still, she should have had the presence of mind to understand the repercussions of her actions. She should have stopped.
"Now what?" Elena asked.
"I have no idea. Clearly Conner isn't going to be agreeable to bonding with me."
Elena's eyes widened. "He has no choice. It is our law."
She nodded and crossed her arms. "But it isn't his law. It's not even Romanian or American law."
"It doesn't matter. He's lupine. There's honor at stake."
That much was true. At least for the Carpathian packs. By mating with her, Conner had forged a life bond as written in the laws of the Braslieu principality. It was legal and binding.
"Yes, it's true. I could force him to marry me."
"Wasn't that what you were intending all along?"
She whirled at the sound of a deep male voice. Conner and Noah stood in the doorway. Her heart lurched, her sex moistening as her body recalled his touch, his scent, the feel of him moving inside her.
Despite what happened, she still wanted him. Rather, her body thought it still wanted him. Her mind and her heart wanted nothing more to do with Conner. She'd only allow herself to be stupid once. "Why are you still here? I would have thought you'd be on a plane back to America by now."
She turned away, refusing to let him see how much he hurt her.
"I'm surprised you didn't have your pack drag me off in chains and toss me in the castle dungeon to await the marriage."
She rolled her eyes, refusing to dignify his idiotic statement with a comment. But she couldn't stand the silence and finally turned around, hands on her hips. "Is there something you want?"
The way his gaze lazily roamed over her body should have angered her. Instead, her pussy quaked and her nipples pebbled. She crossed her arms over her chest to hide the clear outline of the erect buds, but could do nothing to hide the telltale blush that crept up her neck and flamed her face. The corners of his mouth lifted. Damn him, he knew exactly the effect he had on her.
And she'd bet he wasn't the least bit interested in sex right now. He looked at her that way to assert dominance.
Two could play at that game. She stared back, looking him over from the top of his thick black hair, refusing to look away when he pinned her with his sharp blue-green eyes, lingered at his full lips, then traveled slowly down over his broad chest, narrow waist and hips, finally settling at the obvious bulge in his jeans.
Now it was her turn to smirk. She met his eyes and said, "Again, is there something you want?"
"Just trying to figure out what the next step is here."
Was he serious? "You don't really mean to say that you're planning to stay, to honor the mate bond between us."
"That's not what I said at all. Only that it bears...further investigation."
She wanted to know why he'd had a change of heart. Or was it even his change of heart? He looked irritated, that vein near his temple pulsing rapidly. Whatever happened wasn't his doing. Yet he was still here, and for some reason she wasn't unhappy about that. "We're heading back to the castle today."
"You'll need escort. I have Peter locked up in my room and I assume you'll want to take him with you," Noah said. "Of course, if you'd rather leave him behind, I'd be more than willing to...dispose of him."
Peter. She'd conveniently obliterated thoughts of him from her mind. But he was a Braslieu problem, not a Devlin one. She shuddered at the thought of exactly what Noah would do to Peter. Not that he didn't deserve it, but some things were best left to Braslieu laws. "Yes, we'll be taking him with us."
"Then we're going with you," Conner said, his tone brooking no argument.
She started to object, then shrugged. She and Elena couldn't possibly escort Peter up the mountain alone, and she didn't trust anyone outside the castle to come along as security. So that left the only two people who knew what happened, who knew what they were.
"We leave in an hour."
Conner nodded and left, Noah following.
Katya exhaled and slipped into the chair next to the desk to calm her raging heartbeat.
"You two are bonded. Destined," Elena said. "I can feel it surrounding both of you. Hell, cousin, I can smell it on both of you. The mating frenzy is so obvious I'm surprised the two of you hadn't realized it last night."
That was the problem. She hadn't realized much of anything last night. But Conner, her destiny? Highly unlikely.
This was a mess. How they were going to resolve it was an
unknown, but somehow, someway they'd have to.
She was a princess compromised. Something would have to be done about that. What that something was, she had no idea.
*
They had to take two vehicles. The small rough terrain vehicles couldn't carry all five of them plus luggage.
Elena and Katya traveled in the lead vehicle with the luggage, while Conner and Noah escorted Peter, who wasn't very happy to have his wrists tied to the door handle.
"I resent this treatment," he muttered.
Conner turned around to look at Peter, hanging onto the roll bar as they hit a particularly large boulder in the road. "I'll bet Katya resented your treatment of her last night, too."
It was all he could do not to beat the shit out of the bastard. From the faint bruises on his face and the swelling that hadn't quite gone down, Noah must have worked him over after he'd dragged Peter from Katya's bedroom last night.
"Katya is my woman. She understands how things are between mates. You have no right to interfere."
Tension seethed, dangerous rage boiling just underneath his skin. Conner turned around, determined to ignore Peter until they reached the castle. He swore that if they didn't mete out some type of adequate justice, he'd just have to take matters into his own hands. That bastard needed to pay for what he'd done to Katya.
"She is already mated to me. I will kill you if you come anywhere near her."
Conner shook his head at Peter's comment, not bothering to correct the man's misassumption. Obviously he took the two of them for fools. And he didn't know that Conner had mated with Katya.
"She likes it rough. That's all you saw that night. You interfered needlessly. My Katya prefers to be tied up and forced to have sex. It's the only way she can come."
"You fucking prick." That was it. Conner unbuckled his seat belt, intending to climb into the backseat and beat Peter into a lifeless pulp.
Noah stopped him by laying a hand on his arm. "He's digging his own grave. Let him be. One way or another, he'll be taken care of."
Surprised Noah wasn't encouraging him to kill the bastard, Conner shrugged and rebuckled his belt, conjuring up ways to torture Peter. Painful, bloody ways. He'd bet he could get the wimp to cry like a little girl, too. He'd love to show him what it felt like to be helpless and at the mercy of someone bigger, stronger and meaner.
The vehicle in front lurched to a stop at the top of a rise, then inched forward slowly. When they pulled up alongside Katya's vehicle, Conner pulled off his shades and climbed out of the vehicle to stare at the sight in front of them.
Like a beacon revealing a lush paradise, the sun had broken through the dense clouds overhead, shooting spectacular rays of light over the valley floor. The valley was an emerald oasis of thick grass, filled with wildflowers of every color that seemed to grow in clumps like bouquets.
High above the clearing, forbidden and imposing, stood a tall castle of grey stone, so light it was almost white. Crumbling and in disrepair, it had to be centuries old with two towers reaching toward the sunlight as if beckoning the renewing warmth. Iron gates surrounded the area in front of them, with tall fencing as far as he could see.
Those fences would never hold in a wolf that didn't want to be contained. He'd have to think about how to fix that.
Woodland surrounded the castle, thick and pungent with the smell of fresh earth and pine. Conner heard but couldn't see water flowing somewhere around them. Mountain springs must flow throughout the castle grounds. The tops of the trees reached almost the to the highest point of the castle towers, sheltering it to the sides, yet the castle front stood unfettered by foliage or camouflage of any kind.
Katya turned to them, a glow of pride on her face. "Welcome to Braslieu Castle."
Her words were spoken with all the dignity befitting royalty, her eyes sparkling with a glow of excitement. Katya hopped out of the vehicle and approached the gated entrance, speaking in rapid Romanian to the guards stationed there.
He really needed to learn their language, since it would have been good to know what she said to the guard. The sentry nodded, eyed him and Noah suspiciously, then opened the gates and let them through.
Noah shot Conner a look that said "be on watch". They really had no idea what to expect.
They drove up a long, narrow road toward the front of the castle. Thick bushes lined both sides, obscuring their view of the surroundings. They parked their vehicles at the front entrance. Two men came out and Katya directed them toward Peter. The men frowned, their faces red with anger as they hurried toward Peter.
Conner grinned, saluted a now very pale Peter a goodbye, and followed Katya and Elena in.
They stepped into a foyer that had seen better days, yet still maintained an old-world charm that Conner found pleasing.
Though the wood floors needed resurfacing, they were still beautiful, no doubt made from the trees surrounding the castle. The curving staircase off the foyer was carpeted with an old, threadbare pile. The same kind of wear showed on the tapestries decorating the wall. Faded beauty surrounded him. This place needed a major overhaul, yet it still shined clean and with the pride of the people who cared for it.
The two men dragged Peter inside. Before long, a crowd gathered, whispering to each other and eyeing both he and Noah, along with Peter. Katya spoke to the guard who started to drag Peter away, but he dug in his heels and shouted something in Romanian that made the crowd gasp and all heads turn toward the princess.
Katya shook her head, wide-eyed, speaking in short, clipped sentences. Goddamit, what the fuck was happening? He couldn't understand a word, but whatever Peter had said caused quite a commotion.
Noah brought Elena over. "Translate," he commanded.
She nodded and said, "Peter just announced that he and Katya were mated."
Christ! He really should have killed that prick. He started forward, but Elena said, "Don't. They don't even know who you are. You won't be welcome if you interfere."
He goddamned would interfere. That sonofabitch was still trying to stake his claim on Katya.
"She denies it," Elena explained. "But Peter insists they are mated and therefore must marry. He claims to have had sex with her in the cottage."
"But she just denied it, right?"
Elena shot a worried glance toward Conner. "It's his word against hers. And if the doctors examine her, they will agree she is no longer a virgin. It's custom to do regular inspections of the princess. Saves embarrassment later should a mate be found, only to discover his bride is not the virgin she claimed to be."
Conner glanced toward Katya, who refused to look in his direction. Instead, she held her chin up and didn't say a word. She wasn't going to deny Peter's claim!
"Why isn't she saying anything?" he asked Elena.
Noah answered, instead. "She's giving you your way out, you moron."
Conner's gaze shot to Peter, who stood smugly and triumphantly at Katya's side. No way. No fucking way! He couldn't allow Katya to be mated to that bastard.
Whether he liked it or not, whether it was planned or happened by circumstances, Katya was his woman. The thought of another man's hands on her sent a painful shot to his gut.
"Goddamit." He strode through the crowd, oblivious to the whispers in Romanian. Katya shot him a wide-eyed look and shook her head as if to warn him off. He ignored her silent plea, stepped beside her and slid his hand in hers. "This is what you wanted, babe. Like it or not, I'm all yours."
Elena hurried beside him, obviously intending to translate.
He turned to the crowd and said, "Peter lies. He tried to rape your princess. He beat her violently." He waited for Elena to translate and until the gasps and murmurs died down. Then he looked over at Peter, who'd paled significantly.
"She is mine!" Elena translated Peter's words, but Conner shot him a smirk and said, "No, she is mine. Katya and I mated last night. The bloodstained evidence is on the sheets of my cottage."
A collective gasp went up, then sh
outs came from the crowd. They threw their hands up in the air, confusion written on their faces. Conner looked at Katya who looked white as a ghost. "Corroborate."
She looked up at him, shook her head, then back at the crowd, speaking so quietly it was difficult to hear.
Elena leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Katya, Princess of Braslieu, has just claimed Conner Devlin as her life mate. Congratulations, Conner. You're engaged."
Chapter Six
All hell broke loose after Katya admitted that everything Conner had said was true. The crowd cheered, so he obviously wasn't unwelcome. What followed was a blur of congratulations spoken in Romanian by hundreds of strangers. They shook his hand, kissed his cheeks, clapped him on the back and toasted with champagne.
Peter, on the other hand, was furious. He said Conner and Katya were lying, but by the time Noah corroborated the claim and Elena relayed what she knew of the event, no one believed him. Katya still bore enough of the faint wounds of his attack that it was easy to see she hadn't made up the story.
After realizing that Peter had, in fact, attacked the princess, an emergency meeting of the council took place. It was behind closed doors and Conner wasn't invited, but Elena filled him in on the results.
Peter had been banished from the pack, from the castle, and from the Braslieu lands. Since he had no surviving family, he was cast out alone with only his personal belongings. Furious, he screamed at them, vowing revenge on Conner and Katya both.
Whatever. If they hadn't gotten rid of him, Conner would have arranged for his disposal. Peter was a threat to Katya and that he'd never allow.
Some of this still didn't make sense. If Katya was after his money and had tried to trap him into marriage, why would she stand there silently while Peter claimed her?
Of course. She knew after last night that there was no way Conner would ever let Peter lay a hand on her again. She'd counted on his honor and once again he'd played right into her scheme. She was one sharp woman. He'd bet her people knew very little of Katya's intent to use him and his family's money to pour money into protecting the wolves.