Chapter 1 – The Gall
Maryam
God, but my butt hurts.
I shift uncomfortably on the wooden bench that I’ve been sitting on since the train station opened at dawn, glaring up at the departure board as I’ve been doing for hours, waiting for a track number to flicker up next to the 11:00 train I’ll be taking back home. Back to the north.
Far, far awayfrom Rafe fucking Sinclair, that Alpha jerk who claimed me last night – in front of his entire family, in front of my dad.
I scowl, turning over the events in my mind for the millionth time, getting just as steamed and mortified about it as I was since the moment it happened.
That smug jerk, standing in the doorway to his parents’ bedroom, just staring at me under those lowered brows, all unflinching and adamant as his stupid idiot brother shouts that he can’t believe that I – Maryam Nasser – could even possibly be the jackass Prince’s mate and future Queen.
My cheeks redden, my eyes narrowing as the scene rolls through my mind. For all I know, steam starts to pour out of my ears.
And it’s not even that I want to be the damn Queen or be married – or mated, or whatever – to that prick. It’s Mark Sinclair’s ringing laughter that really gets to me.
Laughing, apparently flabbergasted at the outrageous idea that I, a lowly human in a world of wolves, could ever even be considered good enough to date his stupid brother. Because of course not – wolves have always looked down on humans. For hundreds of years they considered us second-class citizens –
In some parts of the world wolves enslave humans –
And while things are different here in Moon Valley, while there is at least a semblance of equal rights…it’s still an idea to be laughed at that a pathetic human could ever be worthy of power. That a human girl could be striking enough to be attractive to an all-powerful Alpha wolf.
God, if I ever see that Mark kid again I’m going to kick him. Right in the balls. I should have done it in the first place.
How dare he? How dare he laugh at me, make a mockery of me – in front of everyone!?
But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. This is the world we live in, after all. And since we were kids, those Sinclair wolves always looked down on me.
Humans – second-class citizens – that’s all we all to them. Wolves just…take what they want.
And Rafe Sinclair? Apparently, he wants me.
Well, fuck what Rafe Sinclair wants. Because I’m out of here. No big, burly, lurking, hulking, bird-brained idiot Alpha mates for me – not today, not fucking ever.
A sudden change on the departure board has me blinking back to the present and my mouth turns to a grim little smile when I see a platform listed next to my train. Number four.
Great. Time to get the hell out of this capital and go home, where things are normal. Back to my mom and sister – back to see if my college will let me off suspension so I can continue my nursing degree after they kind of…suspended me.
When they definitely shouldn’t have. I mean, I wasn’t doing anything really wrong – just protesting for human rights.
It’s not my fault the protests occurred during enrollment week. When lots of prospective students were visiting.
At least…it’s not singularly my fault.
I stand, striding off for the fourth platform, the pain in my aching butt and back making me consider that maybe it was a bad idea to storm out of the palace last night with nothing but my backpack to wait alone on the freezing marble steps for hours before the doors opened. At the time I couldn’t wait to get out of there – but my aching body makes me consider, now, if I wasn’t just…a little hasty with that.
I push the thought away, readjusting my backpack as I focus my gaze on the black train before me at platform 4. A little snarl lifts my lips with contempt when I see Sinclair Pathways written on the side.
Fucking Sinclairs. They own everything, don’t they?
A flicker on the platform’s electronic sign draws my eyes up. My steps stutter to a stop, a gasp falling from my lips when the sign flashes once, the time of departure erasing, suddenly replaced with the word CANCELLED in big white letters.
“What!?” I gasp as groans erupt from passengers around me. “What the hell!?”
My shoulders slump as I come to a stop twenty feet from the train, realizing that I’ve got to wait like, six more hours for the night train. God, all I want to do is get out of this fucking place – out of this stupid Alpha city, packed with wolves –
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
I spin at the growled words, shock running through me, because there’s no way –
But of course. Of course it’s him.
Rage flares through me as I stare up at Rafe Sinclair, taking in his broad shoulders, his thick black hair, his tanned skin and slightly stubbled cheeks. And, of course, those fucking green eyes that look like they’re staring right through me.
It pisses me off even further that I have to tilt my head so far back to look into his face. I mean, I am not a short woman.
“What are you doing here?” I sputter, already seething.
“What am I – Maryam! What the hell are you doing here!?”
“I’m going home,” I snap, tossing out a hand toward the train behind me. “Or at least I was, until –“
I gasp, my eyes flaring wide before I glare so deeply I can barely see between my narrowed lashes.
“Rafe,” I growl, “did you fucking cancel this train? To keep me here!?”
He narrows his own eyes, stepping forward to loom over me. “Did you think I was going to let you go, Maryam?” His voice is low with anger, all rumbly and threatening. “You’re my fucking mate –“
“Oh, lay off!” I shout, stepping back and starting to turn away. “There’s no such thing as fucking mates – you wolves just made that up as a way to keep your women in line –“
A broad hand wraps easily around my arm, pulling me back.
“I assure you, Maryam,” Rafe says as he spins me back towards him. I glare at him with all the hate in my heart and try to pull my arm away. “You have proof in the existence of mates right in front of you – because if they were made up, why the hell would I have picked you –“
I gasp, offended enough to forget to try to break out of his grip, instead going still. “How dare you,” I snarl. “What, just because I’m a human I –“
“It has nothing to do with you being a human!” Rafe shouts, pulling me so close that my chest nearly collides with his. “It has everything to do with the fact that you’re being a god damned nightmare right now!”
“Nightmare!” I throw back, shouting up into his face. “I’m not doing anything except trying to go home!”
He pauses for a second, his chest still heaving with rageful breath, I think caught off-guard by the logic of my words. But then he shakes himself all over, quite wolfish, and tightens his grip on my arm. “It’s not safe for you to go alone, Maryam –“
“It’s a fucking train!” I throw back, still shouting up into his face. “A train that your family owns! Are you suggesting your own company can’t keep its passengers safe!?”
Rafe glances over at the train for a moment. “My uncle’s train, not mine,” he growls. Which is – apparently – all the response I’m going to get.
I gasp as Rafe turns back towards the entrance of the station, pulling me with him.
“Let go of me, you asshole!” I shout, digging my heels in and throwing my weight back, making it as hard as possible for him to take me anywhere.
“Maryam, would you stop making such a scene?” Rafe growls, turning to glare at me and then glancing around at the crowds of people who just…stare. Watching their Crown Prince attempt to kidnap a woman from the train station. A little thrill of victory goes through me at that.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I return, not bothering to lower my voice. Making it a little louder in fact, relishing the way he flinches when he hears my shout. “I’m going home!”
“You’re coming back to the palace,” he snarls, coming close again, speaking in low tones and clearly indicating that I should do the same. “You can return to the North with your father – who is worried as hell about you, by the way. We will arrange suitable transport and protection –“
“Who are you to tell me – at all! Ever! – what the fuck I can and cannot do!?”
“I am your mate,” Rafe snarls, yanking me so close that my chest presses to his. I gasp at the sudden reality of him, the warmth that radiates from his form, the…the very significant solidity of his body, which is all muscle under his fine clothes. “Which means that it’s my job to protect you, even if you insist on hurling yourself through the world completely vulnerable –“
“Let me GO!” I shout, screaming the last word into his face.
Rafe growls, his eyes flashing green and vivid, and a streak of fear rushes through me as I see his canine teeth extend into fangs. Something in me registers, suddenly, that it is not a good idea to piss off an Alpha wolf. They are apex predators, after all.
Even if they are assholes. Every single one.
But I have no chance to process any of this as the Prince suddenly dips low, his shoulder pressing hard into my stomach. I gasp in sudden surprise and fear as he stands, lifting me high so that my front half dangles over his back, my legs kicking out in front of him for a moment before he wraps one steady arm around the back of my thighs.
And starts to stride towards the exit.
My gasp of shock turns into one of rage and embarrassment as I realize that the Crown Prince of Moon Valley is carrying me back to the palace like a sack of damn potatoes.
“Let me go!” I shriek, doing my best to sit up or wriggle off his shoulder and failing completely. “You jackass! Put me down!”
“Calm down, Maryam!” Rafe bites back, tightening his arm around my legs as he strides forward towards the door, his pace determined, not even glancing at the hundreds of flashes that go off as people begin to take pictures. “You’re making a scene and embarrassing both of us!”
But I’m too fucking mad to care. I let out one final, long, extended shriek of rage and despair, smacking at his back with my palms as best as I can, seething as the man who has claimed me as his mate carries me out into the sunlight – away from my train – away from the respite of the north, and home.
But even as I stop shrieking, stop pounding my fists against his back in a wasted effort to be put down, determination settles in me.
Because this Alpha Prince can carry me out of any train station he wants. But he can never, ever make me love him. Or respect him. Or marry him or be his mate, whatever that means.
No, those are things I will never, ever do.
“You can kiss my ass, Rafe Sinclair,” I grumble, bouncing gracelessly over his shoulder, pissed as hell but totally without recourse to do anything about it.
“Beg all you want, Maryam,” he growls. “But I wouldn’t expect that to happen anytime soon.”
I heave an angry breath as the Alpha Prince carries me off to a waiting town car and packs me away inside.