Taming the Wolf Prince (Re-uploading Edited Chapters)

Chapter 2 A Wolf's Kiss

There was darkness, moonlight, and then, there was fire. Caught between expanse of striking white and the faint illumination of flickering orange, Tamer was like a beast snagged between the threshold of heaven and hell.

The candlelight complimented the fire in his eyes, bathing his skin in a demonic light. But behind him, in a silver aura, the moonlight glowed ethereally like a halo.

Winter couldn't speak. She could barely even breathe. The efforts came out as ragged gasps before her. The fear of death didn't immediately come as ripe as the ache of betrayal; it hadn't kicked in yet – denial left her to only grieve the solid facts. All she could focus on was the beast before her, the creature she'd once loved.

"Tamer," she whispered. The first thing to hit her was the lie – what she'd blindly defended when all others wouldn't. All her life she'd known Tamer and yet, now it seemed she knew so little. "You're a wolf."

Tamer sucked in a ragged breath. He had his hands clasped over his ears and shook his head like some erratic caged animal. It was as if he was  trying to rattle that mind-control out of his mind.

Tamer's bottom lip quivered. "You don't have long left," he whispered. "If there anything I can do to comfort you in these..." He hiccuped. "F-final times then please, let me know..."

She wasn't listening. She wasn't processing. She couldn't even remember to automatically breathe. He reached out to touch her, but she shook him away. He retreated into the shadow, glancing at his hand then back at her with rising panic. She'd never done that before. She knew the mate bond could have calmed her, but she refused. The hurt on his face was ripe, but it wasn't a patch on the betrayal contorting her own.

"I loved you." The candle flickered in the breath of her words, drafting them in a cold darkness for second. "I loved them all." Her voice heightened to a shrill cry as another tear spilled down her cheek. "Why? Why me?"

Shame scrunched his features. Tamer stifled his sob with his hand before curling into a foetal ball.

"Simply because you are you, Winter," he stated eventually, hands tightening his knees. "Every twenty or so years, a baby girl is born on the same day that roses bloom in the snow. It is that child who is destined to be a sacrifice. No one really knows why, but it is the law set in stone by the king and has been for many hundreds of years. It is pure tradition, and purely punishable by death if you try and stop it."

She stared at him as if she was expected to believe that scenario. As if that was a reasonable explanation.

The fingers that hid his face opened a crack. Without the moonlight the fire in his eyes dispersed. For a moment, staring into his amber eyes, she could have believed that he was his normal self – that all that had happened between them was a sick, twisted nightmare.

"So mother." Her voice cracked as a constricting feeling tightened in her chest. "She knew? She knew I was to die all along?"

He grimaced. All Tamer could do was nod sympathetically.

"For how long?"

"I don't know," he muttered. "It's not like there's a ceremony announcing the matter. The maiden can spawn all over the world from unprecedented amounts of time – you're the first one ever in this country but records are hard to find. And some even say the king can erase memories. I know what I know though my Father's direct contact. Nobody even knows what the king looks like. If it was a while, perhaps she grew neglectful of the fact. People like to delude themselves into believing it will never happen until the time comes, that's the simple truth of it, that was probably how she coped – delusion. Escape is impossible with a beast like the king. I can assure you though, she was powerless to stop it."