Checked Mate

Estrella

The morning after the Haze in Dun’s Crossing, my body aches deliciously. The scent of my mate fills the tent–cool mint and that brown liquor they served at dinner here. After months of running out into the Haze back home, panting and wanting and finding no one, I am finally sated. I can feel my wolf inside me, grinning at the memory of last night. We are closer than ever, just like Mother promised.

My head slams into the ground as the warm pillow underneath me shoots back.

“Ow!” I sit up, rubbing my head. The blanket pools around my waist. I look toward the disappearing pillow.

And see the pale Dun’s Crossing prince I met at the docks only yesterday. Anwen–that’s his name. His naked body is all trim muscle, the line of his waist leading my eye to a thatch of light hair and the leng……