To the Edge and Back [The Royal Wolves] (Siren Publishing Allure) by Honor James Read Free Book Online Page B

wanted to take it from him. Should he decide to bring the Wolf back under Royal rule, he’ll do it with us at his side, but he’ll be the one to lead.”
    Smiling faintly, he turned to glance at her before shrugging. “As to the rest of it…” Now he was nervous again. “He was right on another matter, I think, especially if he scented me on you,” he said, moving to sit across from her again.
    “A Wolf finds his mate usually in a chance meeting, the barest of glances, perhaps a brief encounter, but the thing that lets us know for sure are the dreams. We dream of our mate, usually sexual, but with enough time we can control them to some degree and learn about our other half. I’m guessing from your expression that you know what I’m talking about,” he guessed softly as he watched the emotions chase over her face.
    Mina swallowed hard and leaned back heavily against the worn but clean couch. “So that wasn’t just me imagining things?” She whispered, “But you don’t like me, I mean at all. You hate humans, and face it, Mr. Farkas, that is what I am.” She felt weird calling him Mr. anything, but he hadn’t asked her to call him Janos, and now even more than before she had to ensure she didn’t break protocol. He was a prince, for the love of god.
    Rolling his eyes, he shook his head. “I don’t hate humans,” he said again. “I work with a lot of humans. I even have several I consider friends. I made a comment about Max in particular because he was being an ass,” Janos told her softly. Then his mind latched onto her words and he narrowed his eyes slightly. “So you have been having dreams?” he asked carefully.
    “Yes, I have been having wildly wicked dreams about you, and I thought I smelled you on my skin when I woke earlier, but it has all been in my imagination. I’m no one. I’m a poor working woman who lives paycheck to paycheck.” Well, sometimes she was lucky enough to stretch it that far. “I am a human, no one good enough for a prince, so I think that this has to be wrong.”
    “Fate doesn’t care what your life is, Mina, it’s who you are inside,” he told her, quietly shifting so he could take her hand in his carefully. “You weren’t imagining it. My scent is on you, permeating your skin enough that other Wolves know who you are. You are my mate, and for the record, I’m not a prince any longer except by birth. The Royal line has been practically destroyed and the Throne no longer rules. We’re symbolic now, nothing more.”
    Stroking her fingers lightly, he watched her carefully. “And you may be human, but that’s not all you are. You are unique and strong and special, Mina. And, for the love of god, can you stop calling me Mr. Farkas? I keep looking around for Laszlo each time you do. My name is Janos, and you more than any other has the right to call me by that.”
    Mina looked up with wide eyes and swallowed hard. “Janos.” She loved his name. She loved the way that it sounded and how it felt coming out of her mouth. “All right, please tell me the truth?”
    How in the world did she ask what she was thinking? “First of all…” She would put it in a two part or something. “How does this affect me? I smell like you, and the other Wolves know that I am your mate. What does that mean for me?” she asked and then continued before he could speak. “And what if something happens to me, what will happen to you?” Her mind was clicking through things. “What happens with you when you don’t want to take me as your mate?”
    “Because you smell like me they can freely attack you because I haven’t marked you as mine or claimed you yet,” he said quietly. She deserved the truth and it was the least he could do. “If anything happens to you I will likely never have another mate and, eventually, madness will take me down or, when I go mad, the Packs that want the Royals dead will gladly do it for me.”
    Squeezing her fingers lightly, he stroked his thumb