1__Natalia
Everyone in the room was naked.
Every last one of them, sitting there in their underwear.
At least that was what Natalia told herself. Steadying her breath, she moved her body seductively to the music.
She had to keep thinking everyone else was in a situation as embarrassing as hers in order to not mess this up! She couldn’t mess this up. Not when all their eyes were on her.
Not when his eyes were on her.
The music struck a beat, she followed it with her hips and he followed her hips with his eyes.
Natalia reached her hands into the air, closing her eyes seductively as she stroked her arm with her fingertips. Even with eyes closed she felt his stare on her, the weight of his attention something she couldn’t ignore.
The power of his presence was nearly overwhelming. Despite the room being filled with other Alphas of the Werewolf kingdom of Zaïre, Natalia could easily tell the difference between his aura and theirs.
The aura of Raiden, the Alpha King of Zaïre.
Her prey for tonight.
Raiden lounged languidly on his throne, thighs apart and shoulders wide, as dominant as an Alpha king could be. The large seat was set on a rock pedestal in the den where his Alphas surrounded him, eating, drinking and celebrating with beautiful women.
It was his final bachelor feast, Natalia had heard. He was getting married tomorrow morning.
With the knowledge came no guilt.
Natalia was going to ruin his wedding plans, but she couldn’t afford to care. Not right now.
Right now, she had to focus on making his gaze stroke every inch of her skin, because if the Alpha king were to come to his senses, if he were to study her in a whole different light…
He would realize she was Princess Natalia of the Vampire Viking kingdom of Gadon.
“More wine, my King…”
The servant at his side poured more of the red liquid into Raiden’s goblet.
Without taking his eyes off the dancer, he raised his cup to his lips and drank.
It hadn’t been something he’d wanted, this feast, but his alphas had insisted. He’d given in.
Now, because of his lenience, there stood before him one of the most daring women he’d ever seen.
She looked into his eyes, the eyes of an Alpha king, like she had nothing at all to fear, focused on him like every sway of her hips and toss of her long, copper-brown hair was for him and him alone. Raiden couldn’t help but be captivated.
His eyes were glued to every ridiculously sexy curve of her body as she danced, his mind arrested by the entrancing hazel-green eyes above the veil that covered the lower half of her face.
When he narrowed his eyes on her face, Natalia slowly turned hers away, using the music to escape his scrutiny as she turned to face the other alphas.
If the Alpha king saw through her disguise, she was dead! What good would she be to her mother and sisters if she was dead?!
It wasn’t just that she desperately needed this plan to go through, or that her life quite literally depended on it, it was how horribly embarrassing it would be for her to have gone to all this trouble only to fail.
She was wearing nothing more than a glittery bra and a tiny transparent sarong tied around her waist, for heaven’s sake! If the swordsmen heard about this, they’d laugh themselves to death and Natalia would die from embarrassment.
She wasn’t some girly girl who put on glittery bras to shake her hips for alphas! She was the girl who put on armour and took a sword to battle. Her name would be forever tainted if this got out.
Sighing, she put more effort into her dance at the cheering of the alphas, trying not to think of how ashamed her daggers, bows and arrows would be if they could see her right now.
It didn’t matter. She had to do this to survive!
Her back chilled at the thought of what would happen if she failed tonight. The looming threat of marriage that hung over her head. It would be a death sentence, Natalia knew, if her father succeeded in joining forces with the Vampire kingdom of Edon by forcing her into marriage with its old king. A cruel, long-nailed bastard of a man.
It didn’t help that her best friend in the whole world was that evil king’s son!
Cringing with the horrific thought of becoming Aspen’s step-mother, she got renewed motivation to be successful in her plans.
The music took on a faster pace and the men began to clap along, whistling and cheering on her dancing.
The other entertainers danced around the room, sitting on the men’s laps and pouring them drinks. Somehow it wasn’t enough to keep the attention off of Natalia as she’d hoped it would.
What had she expected? She was literally dancing on centre stage, for goodness’ sake.
Someone caressed her ankle. “By the gods, I’d give a leg for your hips!”
Natalia nearly gagged. Was this man daft? What good would it do either of them if he lost his leg and her, her hips?!
“Driving me fucking nuts,” laughed one of the men, his chin in his hands as he stared up at her in drunken awe.
“If I had gold on me,” stated his friend, “I’d pour it at her feet!”
“I’d pour my life!” countered the first.
They fell over each other in a fit of drunken laughter, their big, muscular bodies shaking the long banquet table that went around the room in a thick rectangular shape.
“Cut it out!” snapped another guy, saving his drink from the shaking table. “Besides…” his gaze rose up to Natalia’s face and then went to the Alpha king. “She belongs to the King tonight. Not so, Raiden?”
The room exploded with loud cheers and jeering which Natalia found hard not to scowl at.
Damn dogs, they were always so tacky. Like hell she belonged to their king!
Raiden sighed at their antics and signalled for his goblet to be refilled, his eyes never leaving the dancer on the stage. She met his gaze for a moment, quickly turning those hazel eyes away.
His men had gone and found the most beautiful woman they could for tonight’s feast, in an effort to make him succumb to the “tradition” Alpha kings had of fucking a random woman the night before their wedding ceremony. It was some sort of sick goodbye to their bachelor life.
Raiden smoothed a hand down the side of his black beard as he studied the dancer with drunk silver eyes.
With a shake of his head, he downed the entire goblet of wine. He had no time to engage in such childish antics. He might not love Evelynn, but she was his betrothed and only she had the right to his body.
Raiden would not, by any means, sleep with this dancer.
Natalia watched Raiden land on his bed with a heavy grunt as three of his alphas shoved her into the room and pulled the doors shut with loud, drunken laughs.
“Have fun, Alpha Raiden!” screamed one of them, a heavy gruff of laughter following the words.
Natalia released a shaky breath, now surrounded by the silence of the King’s chambers, the music of the feast playing in the distant like a faded memory.
Swallowing hard, she looked at the Alpha king as he groaned drunkenly.
The absurdity of her situation hit her then. How was it that she, who had explored the dark caves that even the bravest of her swordsmen wouldn’t venture was standing here, trembling because she was in a room alone with an Alpha king werewolf? Ridiculous! She was Natalia, the bravest Vampire Viking princess to ever exist!
Releasing a sharp huff, she shook herself out of it. She had to do this!
Slowly, her bare feet took steps toward his bed, her eyes never leaving his face.
When she finally stood over him, Raiden stared at her through squinted eyes, seeing nothing much through his blurry vision.
Reaching up, Natalia unhooked and pulled away the veil covering her face.
This was her only chance and she wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Biting down on the revulsion clawing up her throat, she leaned over and pressed a hand to his muscular chest.
This was it.
Come this time tomorrow, she would be married to Raiden, Alpha king of Zaïre.