Ileus wrapped his muscular arm over her waist immediately suffusing her with his heat.

“This is getting weird.” Anastasia said as she inadvertently curled her hands over his arm. She loved the way his scent surrounded her.

“And I wonder why,” he said in a tone that had an edge of tease. 

“I wonder why too,” she replied, her tone burlesque.

He smiled. 

A moment later, she asked, “How did you save me?” 

A cough from nearby and then —”He pushed medicine down your throat by kissing you… forcibly.”

Anastasia’s eyes became wide like a saucer. The man sleeping next to them had answered her question. It was Kaizan. 

“And now if you two would let us sleep, it would be… polite,” his tone was weary. 

That was… brusque. Anastasia flushed so hard that her ears became heated as hell. Heaps of ice couldn’t suppress the fire. 

“True,” Ileus supported Kaizan. “You should sleep Ana. It is a long day tomorrow and we don’t want you to fall ill again.” He pressed a kiss on the back of her head. 

Embarrassed, she curled her body and he curled his along her contours. 

As she lay in his arms, her eyes became heavy lidded with sleep, but other thoughts rushed in her mind. “I would like to apologize for Nyles’ behavior,” she whispered. 

“It wasn’t your fault. You weren’t even awake when that happened. So no need to apologize,” he whispered back. 

She took a deep breath. Why did he have to be so sweet? “Then I take back my apology.” 

“Makes sense.” 

“I wanted to ask you something,” she whispered again a moment later. 

Ileus sighed.

Kaizan turned on his fur noisily and faced her. His glare pierced into her sharply. “What part of ‘polite’ did you not understand princess?”

“I understood all of it,” Anastasia scowled. “That is why I am talking so politely.”

Kaizan raised his eyebrow as she tossed a twisted logic. 

She gave him a sweet smile and then flipped on her back. Ileus’s hold on her changed and he wrapped his arms just under her breasts. 

“Did Nyles say anything when she attacked you?” she asked again. She wondered why Kaizan would get so disturbed even though she was talking in whispers. 

“Yes, she did.” 

As if to answer her question, Kaizan interjected. “Werewolves have hyper listening senses. They can hear even if a pin drops to the floor.” 

Anastasia whipped her head to see him. Kaizan had nonchalant expressions, his eyes half lidded. Her mind raced to the time when Ileus was doing those wicked things to her on the horse. Did he listen to them? She blushed as hot as a summer day. She turned her head away from him towards Ileus. Her embarrassment was so unsettling that she flipped on her belly and buried her face in the fur. When the heat in her body ebbed, she twisted her neck to look at Ileus who was watching her with great interest. 

He smoothened the hair from her face as his amber eyes continued to stare at hers. 

Her gaze went to his lips and she found them… perfect and kissable. They were like a Cupid’s bow with the upper lip dipped distinctly to the center of the mouth just below the groove beneath the nose and his lower lip… full, plump and irresistible.   

Forgetting Kaizan’s warning, she asked, “What did she say?” 

He took a strand of her hair in his fingers and rubbed it. “She said that she wouldn’t allow me to heal you because she knew that you would heal yourself.” He wrapped the strand around his finger and then let it fall down. He picked it again and tucked it behind her ear. “She is overprotective about you. To the point of being dangerous.” He removed the hair from her forehead. The pink and blue luminescence that was scattered in the tunnel made her look surreal. He brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “I have never seen her so overprotective about you in Vilinski.” 

Anastasia turned fully towards him. “That is true. At Vilinski she was just catering to all my needs. When I used to get wh— whipped,” bile rose in her throat, “She would come with lotions and medicines to heal me.” She closed her eyes at the memories. “But then what else could she do?” 

“Don’t tell me she never stood for you?” He said as he curled his hand behind her nape in that possessive way. 

She blinked her eyes as if trying to process his words. “Why would she stand for me? In fact even if she would have wanted to stand for me, she couldn’t have. After all, her status in the palace was that of a handmaiden.” 

He placed his hand below her head and she snuggled in it. With his other hand he began to stroke her back. “I heard that she was your handmaiden ever since you were children.” 

Anastasia nodded. “She was the only child I was allowed to play with after Aed Ruad captured my parents and stopped my education.” A lump formed in her throat as she tried to suppress the tart feeling of rage and helplessness that was rising in her chest. But she failed. A quiver passed through her. 

Ileus stopped doing what he was doing. A moment later he pulled her closer to his naked chest and she buried her face in the dusty hair, in his warmth and inhaled him. He brought his hand to the front of her neck and stroked her there. He placed his heavy thigh over hers and pressed his weight. He said, “You are very strong Anastasia. You didn’t let them break your spirit even as they broke your body.” Her lips trembling against his chest and he knew that she was stopping herself from crying again. 

Moments later when she eased down under his caress, she said, “When you don’t have anyone else to be with, and the only person you can talk to is a handmaiden whose hands are tied in so many ways, you can’t blame her. We practically grew up together. She was all I had, all I could believe in, and all I could trust.”