Chapter 37: I Kissed a Wolf, And I Liked It

Blair squeezed her eyes tightly shut, bracing for the agony of the sharp claws.

A heavy weight crashed into her, driving her flat against the freezing ice. But there were no teeth. There were no claws. Instead, the weight felt distinctly like a solid, warm human body pinning her down.

A familiar, deep chuckle vibrated against her chest.

"Hey, Bunny."

Blair’s eyes snapped open. The wolf was gone. Hovering above her, caging her in with his thick, muscular arms planted on the ice on either side of her head, was Daemus.

His silver eyes, the exact same piercing silver eyes of the wolf that had just chased her, sparkled with amusement. He was doing his best to hold back a fit of laughter.

Blair gasped, her brain slamming the puzzle pieces together. Her chest heaved, her lungs burning as she desperately tried to catch her breath. Her heart was not taking the prank well; it hammered a frantic, painful rhythm against her ribs, refusing to slow down. The lingering terror was too much.

Tears instantly pooled in the corners of her eyes, spilling over her lashes and hot down her freezing cheeks.

"Why," Blair choked out, her voice cracking, "why would you do that to me?"

Daemus’s body was slick with sweat, his dark blue hair a tangled mess hanging over his forehead from whatever hockey drills he had been running. The moment he saw the tears tracking down her cheeks, the playful smile instantly fell from his handsome face.

"Hey, no, don’t cry," Daemus apologized quietly, his voice softening as he lowered himself slightly. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to actually scare you that badly. It was a stupid prank."

Blair sniffled, a blush creeping up her neck as she realized how intimately they were positioned. She was trapped beneath his sweaty, muscular frame.

"Can you... can you get off me now?" she asked shyly, averting her eyes.

Daemus opened his mouth to comply, but his gaze suddenly flicked over her shoulder, glancing toward the shadows of the locker room tunnel. He paused, his jaw tightening slightly before he looked back down at her.

Instead of getting up, he leaned in closer. He was so close that Blair could feel the radiating heat of his body cutting through the cold of the rink, and the warm puff of his minty breath fanning across her cheek.

"We are being watched," Daemus whispered, his lips barely moving.

Blair’s eyes widened. She instinctively started to turn her head toward the tunnel, but Daemus gently nudged her chin back.

"Don’t look," he warned softly. "It’s my teammates. Some of my friends from the pack. They don’t believe I’m actually mated to a human."

Blair swallowed hard. "Okay. What do we do?"

"Wrap your arms around me."

Blair’s face flushed an even deeper, burning red, her cheeks warming rapidly despite the ice beneath her back. "Why?" she asked quietly.

"Because you’re my girlfriend," Daemus stated simply.

"I am not your girlfriend," Blair argued back in a frantic whisper, her hands remaining flat on the ice.

"You’re my mate," Daemus countered smoothly, his silver eyes locking onto hers. "So, you are my girlfriend."

Blair’s heart gave a sudden, treacherous skip.

"I am your fake mate," Blair corrected.

"Shh," Daemus shushed her. "Be careful how you throw that word around. Wolves have excellent hearing. If you don’t want them to find out everything, and if you don’t want to end up in a duel to the death with my ex-girlfriend, you need to wrap your arms around me right now."

Blair bit her bottom lip. He was right. If the lie fell apart now, she was as good as dead. Without any further argument, she lifted her trembling hands and loosely, awkwardly wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

"Good," Daemus murmured. "Now kiss me."

Blair’s face was like a tomato now. Her entire face was on fire. "That is going way too far!" she hissed.

"Do I need to remind you what is at stake again?" Daemus asked, his voice dropping an octave.

Blair nervously shook her head. She bit her bottom lip again, an anxious habit. Daemus’s gaze immediately dropped, tracking the movement of her teeth against her plush lip.

"I’ve never—" Blair started to whisper, intending to confess that she had never kissed anyone before.

She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Daemus cut her off by pressing his lips firmly against hers.

Blair’s immediate instinct was to shove him off. But her brain began weighing her options. Option A: Kiss a wolf. Option B: Duel to the death with a furious beastwoman.

A kiss wouldn’t kill her, right?

Deciding to fully commit to her survival, Blair did her best to keep up. Her arms tightened around the nape of his neck, her fingers tangling in the damp, dark blue hair at the base of his head.

This was her first kiss. And she was... enjoying it?

Blair’s heart could hardly take it. She had zero frame of reference, zero experience to judge whether Daemus was a good kisser or not, but her melting body definitively decided that he was. When his tongue gently parted her lips, slipping into her mouth to deepen the kiss, Blair saw stars behind her closed eyelids.

I am kissing a beastman, her mind chanted in disbelief. I am kissing a wolf beastman. I am kissing a royal wolf beastman. I gave my first kiss to the Wolf Prince.

No matter how she framed it in her thoughts, she couldn’t believe it was happening. And worse, she couldn’t believe how much she liked it.

When Daemus finally broke the kiss, pulling back just an inch, a thin string of saliva connected their swollen lips. Blair was panting, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"They aren’t convinced," Daemus muttered, his voice raspy.

Before Blair could process the words, Daemus buried his face into the crook of her neck. He pressed hot, open-mouthed kisses against her pulse point. At the same time, one of his hands slid down her side, finding her thigh just above her knee.

Blair’s heart raced wildly. It was a chaotic mix of anticipation and desperately wanting to slow down before she lost her mind.

"I’m going to put my hand under your skirt," Daemus whispered against the sensitive skin of her neck between kisses. "I’m not going to touch you. But I need you to pretend that I am."

If it were possible to release steam, Blair was sure it would be pouring out of her ears. She was beyond embarrassed now.

"I... I can’t," Blair stuttered out, her voice a breathless, high-pitched mess. "I’ve never... I wouldn’t know how it feels to... to pretend properly to..."

She couldn’t even force the rest of the sentence out of her mouth.

Daemus knew exactly what she was trying to say. He stopped kissing her neck and lifted his head, meeting her gaze.

"Have you never touched yourself?" Daemus asked softly.

Blair couldn’t trust her voice not to betray her with a pathetic squeak, so she simply squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

Daemus let out a slow, quiet breath. He glanced to the side once more then looked back down at her flushed face. "Can I touch you? Between your legs?"

"Is it really necessary?" Blair asked nervously, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

"A wolf wouldn’t be pleased with just a few kisses," Daemus explained, his eyes serious. "It would look obviously fake if I barely touched you. Wolves have two default modes, you know: angry or horny. Right now, I should want to tear my mate’s clothes off and breed her right here on the ice."

Blair was officially even more nervous than she had been during the academy entrance exams. She gulped loudly. It was just a performance. It was necessary.

Slowly, she nodded.

Daemus raised an eyebrow. "Say it. Out loud."

Blair fought with every ounce of her willpower to keep her lips from trembling. She looked up into his silver eyes.

"You can touch me."