Your skin was darker than the king's. "You've been in the sun," she murmured as he pulled her down on the bed beside him, the feel of his body too hot like the sun.
"I was exiled for many years, and my coloring came from my mother's side. She was the daughter of a chieftain's island pack." There is only one alpha in the kingdom: the king. Some wolves may defy their chieftain, but not the king. His words were binding.
"While you never have, it seems," he gently replied, propped on one elbow, tracing his finger down the paleness of her arm. "There is no sun under the ocean. We have our own source of light from the huge pearl in the kingdom." Stretching upward, she brushed a kiss down his jaw, her sense of having reached safe harbor profound.
"I was there, on the island of your mother's pack. I met you at your grandfather's castle.
"When?" he asked.
