Queen of Midnight

Chapter Eight.

The next morning, I awoke feeling refreshed and energized. I was warm, happy, and had barely any memory of the nightmare I'd experienced the night before. I stretched out slightly and yawned before turning over, and bumping into a soft wall.

My eyes flew open to find myself face to face with James. His lips twitched slightly as he saw the shock in my eyes, and leaned forward to place a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"Good morning," he mumbled, his voice husky and sexy and irresistible. I shook at the sound of it, blinking a few times as I registered our closeness, and the fact that we were both lying together in my bed.

"Hi," I whispered, staring at him as though I expected him to explode in any second. All he did was widen his smile.

"How are you feeling?"

"I barely remember the dream," I admitted quietly. "Thank you for staying with me. I'm sorry to put you in an awkward position..."

"Stop being sorry," he sighed, turning over so he was lying on his back and then stretching out his body. I watched the muscles of his bare chest flex and move in awe, feeling a familiar tingle visit between my legs at the sight.

"Stop that," I choked out finally, and he turned his head to look at me with a grin plastered to his face.

"Stop what?" he asked, but his cheeky smile told me he knew exactly what he was doing. Before I could even open my mouth to scold him, we both heard footsteps running down the hall outside the room. A fist started pounding on the door opposite mine; James' room. We both shared a worried glance before James leapt out of bed and rushed to the door. When he threw it open, I managed to see a short but fairly built man standing in the hall, turning in surprise when he saw James standing across from him. He didn't even try and act embarrassed about how he caught us; he stood to attention and shared a few urgent words with James, before he nodded, turned and ran off back down the hallway.

"What's going on?" I asked quickly, sliding of the bed to walk over to James. "Is everything okay? James?"

"It would seem you have a visitor from Silver Moon," he said finally, shooting me a look with an eyebrow raised. "I thought they treated you like a slave there? Who would want to come and find you?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," I sighed, but I was more nervous than I was letting on. As James changed into some clothes more appropriate for the King of the Alphas, I stood in the hallway and twitched. I had one guess as to who it was, and if I was right, I was worried there would be blood shed sooner rather than later.

When he came back out, we walked together through the throne room and out into the courtyard, where the gentleman said they were holding the person until they were identified by me. As soon as we stepped outside, I knew chaos was about to be unleashed.

"What is he doing here?" James growled as he picked up his pace, stalking forward until he was standing nose to nose with none other than Ethan, my old mate and the son of the Alpha of Silver Moon. My breath hitched in my throat at the anger that radiated from James' body; everyone was staring at him in shock, unsure of what to do. All I knew was that he had to know now how I felt about that stupid woman he keeps standing around with. Although this was slightly different.

"She's my mate," Ethan spat in response, and everyone gasped in shock. I slapped my hand to my forehead in response, just wanting the ground to swallow me whole.

"She is not your mate," James bit off, his eyes black as he stared Ethan down. The man was being held by two guards, but as they saw the anger of their King, they let Ethan go and scrambled away quickly.