Love Athena

Chapter Two

Camila smelled the prince before she saw him.

She was at the royal pack's north side high school library doing her daily rounds, organizing and removing books the students had put in the wrong places.

"Your Highness, a pleasure to see you," Camila said, not looking down from the top of the twenty-foot tall ladder she was on.

"You do not feel pleasure, knowledge keeper," the prince said coolly.

She listened for the presence of another person. She could hear a few behind a shelf twenty-five feet away, trying to either get a look at the prince or eavesdrop on their conversation. Both reasons irked her. She felt another emotion coming, the first since she saw him last night.

Irritation.

"Social mannerisms are a chore. Did I say it wrong?" she asked him as she put the last book in its place, trying to mask how she felt. He still noticed.

Are you okay, sweetheart?, he mindlinked her. She jerked her head in the direction of the eavesdroppers.

I noticed them as soon as I entered; we'll leave here when you're done, he mindlinked again.

"I have a message from the king," he said.

The king, not my father.

He was trying not to alert any eavesdropper of the somewhat intimate tie between both of them. Did he finally see the sense in what she had said or was he just temporarily agreeing until he could find a way to convince her?

Either one didn't sit right with her.

Camila slid down half the length of the ladder and jumped down the rest at neck-breaking speed. His hand moved forward to hold her, but he stopped himself at the last second.

Don't do that to me, mate, he exploded in her head.

"A fall from twenty feet would not hurt the average wolf, much less me," she muttered, knowing he would hear her. She made quick work with a bow. The crown prince rolled his eyes.

Why not just mind link? he asked.

"My wolf is inactive. I have her strength but I do not have a solid connection with her. Hence, I cannot mind link." She straightened, extending her hand to receive the scroll. "But this is not the time or place for that discussion, Your Highness."

She moved to put it in her bag, but he held her hand to stop her.

They reacted immediately to the sparks: his hands flew into his pockets, and she clumsily dropped the scroll.

As she bent to pick it up, ensuring her back was to the girls, she muttered, "I would rather we refrain from touching each other in public, Your Highness."

So we can in private, he said slyly. In mind link, of course.

Without thinking, she reached under his right ankle and yanked out his leg hairs. The prince flinched but composed himself, glaring at her. She stood and began to walk outside of the building in the direction of her office, three streets away.

When Camila entered and shut the door of the fairly used building with only three rooms in it, she turned to him and held up the scroll. "I assume I am expected to read the contents right away."

He had been staring at her. Her voice seemed to snap him out of the trance he was in.

He shook his head. "Yes, yes, you are."

She opened it and read through it. As she did, she slowly realized her plan of avoiding him had failed. She hadn't remembered this detail when she was rescheduling her daily schedule to ensure they don't cross paths until the earlier proposed time for the wedding. She had even planned to deliver a letter to the palace that evening, advising the king and queen to reconsider their decision to annul the prince's wedding to Evangeline.