The Princess And The Alpha *Excerpt Only*

Rapids

When Ryan and I exited the underground prison and the light hit my mate's battered face I had to hold back a gasp of horror. There was heavy bruising on his left cheek that ranged from dark purple to an ugly yellow and was severely swollen. There was dried blood in his hair, but I couldn't easily find the wound that had caused it, and he was just plain filthy. This man was hardly the rogue alpha that I had first met. He was nearly broken, even after a day of accelerated healing.

"Come on, we have to go." I whispered, my voice shaking slightly. I guess the tough façade was gone already. I just shut my mouth and jerked my head towards Poison who was watching us intently.

"I've never ridden a horse." Ryan confessed. His voice was scratchy and dry. "If you want to kill me it would be much faster to just let the royal guards after me again."

"Come on, it's not that hard." I pressed. While I spoke I began peeling off my clothes. Where we were going I wouldn't have unlimited access to clothing like I did now, I couldn't just shift and destroy them like I normally would. When I looked up I noticed that Ryan was gawking at me and I had to duck my head down to hide the blush, "Hey, focus, I need you on that horse because I don't think you're healthy enough to run the whole way."

"How far are we going?"

"You don't need to worry about that right now, just get on Poison and let me take care of everything else." I demanded.

"How do you know the guards won't tell your dad where we went?"

I rolled my eyes, we definitely didn't have time for this right now.

"Ever heard of a command tone? Or a royal tone?" I asked. I pointedly grabbed his arm and dragged him over to Poison, pointing to a stirrup.

"That's a real thing?" he asked, jamming his foot in there. I quickly fastened my clothes in the backpack and helped him mount the big beast.

"Yes, now shut up and hold on." I commanded.

The second the words were out of my mouth I shifted into my wolf. It felt natural to be in wolf form for the first time in years and I gave my thick coat a healthy shake while Poison just snorted and watched me with uncertainty. For a horse he was quite used to wolves, however, that didn't entirely kill his instincts. Thankfully, he didn't kick me when I neared him and pretended to nip at his hocks. He did jump away from me a jostle Ryan before he set off away from me in a quick trot.

I stayed a decent distance away from Poison, loping behind just to keep up with the big animal. I needed Poison to stay on track and keep a steady pace, but I was also concerned about Ryan. He didn't look like he was in the best of shape, but he was holding on and we didn't have a plethora of options right now. As long as he could handle the ride to the river we were home free.

Poison trotted along through the forest, hardly bothered by the fact that the trees were getting bigger and the foliage was growing denser with each stride he took. He seemed delighted to be out of the arena which made me happy, but a few times I had to dart around him to make him change directions so he wouldn't attempt to leap over fallen logs. I needed to get Ryan transported in one relatively content piece, and I don't think he was really ready to try his hand at jumping just yet.

Poison wasn't the only one who was enjoying the time in the woods. This was the first time in years I had actually enjoyed being shifted. Most of the time when I shifted it was because my wolf was nearly jumping out of my skin. On one particular occasion I dropped to my knees in the foyer, unable to make it out the front door in time, and I shifted right there in front of all the housing staff.