ArcKnight (The ArcKnight Chronicles #1)

Chapter Five

Ephrem

I leaned against the door, grateful to have a barrier between me and the princess. She was apparently used to commanding her way around people, especially guards. It made me chuckle. Regardless, this wasn't her domain and she was right, she was no longer royalty here. I owed her nothing, and she didn't have any power over me.

Blowing out a breath, I proceeded to peel off the rest of the drenched clothes clinging to my muscles. It'd been a long night, and with Lily in my care, things were much more complicated now than they'd ever been before. I'd never saved a royal before. Banishment was as good as death to any soul. Why did I have to stumble upon a royal of all people tonight? Especially an ArcKnight royal? It was one thing to save one of my own pack, a MarkTier, but the opposing pack in the city of Temple was a whole other matter and held a bottomless pit full of possible problems.

If only it'd been another guard who'd found her tonight.

I clutched my Ardent talisman, feeling its magic hum beneath my fingers. The presence of any royal-blooded wolf always excited the stone, and its constant thrumming against my skin made my head feel light and dizzy. Not that I needed any more help with that. Lilliana was unique in her own way. What little I knew of her from the brief spotlights I'd seen in the media was not much, but I knew from the moment I first spotted her years ago that she was different from the rest of the royals, even her sister, Rafaela.

Tossing my sword to the side, I rolled my shoulders back before heading into the master bathroom. I thought about nothing but Lily as the steamy water recharged me. Never in a million years had I thought I'd ever meet her face to face again. She apparently didn't remember me from when I'd been part of the royal guard for my pack thirteen years ago.

When I was still a boy and escorting the royals of the MarkTier pack to the ArcKnight palace for negotiations over land disputes, I met Lily. That same meeting had left the two packs forever separated. They failed to come to an agreement for control over a portion of the neutral lands, and in the process of all the disagreements, the promise we'd been held to as a betrothed couple had been severed. If we'd married, it would've united the two feuding kingdoms and satisfied an ages-old prophecy for peace. Even if she and I were both second born in our lineages.

But it was never to be. There could never be peace.

I wondered if Lilliana knew she was supposed to be my bride once upon a time. Her memory failed her, but I remembered her clearly and more than anyone I'd ever met before. I wasn't going to refresh the past for her either. I was no longer the skinny kid looking at the much younger five-year-old named Lily, who would've been my bride thirteen years later. Instead, here we were, both on alternate paths and unmarried. How ironic it all was... or could it just be some sick and twisted coincidence?

Either way, I shut my eyes and squeezed them tight, hoping to block all thoughts of the past and what could've been or should've happened out of my mind. It was no use. No matter how long I'd waited to finally have her in my arms, this was by far not the way I'd imagined it. Not even close.

After my shower, I lay on my bed, staring up at the shadows the rain threw against the ceiling. It was pleasant, yet I couldn't sleep for the life of me. Training Lily wouldn't be an easy feat. She was older than most trainees I'd worked with, set in her ways and stubborn as a boulder. Somehow I'd have to help improve her combat skills so she wouldn't end up under another behemoth of a man and almost crushed to death trying to survive the neutral lands of Temple. If I hadn't been there at the right moment tonight, she'd have been a pancake.

Not the best way to go, but certainly not the worst either.

I chuckled to myself as I placed my hands behind my head, listening to the tiny noises coming from the other bedroom. The wall was thin, and I could hear each and every little creak the bed made as Lily tossed and turned, evidently as restless as I was. I felt for her. Even though I'd never been officially banished and had instead been assigned to monitor the lawless parts of the city, it was as good of a punishment as any banishment could be.