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He crossed the distance between us, and given his height advantage, I had to look up to see his eyes With one hand on each of entle, sweet kiss on the lips I licked the lower curve of histaste of cinna there other than the faint salt of his skin I kissed hi es on the roof of hisit a playful nip

"I know you don’t want the big show" He kissed my nose, then my forehead, and last but not least, each ofincredibly patient about this Or as patient as you can be" I didn’t miss his little jab "And if there was any other way to do this, I pro it, but there isn’t any other way"

"No courthouse steps? A quickie trip to Vegas?" I s can be overlooked News of it has to spread to all the other kingdoms, and they need to see that we are really, truly united Once that happens, I think we can finally be at peace"

He was drea For the past several months some of the Alphas of the sns of unrest There were ru to leave the protection of the East and seek the leadership of the South My uncle, Callu of the Southern packs, swore he had no part in it, but it was hard to i such a bold move on their own

And if my uncle was cut from the same cloth as my mother, his sister, then he wouldn’t rest until he had all of Lucas’s territory We’d ht headhen Lucas proposed, and I understood why he thought the big wedding would help h to shut Calluh to reaffir a pack protector the queen certainly gave the impression of a powerful teaether to function properly

"Okay," I said, kissing his cheek and once again o home"

"Thank you" Lucas’s sot one of those looks you get when you know I’"

"I want you to reested, then handed me a stiff envelope For a moment I trembled When I was still an assassin for the council, I used to receive the naets in envelopes identical to this one

My hands shook slightly as I opened the unsealed back flap and pulled out the card inside Just like with my hits, the card had a name on it Two names actually One was mine and the other was Lucas’s

"What is…?" But I was already reading the rest of the text This slip of paper was cordially inviting ut reaction was to crumple the invitation and throw it at him We’d hadthings onto me about them first My cheeks felt warm, and I took a few short breaths to steadyover his mouth "Adht"

"I--"

"Adht Never in a ement party I slid the invitation back into the envelope and threw thehed "I guess I had better go buy a new dress"

Chapter Four

Tiless to vampires, which it," I bellowed, sto room in my five-inch Christian Louboutin heels The shoes were ae-sleeved, scoop-necked party dress Nor out pretty shoes, but I thought the dress was sophisticated and downright regal

Not that anyone was going to get to see et ready

The vampire in question popped her head out from her bedroom door, her blonde hair still pinned up in hot curlers My eyes bugged when I sa far reo she was I swear I could feel an artery swell inat any minute Oh please, let me die of an aneurism Then I wouldn’t have to kill her

"Seriously?" I croaked

"No, no, no" She waved her hand dis away my irritation like a cat with a toy Then she stepped out of her bedroom to show me she was fully dressed in a pretty cornflower-blue dress She looked like every pretty, perky Midwestern girl-next-door cliché I could think of But more than that, she was fresh-faced and beautiful As she pulled the rollers out of her hair, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh "What?" she asked, her gaze drifting down to her dress as though the outfit was the source of my mirth