Ethan's POVThe moment I heard the shrill sound of the shattered bottle, something snapped in my head and I closed my eyes. I thought I had snapped out of the influence of the alcohol but then I realized that not all my actions were completely under the influence of the alcohol. A part of me was sober and I willingly kissed Ariah.I stared at her as she jumped and got on her knees to pick up the broken pieces of the bottle. “Ariah, what are you doing?” I asked, staring down at her.“I'm so sorry I broke your expensive bottle of Whisky, King Ethan, please don’t move so that it won’t harm you. I’ll pick all the pieces up, I don’t know how I’m going to repay you for this. I have no money and no valuable properties I can trade for it. My gosh, I’m so sorry about this.” She kept talking hysterically and rapidly.When she was about to pick up another broken piece, I put my hand on hers and she froze instantly. Once again I felt that spark of the mate bond and that made me give up denying

Ariah’s POVAt first, I couldn’t believe what was happening, it was like a dream come true. The first time I met King Ethan after I had been captured for trying to escape, after the bond I felt, I had always imagined a day like this. Truthfully, I never thought it would come. I thought it would just be a replay of the life I had escaped from my pack, but here I was, in his arms comfortably. I still breathed heavily because I was still weary of him. First of all, I couldn’t trust him completely for a lot of reasons. The first being that I couldn’t understand the look in his blue eyes, it was as if his emotions were hidden behind a curtain. His eyes were just plain and expressionless, but I could feel the heavy thumping of his heart and I noticed the way his lips twisted slightly at the edges. When I wriggled slightly, his grip around me loosened and his hands just dropped at his side, letting me go easily. I looked at him for a while, and realized something was wrong. “What’s the m

Ariah's POV I was scared alright, very scared. The moment Ethan mentioned a few werewolves, the first person my mind drifted to was Alpha James. What if he was there? What if he saw me? There was no way he wouldn’t recognize the girl he had been so mean to, there was no way he wouldn’t throw a tantrum. If that kind of thing happened, it would be a complete mess, chaos in fact, it wasn’t just that Alpha James would want to take me back as his prisoner, no. That was one of but not my major worry. First, Ethan was going to discover who I truly was and if he did, he might despise me all over again for lying to him. Secondly, if Ethan found out that Alpha James had locked me up in a cell and constantly abused me, it wouldn’t be difficult anymore for him to put two and two together. As it stood he already hated the person who had raped me without even knowing who it was, I was afraid of what would happen. That could lead to a fight, a fight between a Lycan king and an alpha werewolf

Ariah’s pov There was the awkward way the lady was looking at me, I couldn’t ignore it and I would have given Ethan the signal only if he was still holding my hand. My focus hadn’t even been on her, throughout the entire ride to this place, I had already made up my mind on what to do. The first thing I had to do was survey the entire hall and watch out for Alpha James, if I didn’t see him there, good. If I did, then I had to get away with any excuse I could cook up. I was a little relieved when Ethan held my hand as we walked in, I was looking around in a desperate search for Alpha James or anyone at all who looked like him when the girl and her father approached us. When she looked down at the way Ethan held my hand and I saw the look in her eyes, I recognized it instantly. A lady knew when another lady was jealous but this one’s eyes just flickered with a little jealousy and a lot of curiosity. When I shook the man’s hand, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to relate with anyone

Ariah’s POVI couldn't have gotten out more quickly. It was already so intoxicating and when Ethan held my hand, I clasped his firmly. I didn't want to let go until we got into the limousine and that was when he let go of my hand. I was finally happy to get away from all those people, most of all, I didn't see or bump into Alpha James, that was the biggest relief of the night. But I had a lot of questions about the lady that seemed to cling to Ethan all night. That wasn't all, it was as if everyone was working together to ensure that they were close to each other, especially her father. I knew that where they had directed Lowell and me to sit wasn't a coincidence, they had purposely kept us away from Ethan. And then her father's little speech, the way he had praised Ethan seemed so wrong to me and I knew something was going on. Something just felt off but I couldn't place a finger on it. I thought I would spend the whole night with Ehan but that wasn't the case at all, it was