"Thanks, man. That one is hard to shake."
The men laughed and ribbed each other as the caravan slowly made its way.
A few minutes later Mac stopped what he was saying mid-sentence, something far away catching his eye.
"What is it? Trouble?" Naythan's jovial spirit straightened up some as he noticed the furrowed brow on his friend's face as he stared off in the distance.
"I don't know. Maybe. There's somebody headed hard in our direction. I think it's a woman. She's alone, she looks like she's wearing a wedding dress, and she's running toward us like her ass is on fire."
"So you're saying she's a smart woman?"
"What? How so?" Mac asked, looking down at Naythan, confused, before lifting his gaze back toward the incoming stranger.
"Sounds like a runaway bride to me. Anyone who runs from marriage like her ass is on fire is a smart one, in my opinion."
Mac laughed, and said, "Let me hop down, we can go see what's going on."
"Nah, stay. I'll go check it out. It'll give me a valid reason to avoid Candace. Besides, we may need you and your vantage point up there in case the jilted groom tears down here after her."
Naythan headed off in the direction Mac had given him, on the lookout for the run-away bride. He thought about shifting wolf, to be able to catch her faster, but then he thought better of it. If she was running hell bent for leather already, the sight of a wolf headed toward her probably wouldn't calm her much.
He stepped away from the caravan some, trying to see her over the crowd.
Now where in the hell had she...Oh! There she is.
He caught a flash of bright white, and then it was gone. She'd slid right into the crowd, just as he caught sight of her.
Damn, she was running fast if she got all the way here already. Now where did she...
Naythan started working his way back through the crowd, like a fish swimming upstream, looking for bright white. His eyes darted over and past people and wagons, animals too, but he didn't see her.
He turned back toward Mac, to see if he could spot Mac up high, and then maybe follow whatever direction he was looking, but Mac's wagon had already gone too far ahead to be easily seen.
He turned back to keep looking and ran right into solid flesh.
"Oofff! Hey, look where you're going!"
He heard her words, but she seemed to be falling as she spoke them so he reached out to steady her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and swung, pulling her out of the line of people so she wouldn't get trampled.
"Get your hands off me!"
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to keep you on your feet. Are you ok? Hey! It's you! I was just looking for you."
"Me? Why?" She looked around, like she expected to see whoever was chasing her appear before her.
"We saw you running this way. You looked like you were trying to escape. I was going to make sure everything was ok."
She answered him, but he didn't hear her. His wolf was overpowering her words with his own.
We have found her! Our mate is here, and she is beautiful. She's dressed for a wedding, it's a shame I'll have to kill her groom because she is meant for us and no one else.
Whoa, slow down there! Naythan answered his wolf. We aren't going to kill anyone, especially not to claim her. I don't want a mate, you know this.
You say that, but that was before I scented her. It was easy to go along with your thoughts before, but now we have a mate!
I don't want a mate!
Can't you smell her? His wolf growled back at him. How does she not make you want to lift her skirts and bury yourself in her?
I didn't say I didn't want that. It's the forever part of claiming her I don't want. We can fuck her, if you'd like. But I am not biting her, nor anyone else. Why in the hell would we want to tie ourselves down?
"...I want to marry, really I do. But I intend to marry rich! I won't settle for anything else. I'll even marry gay, if he's also rich. He can do his thing, I can do mine. I've given this a lot of thought, and I won't be left like my mother. I won't!"
"I'm sorry, what was that?" The stranger in the wedding dress was still talking, ranting wildly really, and the last bit had finally gotten past his wolf's ranting to reach his brain.
"Are you rich? Cause you are very handsome. I could give you a son in exchange for taking care of us. I wouldn't even ask you to be faithful, since we aren't in love or anything. Are you looking for a wife?"
"Oh, hell no! Look, are you ok? Did you fall and hit your head on something? Who are you running from?"
"I just told you, weren't you listening?"
She went on again, about a prince, saying he promised to take care of her but was really poor, and something about her mother, and losing a farm before Naythan said to his wolf, This one is nuts. And you said you wanted her forever? You're nuts as well.
Before his wolf could answer, she asked again, "Are you looking for a wife?"
"No, definitely not. But I'm not rich either, I'm nobody, so..."
"Oh. Too bad. I could definitely get behind sharing a bed with you."
His wolf howled his interest again at that, but Naythan just asked, "Is your jilted groom running after you?"
She looked around wildly, "I don't know. I don't think so. He may not even know I'm missing yet, honestly."
Naythan nodded, looking over her head, searching the crowd for any incoming, pissed off grooms. He didn't see any of those, but what he did see gave him an idea.
"How about we help each other out?" He asked the bride before him.
"How so?" She narrowed her eyes up at him, suddenly suspicious.
"I know most everyone here. I know who has money, who is single, and who is secretly gay. I could help you. Introduce you around."
"And what do you want in return?"
"You're trying to tie yourself to someone. I'm trying to escape the very same fate," he said, glancing over her shoulder at the fiery red curls he could see bobbing their way closer with every second. "Help keep Candace away from me, and I'll help you land a rich husband."
"Who is Candace, and how would I..?"
"In or out, sweetheart? I don't really care which way you decide, but I need that decision right now."
He saw her nod her head out of the corner of his eye as he watched Candace draw near.
"I'm in, I guess..."
She didn't even get to finish her sentence before he grabbed her, pulling her hard against him. He tilted her head with one hand as his other fit her curves to him as the crowd spilled on by.
His lips found hers and three things happened all at once- her moaned sigh reached his ears as her lips parted and her tongue started to dance with his, his wolf howled in some kind of glorious if mistaken sense of victory, and Candace saw them together, letting out a howl of her own.
Chapter 3
Sandra could hear a woman yelling in the background. Screaming, really, but as the stranger's mouth moved against hers, everything but him disappeared. Even the chill in the air ceased to exist. His kiss, his arms wrapped around her, and his hard, warm body against hers were all that mattered.
For a few precious seconds all of Sandra's thoughts were on the moment she was in. Instead of always thinking ahead, planning, worrying, she let herself just be.
It was over too soon.
She caught her balance as the stranger let her go, stepping away from her a few feet to deal with the angry, still yelling woman. She watched as the woman slapped the man who'd kissed her, and as he walked back toward where she still stood, still stunned from the kiss, she caught knowing glances from most everyone in the crowd who'd been close enough to see their heated exchange, or hear the slap that punctuated it.
"Let me guess, that was Candace?"
"It was," he said with a slightly embarrassed flush on his cheeks.
Or maybe that was just the slap glowing, she thought.
"She's the fate you're trying to escape? The one trying to tie itself to you?"
"She is."
"I take it from the looks all three of us got that you escape that particular fate often?"
He grinned at her before answering.
"I do."
"Maybe you can help me. You're obviously good at getting women to want to marry you, regardless of your lack of wealth..."
"I have other talents," he interrupted.
She raised her eyebrows, trying not to grin back as she said, "I bet you do. One of which I just got the full brunt of. So, how did I do?"
"At what?"
"How did I do holding up my end of things? Did I help you get rid of Candace?"
"For now at least."
"So now it's my turn. You'll help me land a rich husband, quickly?"
"You sure you wouldn't just rather pick up where we left off?"
Sparks flared deep in Sandra's stomach at his words. She felt her nipples tighten and she squeezed her thighs together as she stood before him, trying to ease the ache that had suddenly grown between them. The heated look he was giving her only drove the words home.
She could tell by his very skillful and passionate kiss that picking up where they had left off would be quite enjoyable.
He wasn't what she needed though. He'd already said that he had no money or station, and basically the only thing she knew about him so far, aside from the fact that he was handsome as hell and an amazing kisser, was that he definitely had no interest in marrying, her or anyone else.
He'd be a perfect love-em-and-leave-em fling to get out of her system before she did find a husband, but despite every naughty thing her body was thinking it wanted to do with this man, her brain ultimately came out on top.
"As tempting as that offer is, you can't give me what I want. Well, honestly, you could probably give me exactly what I want, but you can't give me what I need," she clarified.
She felt her skin heat up again, and she knew she was blushing bright red at both her own words and at the smoldering look he was giving her as he watched her squirm.
No, she needed to find a rich husband here, and quickly, which meant that she needed to stay respectable. No one would marry her, even if it was in name only in some kind of loveless arrangement, if it was known around camp that she lifted her dress for the first man she spoke to when she joined the caravan. It was already bad enough that so many people saw them kiss.
Nope, from here out this needed to be a business arrangement and nothing else. She'd done her part, it was his turn to do his.
* * *
An hour or so later, after making it clear that she was serious about finding a rich husband in this crowd, the pair had exchanged names, found Mac, and made formal introductions all around. Sandra now found herself riding instead of walking, and filling both men in on exactly who she was and what she was looking for so they could start introducing her to the right people.
"There are really only two viable options here," Naythan told her as Mac watched them both with an odd look on his face.
"Only two? In a crowd this size?"
She was both surprised and disappointed, but she shook it off. In reality she really only needed one willing partner for it all to work, and beggars can't afford to be choosers, so when Naythan nodded at her question she resigned herself to choosing between two possible husbands.
"Yes, just two, I'm afraid. They're the only ones here with both the means to support you and the ability to marry. Now if you are just looking for money and support, and you'd be willing to be a life-long mistress, that would open the field up a lot wider, right Mac?"
Sandra followed Naythan's gaze to the quiet one riding with them as he raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders in agreement.
"I suppose. I've never really thought about it, but yeah, that sounds about right. This is the castle crowd. Nobility and royalty-types all seem to be a bit weird about mate selection. They marry for different reasons than the rest of us do, so they do tend to keep a female or two that they actually have feelings for on the side. Makes me happy to be a common man, honestly."
The formality of his words caught Sandra's attention.
"That's an odd way to frame it- mate selection. Why do you call it that? Although it is straight forward. Selecting a mate is exactly what I'm trying to do, I guess. Is it so very different for the common man, Mac? How would you select your mate, or have you already?"
"No, I'm single. Mate selection is very different for my kind."
"You speak so formally. How is it different for the common man, as you say, from the castle crowd? Well, for men anyway. I get the difference for women, for sure."
"Well, a common man can choose a mate based on feelings instead of politics. Love instead of money. But for me in particular, there's a third aspect. There is castle crowd, common man, and then me- a shifter. As a shifter I have it a bit easier. Castle crowd or common man, my bear will pick my mate. It's a scent thing that my human side can fight or accept."
"Wait, you're a bear shifter? I've never met a shifter in real life before. I've heard stories, but you can't trust either the good or the bad in stories. The truth is usually more in the middle. So it's easier for you then? You just wait until you smell your mate and it's done? Excuse my ignorance but the mental image I have right now is two dogs smelling each other's..."
Mac's laugh was sudden, loud and forceful. It was a warm, hearty laugh, and it lit up his eyes as he looked at her and then past her to Naythan.
She followed his gaze and saw that Naythan was grinning widely at her mental image as well.
"So, it's not like that then? Oh good, I'm glad. It may be easier, but that doesn't sound sexy in the slightest."
"True," Mac continued speaking through his laughter. "That doesn't sound sexy at all. Thankfully it isn't like dogs, even for the wolf shifters, but my understanding is that scenting your mate is very powerful."
She watched him speak of everything he'd heard scenting was, but he was no longer looking at her as he spoke. His words were aimed at Naythan, and Sandra thought maybe he was seeking agreement?
"When you scent your mate, it rocks you to your very core, or so I've heard. It changes you."
"It doesn't have to. You said it yourself, your human side can fight or accept."
Naythan's words sounded almost argumentative to Sandra's ears, like he was speaking from experience that he didn't want to address.
Wait, was Naythan also a bear shifter?
"You sound like you know of what you speak. Are you a bear too? Have you scented your mate?"
"No! I mean... I'm a shifter too, yes. I'm a wolf. I thought we were talking about finding you a husband. Do you want to hear about the two who might be willing or should we keep talking about sniffing asses?"
"Sorry. I didn't mean to touch on a sore subject, I'm just fascinated, that's all. Ok, yes, my two best options. Who are they?"
Mac snorted beside her as Naythan started to tell her about the men he said she'd have the best chance of getting to marry her.
"How do you feel about being a twelfth wife in a harem?"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. He obviously has no problem marrying, and you say you're looking for stability and money, not love. He's young, his father recently died, leaving him the entire kingdom as the only male heir."
"And the other option? What's his story?"
"You called it before. He's not so secretly gay. Well, here it isn't a secret, but my understanding is that that's why he stays here on our land as much as he does. In his own kingdom that is highly frowned upon. He's only a prince, but his parents have been pushing him to marry."
"I'm sure they'd prefer he marry someone of his own rank though, correct? I have nothing of value."
"Oddly enough they are pushing him to marry for love not politics. He's the youngest son so odds are great that he'd never be king. At this point I think they'd be happy with him for just making a show of marrying so they could put the rumors that he prefers the company of men to rest. No real pressure on the
youngest son for anything other than keeping up appearances and staying out of trouble."
"Which of them would balk the least at also taking on my mother?"
"None of them should have a problem with that. Everyone knows that when you take on a wife you are responsible for her family as well. As it should be."
Sandra nodded.
"Twelfth wife in a harem or beard to the youngest son? Those are my only choices?"
"Of course not," Mac spoke up then.
"You know of another?"
"You always have other choices. You could wait for your fated mate. You could slow down a minute and look around. Take stock. Stop running. Give love some time to find you."
"You forget that it's not love I'm looking for. I'm looking for safety. I've seen love in my parents, and what do they have to show for it now? My mother is about to lose everything and I won't let that happen. I don't have time to stop running or to take stock. I barely have time to look around. I'm not a shifter, my fated mate doesn't exist. What does exist is a chance to take care of my family in the only way open to a female with no money and no station. I can marry up. I can trade myself for food and a place to live for myself and my mother.
I've decided. I'd rather have the youngest prince please, I think. We can help each other, right now that's all I have to offer in return. I'm not sure what I have to offer in return for becoming a twelfth wife, but the other guy, it sounds like maybe he needs me as much as I need him. Let's start there."
Chapter 4
Naythan watched Sandra and Allen, the gay prince, from afar. The caravan had stopped for the night and after everyone had set up their tents or raised the tops of the wagons they planned to sleep above ground in, Naythan, Mac and Sandra headed off to catch Allen alone.
Naythan introduced Allen and Sandra to each other, whispering her situation into Allen's ear. His reaction had been positive.
"You'd be willing to do that? You'd marry me knowing my situation, only asking for me to take care of you and your mother financially in return? Have you eaten yet? How about we get to know each other better and discuss this over dinner? Surely some of the dining tents are open by now, I can smell the meat on their grills. If they aren't quite ready for customers I'm sure it won't be long."
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