The Last Princess by Stacey Espino Page A

equipment
was the chosen hiding place for the male. "Are you playing dead because
I'm a bear shifter?  That only works for animals.  Personally, it just pisses
me off."  He kicked his boot into the dark grotto, hitting a flesh and
blood being. "Get out before I drag you out."
    When he didn't emerge, Ulric reached in and pulled him out by
the shirt. He smelled like a fox, those pathetic, shady little creatures.
"Please, it wasn't my idea…"
    Ulric gave him a shake, making the man's tremors increase.
"What wasn't?  Who sent you?  Were you hired to kill the queen?"
    Wesley, Cade and Ronan joined him in the narrow corridor,
naked from shifting. "We can't find the other.  He's elusive, disappeared
like a ghost."
    "She," Ulric corrected before returning his
attention to the blue-eyed fox.  "Answer my questions."
    "He'll kill me."
    "Do we look like we're ready to have a tea party with
you?  Answer my fucking questions!"
    "I--I was paid.  Paid to kidnap the princess." 
    He laughed out loud, as did his friends. "There is no
princess here.  Where have you been for the past few years?"
    "She's returned."  He spoke like some twisted cult
member, confident in his claim.
    "Sure, pal. Cade, take him to the cells in the
sub-level.  We'll deal with him after we secure the perimeter."
    Ulric leaned against the wall once he was alone with Wesley
and Ronan. "There's a female loose.  If the others still haven't tracked
her outside that means she's in here somewhere. I caught her tying to sneak in
one of the hidden doorways—"
    "So you're saying she could be inside?"  Ronan was
gnawing at the bit.  He was one of their more lethal members, highly dedicated
to the queen.  Ulric had never heard a complaint uttered from his lips. He
bound off before receiving an answer.  The moment the alarms sounded the Elites
stationed inside the castle would have checked on the queen and created a wall of
protection around her room, so Ulric was more concerned with searching the
outside.
    "I'll head to the east, you take the west," he said
to Wesley. His friend nodded, shifted back into a panther, and raced down the
west tunnel.
    ****
    His life had been dull and uneventful since moving into the
royal palace.  The sense of urgency in the air now kept him entertained.
Shifters scoured the grounds.  He watched from the small, stone terrace off his
bedroom.  The lot of them looked like search dogs, trying to find the fool
crazy enough to break into the castle. 
    Ulric had pissed him off, treating him like a delicate female. 
He needed no protecting, and his friend should know that by now.  The tests to
get on the suitor list for a princess were nearly as involved as the ones to
become an Elite. He could handle himself in the face of danger. A little
excitement would help hedge the monotonous days of waiting for a wayward
princess.
    The door to his bedroom opened and closed, capturing his
attention.  It was probably one of the guards doing another room check.  He
stepped back into the bedroom from the terrace to find someone rooting through
his dresser drawer.
    "I don't think the criminal would fit in my sock
drawer," he said.  This invasion of privacy would be reported to the queen
first thing in the morning. It would give him something new to grumble about at
breakfast.
    The man turned to face him—make that a woman.  Her scarf fell
partway off her head, revealing shiny black hair and a beautiful heart-shaped
face. His cock twitched, a result of the large white moon shining down through
the open patio doors and having a beautiful female alone in his private
quarters.
    He'd like to think she was a gift for him to soil his oats,
but the multiple partner matings in shifter culture always included one woman
and numerous men, never the other way around. It was something founded by the
monarchy. 
    "Who are you?" she asked as if he'd entered her room
and not the other way around.
     
     

Chapter
Seven
     
    "Me? This is my bedroom.  The more