After meeting with Geric the night before, Amy found it harder and harder to pay attention to her duties for the day. She often found herself gazing out the window and willing the sun to descend so she could escape into the night. Just another couple of hours and she would be golden...

Amy pushed her food around on her plate, only half engaged in the conversation happening around her. Their guests talked animatedly about something that happened in town, but all she could think about was Geric.

"What are your thoughts on the issue, Amy?" Charles asked, gazing back at her with intrigue. "Surely a woman like you would have formed her own opinion on the matter."

Her heart beat fast as she looked around the table to see everyone staring at her. What was she supposed to say? She'd look like a fool no matter what she said.

Deciding to go with the truth, Amy said, "Please forgive me, I was not listening. I actually feel as if I have come down with something. Will you please excuse me?" She set her napkin down on the table and stood up, all the men at the table standing up with her.

"Of course, Dear," her father said with concern. "After yesterday, none of us would blame you for feeling ill. Let us know if we can do anything for you."

She nodded her head graciously toward her father before turning around and gracefully striding out of the room. But as soon as she was out of sight, she dropped airs and clambered up the stairs to her room, collecting her clothes together to get ready to sneak outside, but she quickly kicked them beneath her bed when she heard a knock sounding on the door. Her lady in waiting opened the door, carrying a tray of tea.

"My Lady, I thought you might like some chamomile tea? I was told you are feeling ill."

It took all of Amy's patience to sit down and take the offered tea, plopping a couple sugar cubes inside before stirring the golden liquid around in the porcelain cup. "Thank you, Shayna. I appreciate your kindness." She forced herself to drink slowly instead of gulp it all down just to get rid of Shayna.

"I heard about your nasty tumble the other day," Shayna whispered with wide eyes. "What happened? Did the horse lose its footing?"

"Something like that," Amy replied, not sure what made her want to protect this secret and keep it to herself. "I don't mean to be a bother, but I'm really tired."

Shayna nodded and bowed, backing up toward the door. "I can take a hint, Your Highness. I hope you recover from your ailments."

As soon as the door closed behind her lady in waiting, Amy held her breath as she waited several minutes, and then several more minutes just to be sure. It was already getting dark outside. The guards would have a hard time spotting her even if they tried.

Quickly, Amy threw on a pair of men's trousers and tucked in her shirt before pulling her hair back into a bun, but as she caught sight of herself in the mirror, she decided to forgo the bun. She thought she looked prettier with her hair framing her face anyways.

With stealthy movements, Amy snuffed out her candle and carefully climbed out the window and down the trail of ivy that led up to her window. Her heart hammered in her chest and it wasn't just because of the physical effort it took to climb down. She felt incredibly excited to see Geric again. A little scared, but also excited.

After climbing over the wall, Amy willed herself to be invisible as she made her way toward the cover of the forest. So far so good...

And finally, she let out the breath that she had been holding when she successfully made it to the forest without getting caught. She just hoped that all of this was actually worth it. Would Geric even come? Would he even show up?

The night fell into complete darkness by the time she made it to the pond, scanning the area for any sight of Geric. Still nothing.

"I thought you wouldn't come," Geric's voice sounded behind her, causing her to yelp in surprise and spin around. Sure enough, he was dressed, fully dressed, and he looked as handsome as ever with his beautiful brown hair, his tall figure, and his well defined muscles. It was too dark outside to see the amber of his eyes, but she knew it was there.

"If we're going to meet up like this," Amy hissed, glaring at him accusingly, "then you need to find a way to not startle me."

But he just grinned. "Why did you want to see me again anyways?"

Now it was Amy's turn to give him a smug smile as she threw his words from earlier right back at him. "Sometimes it's better to have a little mystery."

"Fair enough."

The two of them began walking side by side around the pond, neither seeming to know what to say. Amy kept casting curious glances over at Geric, her mind forming more and more questions about him.

"Why don't you hate humans?" Amy asked, one of the many questions she had been dying to ask since yesterday.

Geric frowned. "Next question."

Amy huffed in annoyance, but she respected his wishes nonetheless. "Alright... Werewolves are supposed to be immortal, right? How old are you?"

Again, he irritated her by saying, "Skip this question. Next one."

She balled her hands into fists, wondering why he was being so evasive about himself. "Why do the other werewolves seem afraid of you?"

"Not answering that one, either. What else do you got?"

Crossing her arms, she sighed exasperatedly. "If you don't want me to know anything about you, why did you come here at all? Do you think I'm going to be okay just walking with and talking with a complete stranger? If you're not going to talk, maybe I'll just go back home."

Turning on her heel, she started back the way she came, but lightning fast, Geric moved in front of her, blocking her path.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his hand grazing her arm, making her cheeks turn a nice shade of rosy. "You're asking questions that all lead back to the same origin and I'm not inclined to sharing."

Amy shrugged, pursing her lips together. "Then what can I know about you? I already know that you're a blacksmith and that you don't mind humans. You also saved my life. You're different than the rest of them and I want to know why. I want to know the werewolf behind the mask. Quite frankly, you're the most interesting person that I know even with how little I know about you. Won't you let me bask in this for a short while?"

After several moments of silence, Geric finally nodded. "Alright, as you wish, Princess."

"Please don't call me that. I'm not ordering you to tell me. I'm asking. We'll play give one get one. You tell me something about you, and I'll tell you something about me that you wouldn't already know."

Geric chuckled as they sat down on a large boulder at the edge of the pond. "Alright, Amy. But you better be true to your word. I'm a good shot with the bow."

"Really?" Amy asked with intrigue. "I'd like to test this out. We can have a shoot out. Maybe if I found a way to sneak you onto the castle grounds—"

"I'm not going in there," Geric interrupted. "If you want to shoot with me, you have to do it on my turf."

"Fair enough, but I don't think it will be that easy for me to sneak away in broad daylight. My guards would be on me faster than a pack of bloodhounds."

Surprisingly, Geric burst into laughter, a burst of golden sunlight to her ears. The musical sound felt intoxicating and she wanted to hear it again and again. But when the laughter faded away, his smile still lingered on his face for long moments after. "You poor cooped up princess! It sounds like you're just dying to get out!"

"Like you wouldn't believe!" she exclaimed. "I'm dying in there! But I only have a couple more weeks of restricted freedom before I'll have nothing at all, so I'm just trying to make the best of it."

The conversation paused for a moment as Geric turned his head to look at her quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"

Amy hated the way he looked at her like she was some caged animal, so instead she turned her attention to her reflection in the water below. "My parents are marrying me off to Princes Charles Minnings. They claim they're allowing me to choose my husband, but we all know that's a lie. The masquerade was staged just to make it look like it wasn't a fixed marriage." She paused for a moment to toss a rock into the water, watching as it made a 'plop' before sinking into the mud. "So I'm enjoying my last days of freedom before I'm shackled to another man for life."

Silence fell between them, and Amy could still feel Geric's gaze on her, but she refused to look. She already said too much, but she couldn't stand keeping her feelings to herself anymore.

"I'm sorry, Amy," Geric said finally. "I really am. It doesn't sound like you want this at all."

She forced a smile to her face, but even she could tell that the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Well, that's the life of a princess. I get everything handed to me, yet I have nothing that I truly want." The conversation suddenly became deep even though she had never meant to turn in this direction, but for some reason, she felt comfortable opening up to him.

"And what does Princess Ameline want?"

"That's a great question, indeed! I want to ride as fast as I can on wide open pastures. I want carefree laughter and the chance to make my own choices. I don't want all the lavish parties and the crowns and the jewels. I want a nice, quiet life. Or at least one where I'm not completely ruled out of my own life. That's what Ameline wants."

"Believe it or not," Geric said as he skipped a rock across the pond water from where he sat, "but I understand you a lot better than you think I do. You could do a lot as queen. You could help your people. You might even be able to end the conflicts between werewolves and humans."

She opened her mouth to retort that notion, but Geric cut across her. "Before you say anything, let me give you my side of it all. I believe that there are good werewolves and bad werewolves just like there are good humans and those who look only after their own interests. You just have to show your people that we're not all bad. If you give us a chance, I know a lot of hearts would change."

Amy wasn't sure, exactly, what to make of that. Here she was talking to a living, breathing werewolf when she probably should have been running for her life. Call her crazy, but she actually very much enjoyed his company.

"You make a valid point, Geric. And I'll keep that in mind." She took off her boots and skimmed her feet across the water, relishing the feel of the cold washing over her toes. Out here, she felt so free. It was wonderful.

Glancing over at Geric, she met his intense gaze, goosebumps crawling up her arms when his amber eyes shone beneath the light of the moon. They were beautiful. So transfixing...

Before she asked her next question, she turned her attention back to the pond. "Do you personally think that I'd be better off helping my people than pursuing my own happiness?" After a moment, she grimaced. "I'm sorry. And here I was trying to get to know you better and I ended up spilling my guts instead."

Geric chuckled as he splashed a little water into her face, causing her to giggle and splash back. Before she even know what happened, Geric's foot became large and furry and he sent a torrential wave of water at her with that foot, soaking her all the way down her front.

"That's cheating!" Amy cried as she spit out water. She shoved him hard and burst into laughter as he lost his balance and fell over into the pond, getting completely soaked from head to toe. He just rolled his eyes at her as he held out his hand.

"Help me out?"

"Sure," Amy giggled as she took his hand, but surprisingly, Geric pulled her right in the pond with him and thus commenced the splashing war. He got in a few rounds of good splashes before Amy jumped up on him and dunked him beneath the water. But then she shrieked as he wrapped his arms around her and kicked up to the surface, both of them laughing and laughing until their laughter ran out.

"See?" Geric asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck to steady herself. "Carefree laughter isn't too far out of reach."

Amy's heart leapt to her throat as she gazed back into Geric's eyes, feeling both excited and fearful at the exact same time. Geric could tear her limb from limb in an instant if he wanted to. But being inches away from an actual werewolf felt exciting. It was out of the ordinary of her ordinary, mundane royal life.

"Can I ask you a question?" Amy whispered as she held Geric's steady gaze, very aware at just how close they were with his arms wrapped around her and her arms wrapped around him. "What color did your eyes used to be? Before you turned."

He visibly swallowed in uncertainty, but he never broke her gaze. "Blue. They used to be blue."

She smiled as her fingers grazed his skin right beside his eye. "Well, I like them just the way they are." Very suddenly as she realized what she was doing, she dropped her hand and broke free of his grip.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly as she swam back to shore and started putting her boots back on. "I need to get back before anyone realizes I'm missing."

Geric followed after her as she started making her way back toward the castle, easily falling into step beside her. "Amy, wait. Am I going to see you again?"

Amy paused for a moment as a smile crept up on her lips. She liked this exciting secret that she and Geric kept and she didn't want to say goodbye to it quite just yet. "We still need to have a shooting tournament, don't we? Let's try for early morning in two days. What do you say?"

He mouth split into a wide grin. "Two days it is."

Smiling briefly, she started on the path back toward the castle, vaguely aware of Geric's wolf presence following her. But she didn't mind, so she didn't let on that she knew. It actually made her feel safer having his watchful eyes on her back. He had already proven to her several times over that he wasn't there to hurt her. She could trust him. She knew she could.