I just started laughing. Suddenly and uncharacteristically, a grin and laughter broke through the Lycan's trance.

The prince growled, "What is so funny about my confession, Sin?"

I released myself from his grasp and sat up to calm myself. "I am sorry, my prince. My mate said something along those lines to me recently, and it made my insides burn with longing. Yet, coming from another man's lips made those same words sound so dumb," I answered honestly. But I immediately regretted my choice of words.

The temperature in the room dropped even farther below zero, and all of the hair on my arms rose with the tension. I had just managed to insult the prince of Lycans.

"I mean that with no disrespect, my prince." Of course there was no way that laughing in his face would be anything but disrespectful. "I should leave...," I said while backing away slowly.

Stay! Prince Bastian barked with a dozen angered tones. As the temperature continued to drop, I was grateful that the fire inside me was burning so fiercely to keep me warm. Not only was it keeping my body warm, but it felt as if it was lashing out against the prince's power. I stood still, but it almost felt like I could have kept retreating if I put more effort into it.

He stood up and black feathers fell off his body as if they were being shed. As he made his way to stand in front of me, my mind pondered over the many different ways I could have screwed up along the way to put myself into this situation. The fact that the prince genuinely frightened me made it hard to remember why I thought the Lycans could help.

The prince's eyes searched mine for almost a minute before he turned to walk back into his bed. "You may leave. Attend my sister's battle preparations," he said with finality.

I backed out of the room as quickly as I could and began searching for the princess' chamber. As I rounded a corner, I bumped into- or more accurately stumbled over- the tiny body of Juliana Enduring. It was hard to believe how small she was even in human form. She was 5-feet at most, but her posture was awful with the way she seemed to hunch over and lean into the wall.

"Are you lumbering brutes incapable of watching where you are going?" she squeaked indignantly. "I swear, all of those muscles must stop short at your brain."

Just as irritating as ever. "For a creature with such little physical confidence, you rodents seem to have no problem talking a big game. Would it kill you to stand up straight and showing some respect when speaking to an Alpha?"

She snorted, "Yes, yes I think it would. It's hard to respect a class that freely swings those things around in plain sight." She gestured between my legs, and I once again became aware of my own nudity. "If you are such powerful shapeshifters, then it should not be hard to make it a little less obnoxious. But of course, you are warriors and need to make everyone feel inferior or uncomfortable."

I opened my mouth to counter but decided against it. Juliana had a point. The Omega probably did have harder lives than anyone else. I felt insecure after just a few minutes of being alone with the prince, and they all served him directly. Showing them a little consideration probably wouldn't be the worst thing I could do. But I wasn't about to waste time figuring out how to transform into a less 'obnoxious' form at the moment.

"Shouldn't you be with the princess right now? They are almost finished with preparations," she pointed out. My expression must have told her that I didn't know the way because she followed along with, "I can guide to her if I must."

"Lead the way."

So, I will almost definitely come back to this chapter when editing to extend and work on the dialogue more.

Moving forward: I apologize, but I will not give exact dates for future uploads when someone asks. I have noticed that whenever I set an exact date for an upcoming upload, I end up crashing into writer's block. If I know that I will be taking an extended break longer than two weeks, then I will make sure to put out a quick announcement for everyone. Otherwise, chapters will just upload as soon as they are written.