THE LUNA CHOOSING GAME - Season 6 Episode 17

I didn’t have a clear way out of this. For the sake of international relations, I had to accept. So I did.

I placed my hand in Prince Ronan’s offered one and repressed by shiver as he closed his fingers around my hand.

“I would be honored to dance with you, Prince Ronan,” I said.

Ronan’s eyes narrowed. I was a terrible liar. I probably shouldn’t have tried to sell it quite so much.

Julian, still standing beside me, shifted his gaze from Ronan to me and back again. “Is everything alright here?” he asked.

“If you would please move out of the way, Prince Julian. I would like to dance with Piper now,” Ronan said.

Julian looked at me as if for direction, or confirmation.

Careful to keep my face a bright, smiling mask, I nodded at Julian.

Julian saw through me in an instant, and concern covered his face. But, God, the last thing the werewolf kingdom was another prince lying to a merfolk to get me out of trouble, sol tugged Prince Ronan’s hand and motioned toward an open part of the dance area.

“Perhaps we could dance there,” I suggested.

He agreed and with the flick of his strong tail, he was instantly moving forward and dragging me along behind him.

That same flow seemed to set the standard for our dance.

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Ronan was strong and aggressive. He’d move and twist without much consideration for how my werewolf limbs differed from his fins and tail.

He pushed where I pulled. He twisted where I tried to go straight.

It was an absolute failure of a dance.

But he didn’t seem to let that deter him. Instead, he slipped in closer to me. His arm tightened around my waist, keeping me plastered up against his side. Like that, he moved for both of us, no longer simply leading, but instead dragging me around like a rag doll.

It was uncomfortable, but honestly not the worst I’d ever been treated.

But then, he started to get handsy. As if he accepted my limpness for consent, his hands drifted away from my waist, down to the curve of my ass.

I immediately reached back to grab his wrist and retumed his hand to my waist. Thank God I had my werewolf strength because he fought me every step of the way. If I had been simply human, he would have remained unchecked.

Yet even with my strength, he was persistent. Three times I had to remove his hand from my ass. And then, once, from my breast. He placed his hand flat over me and squeezed. His

fingers were clawlike, digging in. I winced. Merfolk men didn’t trim their nails as neatly as werewolf men.

When I tried to move his hand away, he seemed to only hold on tighter until I was hurting myself trying to unhook him from me.

“Prince Ronan!” I said, my disgust clear in my tone.

“I am a prince and you are a liar,” Ronan growled. His eyes were glowing with anger. “I can do with you as I will.”

“No!” I said. I lifted my hand ready to slap him across the face. International incident or not, I did not sign up to be sexually assaulted!

Yet just as I was about to slap him, another hand curled around mine. A familiar, warm one. The matching arm slid around my waist.

In a perfect twist, Nicholas spun me away from Ronan and into his own arms.

That prince’s clawlike hand finally released my breast. I winced as I pressed it now against Nicholas’s chest.

Nicholas’s arm went protectively around me, sliding up the back of my spine, to deflect any attempt to steal me back as he had stolen me from Ronan

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Ronan had other problems now too. After Nicholas had spun me away, Julian had stepped into the empty space to block the merfolk prince from retaliating.

“Let me give you a hint,” Julian growled. “Women don’t like it when you paw at them like playthings.”

Ronan puffed up, shoulders back and fins flaring. “I’ve never had any complaints.”

I doubted that. Or perhaps the girls he’d been with had been too afraid to tell him how temible a seducer he truly was.

I immediately felt bad for these women. Someone needed to report Ronan. Surely this behavior was unfitting of a prince!

“Yeah, well, maybe you are just a shitty listener,” Julian replied,

Ronan glared at him. “Get out of my way!” he shouted then and shoved Julian aside.

On land, Julian would have been the stronger of the two. But at sea, the merfolk’s talls gave them a strength advantage that human or wolf legs simply couldn’t compete with.

Ronan flexed the strength of that tail now, rushing to where Nicholas and I were in a rush.

“I demand retribution!” Ronan shouted once he’d reached us.

He was quite frightening as he was. His stretched out fins made him appear large and threatening. And his eyes glowed golden and otherworldly.

Nicholas immediately moved me so that I was safely behind his back. Then he growled. He flexed all of his own muscles, they bulged under his wetsuit. His hands curled, claw-like, as if he might slash out at Ronan at any moment

“Are you challenging me?” Nicholas growled. “After what you were doing to Piper?”

“We were dancing!”

“That is not how you dance.”

*She is a poor partner. I was merely attempting to direct her into being somewhat affable.”

“By grabbing at her inappropriately?” Nicholas snapped. He was a man of infinite patience, particularly regarding matters of the state. Here, it seemed, he had reached his limit.

“If you want a challenge -* Nicholas began.

“Let’s not be hasty!” Julian shouted.

Julian finally made his way to us. It seemed Ronan’s strong push forward had knocked those nearest to him far back. It had taken from then until now for Julian to swim back to us.

Julian’s smile is razor sharp, but his eyes are calculating as he looks at Nicholas. “Do not forget whose turf we are on, brother. Or whose sea, I should say.”

Nicholas’s growl remained low and dangerous. “Such offenses cannot go unpunished.”

“Nick,” I said, and placed my hand on his shoulder. All of his muscles were taut underneath. He was like a coiled spring, ready to jump forward and strike. “We can talk this out.”

“Stay out of this, wench,” Ronan snapped. “This is no matter for… what did the wolf call people like you.. a plaything.”

If I was closer I would have made to slap him again. Of all the pompous, arrogant, terrible things to say to someone! On top of his groping and his inability to handle rejection.

Thalf wanted Nicholas to accept this challenge and through this merfolk to the ground.

But that was not behavior that adult princes who were likely to run their countries in the near future should partake in. For that reason, and only that reason, I held Nicholas back by wrapping my arm around his waist.

He could have shaken me off, but he might have hurt me in the process. He’d never do that. So my arm stayed where it was. And so did Nicholas.

Ronan threw his head back and laughed. “Look at you, cowed by a title-less woman!”