Mountains Vast and a Kingdom So Red

Chapter 1

The fairie shuffle is a group dance where every party goer prances around and tries to find a new partner until the musicians end their playing. Once the playing resumes, you dance with the new partner and can earn style points for particularly bone splitting feats like handsprings and round offs. I cheer as I dance, linking arms with my friend Grenia. The ballroom feels like a small continent, as four out of six kingdoms of Ganymede, the planet where I reside, join together for the harvest festivity. But the ballroom shrinks when I realize we are in peaceful times, no one daydreaming about splitting throats or poisoning the soda. That I know of. My royal parents gifted me new boots for this occasion, but they've been chafing my feet, so I go sit down.

The energy on the right side of the room crackles with mischief, so I look around, seeing if I can identify the source. One guest has trashed the decorations, a sparkly banner stitched with details to commemorate the party. It hangs droopily, and the men around him laugh. One man shakes his head and drags the banner's sworn enemy over to the mound of strawberries stacked on a plate of gold. I want to repay his efforts, for he is very handsome. I dust off any lint and stand up. He finally notices me. It's silly, what I'm about to do, but I can't help raising an eyebrow and gesturing that he meets me outside.

This fairie region is especially coniferous, and they aren't too far off from the mountains known for wolves. The realm's scientists confirm that the wolves are shifters, people with the ability to shapeshift into fanged creatures. But a few fanatic groups maintain that the wolves have beady, demented eyes and rabid bites, hardly in touch with their humanity. 

He walks over to me. His dark brown eyes are highlighted by beautiful lashes his scowl cannot belie. Who am I standing next to? A boy or a wolf?

I spot fur on his arms, but I am not scared. He is part animal-definitely the opposite of me, but I want him anyway. When his scowl lessens, I see my opportunity to graze my hand over the fur on his arm. It feels like the softest silk traded at the imports of my realm. He breathes as my touch makes it to his face, the stubble ticklish as I lean in. His lips dance upon mine until they became ravishing. My first kiss. With a shifter no less.

He pushes me against a tree, and sense knocks into me. "What's your name?" I ask him.

"Leviys. I know you're Mikah."

"How?"

"Supersonic hearing." He grins. "I heard your friends call you in the grand ballroom."

"Right. We are very far." I survey the woods, with the sky's quarter moon. I smell the fecund dirt. Hear the bugs passing in the night.

"Would you like me to take you back? And dance with you like a gentleman?"

"I don't want a gentleman." I say. "I want you." Here, I add silently.

In response, he rains kisses down my neck, and the skin scorches. He sucks mercilessly, and I beg for those sharp teeth to come out.

"I can't bite you, princess."

"Why?"

"Our scents will become entangled with my mark. My pack will recognize you as my mate, and no male can come near you."

"What about human boys?"

"I'd intimidate the fuck outta them if you were my mate." He scowls, as if imagining a line of suitors holding love letters and verses to give to me.

I smile. "Then don't bite me, but don't stop."

"You want to play?"

"Feel my panties," I say, the alliance I make with my throbbing pussy immediate. Lust like this has never hit me before, and I am not sure when Leo will come to this kingdom again.