Chapter 270: Chapter 270 Let Me Be Queen
Perry’s POV
When morning came, I woke to find myself practically covering her entire body with mine.
She was trapped beneath me, warm and soft and absolutely perfect. My morning erection pressed insistently against her hip, and I could feel her stirring beneath me, consciousness returning slowly.
I wasn’t ready to let her go. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
"You’re crushing me," she murmured in my ear, but her voice held no real complaint. If anything, she sounded content trapped beneath my weight.
I stayed still, face buried against her neck where her pulse fluttered like a caged bird. "Good morning to you too, my queen."
"Wake up, I need to move." She tried squirming out from under me, but the friction of her movements against my hardness made me groan.
"Stop moving or you’ll wake it up," I growled, tightening my hold around her.
"Wake what up?" She sounded genuinely confused until I shifted between her thighs, letting her feel exactly how hard I was pressed against her core. Her sharp intake of breath told me she understood perfectly. "You’re always like this in the morning."
"Only when I wake up next to the most beautiful woman in the kingdom," I replied, then tilted my head to run my tongue along the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder. She gasped, and I felt her pulse quicken. "Only when I can smell your arousal mixing with mine."
"Perry, we should get up. It’s already morning." She glanced toward the window where dawn light was filtering through the curtains, painting her skin golden. "Come on, let’s go."
The urgency in her voice caught my attention. After years of marriage where she’d been content to spend entire days in bed, this sudden restlessness was intriguing.
"Why the rush?" I asked, lifting my head to study her face. "Don’t you want to spend a few more minutes with me? Maybe an hour? Maybe the entire morning while I worship every inch of your body?"
She laughed, but I caught the way her cheeks flushed at the suggestion. "You’ve got responsibilities to handle. I have things to do too."
That got my full attention. I propped myself up on my elbows, caging her between my arms while my lower body kept her pinned beneath me. "What things? What’s so important that you can’t stay here with your king?"
"Don’t be dramatic." She rolled her eyes at me, which earned her a sharp nip to her bottom lip in warning.
"Don’t do that to me, love," I said, my voice dropping to that tone that made grown warriors tremble. "Now tell me exactly what you have planned for today."
The shift in my demeanor wasn’t lost on her. She recognized the command in my voice, the way my casual morning affection had sharpened into something more intense.
"I want to check on the women outside the pack house," she said, meeting my gaze steadily despite the heat building between us.
"What women?" I frowned, genuinely confused. Samuel hadn’t briefed me on anything Phoebe had done yesterday. I’d gotten back too late and gone straight to the dungeons to continue Hans’s interrogation.
So I had no idea that my mate had been playing healer to some omega’s daughter.
"You don’t know?" She looked surprised, probably expecting Samuel would have filled me in on her activities.
"Know what? What did you do?" My voice sharpened with concern and something darker. The thought of her wandering around without my knowledge, potentially putting herself at risk, made my protective instincts flare violently. "I thought you stayed in the bedroom all day."
She smiled at how worked up I was getting, which only irritated me more. I needed to know every detail of her day, every person she’d spoken to, every moment she’d been out of my sight.
"Of course not," she said with a laugh that sounded almost mocking. "That would’ve been mind-numbingly boring. I explored around the pack house."
"It’s not safe." The words came out harsher than I intended, but the thought of her wandering unprotected made something violent twist in my chest.
She rolled her eyes again, so I leaned down and bit her lip hard enough to make her gasp. "I said don’t do that to me. Now tell me everything. Every detail."
She pressed her lips together, clearly debating how much to reveal. But something in my expression must have convinced her to cooperate, because she gave me the full story.
A sick child. Herbal medicine preparation. Hours spent with omega families outside the pack house. All without my knowledge or protection.
"You did all that?" I felt my frown deepening with every word. The thought of her exhausting herself, potentially exposing herself to illness or danger, made my wolf pace restlessly. "You don’t need to worry about them. I’ll send a healer to take care of it."
"Thank you, but I still want to see them myself."
"Why?" The question came out sharper than I intended. "You don’t need to exhaust yourself playing nursemaid to every sick omega in the territory."
I could see she understood my concern, but there was something else in her eyes now. A spark of defiance that hadn’t been there before.
"I know what I’m doing," she said, her voice carrying a new edge of authority that made my pulse quicken. "I want to do this. You’re going to be king of this realm—I want to help however I can."
"You already help me." I cupped her face, trying to make her understand. "Just stay by my side. That’s all I need from you. That’s all I’ve ever needed."
But even as I said the words, I could see they weren’t what she wanted to hear.
"I want to stand beside you as your equal," she said, her voice growing stronger with each word. "Not someone who constantly needs protecting. I want to help you build this kingdom..." She paused, her eyes searching mine. "If you’ll let me."
The intensity in her voice made something shift in my chest. This wasn’t the broken woman I’d married, the one who’d been content to hide in shadows and let others make decisions for her.
This was someone else entirely. Someone dangerous.
"This is your kingdom too," I said, my voice rough with an emotion I couldn’t quite name. "You’re the queen."
"Then let me act like one."
