The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Book 2 The Alpha’s Forbidden Bride – Episode 21

~JAMES~

I watched Eden go with a heavy heart. I took deep breaths and stomped my foot against the floor to keep myself from racing after her. I had to close my eyes and remind myself why I was even doing this s**t. It was hard enough to see the hurt on her face every time she saw me with Clara. But this . . . this was crossing the line. There was no way in hell I could just sit back and watch another man put his hands on her.

“Who the f**k is he?” I snarled.

No one would be brave enough to ask a woman from our table to dance with them. Which meant it was either someone that didn’t know us or someone powerful enough to not care. But if he was indeed powerful, I should know him . . . and I didn’t.

“I don’t know.” Austin answered. “I’ve never seen him around here before. But then again, we’ve hardly been to this place in the past few months. There are a lot of new faces.”

I didn’t care who he was. I wanted to crush his skull against the wall.

“Hate to say it brother,” Lucas said suddenly. “But I told you so.”

I scowled at the knowing look on his face. Earlier tonight after I’d told him about my plan, he’d said that it was the worst decision I could have possibly made.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted Eden to be safe. But even that was proving to be dangerous. No matter what direction I turned, I always seemed to make things worse.

“Will someone finally enlighten me on what the hell is going on here?” Lucy demanded. “Why on earth are you with someone else in front of my sister JAMES?”

I couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I needed Eden to stay away from me, I thought by making her believe that I was with someone else, she would choose to give up asking all of those questions. At least until I was sure that she was safe and that we could be together without putting her in danger.”

“Well congratulations, you succeeded in getting her to go straight into another man’s open arms.” Lucy said sarcastically. “Why in the world would you possibly believe that doing something like that may be a good idea?”

Austin cleared his throat. “I didn’t exactly tell James to do this but I don’t think it’s that bad of an idea. Eden was desperate to replace out more about him and the relationship that they had before she lost her memories. You know how strong the bond is, James can only resist her so much. He did what he thought was best to keep her safe, he obviously was never trying to hurt her.”

Lucy glared at my brother. “Do you really think that you’re the one that should be giving James any kind of advice after what you’ve done in the past?”

Austin started to cough at her words while Lucas doubled over in laughter. “You walked straight into that one brother.” He pointed out after catching his breath.

“Sweetheart,” Austin whispered as he pulled Lucy into his arms. “I’m sorry. You know that you’re the only one for me.”

She sighed. “Eden cannot be under any stress. She’s your mate James! Do you really think that seeing you with someone else is going to help her regain her memory?” She demanded. “I wish you men would at least think before you make such rash decisions without informing anyone.”

“I think he’s doing a great thing. This is only to protect her.” Clara said as she linked her arms through mine.

I stiffened, not comfortable with her closeness. It was hard having anyone this near to me when Eden was the only woman that I wanted. I slowly took her hands off; I didn’t need her to be this close when Eden wasn’t looking. I was regretting ever doing this blasted thing, what the hell was I even thinking?

I couldn’t imagine Eden with someone else and here I was pretending to be with someone that wasn’t her.

Damn it.

I wanted to harm myself for doing something as stupid as this.

“No one asked for your opinion.” Isabella hissed.

As the two girls glared at each other, only one thing was on my mind . . . My mate.

I found myself searching the crowd once more for her and the piece of s**t she’d walked off with. My jaw clenched when I saw him grip her waist in his hands and pull her closer. My eyes scanned her body, from head to toe. I felt my anger stir to life once more, what the hell was she even wearing?

The bloody thing was so short that everything would be revealed if she just bent down a little. I felt a growl forming in the back of my throat and had to suppress it before I brought attention to myself.

“Don’t even think about it.” Austin warned. “You’ve already decided to stay away from her for at least this week.”

I didn’t think I could do it. Anger was pumping in my veins and my self-control was threating to burst. That a*****e was holding onto my woman.

MY WOMAN!

Not even Hunter had gotten that close to her. I was losing my damn mind!

I wanted to rip his body into a million pieces.

I didn’t know how long I could last just sitting here while looking at her in the arms of another man. I was about to go completely insane!

. . . . . . .

~EDEN~

I didn’t like this. It felt wrong to have another man’s hands on me. But yet, I wanted to get a reaction out of James. However, I couldn’t exactly see anything for my back was turned to him. I had no idea whether or not he was paying attention to me or was all over that Clara girl. The thought of him with her reawakened the anger within me. It reminded me of why I was even doing this in the first place.

“Get your f*****g hends off her.” Jemes roered behind of us.

Just her name made my b***d boil.

I didn’t understand why I was so pissed at someone I didn’t know. Couldn’t understand how I reacted this way when I had no memory of James.

But that was just it, the memories weren’t there. . . But the feelings definitely were.

“Your mind seems to be far.” The man said, bringing my attention back to him. Up close, I realized that he was a lot more handsome than I’d originally thought he was. There was something dark and mysterious about him, something that I hadn’t noticed until now.

“What is your name?” He asked when I said nothing.

“It’s Eden Cross.”

He quirked a brow. “You aren’t by any chance related to the fire cross brothers?”

I paused. “I really can’t say. . . There’s been an incident recently and I can’t really remember much of my past.”

“Oh.” he whispered, deep in thought.

“What is your name?” I asked, trying hard to pay attention to him but failing miserably.

“Archer Blackner.” He answered. His eyes studied me and it looked like he was waiting for a reaction from me after hearing his name.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized as I stepped on his foot after we switched positions so that I was now facing James and his family. Our gazes locked and I was thrilled when I found him watching me closely. He was definitely not happy, I could tell by the angry glare sent our way.

I was not prepared for the intensity of his gaze however, or the way my body reacted to him even though he was so far away. My eyes narrowed as I saw Clara lean into him in an effort to catch his attention.

I pressed my lips into a tight line, angry once more.

I started to move my body against Archer, like really move. The whole time, I was pretending that it was James behind of me as it was the only way that I could go ahead with this bold move.

It was all to get him jealous however.

I wanted to see whether or not he really felt nothing where I was concerned.

I watched as his eyes darkened a shade, I blinked a couple of times, wondering if I was seeing things. After all, I was so far away that it could just be a mistake on my part.

Arched gripped my waist tighter and spun me around so that my back was once more facing James. “You’ve got some nice moves.” He complimented me with a grin.

I was about to respond when I felt a large warm hand slip around my arm. I already knew who it was by the way my body responded. There were tingles right where he was touching me and I was replaceing it hard to breathe by his nearness.

“Get your f*****g hands off her.” James roared behind of us.