Disclaimer: I still don't own anything in this story that anyone else has either seen, heard, or read before. There, now the lawyers can get off my back for this chapter.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long since the last time I updated, but there have been some things that have gotten in the way, and I just haven't had the flow for my stories like I normally would. But hopefully it had come back to me long enough to get them finished. Enjoy, and do feel free to review as you see fit. Until the next chapter.

To say that Zoe was angry was a most grievous understatement. To say that she was pissed to the point of insanity was a rather large understatement. To say she was livid to the point of murder would be a better analogy, but even that wasn't exactly it.

Zoe's inner animal stayed so close to the surface that anyone who ventured too close to her could feel it reaching out, wanting to attack any and everything within range. Even her favorite brother, Aragorn, was a little frightened of her beast. He had had a first hand glimpse of her temper when one of the family would piss her off; always taunting her because mother had died giving birth to a child that was only related to them because she came from the same parents, even though she shared none of their blood. Aragorn had been the closest, and even he wasn't a match for her.

Aragorn escorted her to her room and just as he was about to say something to attempt to comfort her, she decked him and barricaded herself in her room. She refused to talk to anyone, to allow anyone to talk to her, or to see anyone for days.

Finally, Aragorn managed to coax her out of the room and join the family for a meal. Zoe nearly bolted back to her quarters when she saw that her Prince would be attending the meal as well, but Aragorn caught her and made her stay. She'd have fought back, but she was getting tired of having to avoid everyone when they suddenly wanted her to be the center of attention. And she was beginning to want to find out more about this Prince of Xion all of the maids were talking about. He was beginning to sound more and more interesting with every conversation she happened upon.

Instead of making her sit next to the Prince, much as her father would have wanted, Zoe sat between her brothers and across from the Prince.

Conversations started on and off again between different people, but Zoe remained silent whether or not they addressed her. she tuned everyone out and constantly sent the Prince an evil glare as he studied her every feature.

When her father struck up the topic of the upcoming wedding, Zoe interrupted him in mid sentence just to avoid the subject as long as possible. She hoped to be able to offend the Prince enough so he would call off the engagement.

"So, Prince…"

"Jaden," he interjected.

"Jaden. Where do you hail from?"

"Xion. I believe you would like it there. There are plenty of jungles for you to explore and loose yourself in."

"What makes you think that I would like jungles?"

"Your father told me that you spend hours in the jungle behind your castle. We could even have your mother's shrine moved, or duplicated, and placed there for you." He hadn't thought, he merely spoke, and now he would pay for his remark.

It may have been meant as something nice, a gesture of easy transition for her, but she allowed absolutely no one to talk about her mother around her.

Zoe reached across the table and backhanded Jaden for his remark about her mother. "Don't ever talk about my mother!"

Suddenly, years of torment from her siblings came rushing to her memory, and never being allowed to do anything about it, she released all of her anger and frustration out of Jaden because he had simply mentioned her mother. She grabbed him around the neck and began to squeeze as hard as she could, trying to wring every last breathe out of his body.

Everyone had to pull her away from Jaden, even her father.

"Get the fuck off of me! Let me go!" She shoved everyone away from her and stalked back to her room. Anger, frustration, and seething rage rolled off of her in waves with every footfall.

"I'll go talk to her," Aragorn offered knowing that she wouldn't even be able to hear him right now with her in such a rage.

"No, I'll go. I never should have brought up her mother and I knew that. I should go and apologize to her for my mistake. Who knows… maybe I'll catch her off guard and her manners will return long enough for her to apologize for hitting me."

"Or she'll kill you for coming near her before you have a chance to apologize," Bartlemy chided.

Jaden cautiously ventured back to Zoe's room, hoping to get his peace said before she could clobber him again.

Zoe heard light footfalls coming in her direction and assumed it would be Aragorn coming to scold her for her behavior at dinner. She went right in front of the door so she could catch him off guard as he came in.

The footfalls stopped directly outside her door and there was a brief pause before he even attempted to open the door. Zoe didn't understand. Aragorn had never really been afraid of her, he had always just fained fear to make her feel better when the other children would torment her for no other reason than they knew how to hit her buttons. He knew she would never really fight him. So why the pause?

The door swooshed open and both acted before either registered what was going on. Zoe jumped into Jaden's open arms as he started with, "Zoe, I'm sor… Ah!" Jaden managed to catch her and not fall to the ground himself from the sudden girl in his arms.

Instead of him getting hit before he could apologize to her, he had a rather embarrassed Zoe in his arms with her legs wrapped around his waist. He didn't mean to, but how else would you expect a fully functioning male with a ravishing beauty in his arms to react? He had an erection, and he was going to make sure she felt it. he very slowly, so as not to alert her to the movement, walked the two of them further into the room, ever closer to the bed.

"So I take it you accept my apology. Can't say I was expecting such a fast acceptance. I thought I'd have to fight you tooth and nail to get you to this point."

Jaden had them halfway into the room by this point, praying the entire time that he could make it to the bed before she snapped out of this trance like state. He made a mental note to get her into more embarrassing situations like this if it meant that he could be this close to her.

"I thought you were Aragorn coming in here to nag at me for the way I acted in the dinning room. Anytime I catch him off guard like this he instantly forgets whatever he was going to say for about a day, but then I get an earful and a half for making him delay his lecture. I'll just…" She just hit the bed and couldn't figure out how he got her all the way over here without her noticing it.

Suddenly she could feel his erection pressed hard against her core, the pressure of his body laying on top of her, and his lips crushing onto her own. It felt incredible, wrong, and yet like she was supposed to allow this to happen.

And then, just as fast as the kiss had begun, it was over and she was sitting upright on her bed watching as Jaden paced the floor in front of her, obviously in some kind of a dilemma.

"What was that all about?" Zoe asked, shocked that she hadn't tried to push him away.

"My sudden inability to control my animal urges. I apologize for everything; for the remark about your mother's shrine, even though I didn't mean it in a bad manner, and for the kiss," he added as an after thought. "I only meant what I said about your mother as a way to make the transition easier on you. But I never should have kissed you like that. I'm sorry."

"I'll accept your apology about my mother. I never should have flown off the handle like that and hit you, so I'm sorry as well. However, I don't believe you are sorry about the kiss, so I don't accept that apology. You planned that from the moment you made it into my quarters. Am I wrong?"

"I would guess not." An impish smile graced his features, and the tones between the two lightened.

They talked about almost everything. She told him all about Riddick, after making him swear not to send any mercs after him, about her childhood, painting a completely different picture than her father had, and all about her hopes and dreams for her life, after he prodded them out of her. He told her about Xion, his hopes for the marriage, and that he hoped that they could spare sometime as recreation instead of as a fighting session.

"While that sounds like a great idea to me, you'll have to get one of my brothers to fight with you. I'm not allowed to since the last person to meet me in the ring ended up in a coma for three months, and I wasn't even betrothed to him."

"Duly noted."

Both sat in a heavy silence. Neither one really wanted to be the first to mention that it was getting late and he shouldn't be in her room. They both figured that once Jaden left the room, they'd catch her brothers hanging out nearby waiting for her to emerge to throw out a large bag, big enough to have a folded up body in it.

Jaden decided to be the sensible one when he noticed a drowsiness come over Zoe's face. "I should let you get some sleep. You've had an eventful day with all of your emotional swings."

"If you start that shit, there just might be another one before you leave, and I doubt you'll enjoy it."

"Sorry. I just thought I'd won enough ground to be able to joke with you. I'll take my leave. Goodnight Zoe."

Both stood and walked over to the door. "Feel free to come by anytime you need to talk. You aren't half bad when we're alone."

"I know what you mean, and I may just take you up on that offer."

"Goodnight."

As they reached the opening door, he turned on his heel, effectively catching her off guard, and caught her lips in another kiss; this one more passionate than the last.

He released her and left the room as fast as possible so he wouldn't be tempted to try and stay.

Bartlemy had been the one to pass by as the door opened and Jaden caught his sister by surprise for another kiss. Both brothers had been taking turns watching the room from the time he made it in there, wanting to catch her before she did something that they couldn't reverse.

When the door closed again, Bartlemy put his arm around Jaden's shoulders and said, "Congratulations! You are the first of her suitors to make in and out of her room with a kiss instead of ripped off balls. You may just have a chance with her, if you don't fuck it up."

'Believe me, that's the last thing I plan on doing with her.'