But my pride wasn’t the only thing I’d lost. The upstanding, reasonable person who’d argued for his release had disappeared.
He said something else, his tone a strange mix of angry frustration and desperate pleading.
But I lunged toward his chair. Too far gone to hear him.
Wild
“Wild?Sea? Where are you? Please come fuck me!” We’d closed the door to the bedroom when we left, but our Flower’s cries came through loud and clear, along with the scent of her heat. “I need you. Please come fuck me!”
“What are we going to do if this doesn’t work?” Sea whispered from his side of our post at the bottom of the stairs.
We’d both shut down our mate bonds, not wanting to burden Flower with our worry. But I felt Sea asked that question more to distract himself from the smell of her heat. And the sound of her moaning for us upstairs.
Out of what Sea called “an abundance of caution,” we’d fully dressed in some of the clothes we found in Dublin’s suitcase to create one more barrier against giving in to her cries. But it only made things worse. Every second, it took all I had not to rip off these city clothes and charge back into the bedroom cock first.
Her desperate pleas clawed at my chest. It went against everything in a wolf to deny his mate, especially when she was in heat.
But I knew another knotless balling wouldn’t fix anything.
Just like I knew Sea didn’t want the harsh truth to his question about what we — and by “we,”Imeant whatIalone would do — if this last throw of the mating dice didn’t pan out.
“It has to work,” I growled instead of telling him the truth: that I’d sedate her with the last of Astrid’s tranquilizer, snap that fucking eejit king’s neck, and drive his car to Dublin to grab whatever poor beta was next in line to take his place.
I didn’t say that, but Sea must have felt my mood shift. “I don’t know if it’s safe to use the tranquilizer Astrid gave you on her. It’s meant for wolves who aren’t pregnant. We might need to call or fetch Astrid to get whatever she used on that Amanda one.”
Fuck, he had a point.
“I’m going to call my uncle. Tell him to start bringing her toward the tower just in case,” Sea said, slipping back into True King mode as he pulled out his phone to enact his latest orders.
“Better if you go fetch her yourself,” I told him before he could make the call.
I thought grimly of how much easier it would be to finish off Dublin if I didn’t have to wrestle with Sea’s sense of morality, then added, “Getting away from this blasted heat cloud will clear your head.”
“Good point.” Sea stashed his phone away. “But seriously, do you think sedating her will be eno —”
“No! No! Don’t! I said no! I don’t want this!” Dublin’s frantic cries cut Sea off mid-sentence.
Our Flower must’ve spotted the note I left on him. I could feel her deep sense of guilt, and I cursed myself under my breath for not gagging that withholding City King when I had the chance.
“Don’t do this! Listen to me! Don’t make me —”
Dublin’s voice stopped short with a strangled noise, and I felt relief wash over me.
Our mate must’ve claimed what was hers by prophecy.
“Should we… go watch?” Sea asked, looking toward the stairs. “Feels like a ritual now.”
I shot him a sideways glare. “No.”
I had reasons for staying put. Ugly, green, dark ones.
But those reasons faded away when I heard the door creak open above us. Then, footsteps.
A chill ran up my spine. If Flower had followed my instructions, there was no way Dublin should be walking out of that room. No chance in hell.
“Son of the bitch!” I swore.
I bolted for the stairs, Sea hot on my heels. If I had to drag her back to Dublin myself and push her down on his cock, too, I would. This wasn’t going to fall apart now. I couldn't let it!
