I bolted down the stairs to the front window.
My heart plummeted when I saw the spot where Dublin’s car had been, now empty.
That jammy bastard…
He’d taken her.
He’d taken her from us without a word of warning and vanished like a thief in the night.
Part Five
Naomi
“Doyou think Wild and Sea will be upset?” I asked Aidan, worry churning in my gut. “Maybe we should have talked to them about how they wanted to handle all of this before we left.”
Aidan glanced over at me from the driver’s seat of his sleek Nakamura EV, a gentle smile tugging at his lips as if my concern amused him. His gaze lingered, and I threw him a stern look.
“You’re staring again.”
“Sorry, it’s becoming a bit of an addiction,” he admitted, turning his eyes back to the road. “These are supposed to be the most scenic views in Ireland, but I swear you’re prettier than anything else in nature. I honestly can’t believe you’re mine now.”
His words made something twist inside me. Yesterday, Wild had to tie him to a chair to make him reconsider his resolution not to mate me. And now, after breakfast and a little grocery shopping in Galway, he was just totally fine? His sudden ease felt disconcerting, like I was the only one still grappling with being mated to each other a little over twenty-four hours after we met.
As much as I’d enjoyed doing normal things like a normal, non-cloistered she-wolf, the old irritation about only being valued for my looks began to creep in.
Aidan must have felt my annoyance through our mate bond. He frowned over at me, once again taking his eyes off the road, which was flanked by the ocean on one side and rolling hills on the other. “What? You don’t like me admiring you?”
“Not when you value my aesthetics over the words actually coming out of my mouth,” I shot back. “Did you even hear my question?”
“Yes, I did.” This time irritation spiked over his side of the bond.
If I thought prickly Naomi had disappeared under a mountain of confusion and emotional exhaustion, I was wrong. She sprang right back up to ask, “What? You don’t like me calling you out on your questionable values?”
“Stop. You are my queen, but you can’t speak to me this way.” Aidan’s voice took on a new, steelier edge that I’d only heard when he was deriding Wild or commanding the other king to cooperate. “I value everything — every single thing about you. Your strength, selflessness, and tenacity. You were hurting so damn much, but you chose to let me go, to endure that pain because you wanted to save me from something I’d been brought up not to want. You’ve no idea how much I respect and admire you for that alone. I don’t know that I’ve ever met a she-wolf as honorable as you.”
Aidan gritted his teeth. “Do I love that you’re also the most beautiful person I’ve ever laid eyes on as well? Of course I do. Honestly, though, it makes all of this hard to believe — that someone I instantly connected with and liked even before she went into heat could also be wrapped up in such a gorgeous package. I’m half-expecting to wake up from what turned out to be an extremely erotic dream any second.”
My cheeks flamed, and I helplessly stared at him. “You liked me on a personal level before I went into heat?”
During our breakfast in Galway, we’d danced around anything serious — talking about the weather, his phone versus mine, and random tidbits of history that he’d recited with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. We’d filled the time conversing about anything but the huge thing that had happened between him, Sea, Wild, and me yesterday.
But now, with just the two of us and the quiet of the car, it felt like there was no escaping all the topics we’d been avoiding.
“Of course I did,” he answered as if I’d asked whether it had been raining off and on all day. “But I’m not Wild and Sea, and to answer your question, that’s why their feelings are the least of my concern. I wanted to give you a choice, and I’m sorry the heat robbed you of being able to truly choose me as I would have truly chosen you in an instant if we’d met under different circumstances.”
I wasn’t all that into superhero films, but I was beginning to understand people’s fascination with the multiverse. Maybe somewhere else, in another lifetime, Aidan and I were driving along this road happily mated with no confusion about whether or not it had been a choice.
“I felt our connection, too.” I offered him a small smile. “Before the heat.”
“Good.” He glanced over at me with a small smile of his own. “Good. I’m glad it wasn’t just me. That certainly would’ve made this conversation even more awkward than it is.”
I laughed. We both did. Together.
“I’m sorry for snapping,” I told him. “Everything just feels like a lot right now.”
My mind drifted back to yesterday — carnal images flashing through my head of me doing and begging for things I never would have imagined just thirty-six hours ago. It all felt overwhelming, like I was drowning in emotions I didn’t know how to process.
"Yesterday was crazy… and wonderful — but mostly crazy."
