Panicflared in her eyes.
And as much as I would have liked to have erased it, I let it sink in.
The sooner she understood the situation, the sooner she would come to accept it.
However, full acceptance was not exactly what happened in the next moment.
Her gaze cut to the side. To the large mansion standing beside the small airfield we were planning to head to after our wolves brought up all of the passed-out she-wolves in the hold below.
“No, Flower, don’t —” Wild began to say, following the direction of her gaze. And I jumped forward, willing my cowering wolf to lend me its speed.
But too late.
She sprinted toward the railing, and before either Wild or I could grab her, she slapped her palms together and arced her body over the trawler's side.
The next thing I heard was a huge splash.
And the sound of Wild saying, "Well, fuck," behind me.
Naomi
There were somany things that I didn’t know, thanks to my upbringing.
I'd spent thousands of hours on the forbidden internet and watched countless videos and reels depicting life outside of my hidden community. But there was stuff I had to experience for myself to fully comprehend — stuff even my secret love, the World Wide Web, never could have prepared me for.
Like the constant sway of boats, even when they’ve come to a stop.
And kings who kidnap… and lick… and make dark promises that you feel in your stomach.
And the difference between jumping fully clothed into a summer lake and jumping fully clothed into a freezing cold ocean.
The water hit me with an icy blast. If not for my wolf, no doubt I would have been introduced to another concept I only knew about because of the forbidden internet: hypothermia.
Right before I drowned because I didn’t have the physical strengthto fight some unseen force that seemed intent on crashing me back into the boat.
No, the sea was not a lake. The freezing water was a living thing, somehow both shoving and clinging to me as I navigated toward the shore as best I could with a combination of freestyle and breaststrokes.
Thank goodness I'd taught myself to swim just in case I was invited to a pool party in the new life I'd been planning before the Irish Wolves crashed my sister's wedding. And thank goodness the shore was close.
I staggered onto a beach covered in rocks and pebbles instead of marsh and sand. A first, and it sent my body into a rare conflict with the wolf inside of me.
An array of intriguing new scents hit my nose, but the modest blue dress clung in a freezing, wet hug.
So, while my wolf hankered to investigate all the new smells, my human swayed dangerously, wanting nothing more than to collapse on top of the smooth rocks.
But then I spotted the boat, half-hidden by the jut of the low cliff that stood between the beach and the dock where they'd dropped anchor. No one in the ocean, though. So that meant those kidnapping kings hadn’t been crazy enough to jump in after me.
But something told me that didn’t mean they wouldn’t give chase. The Pirate’s vow whispered through my head.
We will never let you go.
I had to get to the house I'd spied from the deck of the boat.
That goal and the thought of Sadie in that glass box clarifiedmy next steps.
Teeth chattering, I shoved one foot in front of the other toward a set of steps carved into the low cliff's rock wall.
Several minutes later, I stumbled across more rocks — this time in the form of gravel in front of the residence's back door.
