"Don't even entertain it, lad." C pulled two vicious-looking daggers from his knife sash before the snarling Pirate Wolf could take another step. Rivulets of lean muscle rippled down his tattooed arms as he twirled the unsheathed weapons. "I'm your King. But if you go after her, I'll slice your throat proper."
Go after her?That was when I realized I needed to protect Amanda from… whatever this melee was.
As confused as I was by what was happening, I started making my way toward Amanda's side of the room, instinct telling me that she was the reason for the two kings' sudden need to eject all the males from the strangely domed space.
I blocked out the commotion and focused on getting to my Wölfennite sister.
"What's happening?" Amanda raked a ragged hand down the side of her face, pulling off the hair covering. Perhaps unconsciously. We were never supposed to let ourselves be seen without our Wölfennite bonnets, but Amanda appeared oddly flushed.
"Why do I feel so, so…?" She panted as if she couldn't access the breath it took to finish that sentence.
"I'm coming, Amanda!" I called out, making my way to her as quickly as I could without stepping on any of the unconscious she-wolves stretched out like a river between us.
"Just hold on until the kings deal with the rest of the males, sweetling." Lorcan crouched down beside Amanda, his tone reassuring. "Then Ronan and I will get ye sorted. I vow it."
"Vow it…" Amanda's voice was barely a whisper. I doubt I could have heard her if not for my keen wolf ears.
She stared at Lorcan, her head swaying listlessly.
Which was why I was completely unprepared when she suddenly surged forward.
One moment, Lorcan was crouched beside her, his face filled with concern. And the next, he and Amanda were fighting.
No, not fighting…
“Get out! Get out the lot of ye now. Before ye catch the fever, and the True King has to slice somebody else like he did that other one!”
I dimly registered Wild's voice in my periphery, issuing orders I didn’t understand.
Just as I didn’t understand the heavy smell in the air or why Amanda was tangled up with Lorcan in some strange wrestling match that ended with her straddled on top of him.
She appeared to be… I tilted my head to the side. Yes, she appeared to be grinding herself against Lorcan. Her visible side profile had gone utterly slack. But her body moved on top of the large Earring Wolf. With dark intent.
“Amanda?" I stopped wading through the river of passed-out Wölfennites just a few meters away from her. "What are you doing?”
“I don’t know!” she cried out. “There’s something wrong with me. It hurts! Ithurts!”
“It’s alright, love,” Lorcan assured her, his voice choked but level. “Me and Ronan will make it better in a flash. But before we do, we'll be needing your promise. Stop. Please,ye got to stop."
But Amanda didn't stop. Just kept mindlessly rocking her hips on top of him. "Can't stop! Can't!"
What was she doing to him? Lorcan was nearly twice her size and so much stronger than her, but he knocked his head back against the stone floor, baring his teeth in a grimace that looked a lot like pain.
"Aw, sweetling. Can't take it. Cease." Lorcan grabbed ahold of Amanda's hips to still them. "Cease now, I tell ye, so ye can give us yer pledge.”
Amanda cried out again. This time, like a wounded animal. “Please. I need… I need…”
“I understand! But I cannot give ye relief.”
Tears pooled in Lorcan’s eyes, too, but I sensed they had less to do with frustration and more to do with restraint.
Through gritted teeth, he said, “Not before you give Ronan and me the words we need. Please, sweetling. Repeat after me.”
A nonsensical collection of words fell out of his mouth. The language he used sounded like a more lyrical version of the Gaelic the Scottish Wolves spoke.
Yet Amanda didn’t hesitate to repeat them word for word, with tears streaming down her face.
“Now, please help me. Please!" she begged the male beneath her when she was through.
