“Ye know exactly what we did,” I answered while watching Sea try to gently guide our Flower in the opposite direction of the stone tower.
Proving what I said about needing to use a firmer hand with her, she snatched her arm away and stopped right where she was with a faint, “Don’t touch me…”
As if Sea were some beggar who dared to grope her on the street and not her king.
Still, I told Dublin, “We saved our kingdoms from ruin and found our queen. Now the only question is, when will ye get yer head out of yer ass and join us as the prophecy intended?”
There came several ticks of silence down the line.
Then, unfortunately, Dublin decided to prove himself the weak City Wolf he still was by answering, “No. Norman Kings don’t share, and I’m still not willing to abet you in your kidnapping crime.”
“Aw, fer the gods’ sake…”
“Also, you should know that I was just paid a visit from an incredibly put-out Scottish oak tree,” Dublin informed me, his voice tight with the kind of dry irritation only posh nobility wankers could pull off. “A fellow by the name of Alban…”
"Scotswolf," I finished for him. "Fuck. That was fast that he found ye."
I knew that theScottish kingdom’s enforcer would be a problem for us. Even with a plane trip to throw him off, he and his clan had gotten closer to the secret kingdom than any Scottish Wolves before him.
Sea and I had spent much of the night watching his contingent of wolves sniff around overhead, and even when they'd given up searching, I'd had a feeling their hunt wasn't over yet. Apparently, Alban'd figured out that Dublin was the King of the City Wolves and had decided to pay him a visit.
"Hold on, youknewa violently angry Scot would be tracking me down at my place of work, and you didn't think to warn me?"
I shrugged. "If you had joined us for the Second Reaping, you would be here with us, claiming our queen as the old gods intended it.”
In the distance, our beautiful Flower appeared to have calmed down. She was nodding along with whatever Sea was saying, her expression filled with understanding.Alright, maybe Sea hadn’t been wrong about reasoning with her.
"Jayzus Christ, you fucking nutter," Dublin brought my attention back to our conversation before giving in with a "Fine, give me the secret kingdom coordinates. We need to put together a plan for how to deal with the Scottish Wolves.”
I began to open my mouth to tell him exactly how to get to us. But then it occurred to me to ask, “How do I know you won’t pass this information onto that Scot? For all I know, he’s standing right there with a dagger at your neck.”
A charged silence greeted my accusation. Then Dublin’s voice came back, coarse and quiet. “You truly believe I would betray you and Sea like that?”
I answered him honestly, “You didn’t stand with us when it was time to make a move, City King. If I’m being honest, I don’t know what to —”
Another betrayal happened before I could finish my sentence.
One moment, Sea was gallantly taking his cape off to hand it to our Flower, who must have told him she was cold — and the next, she was tossing the voluminous piece of puffery over his head.
“She’s more clever than you think…”Sea had insisted before he gave in to our Flower's one-mate-only condition.
And I found myself finally coming around to agree with him as I watched her race toward the tower.
She must have sorted out what the structure was about without letting on to Sea. She disappeared through its arched door before Sea could disentangle himself from the cape she’d tossed back in his face.
“I’ll call you back,” I told Dublin. “Maybe.”
“Hold on, you still haven’t given me —”
I hung up before the City King could finish.
Sea and I had both been right, as it turned out.
The she-wolf was cleverer than I’d bargained for but too naive to understand what any female who’d grown up in Eire would have in her place.
We all know in this land that you do not run from a Wild Wolf.
Especially if he’s a male.
