Sea stared at me for a long beat, then turned to Wild. “Alright, then, what did you say to her?”
Wild shrugged with the impudence of a lion who could do whatever he wanted. “Caught her eyeing the tower with the red door like it was fresh meat and gave her a warning, is all.”
“The tower with the red door!” Sea’s face fell. Then, his voice took on a much harder note. “Tell me you’re not even thinking of attempting that.”
“Don’t worry, I made it clear just how bad an idea that would be for her,” Wild answered for me while taking Sea’s piece of cake for himself.
"Alright, I get your point." Sea sighed. "But you clearly could have been nicer explaining things to her."
"Could I have, though?" Wild took a bite of the cake and added with a full mouth, “Wouldn't want her missing tomorrow's little field trip to the secret kingdom's control room after ye and yer third-in-law did such a tip-top job pitching it to her.”
The sweet cake turned to ash in my mouth.
“So, this has all been a setup?” I asked Sea. “Including luring me in with the control room details?”
Sea’s guilty look in another direction was all the answer I needed to those questions.
How could I have been so naive? I kicked myself for being lulled into a false sense of camaraderie by Sea's offer to show me the control room.
“Five minutes.” Sea turned on Wild, his expression thunderous. “I left you alone with her for five minutes, and you just decided to undo all the work we’ve done?”
“She was back to eye-fucking the tower as soon as you stepped away,” Wild pointed out on a growl. “And the thing is, my friendly eejit of a wolf might have given her the wrong impression. Needed to disabuse her of any notion about me being kind."
Wild bared his cake-filled teeth at me. "Especially when it comes to she-wolves who run from me."
“You’re right.” A bitter fury surged through me. “Your wolf gave me way too favorable an impression of you. But don’t worry,” I assured him, “that’s all done now, and I’m back to loathing you.”
Wild just grinned in the face of my abject loathing. “Ah, well then. We'll see how ye feel about things after the Irish Wolves perform." He grinned over to Sea. "That's another reason I shifted back along with the lads taking part in the show.”
What did he even mean by that? I frowned, hating that I'd gone from finally getting some questions answered to being confused again.
“Eyes on us, Friends, Family, and Future Brides!” Lorcan’s suddenly amplified voice called out. “Eyes on us now!”
The murmur of the crowd immediately died down, and we all turned to face the communal fire pit, where what looked to be most — if not all — the unmated males outside of Sea and Wild had gathered behind the grooms and beaming bride.
Lorcan, who held a mike, announced, “Obviously, Ronan and I could not be happier with how this new moon has set. But our Amanda has told us that the only thing that would make her happier than becoming our wife is if at least a few of her Wölfennite sisters joined her in her new life as part of the Wild Wolves pack. Hopefully, she’ll get her wish tonight. So ladies, without any further chin-wagging from me, here are your unmated Irish Wolves!”
With that, Ronan and Lorcan cleared the way, and a weird but catchy German song started playing from a sound source I couldn't see.
“Amadeus by Falco,” Sea explained in one ear. “It was the only German song we could get to work for our traditional Bride Appeal routine.”
Bride Appeal?
Before I could ask the next obvious question, the unmated males started tap dancing in perfect sync.
I mean, I suppose you could call it tap dancing. Only their legs moved from the waist down as their shoes clicked against two large pieces of flooring that definitely weren’t there when the wedding started. They must have been dragged out just for this performance.
Okay…I frowned, trying to figure out why Sea and Wild thought a tap-dancing performance would sway the she-wolves who hadn’t yet gone into —
A cry of pain suddenly broke out over the catchy German song, interrupting my thoughts.
Was someone hurt?
I started to move forward, but Sea caught me by the arm. “Not a good idea, Mairinua. You need to stay right here between us.”
“But —”
Another cry of pain cut off my protest. Then another and another.
