Then came the scent — the disturbingly familiar scent. Except, this time, it was ten times worse. At least. And that was when I realized…
It wasn't pain the she-wolves who'd cried out were in…
Heat.
Someone — more than one someones — had gone into heat.
That was the last coherent thought I got to have before Fiona suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the stage and took the tall, skinny castle cook she’d been talking to earlier down in a full-body tackle.
After that, several Wölfennites leaped onto the stage to do the same. A disturbing number of them had already stripped naked.
It was like watching a nightmare unfold in not-at-all slow motion. But instead of zombies or any other of the monsters I'd seen on the forbidden internet, it was captive she-wolves who'd sworn they wouldn't go into heat before next spring.
I was still standing, fully clothed, between Sea and Wild.
But before the German hybrid rap-pop song was even done, what appeared to be nearly all of the other captured she-wolves were on the stage, moaning and writhing like an oil painting of an ancient bacchanal.
Wait, not all.
A naked Miriam appeared out of nowhere, her eyes crazed with intent and the space between her legs dripping with heat.
"Miriam —" I began to say.
Only to break off when she leaped forward and tackled Sea to the ground.
Sea
I was completelyunprepared for the running dive that knocked me to the ground. The impact was jarring, and the breath rushed out of my lungs as a desperate heat scent filled my nose.
But it was the wrong scent.
I blinked as the spinning world came back into focus, and I found myself staring at the sharp-featured, red-haired Wölfennite I'd noticed my cousin talking to earlier — the one who reminded me of a fox.
She yanked my tunic down the middle, breaking the fastening chain that held my cloak together and exposing my bare chest.
“You need a queen," she declared, pressing her naked breasts into my naked chest. "And I am more than ready to serve.”
The foxy Wölfennite lowered her face to mine for a kiss. The first one I’d ever received after years of saving myself for my fated mate.
Tear off her face!
Without the scent of our Mairinua foremost in my nose, my wolf surged forward. Primal rage burned through my veins, my face muzzled with fur, and my slipping control clawed at my shifting vocal cords as my worst fears started to come true.
Keep your nose in the air. For the time of Mairinua will soon come.
I never saw my father again after that fateful meeting. But his last instructions echoed in my chest as I fought to keep my head.
Twenty-nine years. My entire adult life, I’d waited for our Mairinua. Saved myself for her.
And now, another she-wolf was trying to claim my first kiss.
"Do not–grrrr!" My vocal cords shifted before I could warn off the she-wolf who'd jumped on top of me, giving way to a low growl.
Harming a female went against everything I believed, but the vicious beast inside me wouldn’t hesitate to kill her before letting her steal this long-held milestone. It wasn’t just about causing harm — this unwanted she-wolf who had thrown herself at me would die by my hands if my wolf had its way.
And then Mairinua, the only captive who hadn’t gone into heat, would discover my ugly truth: the calm and charming king who’d wooed her through letters, who she’d spent a delightful eve with was nothing but a façade, hiding the vicious, out-of-control wolf lurking beneath.
I tried to clamp down on the incoming head shift, but my fangs sharpened with the instinct to tear out the cheeky she-wolf's throat. Everything. This would ruin every —
