"No, I think she was thanking me…"
Sea filled me in on his new plan to bring her to the castle.
But I remained skeptical. "Ye truly trust her to keep her promise about not calling in the Scottish Wolves as soon as ye let her loose in the castle?"
"She looked me straight in the eyes when she gave me her word." Sea sounded more boyish than any man carrying a passed-out wolf should. "And she's many things, but she's not a liar."
I didn’t think she’d lie either — at least not straight to Sea’s face.
A few emotions twisted in my chest as I grudgingly allowed myself to ask, "What was it like? The kiss?"
I suppose Sea wasn't the only one who turned into a schoolboy when our Flower was involved.
"It was electricity surging through my veins," he answered immediately as if he'd been waiting to describe it. "The same as when I finally allow myself to surrender to my wolf on full moon nights. But there was no pain, no struggle. Just pleasurable moments stretching into eternity. Then she pulled back from me and said, 'Bye, Sea,' with this shy, soft smile. Like a peek of sun on a rainy day."
"Alright, alright, I get it, Yeats. Ireland don't need no more poets," I groused. Annoyed. And plenty jealous.
He'd made kissing our Flower sound even better than compelling her to come hard with my face between her legs. What would it feel like to have her pull me in with a soft look instead of hate and annoyance in her eyes?
Sea continued, "I’ve never been so reluctant to leave a place as I was the habitat after she kissed me. Just about ripped apart my chest to enclose her back in the glass."
The True King sighed — with unnecessary drama if you asked me.
However, his expression soon darkened with a cloud of worry. “She didn’t go into heat, though.”
“No.” I wished I could say I was surprised, but… “The prophecy said she would reunite all three kingdoms.
Sea nodded, clearly ahead of me. “And one of us is still living his least polyamorous life in a city over three-hundred kilometers away.”
“Honestly don’t feel I can say this enough. Fuck Dublin.”
I darkly thought back to the night of the Terrible Belfast Mess. What had Dublin’s snobby father called before leaving?
Savages.
“The prophecy would probably be fulfilled by now if he’d been raised to respect our ways.”
“This is not good.” Sea shook his head. “Figure I have maybe until dawn to act the king before I either go fetch her or risk losing my head to my wolf again. And then, it’s only a matter oftime before he refuses to wait any longer. It’s mate-starved to the point of near-insanity."
Sea was right. This wasn’t good.
I knew Sea had been ignoring Dublin’s text about entering peace negotiations with the Scottish Wolves. No way we were giving any of the Kept Brides back before the spring.
But a new plan formed in my head.
"As soon as a few of these lads wake up, I going to put together a contingent to head bag Dublin and bring him back here, whether he's ready to accept the prophecy or not."
"Let's get this business done, then." No more Mr. Noble King. Seaagreed to my new plan without a second of hesitation just as we reached the cart, already loaded with passed-out males. "On three!"
We swung the unconscious wolf a couple of times before flinging him into the back of the cart.
Then we parted.
Sea went to help a few of the elder males lift a hut to place over the triads and couples writhing and moaning atop the dance boards laid down for the Bridal Appeal.
And I continued escorting the other still-unmated Sea and Wild Wolves back to the cottages where they’d be staying until this group heat was finished.
The lads who hadn't been favored by fortune had two choices for how to get to the secret kingdom's main town, where Sea had decided they'd stay until the heat was done: on foot or on their backs, after I jabbed them with one of the many doses of quick sedation I had to administer that night, then threw them in the hay cart manned by Sea's uncle, Darragh.
