"You're not bad at this king business, are you?" Darragh said after I tossed the last male wolf who'd "chosen" the needle into the cart. "I'd wondered how you'd get on after your father…"
He trailed off, and I didn’t help him along any. On the list of Shite the Wild King Doesn't Talk About, my father was number two, right underneath my mother.
"Anyway, I'll be getting this lot over to the cottages." Darragh picked up the reins for the horse. "If you see my nephew, tell him to return home as soon as possible. Now that the chef and themaor tiare out of commission with their new Scottish she-wolf mate, his aunt and the other elder she-wolves are in a nasty donnybrook about who should be doing what at the castle."
I had no idea what amaor tiwas, but I let Sea know after he got the last mating triads and couples hidden away in one of the huts just as the secret kingdom's version of dawn was cracking the sky.
"Amaor tiis a house steward — the head of the castle staff. And I'm happy for him and the chef, but my uncle's right. We're going to have a hell of a time assigning duties without him. Not to mention sorting out meals."
Thing was, I didn't make a habit of giving helpful advice. I was one of those kings who preferred to solve all our traveling kingdom's problems with harsh language and my fists — often both. Still, I found myself pointing out, "Managing the elder she-wolves could be a job ye assigned to Flower. While walking around in wolf form, I heard the other Wölfennites talking about how she had the habitat running tighter than a ship."
Sea grinned. "So you're saying we should most certainly fetch her before heading on to the castle?"
I considered taking the piss about how eager he was acting about seeing Flower again. One kiss had been all it took to completely wrap him around her finger.
But somehow, I ended up just grinning back and saying, "Yeah, let's go get her."
My mood strangely lifted as we left the Wild Wolves camp and its overhanging cloud of heat scent behind.
"Did ye get a hold of the way she drop-kicked that she-wolf who tried to have a go at me?" I asked Sea after we cleared the first rolling hill. "Figure she can't no longer claim she’s completely impartial to me. Or us. Threw that she-wolf off ye like she was qualifying for the discus throw at the Olympics."
Sea smiled as if he was remembering it, too, even as he warned mein his most kingly tone, “You will not bring that up when we collect her.”
“Got it," I answered with a wry chuckle. "I won’t point out her claiming to hate us then going all Bruce Lee when another she-wolf tried for us."
Sea laughed even more heartily than me. But then he sobered to say, “You realize making her hate you every time you open your mouth won't help us any when it comes to completing the prophecy.”
"I do, but…" I glowered at the fake grass beneath our feet. "Ye understand why I…"
“Of course, I do — more than anyone else on Earth," Sea answered before I could finish making my miserable excuses for acting like a pure arse every time I got around our Flower. "But she doesn’t, and we can't let what happened in Belfast get in the way of what we're trying to achieve here. You, of all people, should get that."
He was right. The prophecy came before anything else. But the past, combined with all the new emotions, clogged my throat. Choking me. Not letting me agree with the True King as I knew I should.
"All we need is Dublin," I insisted. "That will get the prophecy done whether or not I play nice."
"You can bring Dublin back here by force, sure," Sea agreed with a hedging tone. "But you understand I'm not equipped to see this through, so you’ll be the one in charge when she goes into heat. We can’t have it go sideways, or worse — not happen at all because she’s that determined not to let you ride her. What will you do if she refuses to give you her pledge along with Dublin and me?”
Die. Like my father.
The answer dropped into my head with a speed that disturbed me.
"I get it," I bit out. Walking even faster. We were nearing the habitat's archway, and I wanted to be done with this conversation.
"Wild…" Sea started behind me with a warning tone.
“I said I get it already." I waved him off as I passed under the arch. "Be a nice doggie like my eejit wolf — what the hell, Sea. You left the habitat wide open for her?”
My reluctant concession turned into anger as we stopped in front of the door-shaped hole in the habitat’s glass.
Several shocked beats.
Then Sea asked, “Did you ever find my wolf knot fastener?"
“No,” I answered, my tone flat because I was beginning to understand exactly what had happened here.
Everything Sea told me about their kiss rewrote itself in my head.
Including her promise beforehand not to use the god tech to escape us.
