I froze, the human part of me, who could deny her nothing, struggling to surface.
“Ye are the reason for her torture!”Wild snarled in the old language before I could respond.“Ye are not in control of yer wolf, and I cannot make my claim until I know ye can make yers soon after without hurting her. For if ye hurt her, I'll gut ye like a pig. Fuck my True King Vow.”
My fault.
Wild was right to chastise me. Right to threaten me with death if I harmed her.
I could barely hold on to my wolf, let alone help her convince Wild to release her from his sweet torture.
Shame and regret stormed in my chest as the wolf threw itself against the cage of my skin.
A thought crossed my mind to leave. Maybe, with some distance, I could regain control.
But I couldn’t take a step out of the room. I couldn’t even look away.
Especially not when our Mairinua managed to break through to Wild, and he finally lost his iron grip on his control.
“My turn!”My wolf growled, thrashing and surging inside me as I watched Wild claim her with sloppy strokes.
The other king would knot and unknot soon. I wanted nothing more than to take his place. But it was taking every ounce of willpower I possessed to keep myself from muzzling.
It wasn’t safe. I couldn’t hurt her. It wasn’t safe.
Relief washed over me when she passed out almost immediately after Wild threw his knot. Her heat cut off abruptly, and I collapsed forward from the waist like a puppet cut from its strings. For the first time since arriving at the old Belfast House, I could breathe.
But…
“Ye’re still not ready.”
I heard, rather than saw, Wild get off the bed — then cursed when he saw the state of me.
His proximity caused my wolf to take another violent lunge inside me.
The scent of her need was no longer screaming in the air above us, but I could smell her on him. I could…
I squeezed my eyes shut. Answer Wild or lose my head — the world had narrowed down to that single choice.
“Shite, ye’re too far gone.” Wild cursed again.
“I’m going downstairs to get Dublin for her next turn. She’ll wake up again soon. Ten, fifteen minutes, tops. Keep your wolf down until I get back.”
He moved away, giving my nose some relief.
Keep your wolf down. Keep your wolf down.I breathed those words like a silent mantra as Wild, and the scent of his first claim receded from the room.
Keep your wolf down. Keep your wolf down.I could do this…
The beast inside me began to settle, sinking back into the pit of my gut. My heart rate slowed, and the skin on my face stopped prickling with the urge to sprout hair.
I was doing it. I had control.
Until suddenly, I didn’t.
Wild had been wrong about how long we had until her next cycle. The scent of her heat filled the room before I could shove my wolf back down.
It hadn’t even been five minutes.
This time, there was no breathing. No mantras.
