I paused with the first piece of bacon halfway to my mouth. That low grumble-growl was back. The one that always came with the finger-tingling, decidedly non-either-Ordnung sanctioned desire to do violence.
Was she seriously lecturing me about food after the confidence-killing trick she pulled on me yesterday?
For both Amanda’s and my sake, I grabbed my plate and stood up with the intention of eating outside.
“Do not be cross, Sadie Schaduw,” Amanda called after me. “I am your sister in piety, and I’m only trying to encourage you toward making wiser choices where eating is concerned so you might actually attract…”
I closed the Exchange House’s door on the rest of her words, but they rang in my head as I found another place to hide. This time, it was a rock located behind the cow barn.
Hunched over where no one else could see me, I miserably ate my now very cold food as fast as I could in the even colder Scottish morning air. And it still wasn’t enough to slake my hunger. My stomach continued to growl for more food after I cleared the plate of every crumb.
Maybe my mother had been right. There was something inherently wrong with me. No wolf would ever want me. Even here in Scotland.
A terrible hopelessness made me set the plate aside so I wouldn’t give in to the temptation to lick it clean. And that was when I saw the male on the castle’s roof.
Is that…?
I rose from my hideout, leaving the plate behind, to rack all my focus onto the shirtless male on top of the royal residence. It was a rather gray day, yet his hard muscles somehow managed to ripple under the sun as he hefted what appeared to be a large, upturned black glass panel onto the roof.
Yes, it was him! Alban. Alban Scotswolf was back!
I clasped my hands in front of me, and the hope that had almost completely abandoned me refilled my chest like a glass bottle being replenished with freshly pulled milk.
A few weeks ago, when Tara’s fiancé, King Magnus, had introduced his cousin Alban as the Kingdom Defender, I’d perked up a bit at the sight of him.
Alban was giant! Brawny, with a bushy red beard and wild, unkempt hair to match. Looking at him, I’d suddenly understood what the other Wölfennite school children had meant byhulkingwhen they’d referred to me.
He was the only male I’d ever encountered who was both wider and taller than me. The Kingdom Defender towered over every other person on the royal welcoming committee, including the former rugby player king! And I couldn’t say I disliked it. Also, there was no ring on his finger.
Sure, he appeared a bit rough around the edges. He could have bothered to run a comb through his hair before coming to the castle to meet us, and his gray eyes held more contempt than welcome for a group of she-wolves who’d crossed an ocean to help his kingdom solve their dismal birth-rate issue.
But I had a feeling he looked at everybody that contemptuously, not just us. And maybe—most importantly when it came to a male wolf—not just me, for once.
He reminded me of the cranky tanner back in the original St. Ailbe. He was about ten years older than Naomi and me and had shocked the village by choosing one of the homeliest and stoutest of the unclaimed females to wolf mate after turning twenty-five. His stated reason? “Tannery is hard work. I need a she-wolf capable of true help—not beauty or a sparkling personality.”
Even back then, at the age of 15, I had been jealous that the only male in town who appeared to value strength and fortitude—two qualities I happened to possess in abundance outside of the winter months—would already be married and most likely a father by the time I was old enough to become a wife.
But Alban struck me the same as that tanner.Maybe he won’t mind my height or my size, I’d thought to myself, or the odd smell the St. Ailbe males hadn’t been able to get past.
However, before I could gather the courage to talk to him, Naomi crushed my hopes when she told me that Tara and Magnus were upset Alban had abruptly moved to a homestead cabin in the mountains. “Something about it getting too crowded here in town and wanting to be alone.”
But now he was back. Perhaps for Tara’s wedding, where it was rumored that many of the males would make their interest known, and maybe even propose!
A chance… that’s what this Alban sighting was. A chance to approach him at the wedding reception and show him my worth.
My heart sped up as the church bells began to ring in the distance.
Just like that, my prospects for finding a husband here in Faoiltiarn shot back up…
…only to plummet again a few hours later.
I did finally get my chance to speak with Alban at the reception after the royal wedding. Unfortunately, that came courtesy of Amanda shoving me into his path with an “Oh, look, there’s that one wolf who’s always glowering at us as if we’re criminals. Perhaps you can tame him, Sadie Schaduw!”
Suddenly, there I was, standing like a rabbit in the path of the huge Kingdom Defender bearing down on me.
But then Alban’s face lit up, as if he recognized me. As if I were exactly the person he was looking for at this reception.
Oh, my goodness!
