He continued straight toward me, his gaze intent, and stopped right in front of me. A towering wall of black t-shirt and red hair.
Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!This was my chance!
I opened my mouth.
And then it hit me, belatedly, after putting all my eggs into this Bridal Exchange basket, that I truly was Naomi’s shadow, and I had no idea how to be my own person.Eep.
All those reasonable arguments about how I could be a she-wolf of use to a male like him slipped right out of my head.
I could not come up with one word—not even one word to say to this huge specimen of a wolf. Until, without warning, all the words came spilling out like a brook flooded by an excessive amount of rain.
“I’m not good at talking,” I blurted. “I mean, maybe I am. But I’m pretty sure I’m not. I’ve only been talked to once at a social. And I’m pretty sure that was only out of charity. It was the sonof Abel Flosswulf, our pack leader. Before he married, he used to talk to every she-wolf at every social gathering. He was really nice. But anyway, I’m not good at talking. So, you should know that before you ask me to… um, talk.”
Alban squinted at me and said, “Excuse me.”
Oh no.He didn’t understand anything I said? I opened my mouth to try again, with way, way fewer words this time.
But before I could, the Kingdom Defender said, “I need to get by ye, lass, to speak with the queen.”
I realized then that, in the new position Amanda had pushed me into, I was now the only thing standing between him and Tara, who was at that moment hosting a receiving line of well-wishers beside her new husband.
The Kingdom Defender clasped me by both shoulders and set me aside so he could get to the she-wolf he actually wanted to talk to at that moment.
Leaving me standing there all by myself in a crowded reception hall filled with townspeople and would-be Scottish Grooms, eager to marry.
Anyone but me.
I glanced back at Amanda and the other St. Ailbe she-wolves to find them practically falling over with laughter.
I’d told Naomi I’d stay for at least an hour before leaving the reception to join her upstairs, where she’d chosen to babysit Iain and Milly’s baby daughter because, as she’d put it, “I’ve reached my upper limit of putting up with courting offers from guys who only want to mate me because my facial features are symmetrically aligned.”
I had the opposite problem, and suddenly, I couldn’t just keep shoving everything down, like I always did.
I didn’t just walk away from Amanda and her cronies this time, I ran. Ran out of the reception that had been my best chance to meet a male willing to take me on as a mate.
I’d held on to hope for so long.
I’d kept gathering and regathering it, even though it was always slipping through my hands like sand.
But there was no more sand in the fragile hourglass I’d built around my hopes for this Bride Exchange. It had all run out.
While Amanda and the other Wölfennites laughed, tears filled my eyes as I fled up the grand staircase toward Prince Iain and his American wife Millie’s suite of rooms, where Naomi would be. Where I should’ve been all along.
Sadie Schaduw. That was all I was, and at that moment, in Naomi’s shadow was the only place I wanted to be. On my own wasn’t safe. I needed the comfort of trailing behind my best friend.
“Naomi! Naomi!” I called out as I ran into the empty front room of the minor royal’s official suite.
I frowned when I picked up the scent of several wolves along with Naomi’s maple leaves smell. How many pups had she agreed to babysit? I thought it was only supposed to be Millie’s baby daughter.
Cheering a bit at the prospect of being able to both hide out in here with my best friend and offer her some help, I headed in the direction of the smells behind a closed door. “Naomi? Are you in here?”
“Sadie, don’t—” Naomi called out from the other side of the door.
“I know it hasn’t been an hour,” I explained as I barged through the door. “But you won’t believe what…”
I trailed off, the word “happened” dying in my throat when I saw the scene in front of me.
Naomi holding a baby in one hand and a knife in the other, facing off against two large and scary wolves.
