Chaotic Third Option
The Shadow King’sProbability Matrix flashed into my mind.
OUTCOME PROBABILITY MATRIX
YAY: 59.5%
NAY: 26.7%
CHAOTIC THIRD OPTION (e.g., delay, demand, twist): 4.5%
Me going into estrus most definitely fell under that 4.5% twist.
Declan didn’t have to command everyone to leave twice. I’d seen Wölfennites move slower with a tornado on the horizon.
Three words from their High King, and the room scattered.
Even the Shadow and Mountain Kings disappeared. Though Tadhg threw me a look brimming with regret before slipping through one of the black arch doors—doors that had all magically opened, flooding the room with bright light after the ceremony’s dim hush.
But the light didn’t last.
The doors sealed shut, and the shadows rushed back in.
Meanwhile, a core-clenching need—unlike anything I’d ever felt—nearly doubled me over.
My essence… I could feel it sluicing out of me, the patch on the front of my skirt spreading wider by the second. My mind spun under the weight of it, dizzy with need.
Still, the High King didn’t move.
I could feel his cold gray eyes on me. Watching me suffer.
I had to… I had to…
Belatedly, I remembered: I still had free will.
I could go after Tadhg. Or the Shadow King. Someonenotrelated to the liar in front of me. Someone worthy who could help me relieve this unbearable ache.
Mate! Mate!a small, distant voice cried inside me.
“Where are you going, Sadie?” the High King’s hard voice asked as I stumbled down the dais stairs.
“Not you,” I croaked over my shoulder. “Anyone but you.”
The wet spot was bigger now, staining nearly the entire front of my skirt. My thighs slipped slickly against each other as I made for the lake-facing door the Shadow King had disappeared through.
I had to find him. I had to?—
“It canonlybe me.” Suddenly, Declan was in front of me, his rhubarb scent sharp and acrid beneath the cloud of my estrus.“I am the High King. The one you gave First Claim when you allowed yourself to be presented.”
“Youtrickedme!” I shot back, trying to shoulder past him. “That presentation meantnothing!”
The black door the Shadow King had used was right there. Less than a meter away. Directly behind the not-very-nice-at-all High King.
To my surprise, he let me pass by him.
I made a mad dash for the door?—
Only to have his body slam into mine from behind just as I reached it. His arms came down on either side of me, caging me in, pinning me between the door’s glass and his unyielding chest.
