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Rage, impossibly raw shimmered in those jade-glass eyes, seeming to throw daggers at her skin. She braced herself, realising that she just insulted the Prince of Oy Frossen and she knew no one, especially not someone as insignificant as her, got away with insulting a person in power, especially not a man.

But instead of striking her, or screaming at her, the prince remained where he was. Until he growled. He seemed to be shaking all over if she closely looked at him.

Noora stared at him in disbelief. “Did you just growl?”

“What? No! For what kind of vile animal—’

“Oh!” Lulva’s soft breath interrupted the king and both him and Noora turned to follow her gaze.

Oh.

It was indeed not the king who growled. It was a wolf.

But not just any wolf. Noora recognised the narrow body, the lengthy jaw, and the devious sparkly shine in the black eyes.“You kept him.” The words tumbled past her lips.

“He is yours?” Lulva squeaked as the white wolf slowly stalked over to the group. His lips were pulled back, displaying a row of sharp teeth.

Noora went for the knife stashed in her boot, making the king protest. “What are you doing? You know Spike. He is not going to hurt you.”

Despite his words, the wolf growled again, bending his body as if he were about to jump.

“I thought you arrogant, Your Highness, but I did not know I had to add stupid and naïve to the list. That is a wild animal, not a pet!” she yelled at him.

To her horror, he rolled his eyes and approached the wolf.

“No!” Noora exclaimed as the wolf dove forward. He was going to kill him.

Without hesitance, she sprinted across the pathway and pushed Nikolai out of the way of the wolf.

With a strength she did not know she possessed, she wrapped her arms around the flank of the wolf, before they both came crashing down, rolling against the frozen ground.

Grunting, she dug her toes into the ground to come up atop, holding the knife against the wolf’s neck.

“Stop!” Nikolai yelled and her gaze flew to him on the ground his eyes widened in horror.

“He will not hurt you, Noora.”

Her eyes flickered to the wolf under her, who did not make any antics to escape her grip. The growling was gone, his long red tongue lolling out of his jaw as he gazed up at her.

She slowly got off the animal, knife still raised, but Nikolai was right, no aggressive signs were coming from the wolf anymore.

Noora looked back at Raphael and Lulva, who both had stunned looks on their faces and she turned to the prince.

Nikolai was already up on his feet, dusting off his trousers. How was he so unbothered?

When he found them adequately clean, he looked up at her. “He was just playing, he does that a lot.”

“Playing? He is not a dog but a predator.” She was angry. She did not even know why she was angry but somehow, she needed to have an outlet for her rage and he just had such a punchable face.

Her hand twitched and his gaze caught the movement.

“You thought he was going to kill me,” he realised.

The wolf let out a small whine.

“Of course I did.”

“But he was your pet first.”