Page 49 of The Night Prince (The Wolf King #2)

E verything is still. Quiet.

It’s the moment after a storm, when the world has been overturned, yet everything is expected to go back to normal.

I stand by the fireplace in Blake’s chambers. If it weren’t for the crumpled bedsheets, the few bits of mud on the floorboards that were stomped in by Lochlan’s men, and the racing of my heart, I could be fooled that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

Callum finally made his move against Blake. He decided to lock him up—even though he knows our lives are linked. He didn’t consider it an option before. We discussed it once, back at Lowfell, and decided Blake would starve himself, or hurt himself, to get to me.

Blake didn’t even resist.

Callum is out of his depth. Blake is up to something.

Anam-Cridech . The word for the bond echoes in my mind.

I was so close to getting an answer, and yet a part of me is relieved that Blake was taken before he could reveal it. His words have taken root within me and I fear them.

A part of you knows. A part of you has always known. Just like, deep down, Callum knows. Just like I have always known.

I walk toward his desk and slide open the second drawer. The Alpha’s Fate is tucked in the corner, nestled among the maps. I pick it up. Elsie gave me two of these books. She said they were enlightening. Blake took both of them off me. I thought nothing of it at the time, and yet...

A floorboard creaks behind me.

I shove the small flimsy tome into my pocket and turn. Callum stands in the doorway.

His eyes move from Blake’s crumpled bedsheets to the spot where Blake was standing a moment ago. His nostrils flare and my pulse kicks up.

Does he think that something inappropriate happened between us? Did something inappropriate happen between us? I had been so caught up in getting the parchment, I had acted on instinct. I had not thought too hard about where I was, or who I was provoking. I bit him. My cheeks heat, and something cold moves beneath my skin.

It’s certainly not proper for a lady to be in another man’s bed, but I was angry. I was fighting him. I was trying to get answers for Callum, as well as myself. Still, shame spreads through me.

I get the sense that he’s battling with his wolf. He breathes deeply, and his fists are clenched. His expression could be carved from stone, and I know he only pulls his emotions back when he feels threatened.

“Callum.” I step toward him.

He staggers back as though I pushed him. Panic flickers across his face. He turns on his heel and walks out of Blake’s bedchambers.

“Callum.” I hurry after him.

He doesn’t slow down, so I can’t fall into step beside him.

“Callum!”

He halts outside the door of his bedchambers, clenches the top of the doorframe, and leans forward. His broad shoulders practically burst the seams of his shirt. He presses his forehead against the door. “His scent is all over you.”

“It’s not what you think.”

He releases a bitter laugh, devoid of his usual warmth. “He touched you.”

“I was trying to get answers—”

He spins around, and the wolf is in his eyes. “Were you in his bed?”

“Yes, but it’s not—”

He makes a low sound, shuts his eyes, and bites down on his knuckles. A dribble of blood runs down his fist and drips onto the flagstones. It doesn’t seem to offer him any relief, because his breathing is unsteady.

“Callum, please calm down.” I reach for his wrist so I can stop him from hurting himself.

He lurches away from me and his back hits the wall. He drops his fist to his side, and blood drips onto the flagstones. When he opens his eyes, I almost stagger back with the force of his gaze.

“ Don’t ,” he snarls.

“I’m sorry. I just—”

“Do you want him?”

“No!”

“I’m a wolf, Princess!” He slams a hand on his chest and I flinch. He blinks back the watery film over his eyes, and shakes his head. “I saw you dance with him, you know? At the feast at Lowfell.”

The memory of Blake twirling me around the dancefloor flashes through my mind. I shake my head. He cannot be serious. “I didn’t conceal that from you. I was trying to get information from him.” I hate the plea, the whine, the desperation in my voice.

A muscle feathers in Callum’s jaw. “Is that what you were doing when you wound up in his bed?”

“ Yes .”

He makes another low sound. My breathing is ragged. I’ve swallowed a storm, and it’s taking all my strength to keep it contained.

“If you calm yourself, I shall explain what happened. Let us go inside and talk about it like rational human beings.”

“I am not a human, Princess.” Each word is rough and deliberate as he steps closer to me, his furious heat blazing my skin. “I’m a wolf.”

“Right now, you’re acting like a brute.” My tone is harsh, yet some small part of me welcomes his fury as if I’ve been waiting for it. Let us tear into one another and shout and scream so that we can release it. Let him treat me to his wrath, for once, as though I can take it.

A frustrated noise rumbles in his chest. He shakes his head, turning his attention to one of the torches flickering on the wall. “I cannot speak to you when you smell like that . ”

He brushes past me and stalks down the corridor toward the stairwell.

“Do not walk away from me, Callum!”

“Have a bath,” he snarls. “I shall deal with you later.”

Indignation rises within me. “Deal with me?!”

“Aye! Deal with you!”

“What is the Anam-Cridech ?” I say.

He halts. The muscles in his back shudder. His hand flexes at his side. My stomach lurches at his reaction. Blake was right. Callum knows what it is.

“Where did you hear that word?” he growls.

Coldness spreads through my bones. “What is it, Callum?”

He straightens. He doesn’t turn. “Have a bath. I will talk to you later.”

“No. You will talk to me now—”

“ Do not follow me .”

His words power through me and I practically stagger back with the force of them. I feel him inside me—the taste of mountain air on the back of my tongue. His command grabs the wild thing in my chest and pushes it down.

He is using his alpha voice, his king voice, and trying to force me to submit to him—like when Blake used the àithne. I’m not sure he knows he’s doing it.

I grab it and push it off me, as easily as I did when Blake tried it. Yet as he storms away, I stand breathless and shaken.

I don’t follow.