Filed to story: My Kidnapper Is the Wolf King
I look between the two costumes I instructed Callum to bring me.
The first impression I make with his king is important and I have a difficult choice to make.
One garment is white and simple. It would make me look innocent and demure, like a perfect princess, a perfect doll.
The other is the black dress that caught my eye when I first arrived here. It’s striking, with intricate lace sleeves and a high collar. It is something someone important would wear, someone powerful. I run my fingers down the dark material, tempted by the power it seems to hold.
The two are polar opposites.
“Which one would your king like best?” I ask.
Callum slides his gaze from the mountains, to me. “Hm?”
I place my hands on my hips. “Which dress?”
“They’re both bonnie. You’ll look beautiful whatever you wear.”
I exhale. “That’s not the point.”
He raises his eyebrows and looks confused.
I shake my head. “Never mind. You are truly useless.”
He grins, then shrugs, moving his gaze back to the window. I cannot tell whether it is what we did last night that troubles him, or the upcoming meeting with the king.
Either way, I have more important things to be worrying about right now.
I eventually settle on the white dress, deeming the black too threatening. I was dressed in white the first time I was paraded in front of Sebastian, and though the outcome wasn’t favorable to me, it gained the best outcome for my kingdom.
I comb my fingers through my hair, then pull on my boots.
“I’m ready,” I say, finally.
He turns his head, and offers me a genuine smile, his eyes bright in the morning light. “You look perfect.”
“Are you sure?”
“Aye.” He opens his mouth as if to say something, then seems to think better of it. He runs a hand over his mouth, then turns his gaze back to the grey sky. “We’ll head down in half an hour.”
I don’t think I can wait that long. Not with Callum in such an odd mood, my thoughts consumed with what I let him do to me last night, and my doomed future creeping ever closer.
Something black catches my eye on the stone floor by the armchair-giving the whirlwind inside my chest a focal point. I pick up Blake’s collar.
He said he needed Callum alive. For what purpose?
He said some other horrible things about me, too. And he kissed me.
“I’m going to return this,” I say, holding up the collar.
Callum turns his head to look at me, his eyes momentarily hardening on the obsidian stone at the collar’s center.
His nostrils flare, then he smiles.
“Okay. But if you’re not back in ten minutes, I’m going to murder him.”
I nod.
Glad to have something to do, I head to Blake’s chambers.
Chapter Forty-Five
Ienter Blake’s chambers without knocking.
He’s in his armchair again, reading that book he took from my room.
He turns the page, then reaches for a teacup on the table beside him. From the fresh herbal scent in the room, I’d wager it is full of peppermint tea.
He takes a sip, then goes back to his book. “Have you met the last person, other than you, who burst into my chambers unannounced?” he asks.
“No?”
“That’s because they’re dead.”
“Am I supposed to be scared?”
“Yes.” He flicks the page. “You smell like wet dog, by the way. I knew Callum wouldn’t be able to resist playing with his new toy.”
I hold up his black collar to show I won’t be wearing it anymore. “I’ve come to return this.”
He shrugs, not lifting his gaze from his book. “You can put it on the desk.”
Irritation flares inside me. Is he not even going to look at me?
Deep down, I know it’s not just annoyance at Blake that flickers beneath my skin and makes my chest feel tight. It’s fear too; I’m afraid of this unchartered territory I find myself in.
I’m playing a game and I don’t know the rules any longer.
I’m lost among Wolves, and I think I am falling for one of them. I shared something with him last night that is forbidden to me. And he has been distant with me all morning. And soon, I must meet with his king-a male so fearsome that the other Wolves fall behind him.
I thought if I came to the Northlands, I could win the right to choose my own fate.
But the Wolf King is the one who holds all the cards here, and I do not know what moves I need to play in order to win.
I take a deep breath, forcing my emotions down and hardening my soul. I focus my attention on the wolf before me instead.
He looks as disheveled as he did on the night of the storm. Perhaps even more so.
He’s wearing the same clothes as last night. His white shirt is untucked and there are a few spots of blood on his unbuttoned collar. His dark hair is messy, and his feet are bare as he rests them on a footstool.
The candle beside him flickers, and is almost burnt out, even though the morning light permeates the narrow window behind him.
I wonder if he’s slept at all.
“Are you going to apologize?” I ask.
His gaze slides to mine as if I’ve finally caught his attention. “I saved his life. You should be thanking me.”
“You said. . .” My cheeks flame. “You said some very inappropriate things about me.”
A stupid dimple creases one of his cheeks. The smile doesn’t meet his eyes. “Come now, you can’t be acting shy any longer. Not after whatever you and that big oaf got up to last night.”
“You. . . you kissed me!”
“It was hardly a kiss.”
A tornado rages inside my chest, rattling my bones, and I need to release it. I toss his collar onto the floor between us. “Here.”