The Night Prince (The Wolf King, #2)(39)

My mind is whirling with information, but the music starts. It’s so loud I can barely hear myself think.

“What was it you wanted to speak to me about?” I raise my voice.

“Tomorrow morning, meet my by the loch. For now. . .” Lochlan steps closer to me and grins. “Let’s dance.”

I quickly pick up the dance as Lochlan guides me through it.

It’s a lively one that entails lots of looping arms with the nearest wolf, and swinging them around the dancefloor. My inhibitions start to dissipate, and it’s not long before laughter spills from my lips. In the Southlands, I always felt constrained when dancing at balls in the palace—like a puppet who had to perform every move correctly. There is something more unruly in this dance, as if the steps don’t really matter as long as fun is had.

Every so often, I feel Blake’s gaze, weighted on my skin. I try to ignore it.

Lochlan tells me things about his territory every time I link arms with him—it’s by the sea, he has the second biggest army in the Northlands, and many Wolves take a pilgrimage to the cliffs. Apparently, Ghealach was once said to have visited, and now a vast crop of moonflower grows there to offer small morsels of her power to those who smell its sweet perfume.

When the song ends, and the bagpipe player by the doors asks for any requests, Lochlan offers me his hand. Blake steps beside him.

My pulse kicks up, and my body instinctively tenses. I pull my emotions back, cage them in a box in my chest, desperate to keep them away from him. His posture is straight beneath his dark coat, and his expression carefully blank. When his eyes meet mine, the corner of his lip quirks slightly.

“Mind if I cut in?” he asks.





Chapter Eighteen





Some instilled sense of duty, of ladylike politeness, stops me from rejecting Blake on the spot, from slapping him in the face like I did two nights ago. It’s so deep-seated that it’s like instinct. My body locks up, and my smile doesn’t falter. By the time my mind has taken charge of my body, Lochlan is stepping aside.

He surveys Blake, and I think I catch a hint of heat in his eyes before he grins at me. “Who am I to stand in the way of an alpha and the newest member of his clan?”

Lochlan inclines his head, then walks through the Wolves crowded on the dancefloor to one of the tables. Blake steps closer. His scent of night-soaked pine curls around me, and adrenaline courses through me, making the faces around me blur.

“I’m not dancing with you,” I say.

“At least you’re talking to me now.”

A feral sound starts to build inside me, and I swallow it. I turn away. He grabs my arm, and I spin around. His face is so close that his breath mingles with mine.

“What do you want from me?” I ask. “You betrayed me. You linked our lives. You bit me. You intend to kill Callum. Can’t you just leave me alone?”

“No.” He drags his teeth over his bottom lip. “I’m your alpha. It looks bad, if you turn me down.”

“Good.” I don’t even bother arguing that he is not my alpha. I won’t give him the satisfaction.

“Don’t you want to know about the bond?”

I know he’s trying to provoke me. I can feel that dark thread of his inside me, curling around my emotions, trying to get me to react.

Don’t bite. Don’t bite. Don’t—

“What about it?”

“You want to break it, don’t you?”

He smiles slowly, irritating dimples creasing his cheeks. He has me, and he knows it. He holds out his hand, his meaning clear: Dance with me and find out.

I narrow my eyes. He must feel my cold pulse of anger. I don’t even know if it’s aimed at him or myself, because I’m actually considering it. My fingers flex at my sides. I feel the moment he thinks he’s won—a triumphant burst of power in my chest. I can’t stand it. I ball my hand into a fist and walk toward the alpha table.

“I could make you dance with me, you know.” His voice slices through the sound of people talking, and I halt. “Ah, Callum told you about the ?ithne, then.”

“That would only work if you were my alpha, and you’re not.” I force my body to soften, and face him. Around us, Wolves are lining up on either side of the dancefloor for the next dance. “You would not use it on me, anyway.”

“What makes you so sure?”

I shrug, though as I say it, I’m certain it’s true. “You’re perpetually bored, Blake. You toy with people to entertain yourself. You would gain no enjoyment from forcing someone to do something against their will.”

“Should we put your theory to the test?”

A challenge dances in his eyes, which glint in the candlelight. I raise my chin. “Go on then. Use your command on me. Order me to dance with you. It’s the only way I ever will.”

He angles his head slightly. Perhaps I’m playing with fire. I’m curious to see how it works. He may use this against Callum and me at some point, and I may as well prepare myself for it.

A slow, dangerous smile spreads across his face. He holds out his hand. “Dance with me.”

I wait to feel something, anything, at his command. I fight my eyeroll. I knew he would have no power over me, because he is not my alpha.

He chuckles. “So pleased with yourself, little rabbit. Look at me.” His pupils dilate and his irises become threaded with amber. My breath catches. Blake doesn’t let his wolf surface often, and as it peers out from his eyes, it transforms his face. It seems to sharpen his jaw and accentuate his cheekbones. I’m looking at something feral, and beautiful, and deadly. “Give me your hand.”