Page 126 of The Wolf King

I huff. “You are a gentleman, after all, then?”

“I’m a wolf and an alpha. I must have my honor.”

His hard length presses against my behind.

I shift slightly. He hisses through his teeth and puts his hand flat on my stomach, fingers splayed. He holds me still against him. “Princess, that’s not a good idea.”

“If you don’t like it, do something about it.”

“Speak to me like that again, and I shall bend you over my knee,” he growls in my ear.

Indignation spreads through my body, heating and pooling between my legs. He chuckles and kisses the back of my neck, causing another thrill to surge through me.

“And I do like it,” he says. “I like it very much.”

“Then, why?”

“One day,” he promises darkly. “One day, I will show you what happens when you touch a wolf.”

He strokes my bare stomach, his hand beneath my shirt.

“Now, go to sleep,” he says.

The movement of his hand is gentle and soothing, and—weightless as I am—I soon find my eyelids drooping and my body relaxing into his.

“The Wolf King is truly back?” I ask.

“Aye. He’ll address everyone tomorrow morning. We’ll speak with him then.”

“Are you worried?”

“No,” he says, but I catch a hint of hesitation.

“What happened? Why did he need your aid?”

“He was visiting one of the outlying clans, trying to drum up support for the war. He ran into Sebastian’s soldiers not far from here. The force of the army was much larger than it usually would be to siege a fairly insignificant castle, and they had better weapons than I’ve ever seen them fight with before. They took the whole castle and fort, and we barely escaped with our lives. Some didn’t.”

“He’s coming for me,” I say, horror replacing the warmth in my body. I knew this was coming, and for a while, I’d let myself forget. I was a fool.

“Aye.” His chest hardens against my back, and he pulls me a little closer, his hand firm on my torso. “They’re getting close.”

“Does the Wolf King know they were there because of me?”

He hesitates again. “No. I think James presumed they’d got wind he’d be visiting and the attack was in his honor. I haven’t told him about you yet.”

Silence falls over us, thick and heavy. All I can hear are the dwindling flames in the hearth, and the wind blowing against the castle walls. Words don’t need to be said.

When the Wolf King finds out I am the princess of his enemy, things could go badly.

“He won’t hurt you,” Callum says, finally.

He sounds so certain that I want to believe him.

Yet it is a while before I fall asleep.

I dream of wolf eyes, watching me through the trees.

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