Page 14 of The Night Prince

“We’re friends, then?”

My soul protests, and from the glint in his eye, he knows it. We’re not friends. I’m not sure Blake even knows how to make friends. Jack and Arran seem amiable enough with him, but Blake must have manipulated them in some way. Perhaps they fear him, like the Wolves at castle Madadh-allaidh did.

I force myself to smile. “I made friends with a man in the Southlands, once. My father thought he was plotting againsthim and I was told to dance with him, sit with him, fill up his cup. He was a devious, cruel man. He hurt one of my ladies-in-waiting, I think, but I made friends with him anyway. I found out he planned to take over a territory, and turn the army against my father. It could have cost my father his throne.”

“What happened to him?”

I recall that night when my father sent me away. I’d heard the shouting in the throne room, even from my bedchambers, as he tried to escape. “He died.”

“It seems that being your friend is dangerous, indeed.” Blake’s eyes reflect the flickering torchlight. “Tell me, do you seek your father’s approval, even now—knowing what he did to your mother?”

Rage billows in my chest like a tempest. Self-loathing crashes through me as well. I’m not sure why I told him that story. Did I wish to scare him? Impress him? I try to compose myself. I don’t want him to know that one of his blows has landed. Yet even if he could not feel my emotions, I know he’d be able to sense this change within me as a wolf.

I step back, and nod curtly. “Callum will be waiting for me outside.”

I walk toward the door.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you what you wanted the other night.” There’s something suggestive in his tone, although I have no idea what the suggestion is. I know he’s trying to rile me. I know I should keep walking.

Don’t bite. Don’t bite. Don’t—

I turn back around. “What do you mean?”

“When you visited me in my bedchambers.”

I frown. Every muscle in my body tightens. Red hot images flash beneath my eyelids—Blake’s face soft with sleep, his hair mussed, his arm thrown back on the pillow, my blade pressed against his throat. His sheets were crumpled beneath my thighs, and the wolf shone in his eyes when he grabbed my wrist.

I’d thought it was a dream. A nightmare. A conjuring of the fever. It was... it was real?

Embarrassment, it seems, is a harder emotion to swallow than rage. It swells inside me until my cheeks are aflame and my pulse is pounding. I wish for the ground to open, to swallow me up, to take me away from the obnoxious snake before me.

Blake’s mouth curves into a slow, satisfied smile.

I raise my chin, even though I know my face must be redder than my hair. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I stride toward the door again. I’m trembling. I’m on fire. I’mmortified.“Good day, Blake.”

“Good day, little rabbit.” I feel the cool whisper of his amusement. He goes back to studying the map.

I open the door, step out of the council chambers, and close it a little too forcefully behind me.

Callum and Ryan look up abruptly from the other side of the corridor. Both seem annoyed. Ryan’s face is flushed, and Callum has his arms folded across his chest and his jaw is tense. Callum’s brow creases in concern, a question in his eyes. I nod.I’m okay.He offers me a strained smile before turning to Ryan.

“No,” says Callum. “And that’s the end of the matter.”

“But—”

“Everything okay, Red?” A deep voice comes from the shadows, drowning out Ryan’s protest, and I jump. Jack leans against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

I frown as I recall him plotting with Blake in those dungeons I was brought to before I was presented to James.She smells like the Highfell alpha,he’d said, and suggested that Blake bathe me.

“How original you are,” I say. “Calling me Red on account of my hair.”

“On account of your hair?” says Jack. “No, I was referring to your blush,Red.Are you feeling flustered?” His grin widens, flashing white teeth, and my cheeks heat even more.

“What are you lingering out here for?” I try to appear more composed. “Didn’t anyone tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

“My mother may have mentioned it.” He shrugs, then nods at the door to the council chambers. “Blake’s had more suitable accommodation prepared for you. I’ll take you there, now you’ve woken up.”

There’s a grunt of displeasure as Callum dismisses Ryan. The young wolf huffs and stomps away. Callum mutters something under his breath about insolent pups as he crosses the space between us and threads my fingers in his. The tension softens in his shoulders.

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