Page 65 of The Night Prince

I can tell Callum is still himself, but Blake feels different. Feral. Dangerous. His shadows, which exist inside me, move and spread in all directions, and I can make no sense of them. I shove him, and my fingers sink into silky fur.

“Blake. Get off me.”

My vision blurs as Callum paces back and forth. Every time Callum gets closer, Blake’s growl vibrates through me, and Callum inches back.

Another surge of pain crashes over me. My soul feels frayed, like threads of it are being pulled apart. I stiffen, then whimper. Blake’s great weight pushes down on my stomach, squeezing the breath out of me.

Sweet darkness pulls me under.

***

My face is pressed against something hot and hard, and the scent of male and forests fills my lungs. My skin buzzes, but I no longer feel as if my soul is being shredded apart. A soft sigh escapes me. I peel open my eyelids. My heart stills.

My face is crushed against Blake’s bare chest. Our bodies are flush, and one of my hands is slung over his waist, as if I clung to him in my sleep. Blake’s fingers brush the back of my neck.

Adrenaline surges through my body. I suppress the snarl that builds inside me as my teeth tingle. Something whispers.Bite. Bite. Bite.There’s something wrong with me. Panic swirls in my chest, and my breathing is fast. I’m going to... I can’t stop myself from... I open my mouth.

Blake stirs. He dips his chin, and panic flares in his eyes.

He is wrenched away from me. There’s the thud of bare feet, the dragging sound of Blake trying to find his footing, then a slam and a rattle.

I push myself to my knees. Callum presses Blake against the wall by the cold hearth. My eyes widen. Both are naked. Their clothes are torn in shred on the floorboards, among splintered wood and books and parchment. Weak sunlightstrains through the window and highlights the shuddering muscles in Callum’s back.

“What the fuck?” he growls.

Blake’s hair is a mess, and though he manages his usual bored expression, his cheeks are flushed. His eyes lock onto mine.

“Don’t look at her.” Callum grips his chin. “Look at me.”

“Your cock is touching my leg.”

Callum makes a frustrated noise in his throat. He releases Blake, but doesn’t step back. “What the fuck were you doing last night? You were guarding her. Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“You don’t want to know what I think.”

Blake exhales. “She has a part of my life force inside her. Of course I was going to guard her.”

“Oh, that was why, was it?”

I tune out their bickering. I sit back against the side of the bed. The fur that hangs from the mattress is soft against my back. I tilt back my head, and feel the Northlands sun on my skin. Outside, the wind rustles the trees and stirs the loch. The tips of the mountains are shrouded with mist.

Some of the anxiety that has been knotting inside me for weeks unravels. I still have too many questions about last night, about what’s happening to me.

But a slow smile spreads across my face.

I didn’t shift.

“Please. I have no interest in your pet,” says Blake. “You shouldn’t have brought her here on the night of the full moon. What did you expect?”

“For you to exercise a little self-restraint—”

“Next time, I will strive to be the picture of composure that you were last night, Callum—”

As they continue to argue, I cast my gaze around Blake’s chambers. I’d not taken it in properly, last night. It’s smaller than ours and simply furnished, despite him being the alpha of this castle, and having the pick of any room he wants.

The bed I lean against is barely big enough to fit two people, and is pushed against the wall. The mess is the outcome of the fight between Blake and Callum last night. The clutter, though. . . that must have been here already. There are books scattered across the floor, among the remnants of the broken desk, but they’re also piled against the stone walls and stacked in the corners.

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