Page 75 of The Night Prince

“Don’t you think she’s bonny?” James grabs my chin, and his scent of bracken and steel assaults me. He turns my face toward Blake.

Blake’s jawline tightens.

I try to pull away, but James’s grip becomes painful. Blake straightens, ever so slightly, in his seat. “He doesn’t like that, does he, Brother?” He releases me, and I edge away until my hips bang against the stone column. Chuckling, James strides back to his seat and drops into it.

I turn to Callum, sure he’s going to challenge James and put a stop to this. There’s a crease between his eyebrows, and he stares at Blake.

“Do as he says.” Callum’s low growl is barely audible, but it near deafens me.

My insides hollow, and darkness fills me. I thought he would protect me. I thought he would save me from this humiliation.

Blake turns his head toward Callum. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Careful, Callum. Some things cannot be undone.”

Both seem to hold their breath. Callum jerks his head.

Blake sighs. His chair screeches across the tiles as he pushes it back and stands. He drags his teeth over his bottom lip, then taps the surface of the table with his fingertips. I think he’s trying to communicate something to Callum, but Callum stares at his clasped hands.

Shaking his head, Blake strolls past the gathered Wolves and makes his way to me.

This can’t be happening. Callum can’t be allowing this to happen. Robert jeers, and another wolf whistles.

Callum does nothing.

Nothing.

I want to shed my skin, to disappear into the darkness where no one can see me. The noise muffles around me as I struggle against my bindings. For a second, I’m back in the Church of Light and Sun, held by the Sisters of the Sun while the High Priest prowls toward me. Helplessness crashes through me. Like then, no one intervenes.

Callum doesn’t intervene.

Blake’s body heat and scent wash over me, and he stands so I can no longer see the men who jeer and laugh. His expression is solemn. Even though he’s holding back his emotion from me, I sense his reluctance.

I shake my head. “Don’t.”

He touches my bicep. He runs his hand down my arm to my wrist, and slides his thumb between my skin and the rope. I hold my breath, because it seems like he’s testing how tightly I’m bound. As always with him, I’m unsure if he’s going to help me or make things worse. I know he doesn’t want to kiss me.

He cups my face with both hands, and his touch is gentle yet firm. His mouth is a breath away from mine. “I’m sorry about this, Aurora, darling.”

He brushes his lips against mine.

His mouth is hard and unrelenting for a second, then he softens. His darkness floods me. His pine scent coils aroundme like a deadly serpent and refuses to let go. His heartbeat thunders in my ears, loud and unsteady.

Feelings that are not my own, feelings I cannot decipher, tangle with my fear and my anger and I cannot breathe. A word rumbles in my head. Intangible. The wildness inside me raises its head. My blood howls. My canines ache. Everything aches. I’m nothing but this dark, endless, aching void that needs to be filled. I’m an infinite scream, growing, raging, entombed in stone. I cannot bear it.

I part my lips, and he slides his tongue against mine. His grip on my face tightens. I jerk back, and Blake stills. The wolf blazes in his eyes. His pupils are blown and his irises flecked with the same molten gold that courses through my veins.

Jeers fill the air. Blake takes a deep breath. Movement catches my eye beyond him. Callum’s breathing is fast. His nostrils are flared. He wears his emotion for all to see, and the anguish in his eyes is disproportionate to what happened when he could have stopped it.

Blake looks over his shoulder. Something seems to pass between the two men, and Callum pulls back his pain. He inclines his head.

Callum kicks Kenneth’s chair, and Blake grabs Duncan. A second later, Kenneth and Duncan are both on the floor, and Blake holds Duncan’s dagger. Blake slices the blade through my bindings, while Callum throws a chair through the air toward James. James dodges aside with a roar.

I stagger back as the rope falls onto the ground. Blake hooks an arm around my waist, and pulls me flush against him. He moves us both to the other side of the column, to block the sword of one of the men in green kilts. The ring of steel against stone, echoes in my ears. Blake pushes me back, twists, andknees the male in the crotch then slides the blade across his throat.

Callum pushes aside another chair, punches Kenneth in the face, and strides toward James. “Brother, I challenge you for the Wolf Throne. Face me now, or—”

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