My cheeks flame. “What? No!”

Her eyebrows raise. “No? Hm. You were feeling a wee bit. . . restless?”

My face is on fire. I stare at the bookshelf across the room, the dream I had about Callum flashing through my mind. “No!”

Fiona chuckles softly. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Your scent. . . it changes depending on your emotions. Fear. Anger. Arousal. As Wolves, we can often pick up on these shifts. Particularly when we’re attuned to a certain person.”

My heartbeat thumps against my chest, mortification wrapping its cold fingers around my heart.

“He could smell my dream?”

“Ah, so you had a dream?” She grins. “I’m not sure exactly what happened. My guess is he sensed the shift in you and came to stand guard, in case any other Wolves sensed it too. Like Blake.”

“Blake?” My blood turns cold, and dislike pulses through my body.

“I’d wager that’s what set Callum off. Once he let the wolf take over. . . well. . . his attention will have been consumed by you.” She shakes her head. “I’ve never seen him get that worked up before.”

She swallows, and all the color drains from her face.

“And then. . . Callum and I. . .” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “In front of Blake. . . shit.”

“What?”

She wrings her hands together. “I challenged Callum, my alpha. And he backed down.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Aye. That’s bad. It’s—”

“A wolf thing?” I arch my eyebrow.

“Aye.” She sighs and her breath plumes in front of her face. “It gives me the right to openly challenge him for alpha of Highfell.”

I’m slightly concerned for Callum, but my curiosity is spiked. “A female can be alpha?”

“Aye. Though it’s rare. Archaic traditions make it hard for us to gain the status.”

“Will you challenge him?”

She lets out a dark laugh. “No. Course not. I have no designs on the role.”

“So why are you worried?”

“Because if Blake tells anyone and it becomes open knowledge, Callum and I will have to fight it out. Physically. Publicly.” Her stare is dark and blank. “Wolf law.”

She tries to look like she’s unaffected, but she fiddles with her fingers.

“Blake won’t tell anyone,” I say.

“He’d better not.”

“He hasn’t told anyone about me yet.”

She gives me an almost pitying look, as if I’m being naïve. “He’s not doing that out of the goodness of his heart, Rory. He’s playing some sort of game.”

I stop myself from rolling my eyes. I’m not a fool. “I know. He has us all where he wants us. You challenging Callum for alpha would disrupt that. He won’t tell.”

Fiona’s stare is puzzled. Appraising.

“You seem to understand that snake better than any of us,” she says.

“I grew up in the palace, in a den of vipers. I would be a fool not to learn their language.”

“I hope you’re right.” She shuffles off the bed, and heads to the door. “Can I ask you something, Rory?”

Her gaze is so penetrating I have to force myself to meet it. I don’t want her to look too deeply inside me. I’m afraid she’ll see that I’m a viper too. Didn’t I allow myself to be taken here, to gain intelligence on the Wolves that I could use to barter for my freedom?

“Do you want to go back home?” she asks. “To the Southlands? Your father? Sebastian?”

Every muscle in my body hardens, and every bone stiffens.

No, my soul is screaming, but I’m that statue in my dreams again and I can’t get the words out. No. No. No.

I am not ready for that question. I am not ready to admit I want to neglect my duty, my kingdom, my role as the princess.

I am not ready to give voice to the truth.

I am a traitor to the Southlands.

“Why do you ask me that?” I have to fight to keep my voice even.

“Because you’re right. You do speak their language.” She shrugs. “I think you could be more useful to us than a hostage to be traded for the Heart of the Moon. Don’t you?”

I don’t respond. I may not want to go home, not truly. That doesn’t mean I want to commit treason.

She closes the door behind her—leaving me alone with my thoughts and the darkness.

I am restless as I get back into bed.

My mind whirls over everything Fiona said. My thoughts are like daggers. I am destined to either betray my kingdom, or betray Callum by telling my father all I’ve learned about the Wolves since I got here.

Through my guilt, I keep thinking about Callum prowling toward me with his eyes dark with intent.

What would have happened if Fiona hadn’t arrived?

Would he have thrown Blake aside and kissed me? Would he have carried me to the bed? Would he have eased this ache that consumes me?

Heat surges through my body and throbs between my legs.

I’m on fire as I imagine his mouth on mine, his hands gripping my hips. I slide my hand up my thigh, and imagine it’s his. I’m aching. I need it to stop, I need—

Someone knocks on the door and I breathe in sharply. I know, without opening it, that it’s Callum.

Cheeks flaming, I slip out of bed, and prowl across the room. I open the door a crack, my heart hammering.

Callum’s eyes are human once more. His expression is soft, remorseful, even. He’s soaking wet, and his shirt and breeches cling to his body. As usual, he’s emitting heat.

“May I come in?” he asks.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Thirty-Six

I step back, giving Callum access to my chambers.

He closes the door softly behind him, and turns to face me.

The scent of the outdoors clings to him and his hair is ruffled and damp. I wonder if he’s been in the loch, even though the night is pitch black outside my window.

His face is serious, and something in his eyes seems lost. Nervous, even.

He runs a hand over the back of his neck, and releases a long breath.

“I’m so sorry.” His voice is rough. “The way I behaved earlier. . . I. . . I want you to know I’d never hurt you. Ever.”

His eyes bore into mine, and in them there is a silent plea that I believe him.

He’s standing so close that I could touch him. Goddess, I want to. Yet neither of us move. His hands remain firmly at his sides, his forearms corded, as though he’s making a concerted effort to show me he can behave like a gentleman.

A shameful part of me doesn’t want him to.

“I know that,” I whisper.

The air feels warm and tight. Stifling. I need to break this tension, somehow, before it breaks me.

“Did you get the message from your king?”

“Aye. He needs my help. I’ll have to ride out in the next couple of days to meet him.”

The tension thickens. I swallow.

I note how the moonlight reflects off his skin. “It’s a little late for a swim, isn’t it?”

He huffs a laugh. “Aye. A wee bit. I had some extra energy I needed to get out of my system.”

I think of the feeling that’s been crackling beneath my skin all evening. I think about what I was about to do before he knocked on the door.

“Did it work?”

His jaw tenses. “Not really.”

“And now you’ve come back.”

“I can’t keep away.”

There’s something so raw in his voice that my stomach jolts.

“I wanted to show you. . .” Tentatively, he puts his hand on my cheek. “I wanted to show you I can be gentle.”

I feel, again, as if I have swallowed the Northlands winds. That they’re billowing inside me, raging inside my chest, demanding I release them.

I force myself to remain steady, to not reveal the wildness that’s building inside me.

Even though I want that release.

Even though I want to scream and bite and tear into something. Into him. I want the storm that has been building for days—or perhaps since Callum first set foot into my bedchambers during the siege and threw me over his shoulder—to finally break.