26. Naomi

Naomi

Beyond the window, Sea raised a heavily inked arm to touch one of the knotted wolves on either side of the brooch chain that held together the flaps of his royal blue cloak. Without taking his eyes off me.

A tall and wide door, which I hadn't been able to discern a few moments ago — or during my bewildering investigations of the clear material that domed the habitat — suddenly defined itself, like an etched rectangle being drawn on glass before sliding open with barely a whisper of sound.

As Sea stepped through the newly formed door alone, all sorts of questions about energy displacement and molecular phase shifting filled my head.

Until he stopped directly in front of me and looked me up and down.

An awkward self-consciousness replaced all of my questions when I realized just how underdressed I was in comparison to the other she-wolves surrounding me.

We'd all found casual clothes of various sizes hanging in the closets of our rooms, along with beautifully knit sweaters and cardigans.

W?lfennites didn't believe in dressing up for weddings — that would be prideful, which was a whole section in the Ordnung. At Priscilla's urging on behalf of the absent Amanda, they'd even been washing their plain dresses every night before bed.

But for the group date, Priscilla had deigned to let them pick a pretty cardigan to wear over their plain outfits, and she hadn't said anything about many of them choosing to sport intricate braids underneath their prayer coverings. The Scottish she-wolves had been opting for casual clothes all week, but they'd also decided to dress up, bringing back out the formal ensembles they'd been wearing when they'd been kidnapped.

So now, I was the odd she-wolf out.

I might have been wearing a cardigan like the other W?lfennites, but it was over a pair of slightly too big jeans and that Sasha x Kasha concert tee I'd thrown on without much thought this morning. I wish I could say I'd done it as some act of rebellion. But the truth was, I'd been so busy investigating every inch of the habitat and trying to put together my last-minute instructions before the group date I'd been told would start "directly before sunset" that it hadn't occurred to me to put in any effort.

Unlike Sea.

He was resplendent in his white and gold tunic, his wolf crown, and that regal cloak I'd thrown in his face. Other than the crown and cape, he was technically dressed the same as all the other males standing behind the glass. But he somehow shone much, much brighter.

"Yes, he's definitely the one I want if I go into heat," Miriam murmured somewhere behind me.

That ugly feeling I couldn't quite name once again pinched me in the gut, and my wolf growled inside of me, baring its teeth at Miriam.

"You look wonderful." Sea's resonant voice lifted my eyes and my attention back up to him.

Did I? I tucked a stray curl behind my ear, wishing that I'd done more than throw it into a couple of haphazard braids — wait , what was I thinking?

I tamped down my uncharacteristic burst of self-consciousness and put extra snark in my voice to answer, "Thanks. I spent all day hoping and praying that I'd gain the looks-based approval of the guy who'd kidnapped and imprisoned me."

Sea just lifted his gaze to address the rest of the group. "You all look beautiful beyond words. The Sea and Wild Wolves are fortunate and honored to give you an escort to the first proper Irish wedding held in the secret kingdom in many years. Thank you for joining us."

"It wasn't like we were given a choice," I started to answer, only to have the rest of my response drowned out by the giggles and "thank yous" of the rest of the group.

Sea glanced my way to give me another smirk, then said, "A few things before we commence with our group date…"

He went on to explain what the group date would entail. "First, we'll join up with the Wild Wolves, and we'll all walk under the new moon to the wedding ceremony, which will take place at the Wild Wolves' encampment. That will be followed by a reception, and then we'll end the night with a special performance from your Irish Wolves. If the festivities end without anyone, ah…"

He appeared to search for a term more delicate than "going into heat" and came back with, "matching with her mates, then we'll escort you back. And I will discuss with your banríon other opportunities for my wolves to court you. Any questions?"

Was he kidding?

I smugly folded my arms and waited for several hands to shoot up in the air like they did with me.

But everyone else just stared at him with dopey, awestruck smiles on their faces. It was as if Sea had enchanted them into reverent submission with a couple of compliments and an agenda rundown.

Sea didn't seem nearly as surprised by their lack of response as I was. He turned to lead us out of the habitat with a slight wave of his hand, expecting us to follow without question. And worse, that's exactly what we did. I felt like an irritated lemming, compelled by the crowd to move forward in his wake.

The other wolves, dressed in white and gold tunics, stepped back as a unit, giving us space to walk ahead of them. It appeared to be a thoughtful and courtly gesture. But I reminded myself it was likely a calculated move. I could just see their king giving them instructions before he walked into the habitat about how to handle us so we would start to see them as gentle wolves rather than the thugs who kidnapped us.

Unfortunately, Sea's staging of his fellow wolves was working. The W?lfennites tittered, sneaking sideways glances at the grinning males as we moved past them. Kirsty murmured, "They cut a right braw picture, don't they? Reckon it might not be so bad to take on two of them."

"Sure, until you realize that taking on two of the guys who kidnapped you from your home means you'll never see Scotland again," I replied.

Or live out the life you had planned , I silently added, lest I forget all the reasons I couldn't let myself be swayed into accepting this situation myself.

"Meine Güte. was ist das?!"

The astonished exclamations of the W?lfennites at the first glimpse of the secret kingdom interrupted whatever response Kirsty might have had.

I felt somewhat vindicated when Kirsty's mouth dropped open at the view beyond the archway. Apparently, her half a year of uni hadn't prepared her for this.

"Is this real?" she asked me, without any irony whatsoever. "I mean, how could they have…?"

"No idea," I admitted. I could have rubbed her face in her assumption that I was just some Canadian know-nothing who hadn't understood what I'd seen.

But, as it turned out, forgiving came pretty darn easy when the Scottish she-wolf you needed to absolve was the only one in our group with enough context to even talk about how impossible this place was. "They claim the secret kingdom was created by their old gods, but it's obviously some kind of extremely futuristic and advanced tech. And that's not all…"

I lowered my voice. "There's this tower I found. It leads to the outside world. We just have to figure out how to —"

"Holy shite!" Kirsty cut me off, grabbing onto my arm again. and cries went up all around us when the Wild Wolves decided to introduce themselves.