45. Wild

Wild

"Wild? Sea? Where are you? Please come fuck me!" We'd closed the door to the bedroom when we left, but our Flower's cries came through loud and clear, along with the scent of her heat. "I need you. Please come fuck me!"

"What are we going to do if this doesn't work?" Sea whispered from his side of our post at the bottom of the stairs.

We'd both shut down our mate bonds, not wanting to burden Flower with our worry. But I felt Sea asked that question more to distract himself from the smell of her heat. And the sound of her moaning for us upstairs.

Out of what Sea called "an abundance of caution," we'd fully dressed in some of the clothes we found in Dublin's suitcase to create one more barrier against giving in to her cries. But it only made things worse. Every second, it took all I had not to rip off these city clothes and charge back into the bedroom cock first.

Her desperate pleas clawed at my chest. It went against everything in a wolf to deny his mate, especially when she was in heat .

But I knew another knotless balling wouldn't fix anything.

Just like I knew Sea didn't want the harsh truth to his question about what we — and by "we," I meant what I alone would do — if this last throw of the mating dice didn't pan out.

"It has to work," I growled instead of telling him the truth: that I'd sedate her with the last of Astrid's tranquilizer, snap that fucking eejit king's neck, and drive his car to Dublin to grab whatever poor beta was next in line to take his place.

I didn't say that, but Sea must have felt my mood shift. "I don't know if it's safe to use the tranquilizer Astrid gave you on her. It's meant for wolves who aren't pregnant. We might need to call or fetch Astrid to get whatever she used on that Amanda one."

Fuck, he had a point.

"I'm going to call my uncle. Tell him to start bringing her toward the tower just in case," Sea said, slipping back into True King mode as he pulled out his phone to enact his latest orders.

"Better if you go fetch her yourself," I told him before he could make the call.

I thought grimly of how much easier it would be to finish off Dublin if I didn't have to wrestle with Sea's sense of morality, then added, "Getting away from this blasted heat cloud will clear your head."

"Good point." Sea stashed his phone away. "But seriously, do you think sedating her will be eno —"

"No! No! Don't! I said no! I don't want this!" Dublin's frantic cries cut Sea off mid-sentence.

Our Flower must've spotted the note I left on him. I could feel her deep sense of guilt, and I cursed myself under my breath for not gagging that withholding City King when I had the chance .

"Don't do this! Listen to me! Don't make me —"

Dublin's voice stopped short with a strangled noise, and I felt relief wash over me.

Our mate must've claimed what was hers by prophecy.

"Should we… go watch?" Sea asked, looking toward the stairs. "Feels like a ritual now."

I shot him a sideways glare. "No."

I had reasons for staying put. Ugly, green, dark ones.

But those reasons faded away when I heard the door creak open above us. Then, footsteps.

A chill ran up my spine. If Flower had followed my instructions, there was no way Dublin should be walking out of that room. No chance in hell.

"Son of the bitch!" I swore.

I bolted for the stairs, Sea hot on my heels. If I had to drag her back to Dublin myself and push her down on his cock, too, I would. This wasn't going to fall apart now. I couldn't let it!

"No, stop!" Flower's voice rang out, and she stumbled down the short set of top steps before we could reach the half-landing.

Then, she turned to us, raising her hand, looking like some kind of angel sent from above, only naked and dripping heat from her cunt. "Stop!"

"Where's Dublin?" Sea asked behind me.

"Why isn't he knotted balls deep inside ye?" I demanded, my frustration near to boiling over.

"Because I let him go!" she snapped. Her eyes blazed with defiance. "It was the right thing to do."

The right thing? I clenched my fists so hard I thought I'd draw blood.

She didn't get it.

Her life, everything, depended on her mating with the last king. "The right thing is to mate with Dublin," I growled. "Otherwise, yer heat won't break."

"Wild, we need to check the back of the house," Sea cut in, urgency crackling in his voice. "There's probably a set of servant stairs — he's making a run for it."

Flower shouted down at us. "No! You need to let him go!"

"Flower…" I started, but she was having none of it.

"What are you gonna say?" she snapped, swinging her fierce gaze from Sea to me. "That now that I'm mated to you, I should start acting like a toxic monster, too?"

I'd muted my bond, but her disgust came through all the same — sharp and bitter as bile rising in the throat. "I won't take away someone else's choices the way you took away mine, Wild."

Her words cut deeper than any blade. And in that moment, I realized I didn't have to wait for her to come out of her heat thrall to know the truth about her feelings toward me.

She hated my fucking guts. Still.

But it didn't matter.

"Get to his car before he does. He'll need it to make his escape," I barked at Sea, my teeth grinding. "I'll handle our mate."

Sea darted for the door, but Flower cried after him, "No, Sea, don't! This isn't what he wants — "

She was so busy defending the City Kingthatshe didn't even see him coming.

Dublin crashed into her like a fuckin' freight train, pinning her to the wall with a kiss so fierce it rattled every last antique plate on the landing.

No words were exchanged. No explanations.

Dublin just dropped the pants he'd pulled on after she untied him, hitched her onto his waist, and drove into her with a hard bang against the wall.

Then he roared into her mouth like some manner of beast and immediately emptied inside her.

I knew for a fact Dublin hadn't saved himself for her like Sea had, but his load was just as intense. Soon, his seed was dripping from where he had her pinned to the wall.

Then, Flower screamed, her light-brown thighs clenching tight around his waist as she released, too.

The sight of them tangled together stirred a witch's cauldron of emotions inside me — rage and jealousy clashed with the primal relief of an ancient prophecy finally being fulfilled.

"Thank you!" she cried out in a broken sob.

"I'm sorry," Dublin whispered, his voice rough and hoarse. "I tried… I tried to leave… to stop myself."

"I know. It's okay." She peppered his face with kisses, her voice soft and sweet. "Thank you. Thank you ."

"I'm sorry," he repeated, kissing his way down her neck.

"Thank you!" she sobbed again .

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Dublin slammed his hand against the wall as he continued to release inside of her.

"Oh, God, thank you," she gasped, her body trembling around his cock. "Thank you. Thank —"

She cut off with a scream, and the sheer ecstasy I felt come down her side of the bond let me know that Dublin had thrown his knot.

I'd joked before about staying with us when Sea knotted, but this time, I wasn't given the chance.

She passed out mid-knotgasm, collapsing against Dublin like a rag doll, limp and lifeless.

Dublin sagged against her, too, and for a moment, they looked like a couple of fighters barely standing after the final bell.

Dublin shot me a baleful glare over her shoulder, then hoisted her up and disappeared back up the stairs, still locked inside of her.

Guess he knew he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

By the time I made it back to the bedroom, they were already asleep.

Dublin lay sprawled on his back, still half-dressed, with our Flower draped over him in something resembling the Kama Sutra's take on the sleeping baby pose.

"Think it worked?" Sea's voice slipped into my mind, startling me.

I hadn't even noticed he'd rejoined me in the room.

"We'll know when she wakes up," I replied, keeping my side of the now four-way mate bond muted.

The prophecy was fulfilled. Finally. But…

A gloomy fog settled in my chest, even though I'd gotten what I wanted. Exhaustion, thick and all-consuming, washed over me.

With a sense of duty, I rounded the bed and climbed in on the other side of the sleeping pair.

Sea had taken her the last time before she could even wake, hoping that it would allow her to rest longer.

We'd barely gotten dressed and left the room before her next heat cycle.

If my notion about us not being able to knot inside her because she was already pregnant with our pups turned out not to be true, that meant when she woke up, it would be my turn next.

If she'd even have me after the row we'd had on the stairs.

Either way, I'd be here for her when she awoke, I vowed as I drifted off in the fading light of the setting sun…

… only to wake up in the bright light of morning.

The scent of her heat had faded.

Probably thanks to the window that had been cracked open while I slept. Maybe by Sea, who was still snoozing, slouched over in an armchair with his head on his chest.

Morning light had flooded the room — and she hadn't cycled again. That meant she must be pregnant!

My heart surged with joy.

Until I glanced over at the other side of the bed and found it empty.

The heat wasn't the only thing gone. Dublin's and Flower's scent had vanished, too.

No … no …

I bolted down the stairs to the front window.

My heart plummeted when I saw the spot where Dublin's car had been, now empty.

That jammy bastard…

He'd taken her.

He'd taken her from us without a word of warning and vanished like a thief in the night.