46. Naomi

Naomi

"Do you think Wild and Sea will be upset?" I asked Aidan, worry churning in my gut. "Maybe we should have talked to them about how they wanted to handle all of this before we left."

Aidan glanced over at me from the driver's seat of his sleek Nakamura EV, a gentle smile tugging at his lips as if my concern amused him. His gaze lingered, and I threw him a stern look.

"You're staring again."

"Sorry, it's becoming a bit of an addiction," he admitted, turning his eyes back to the road. "These are supposed to be the most scenic views in Ireland, but I swear you're prettier than anything else in nature. I honestly can't believe you're mine now."

His words made something twist inside me. Yesterday, Wild had to tie him to a chair to make him reconsider his resolution not to mate me. And now, after breakfast and a little grocery shopping in Galway, he was just totally fine? His sudden ease felt disconcerting, like I was the only one still grappling with being mated to each other a little over twenty-four hours after we met .

As much as I'd enjoyed doing normal things like a normal, non-cloistered she-wolf, the old irritation about only being valued for my looks began to creep in.

Aidan must have felt my annoyance through our mate bond. He frowned over at me, once again taking his eyes off the road, which was flanked by the ocean on one side and rolling hills on the other. "What? You don't like me admiring you?"

"Not when you value my aesthetics over the words actually coming out of my mouth," I shot back. "Did you even hear my question?"

"Yes, I did." This time irritation spiked over his side of the bond.

If I thought prickly Naomi had disappeared under a mountain of confusion and emotional exhaustion, I was wrong. She sprang right back up to ask, "What? You don't like me calling you out on your questionable values?"

"Stop. You are my queen, but you can't speak to me this way." Aidan's voice took on a new, steelier edge that I'd only heard when he was deriding Wild or commanding the other king to cooperate. "I value everything — every single thing about you. Your strength, selflessness, and tenacity. You were hurting so damn much, but you chose to let me go, to endure that pain because you wanted to save me from something I'd been brought up not to want. You've no idea how much I respect and admire you for that alone. I don't know that I've ever met a she-wolf as honorable as you."

Aidan gritted his teeth. "Do I love that you're also the most beautiful person I've ever laid eyes on as well? Of course I do. Honestly, though, it makes all of this hard to believe — that someone I instantly connected with and liked even before she went into heat could also be wrapped up in such a gorgeous package. I'm half-expecting to wake up from what turned out to be an extremely erotic dream any second. "

My cheeks flamed, and I helplessly stared at him. "You liked me on a personal level before I went into heat?"

During our breakfast in Galway, we'd danced around anything serious — talking about the weather, his phone versus mine, and random tidbits of history that he'd recited with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. We'd filled the time conversing about anything but the huge thing that had happened between him, Sea, Wild, and me yesterday.

But now, with just the two of us and the quiet of the car, it felt like there was no escaping all the topics we'd been avoiding.

"Of course I did," he answered as if I'd asked whether it had been raining off and on all day. "But I'm not Wild and Sea, and to answer your question, that's why their feelings are the least of my concern. I wanted to give you a choice, and I'm sorry the heat robbed you of being able to truly choose me as I would have truly chosen you in an instant if we'd met under different circumstances."

I wasn't all that into superhero films, but I was beginning to understand people's fascination with the multiverse. Maybe somewhere else, in another lifetime, Aidan and I were driving along this road happily mated with no confusion about whether or not it had been a choice.

"I felt our connection, too." I offered him a small smile. "Before the heat."

"Good." He glanced over at me with a small smile of his own. "Good. I'm glad it wasn't just me. That certainly would've made this conversation even more awkward than it is."

I laughed. We both did. Together.

"I'm sorry for snapping," I told him. "Everything just feels like a lot right now. "

My mind drifted back to yesterday — carnal images flashing through my head of me doing and begging for things I never would have imagined just thirty-six hours ago. It all felt overwhelming, like I was drowning in emotions I didn't know how to process.

"Yesterday was crazy… and wonderful — but mostly crazy."

Aidan let out a dry chuckle. "Massive understatement, babes."

We both went silent then, and I stared out the window as the car hummed along a road marked with a blue N67.

My mind was too full, thoughts tumbling over each other, tangled with emotions I didn't know how to handle. I'd grown up in a sheltered world, hidden away with only my secret books and an old laptop as a portal to the outside world. Going to university in the human world was supposed to be my ultimate escape. Two weeks ago, I was planning to abandon the wolf community altogether.

But now here I was, mated to three kings, bonded to them in ways I barely understood. It felt surreal — like a dream I hadn't fully woken up from.

"How are you feeling… doing with all of this?" I asked Aidan after a long silence.

"Better than I thought, to be honest," he said, his voice thoughtful. "I hate to give Wild credit for… well, anything. But I'm feeling grand. Having trouble remembering all the reasons I held out this long, actually. How about you? You're the one whose plan to study physics in Ontario has been severely compromised. How are you doing with having your entire life upended to be queen of all the Irish Wolves?"

I hesitated, trying to gather my thoughts. "Well, the life I thought I wanted is over, but…" I realized my next words as I said them: "I'm not as upset as I thought I would be. Maybe I'm still in shock? I gu ess the answer to your questions is ‘I'm still trying to figure it out.' But getting out of there was a good idea. I'm glad we did this."

Aidan reached over, resting his hand on my knee, his touch warm and grounding. "Me, too."

I looked at his hand for a moment before covering it with my own. His touch was reassuring, and despite everything, I felt… comforted.

A strange sort of peace settled between us, and I leaned back into my seat, letting the silence stretch. It was odd, how natural this felt — sitting next to him, sharing the quiet.

So, this was what it felt like to have a mate, I thought with a contented sigh. Maybe my life wasn't completely ruined after all.

"Five more minutes until we get there," Aidan said, several minutes later, breaking the silence as he nodded toward a sign for our destination.

"Aidan?" I asked, curiosity piquing. It suddenly felt crucial that I understand the dynamic between two of the kings I'd pledged myself to yesterday. There were too many unknowns, and I needed clarity, even if it meant asking more difficult questions.

"Hmm."

"Why does Wild hate you so much?"

Aidan's grip on the steering wheel tightened, and suddenly his side of the mate bond went completely silent.

My belly knotted. "And now I'm wondering why you've muted your side of the mate bond."

"Ah… I hadn't even realized I did that." Aidan reopened his side of the bond with a weak chuckle. "Guess it's the generational No rmanwolf curse of being too emotionally closed off coming back to haunt me."

Now that his side of the bond was back open, I could tell he hoped I'd ask himabout his vulnerability issues, but I stayed silent, waiting for the real answer.

He let out another sigh, and his words came out haltingly as if he were auditioning for one of those old-timey Hugh Grant films. "I don't hate him, per se. It's not… easy to explain, is it? There's history — like donkey years of bad history between our two kingdoms. And, you know, that Terrible Belfast Mess didn't help, did it? That was proper drama the feud didn't need. However, keep in mind that, technically, the kingdom of Dublin had nothing to do with it. We just ended up being the beneficiary of it — I suppose you'd call us the winners. But don't. That would be in bad taste. Anyway, it's not about that. I suppose Wild's got feelings of his own. Bad ones around the prophecy — though I'm aware it didn't seem like it yesterday. But — this is Wild's question to answer, not mine. Oh, look, we're here."

I frowned. His answer left me with more questions than before.

But before I could ask them, Aidan announced, "We're here."

I looked out the car window as we pulled up back in front of the brick house we'd left when Aidan said, "Hey, what about a breakfast date?" after we finished showering.

It had seemed like a great idea. A chance to put some distance between us and the thing we'd both given into the day before.

But now we'd returned. My cozy morning with Aidan was over.

Which meant it was time to face the other two kings. And find out what came next.