6. Naomi

Naomi

I was put to sleep, and then… I jerked awake in a sea of cornflower blue.

"What's happening?" a voice asked in the distance. It sounded like Amanda's. "Where are we?"

Good question.

I sniffed, my nose leading the investigation while my eyes adjusted to the low light. Salt… brine… living fish… oil… metal… and… W?lfennites — so many, I could tell we must all be packed into a tight space.

My hand immediately went to the large pocket in my dress. It was empty. No forbidden phone to be found, even if I could find a WiFi signal… wherever we were.

I suddenly noticed a strange swaying sensation that didn't appear to originate from my head. Were we…?

Yes, yes, we were. My pulse quickened, hammering at my temples, when I sat up to find myself in the belly of a boat, surrounded by unconscious she-wolves. Most of them wore the same modest blue dress as me. But there were also a few Scottish she-wolves sporting long, plaid dresses over footwear such as cowboy boots, flats, and even low heels. We all appeared to lie like tossed dolls on the keel's aluminum floor.

I, myself, had never been in anything bigger than a canoe. But the latent memory of some media I must have consumed over the years combined with deductive reasoning to let me know that the circle windows on one wall of the dark space were portholes, and the slight swaying motion indicated that we were headed somewhere. Somewhere that wasn't Scotland.

What in the world?

A faint, familiar smell wafted into my nostrils, slightly above all the rest of the wolves on the floor. Sadie!

"Sadie?" I unsteadily rose and followed my nose to her distinct smell of snow and pine needles. "Where are you?"

I froze and clapped both hands over my mouth when I found her lying on top of a nearby table. Inside a clear, glass coffin with her arms crossed over her stomach.

"Sadie! Oh, Sadie!" Wretched tears filled my eyes. "What did they do to you?"

My knees weakened, threatening to give out under the weight of bitterness and regret. But then, I saw the gentle up-and-down movement of her chest.

Oh, thank goodness! She was still breathing. That meant she was still alive. Just sleeping like some terrible cosplay of that Snow White movie I'd watched exactly once on the forbidden internet before deciding in an instant that it was my least favorite Disney film of all time.

My chest filled with relief — especially when I saw a set of circles near the box's top. Breathing holes that would allow her to stay in this strange container without suffocating to death.

Still, I had to get her out of there. I went to the container's bottom and banged on it with all my wolf strength. But the side of my fist bounced off the surface with a totally unbothered thud . So, not glass, then. Whatever the material was, it was tempered with no discernable locks or cracks for me to exploit.

What in the world? In a near-half a lifetime of being obsessed with worldly tech, I'd never encountered a material like this. It was clear as glass but tempered and seamless — like something that had been 3-D printed or fused together on a molecular level through some process I knew almost for certain only lived in the minds of theoretical physicists and sci-fi writers.

But Sadie was strong. Much stronger than me. Just a few weeks ago, she'd cut and hauled the most ice from the Faoltiarn lake the W?lfennites had sourced to build our New St. Ailbe icehouse without any help from the Scottish males.

Maybe she could break herself out of the container.

"Sadie! Sadie! Wake up!" Stuck for anything else to do, I banged on the "definitely not glass" above Sadie's head. "C'mon! You have to try to get out."

But Sadie just slept on, looking downright peaceful as I slammed my fists against the glass and called her name.

Frustration and guilt knitted in my chest.

I had lied to Sadie.

About my true reasons for agreeing to the Bridal Exchange program with her .

About my plans to leave our community and go to university in the human world.

And most of all, about everything being alright and me figuring out how to get us out of this.

Everything wasn't alright, and I could only stare at my friend, powerless to break her out of the glass coffin.

My gut twisted with the memory of Bear Hood's and Pirate's conversation before we were put out. I'd gotten the chemical-covered cloth, but the Pirate had plunged something into Sadie's arm.Two needles filled with something much stronger than whatever they gave me.

"What is the meaning of this!"

Or Amanda, whose voice drifted over to me from another part of the boat's underbelly.

"I demand to know the meaning of all of this!" she was saying to someone. "Whatever ongoing quarrel you have with the Scottish Wolves, it's none of our concern."

I waded through the sea of passed-out she-wolves to where Amanda was shaking her finger at a group of male wolves.

They were all slightly hunched over, thanks to the boat's low ceiling. But half of them were dressed in leather pants and tough leather vests, like the heavily tattooed Pirate who'd appeared out of nowhere with his friend Bear Hood to kidnap me. The other half wore leather kilts despite the boat's cold temperature, and though none were dressed in dead bear coats, they sported the same kind of earrings as Bear Hood, made of some metal slightly less burnished than gold.

They all looked beyond dangerous as if they could — how did Bear Hood put his colorful threat to Alban? Oh yes, " gut you and feed your entrails to the forest boar for their supper. "

These were the horrible males who'd kidnapped us. The ones who were probably taking us somewhere far away from Scotland to keep us locked up in cages until the next full moon when they could wolf mate us.

Fear snaked through me. I pushed it down to confront them anyway.

"We are a non-violent community who have exempted ourselves from all matters of outside violence and politics," Amanda said as I came up to stand behind her. "So, on behalf of my W?lfennite sisters, I demand you bring this vessel to a stop right now and release us from your hold — why are you laughing? Don't laugh at me! I'm serious!"

"Serious about what?" One of the Earring Crew — by far the largest and bulkiest male in the group — paused laughing just long enough to wheeze out, "Exempting yerself from the Second Reaping?"

He slapped his knee as all the male wolves gathered around him practically doubled over for laughing.

I bristled, and Amanda yelled, "That's not funny. You're not funny!"

Tears filled her voice. "We're far from home, and you have no right to treat us this way!"

The burly Earring Wolf trailed off laughing and tilted his head towards Amanda with a look that wasn't entirely unsympathetic. "Aw, sweetling, I'm not trying to upset ye. Just having some fun. This situation is difficult for us lot too, ye'know."

He stepped closer to her, keeping his head carefully bent to avoid the ceiling. "Have ye any idea how long Ronan and I have been made to wait for a feek mate like ye? But I'll say right now, ye were certainly worth the time we spent yearning for ye. Isn't she, Ronan?"

"I agree, Lorcan." A much shorter Earring Wolf with darker hair stepped forward, "Never imagined she'd be so pretty. Like a wild yellow rose with this hair, aren't ye?"

The one who'd been called Ronan reached a hand up to touch one of the many locks of blond hair that had fallen out from underneath Amanda's bonnet.

"Don't touch me, you filthy beast!" Amanda screeched, pushing his hand away. "Only my mate is allowed to touch me, and you are the opposite of the male who will one day secure my heart and hand in marriage."

If Ronan was offended by her rejection, it didn't show. He continued to beam at her like she was a holiday gift he hadn't been expecting while the one called Lorcan said, "For now."

Amanda shook her head at him. "What do you mean for now?"

"We're the opposite of the lucky male or males you will mate. For now ."

We're not sexual deviants like the Irish…

A shiver ran down my back as Gavin's words echoed inside my head.

Amanda's voice sounded like it was giving out as she asked. "What… what do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean by that?" Lorcan tucked his thumbs into the waist of his kilt. His expression remained sympathetic, but his voice was more confident than steel as he answered, "Ye will certainly find out, won't ye?"

The back of Amanda's neck flushed, and she swayed dangerously.

I barely jumped forward fast enough to catch her when she fell into a near faint.

She was no longer the self-appointed leader of our group. More like a scared child on the verge of passing out from all the new concepts she was being made to process.

"Naomi, what do they mean?" she asked me, her voice weak with confusion.

My belly tightened with the knowledge of certain things I'd read and heard about on the forbidden internet. Things Amanda's cloistered brain wouldn't be able to handle.

"Leave her alone," I said, glaring at the two barnyard cats who'd decided to play with her. "Amanda can't take your teasing. Have some compassion!"

I said this, knowing that my defensive words would probably earn me another derisive round of belly guffaws. But instead of laughing in my face, all the wolves who'd been doubled over less than a minute ago straightened up at once. One even hit his head on the ceiling in his rush to stand like a soldier in one of the war movies I'd watched to familiarize myself with human history. What was it called? Attention — yes, they appeared to be standing at attention .

"We're sorry, Amanda!" the big one who'd goaded Amanda so meanly bowed his head toward her, hunching his shoulders. "I did not mean to upset you with my actions."

"You didn't mean to upset her," I repeated as I helped Amanda stand back up on her own two feet. "What exactly did you think would happen when you kidnapped us and threw us underneath a boat? Which, by the way, is never an ideal way not to upset somebody — especially Black somebodies!"

The wolf soldiers stood in sullen silence, looking even more contrite.

But Amanda shook her head at me. "Why would you and Sadie being Black make this situation any more upsetting for you?"

I paused, recalling how our village school's limited history lessons mainly focused on the persecution of a prophet from Nazareth. In the W?lfennite timeline, the death of that prophet was followed by a steady devolvement of the human race into worldly evil until a few hundred years later when our founding ancestors establishedthe first W?lfennite colonies after getting expelled from their ultra-conservative Amish and Mennonite communities for transforming into wolves during full moon nights.

I knew the scope of Black history because I'd made it a point to hunt it down on the forbidden internet.

But to Amanda, I might as well have been referring to people landing on the moon — which she also didn't know about.

Lorcan raised his head from its contrite position just enough to squint at Amanda. "You've never heard about slavery, then?"

"Like Paul's letter to Philemon concerning the return of the runaway servant who stole from him?" Amanda asked.

Lorcan and Ronan exchanged a look.

"They truly are as sheltered as the Tríbéirríthe source said," Ronan said.

"We will have much to teach them of the world, then," one of the Pirate Wolves said. "Maybe we'll court our pretty captives with some history lessons, then. "

"Court us?" I glared at them, my tone turning to derisive ice. "How exactly do you expect to woo she-wolves you've kidnapped?" And plan to wolf mate against our will? I added silently, so as not to upset Amanda.

All the wolves who'd been openly discussing further education for their captors suddenly averted their eyeslike W?lfennite children who'd just been asked to volunteer to cite a difficult verse from that Epistle to Philemon Amanda had mentioned earlier.

A new confusion melted away some of my derision. Why were these dangerous males all going out of their way not to talk to me? Or even so much as look at me?

"But if you do not know about the history of North American Black people, how does your W?lfennite sister?"

Lorcan addressed his question only to Amanda.

"Actually, I'm not sure." Amanda stood up a little straighter and regarded me with a suspicious frown. "How do you know about this slavery matter they're referring to, Naomi?"

"Whatever!" I lifted my chin to glare at Lorcan. "The point is you kidnapped us and put my best friend in a box! You need to let her out of there."

Once again, none of the wolves answered me. Just stood there with their heads bowedlike goshawks trying to blend into the snow so as not to be seen.

"I know you hear me," I shouted at them impatiently. "I said let her out!"

More uncomfortable silence. Then Lorcan said to Amanda.

"Could you explain to your ah… W?lfennite sister that we are not allowed to address her or even look at her? "

"Why not?" Amanda and I asked at the same time.

The boat suddenly jerked, and Amanda and I stumbled forward.

Lorcan and Ronan raised their hands to steady Amanda, but the wolves standing in front of me actually raised theirs in the air. As if I were an electrified fence, they were afraid of touching.

More confusion bubbled in me. "What is going on here?"

Again, there came no immediate answer until Lorcan, still holding Amanda around the waist, said, "Could you please tell your sister that if she has any more questions, they'd best be put to her kings?"

" Her kings?" I repeated. My stomach roiled with the sudden memory of something Bear Hood said to Alban.

Either way, she is ours! We will not be leaving Dùn Faoiltiarn without her.

"Well, for your information…" Amanda wriggled from the wolf's clasp and took a firm step back to stand beside me. "Our community does not acknowledge royals."

"That's ironic," someone muttered near the back of the crowd.

"Why is that ironic?" Amanda and I asked at the same time.

"Perhaps your sister will soon find out?"

Once again, only Amanda received an answer. Before I could ask another of my many questions, he clapped his hands together and addressed the rest of the wolves.

"Step back. Form a path!"

With that one command, the males parted in front of me, opening a clear path to a set of stairs directly behind them.

I gingerly stepped forward. And a few wolves moved back, giving me a wide berth as I passed them. But they also nodded in a slow, deliberate way. Were they… I couldn't even fathom it. But it almost looked like they were bowing. To me.

"I'll go with you," Amanda said behind me. "Maybe I can make these so-called Irish Kings see sense."

"Sorry, sweetling. You'll be staying here with us." I heard rather than saw Lorcan step in front of Amanda before she could follow me up the stairs. "Only your sister's allowed to pass."

Again, I had so many questions. However, something told me I'd get no answers from the male wolves, who tipped their heads down when I looked their way but kept their eyes cast to the floor.

My stomach churned with every step up the stairs, a creeping dread crawling up my spine.

The kings.

My mind churned with dark possibilities about how this boat ride would end, and all of them involved cages, locked doors, and the wolf mating I never wanted — for myself or any other W?lfennite.

In the case of the deviant Irish Wolves, possibly matings .

But I swallowed hard, forcing the fear back. Then I bowed my own head to keep from hitting it as I climbed out of the ship's bottom.

To confront these ruthless Irish Kings.