The Night Prince

Lauren Palphreyman’s The Night Prince is the second installment in The Wolf King trilogy, picking up directly after the events of the first novel, The Wolf King. The series is set in a world divided between the human-ruled Southlands and the werewolf-controlled Northlands, where political power is contested through brute force and cunning alliances. The first book introduces Princess Aurora of the Southlands, who is betrothed to a cruel lord named Sebastian. She’s then kidnapped by Callum, the alpha wolf of Highfell, in a bid to discover if the castle holds the mythical Heart of the Moon, an object that would allow them to change to their wolf forms at will. The object derives from the myth of the Moon Goddess, who was trapped with the evil God of Night in a mythical prison after creating the werewolf species.

Aurora’s journey through the Northlands forces her to navigate a complex web of rivalries between powerful alphas united against the Southlanders under the Wolf King, or Callum’s brother, James. As they keep her hostage in their capital city, Madadh-allaidh, she and Callum fall in love, and she develops an enmity with a manipulative political advisor and alpha, Blake. James plans to trade Aurora back to Sebastian, who claims to possess the Heart of the Moon, and imprisons Callum to keep him from saving Aurora. James offers an alternative to marry him instead, as their political union would be beneficial and keep her safe, but she refuses. After James’s men confront Sebastian’s—only to realize his supposed Heart of the Moon is fake—she kills Sebastian. However, James in his wolf form loses control and attacks her. His bite triggers a latent werewolf gene.

To heal her fatal wounds, Blake forges a mysterious magical bond between himself and Aurora that allows her to heal using his life force. She, Blake, and Callum then escape to Blake’s castle, Lowfell, where Aurora learns that she can feel Blake’s emotions and pain. She infers that he created the bond not to save her, but to eventually usurp the throne from Callum, who will now challenge James for it. Callum, unwilling to hurt Aurora through the bond, would forfeit the throne to Blake. The Night Prince opens in the immediate aftermath of this revelation, with Aurora now part wolf, tied to Blake, and caught between Callum’s desire to protect her and Blake’s schemes.