The Night Prince

Aurora goes to Lowfell’s library to research breaking the bond. Elsie enters with her adopted son Alfie. Elsie thanks Aurora for defending them from the Moon Priestess. Elsie shows her a wrist tattoo: a key with two crescent moons, the mark of Oidhche, the God of Night, signifying his prison. Elsie explains her father worshipped Night and intended to sacrifice her, but her brother saved her by killing him.

Aurora is shocked when Elsie reveals her half-brother is Blake; their father, Bruce, was the former alpha of Lowfell. Elsie gives Aurora a romance novel called The Alpha and the Kitchen Maid, calling it enlightening, then invites her to the village to buy a dress for a feast Blake is hosting for Lochlan. After Elsie leaves, Aurora attends breakfast to observe Blake and Lochlan together.

On her way to breakfast, Aurora overhears Jack telling Blake he looks terrible and asking if he has spoken to Arran about managing things. Blake stiffens and whispers something before they enter the Great Hall. Inside, Aurora notices Ian, Lochlan’s clan member, watching her with hostility. She sits and begins testing the bond by reading books that might provoke Blake’s reaction.

A book titled Experiments: Book Three, documenting Blake torturing wolves, makes him uneasy. She senses his shame and guilt. When she reads an intimate scene from The Alpha and the Kitchen Maid, Blake tenses. He approaches and reads a passage aloud to embarrass her. Aurora storms off, and Blake follows, asking if she is still upset about him biting her. She walks away, feeling him watch her go.

Aurora meets Elsie and Alfie in the courtyard to visit the village. Arran joins them, admitting Blake sent him to watch Aurora. During the walk, Arran reveals he is a half-wolf who served in Aurora’s father’s army in King’s City, where he met Blake. He mentions attending Aurora’s mother’s funeral, triggering Aurora’s memory of her drunk brother, Philip, arriving late.

At the village, some people wear Blake’s black-and-grey tartan while others wear an older blue-and-green pattern. Elsie explains that some still wear the former alpha Bruce’s tartan to show dissent; Blake killed many of Bruce’s supporters and banned worship of the God of Night. Arran protects her and Alfie, but Alfie is not her or Arran’s biological son. His mother, Elsie’s friend, was murdered by her abusive husband, Magnus, who now resides at Castle Madadh-allaidh, James’s castle. Blake uses Alfie as leverage to get information from Magnus. Elsie also confides that she and Arran are not a couple because he is in love with another woman in King’s City.

On the return journey, Aurora overhears Arran telling Elsie that Night’s Acolytes may be rising, with rumors of a Night Prince preparing to free his master.

Callum returns that evening. The next morning, Aurora wakes restless, wondering if Callum’s sees her as his equal or a damsel in distress. She goes to Blake’s infirmary to steal wolfsbane for self-defense.

Blake confronts her, grabbing her wrist and spilling wolfsbane on her. He claims he bit her to stop Aurora and Callum from confronting James before they’re ready. Blake insults her, calling her a brat, which provokes her wolf instincts to surface. The wolfsbane on Aurora’s hand burns Blake’s skin, but she feels no pain. However, when she kicks him in the shin, she feels the corresponding pain. Blake reveals he can control whether she feels his pain through the bond. He questions why wolfsbane does not harm her, and he notices her bloody, bitten fingernails.

As Aurora leaves, Callum appears and confronts Blake, insulting him about not having a father to teach proper behavior. Blake retaliates by pointing out Aurora’s damaged fingernails. Callum leads Aurora away.

Callum explains that wolves have an oral fixation, especially during adolescence or before a half-wolf’s first shift. Her nail-biting is a symptom. He apologizes for not realizing and offers himself as a vice for her fixation, telling her not to bite herself anymore.

That evening, they attend the feast for Lochlan. At the crowded alpha table, Lochlan states his three conditions for supporting Callum: First, he wants his castle back. The new lord is Alexander, Sebastian’s “bastard” brother, which shocks Aurora as she believed him to be dead. When she was younger, she exposed his traitorous comments to the king and assumed he was executed afterward.

Second, Lochlan wants to know if his beta wolf, Kai, and other clan members are alive. Blake lies, saying they are all dead. Jack agrees to ride out to Blake’s spy for confirmation. Third, Lochlan wants a private meeting with Aurora the next day. A woman with dark hair enters. Callum recognizes Claire, James’s former lover and now an alpha herself. Lochlan claims Callum once tried to bed Claire.

Aurora feels jealous. Callum greets Claire, who reveals she wants to move her people south due to unexplained deaths and Night-related activity in her northern territory. She came to decide who to ally with: Callum or James.

After Callum and Claire leave to speak privately, Lochlan asks Aurora to dance. While walking to the floor, he tells her that her mother was a wolf from the Snowlands. Many in his clan knew of her and hoped she would overthrow Aurora’s father. He tells her to meet him by the loch in the morning, then they dance while he describes his territory of Glas-Cladach. When the dance ends, Blake cuts in and asks Aurora to dance.

Blake baits her with information about breaking their bond. He threatens to use the Aithne if she won’t dance. Aurora challenges him to use it. Blake commands her to give him her hand. Aurora feels the power of the command and the urge to obey. She fights it off but pretends to submit to learn more about his power.

They dance, and both feel the bond hum between them. They argue, with Aurora threatening to leave until Blake relents and agrees to answer three yes-or-no questions. He confirms he knows how to break the bond, but the book detailing how to do so is in his chambers at Madadh-allaidh, not in Lowfell. Realizing she cannot retrieve it yet, Aurora asks one more question. Using the bond to sense his hidden desire, she asks if he thinks she is beautiful. Blake leaves, followed by a concerned Jack. Aurora feels she has won by rattling him.

Aurora goes outside for air and finds Claire in the courtyard. Claire reveals she and James secretly fell in love after being in an unwanted arranged marriage with each other. Callum offered to marry her in James’s place, thinking he was rescuing her from misery. Claire characterizes Callum as an honorable male with a weakness for damsels in distress, which troubles Aurora. Claire leaves to visit James.

Aurora returns inside and is confronted by a drunk Ian. Callum intervenes and sends him away. In their chambers, Callum confirms earlier rumors Aurora overheard about unexplained deaths, Night-linked activity near Highfell, and talk of someone called the Night Prince. Aurora asks if he thinks she is a damsel, struggling to explain that his carefulness makes her feel weak. He says he holds back because he does not want to be cruel like his father. He realizes she is jealous of Claire, arousing him. He explains his offer to Claire was not romantic. To provoke him, Aurora playfully suggests she should have no sex before marriage. Callum kneels and proposes marriage.

Aurora is stunned, but Callum is serious. He’s driven by Blake’s claim on her, but he also wants to be her equal and husband. Internally, she’s hesitant. He tells her to think about it with no pressure, then performs oral sex on her. At her climax, a primal voice in her mind says she belongs to no one.

In a dream, Aurora remembers a ball at her father’s palace when she was 14. In the memory, a drunk Alexander, Sebastian’s brother, threatens to kill Aurora’s father and take Aurora for himself. Blake appears and kills him—part of the dreamscape, not proof Alexander truly died. Blake taunts her for keeping secrets.

In the shared dream, Blake confirms he now knows her secret history with Alexander, who has a personal vendetta against her. Blake promises he will not let Alexander hurt her. He advises her to keep wolfsbane when she meets Lochlan. The dream ends.

The next morning, Aurora meets Lochlan by the loch while Callum watches from a distance. Lochlan reveals that six months ago, Sebastian visited searching for the Heart of the Moon. Sebastian learned Aurora’s mother’s ship was diverted to Lochlan’s territory on her way to marry Aurora’s father. Lochlan suspects her mother possessed the Heart and may have passed it to Aurora, as whoever has it could become king due to its power. One of Lochlan’s men overheard Jack telling Blake that Alexander plans to move prisoners, including his beta wolf, Kai, two days after the full moon. His support is conditional on rescuing Kai first.

In the following days, Aurora buries her emotions to keep Blake out and searches for a way to break the bond. The day before the full moon, while reading, she feels Blake’s anxiety about shifting. She wonders if because the bond was forged with the moon’s power, the Heart of the Moon could break it.