The Night Prince

At dinner, Blake questions Elsie about the missing lobsters while the group eats potato soup. Lochlan’s clan is absent, attending a ritual with their priestess. Elsie claims the lobsters escaped, and Callum jokingly praises the soup’s gritty taste. Ryan laments that his girlfriend is still stuck at Madadh-allaidh with Fiona as a hostage, but the group jokes more to lighten the mood, including Blake.

Aurora reflects on the peace she feels at Lowfell. She senses that this is the calm before the storm of the full moon and the inevitable conflict between the alphas. Blake catches her eye across the table, seeming to read her thoughts.

On the evening of the full moon, Callum leads Aurora away from the celebration at the loch, where others gather around a bonfire. Aurora has felt restless and irritable all day. Callum reveals a romantic clearing he prepared with candles and furs.

Aurora asks if shifting hurts. Callum insists it is a good feeling, a release. He brings her to climax, describing the wolf as always on the edge until the catharsis of the full moon.

As the sky darkens, Aurora feels a painful, soul-tugging sensation. Another fever is coming. Callum scoops her into his arms and carries her back toward the castle, seeking Blake.

Callum carries a delirious Aurora into Blake’s chambers, where Blake is inebriated in an effort not to shift. Incensed by her dislike for Blake, she feels an overwhelming urge to attack him. He insists her violent reaction is normal for a half-wolf. Aurora launches herself from the bed and tackles him, trying to bite his throat.

Callum restrains Aurora, but Blake taunts her with sexual provocation. Callum warns him to stop but says he cannot intervene without the full moon compelling him to attack Blake as well. The power struggle between the two alphas overwhelms Aurora’s senses. Blake can feel her through the bond. Overcome by their wolf natures, he moves toward them. Callum and Blake begin to fight. Aurora’s fever peaks, and she blacks out.

Aurora briefly regains consciousness to see Callum and Blake fighting as wolves, but she has not shifted. She wakes again to corresponding pain through the bond from Callum biting Blake. Her cry distracts Callum long enough for Blake to counterattack. Blake pins Aurora, growling any time Callum comes near. She passes out again.

Aurora awakens pressed against Blake’s bare chest, feeling an urge to bite him. Callum awakens, yanks Blake away, and slams him against a wall. Blake explains he guarded Aurora because she holds part of his life force. As they argue, Aurora observes Blake’s messy, book-filled room. She finds a book of monster sketches, one bearing the same symbol as Elsie’s Night tattoo. She notices dried lavender and a labyrinth drawing. As Blake dresses, she sees whipping scars on his back.

Aurora tells Callum she did not shift. He grins, believing she is not a wolf after all. Aurora feels Blake knows more than he is saying. Callum carries her back to their chambers. They spend the morning in bed. After Callum leaves to plan an ambush, Aurora is conflicted—not being a wolf severs connections to her mother and Callum. She realizes she wanted to bite Blake, which cannot be human. Seeing Blake by the loch, she resolves to confront him.

Aurora goes to the loch and asks Blake if she is a wolf. Blake confirms she is, explaining he saw a vision of her moonlight-colored wolf form when he created their life bond. No wolf has ever failed to shift on the full moon, making her case a mystery. He reports that Claire was captured by Alexander’s men en route to Madadh-allaidh, so James will try to seize Aurora quickly to trade for her.

The next morning, Callum rides south to ambush Alexander’s men. As a storm approaches, Aurora waits anxiously in the library. Blake joins her, and they tease each other about her romance novel and his fear of thunderstorms. She tells Blake she believes the Heart of the Moon could break their bond, but she’s enraged when Blake reveals he already assumed so and has people looking for it.

As night falls without Callum’s return, the storm begins. Frightened, Aurora heads back to her room, clutching a vial of wolfsbane. Ian from Lochlan’s clan ambushes her in the corridor with two other men. Calling her the enemy, he knocks her unconscious and prepares to take her to James.

Aurora experiences nightmares—first of Night’s prison, where she tries to call Blake for help, then of being whipped in the Church of Light and Sun as a figure tells her to fight. She awakens in a dungeon cell where Blake once held her, near the Borderlands. She confirms she still has her wolfsbane vial. Feverish nightmares of Blake plague her.

A werewolf she remembers, Duncan, and two men drag her to a dilapidated ballroom. James sits at a long table with five other alphas, including Robert, the alpha who acted as Wolf King in James’s absence. Aurora is thrown at James’s feet. Enraged, she attacks him, smearing his face with wolfsbane from her vial and burning him. James hurls her across the room as chaos erupts. He uses the Aithne—the alpha command—on her, but she resists. Duncan captures and ties her to a stone column.

Blake and Callum arrive and fight James’s men, but one holds a dagger to the enraged Callum’s throat. Blake announces they are there to negotiate her release.

The standoff continues in the ballroom. James refuses to release Aurora and taunts Callum for allying with a woman betrothed to the man who had their mother flayed. The revelation shocks Callum, who was unaware of how she was murdered. James orders his men to stand down, but Duncan prevents Callum from freeing Aurora by holding a blade to her throat.

James confirms Alexander is on his way and says his interest in Aurora was sparked by seeing Blake’s unusual attention toward her at Madadh-allaidh. He mentions finding a book of Blake’s detailing grim experiments, which also contained another clue about Blake’s feelings. Amused, James says he will release Aurora if Blake kisses her.

Aurora feels profoundly violated by the coercion. Blake laughs and refuses, calling it poor strategy to create a rift. To Aurora’s devastation, Callum commands Blake to do it. Blake hesitates, but Callum insists. Blake apologizes and kisses Aurora. The bond between them overwhelms her, and the kiss deepens. Afterward, Callum is in anguish, but he and Blake simultaneously attack James’s men again.

Blake frees Aurora while Callum challenges James for the throne. However, Alexander’s men, having apparently evaded Callum’s earlier ambush, storm in through a shattered window, and a chaotic battle erupts. Callum tackles James and roars at Blake to get Aurora out. As they flee, Blake shields Aurora with his body and is shot twice by a musket. Alexander enters the ballroom and greets Aurora.

Aurora realizes the bullets were laced with wolfsbane. Aurora drags the wounded Blake out of the ballroom, with Alexander fighting his way toward them. They find horses waiting outside and mount one, which carries Blake’s pack. Alexander pursues them on horseback, taunting Aurora. Blake directs her toward a chapel on a mountainside.

They take refuge within the chapel’s graveyard, cornered. Alexander stops outside the gate, revealing he and Blake know each other from the past. He tells Blake to bring her to his fortress, the Grey Keep, to meet an old friend before she fulfills her purpose. He announces he is sending a visitor to Madadh-allaidh soon. Alexander rides away. Blake collapses against Aurora.

Aurora knows she must treat Blake’s wolfsbane poisoning. She helps him into the abandoned chapel dedicated to Night. Following Blake’s instructions, she retrieves his medical kit and injects him with a wolfsbane antidote he developed.

The antidote provokes a feral reaction in Blake’s inner wolf. His animalistic urge to hunt floods Aurora through the bond. She experiences phantom pain in her shoulder from his wounds. Instinctively, Aurora pushes back through the bond, helping him regain control.

Blake asks her to bandage his wound. The chapel door bursts open, revealing Duncan. He announces he brings a message from the king, and when challenged, clarifies he serves the new king: Callum. He orders them to come to Madadh-allaidh immediately.