Sadie #2
Yet, I felt anything but comforted by his appearance as the other St. Ailbe she-wolves giggled behind me. Forget flirting, my first instinct was to scurry away like a scared animal.
But then Alban’s face lit up. As if he recognized me. As if I was exactly the person he was looking for at this reception.
He continued straight toward me, his gaze intent.
I could only stand there, rooted to the spot, with no idea how to stop the incoming train. What could I say? How should I act?
In an instant, it was too late to come up with answers to either of those questions. He stopped right in front of me. A towering wall of black t-shirt and red hair.
I wasn’t sure whether to say hello or explain with several supporting thesis points why a guy who looked like him had no business flirting with a girl who most of the St. Ailbe pack referred to as Sadie die Schaduw fom Naomi—Sadie the Shadow of Naomi. Sadie Schaduw for short.
At that moment, I really did not mind that label as I used to while growing up. Being someone else’s shadow was nice, I realized way too late. Safe.
I belatedly realized after putting all my eggs into this bridal exchange basket that I had no idea how to be my own person. Eep.
My mind blanked, and at first, I couldn’t come up with one word. Not even one word to say to this huge specimen of a wolf. But then, without warning, all the words came spilling out like a brook flooded by an excessive amount of rain.
“I’m not good at talking,” I blurted. “I mean, maybe I am. But I’m pretty sure I’m not.
I’ve only been talked to once at a social.
And I’m pretty sure that was only out of charity.
It was the son of Abel Flosswulf, our pack leader.
Before he married, he used to talk to every she-wolf at every social gathering.
He was really nice. But anyway, I’m not good at talking.
So, you should know that before you ask me to … um, talk.”
Alban squinted at me and said, “Excuse me.”
Oh, wow, he didn’t hear me? I opened my mouth to try again—with way, way fewer words this time.
But before I could, the Kingdom Defender said, “I need to get by ye, lass, to speak with the queen.”
I realized then that in the new position Amanda had pushed me into, I was now standing between him and Tara.
The large wolf didn’t give me any time to react to this latest in a lifetime of excruciating moments. Just clasped me by both shoulders and set me aside so that he could get to the she-wolf he really wanted to talk to at that moment.
I glanced back at Amanda and the other St. Ailbe she-wolves. Huge mistake. They were practically falling all over each other with tears of laughter in their eyes.
I thought I was used to being the odd wolf out. I thought I could no longer be embarrassed because I’d been a social outcast my whole life. From the day my mother showed up in a nearly all-White religious community pregnant by a wolf she'd refused to name.
But I guess my shame well ran deeper than I thought it did. My entire face heated, and I found myself running out of the ballroom before I could stop myself.
I couldn’t return to St. Ailbe. This had to work. But there was no way it would. I could see that now.
Despite the tears burning in my eyes, I managed to find a set of steps to the upstairs rooms. I needed the comfort of my best friend, and I knew Naomi would be in one of the guest suites, fulfilling the babysitting duty she’d purposefully taken on to get out of going to the reception.
The upstairs hallway was lined with several doors on either side. But only one was open. I took a chance and headed there first.
“Naomi! Naomi!” I called out as I walked into the front sitting area of a huge but empty suite.
I could smell the presence of a wolf nearby. Several, in fact. How many pups had Naomi agreed to babysit? I thought it was just supposed to be Milly’s baby daughter.
My heart cheered a bit at the prospect of being able to both hide out in here with my best friend and offer her some help. “Naomi? Are you in here?”
Naomi’s voice came back from behind one of the back doors. “Sadie, don’t …”
I rolled my eyes. I already knew what she was going to say. I’d gotten a huge lecture from her before we parted ways shortly after the official wedding ceremony. She’d told me I needed to get over my low self-esteem and given the Faoiltiarn males a chance to woo me.
“An hour, at least!” she’d commanded.
“I know it hasn’t been an hour,” I said, my voice full of apology as I opened the closed door she’d called out from behind. “But you won’t believe what …”
I trailed off, the word “happened” dying in my throat, when I saw the scene in front of me.
Naomi stood with Milly’s baby held close in one arm. But her other hand was curled around a huge butcher knife. Despite being raised a pacifist like me, she appeared to be facing down two wolves. Two incredibly large wolves.
One was dressed in head-to-toe black with a thick piece of leather belted diagonally across his chest. It held several knives that glinted fiercely in the candlelit room.
The other carried no weapons that I could see, but he was no less scary.
He wore a fearsome bear pelt over his otherwise naked torso.
I had never seen a bear in my life, but I knew what it was because the creature’s head was still attached to the rest of the pelt as a full hood, its fangs hanging over the forehead of a male who’d smeared both his face and chest with black paint.
Both males were huge and terrifying.
And in the space of a heartbeat, they both turned to look at me.
“Sadie, run!” Naomi screamed at me.
Right before they lunged forward.