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Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-04-15 21:00:27The next week was some kind of oasis after my arrival in the castle.
I recovered from the intoxication, the cuts in my arm and face healed, and my other arm seemed almost ready to be free from the splints.
I spent the mornings with the healers, the afternoons with Aine, and the nights with the wolf. For the first time ever, I didn’t miss the quietness of the cave, and I was starting to feel that living in the castle wouldn’t be as bad as I feared over my first days.
It was during those quiet days that Tilda noticed I had the wrong idea about the human women serving in the castle. I thought they were exploited by the wolves, so she took the time to explain to me how the whole thing worked.
They lived in Iria, which means fruitful land, a beautiful little town three miles south of the castle, in houses they shared with two or three roommates.
Nobody worked more than six hours a day, five days a week, with two full free days. It w
Bab terkait
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 52
“Am I in time for dinner?” he whispered in my ear.“They just brought it, my lord,” I muttered, tilting my head to give him better access to my neck.He made me sit on the bed and left me there. I heard him open the window, and if my ears were right, he climbed to the table. He went out the window and came back in twice. I waited, holding back my curiosity. Soon he was back, and I heard him take off his clothes and change.Then he licked my cheek, pushing my blindfold up. I took it off and scratched his neck, chuckling.“What are you up to, my lord?”He licked my face again and jumped onto the table. Thank God it was a sturdy piece of furniture and didn’t break, though it creaked under his weight. The wolf glanced at me with his fore legs on the windowsill, wagged his tail and jumped out. I followed.Just like the healers’ chambers, my windows too opened a few inches over the ground of the mead
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-16The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 53
The next morning, Tilda looked satisfied after checking my arm and removed the splints. I still needed the sling, but I was glad those hard sticks were gone. After breakfast, she gave me a sheet of paper, written in big, clear letters.“Can you read it?” she asked.Being able to read all the words almost without errors made me feel good. It was a list of kitchen condiments they didn’t grow in the medicinal garden.“Ronda is going to the kitchens. Go with her and bring me those, please.”I nodded with a big grin. They’d finally allow me to venture further than their chambers and my room! I grabbed the basket Tilda handed me and hurried out to the healers’ chambers, where I found Ronda waiting for me.She took me to the door to the garden and opened a big inner door to a broad bend in the hallway, that ran parallel to the outside wall. Windows opened in that door every few steps, letting in the daylight that
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-04-17The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince The Hunt
*Dale is an old English name for a narrow valleyThe distant sound of galloping hooves disturbed the deep silence of the night on the prairie, where the tall grass rippled in the cold northern wind toward the trees. The forest poured down from the hills enclosing the only access to the narrow valley, ending at the high plain like a wall of darkness under the clouded moon.Two dozen shadows climbed past the last slope to the prairie, staggering as they tried to run toward the woods, their trembling voices trying to encourage each other.“The Red Woods!”“The Dale is right there!”“One last run!”“Don’t stop now!”The fugitives stumbled toward the other end of the prairie, where the shadows of the forest promised shelter. Men and women, even children, they were all dirty and barefoot, injured, eyes wide in terror. The fittest runners sprinted ahead while families tried to stay together, pulling by the hand the weaker and younger ones.Among them, the smith pressed his wife’s hand, as sh
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 1
BOOK 1 - WINTERWomen came and went about the square, smiling hi at the old weavers, who had brought their looms out, to work under the pale November sun. Past them, they ignored the compliments from the hunters, having their beer at one of the corners.No boys in sight. Good. Maybe I’d be able to go get water from the well and be back to Teah’s place without incidents. Just in case, I tugged my sleeves further down and tightened the shawl wrapped around my head, to hide my white hair and as much of my pale face and my purple eyes as possible.I breathed deep, eyes ahead on the well, and pressed on. But it didn’t matter how much I covered myself. The voices all around soon turned to hostile whispering. That was why I always tried to come to the well at sunrise, when I didn’t come across anybody. But Teah had used all her water on her tests, and she needed more, so there I was, with her two empty buckets, forced to expose my oddities to the whole village. Like I’d chosen to be as I am,
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 2
Minutes went by and nothing happened. I heard the man swimming in the pond, and them the waterfall’s sound changed. Curiosity overcame fear and I peeped through the bush.He was standing right under the waterfall, the water up to his hips, his back turned to me. It slimmed down from his broad shoulders to his slender waist, the muscles in his arms popping up as he washed his face and his dark hair.I stared at him, speechless. Not so much because he was butt naked, but because he had the healthiest, strongest, most beautiful body I’d ever seen. His skin was almost as pale as mine, and it looked as smooth as silk.Then a moonbeam touched the trees and the top of the cliff. And my dirty blood allowed my eyes to see clearer, not only around me, but as far as the man in front of me, a hundred feet away.And my heart skipped a beat when I saw the subtle tattoo covering his back, light lines like drawn with silver ink: a cross and a crescent moon.I muffled a cry, because Teah had told me a
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 3
I knew what he was seeing and smelling: the very image of his sworn enemies.Never minding my own tears, I forced my shaky hands to undo the collar of my dress. I pulled it open, closed my eyes and let my head back, offering my throat as the only sign I could think of to show him I knew my life was in his hands.The wolf kept growling for a moment longer. I didn’t move. Then, to my utter surprise, he turned around and leaped away into the woods.Going back to Teah’s place took me forever, because my leg hurt so bad I needed to stop every few steps. At least there were no boys guarding the access to the village.The shortest way took me near my father’s smith workshop, right by the house he shared with his wife and my stepsiblings. There was a big dog laying outside the workshop closed door, and it barked as soon as it smelled me.I hid in the alley across the street and peaked out. I recognize Van’s shepherd dog, and a moment later, Van himself hurried out of the workshop with my step
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 4
I didn’t have a choice, so I told Teah what had transpired in the woods. However, I was wise enough to leave out the part about watching the Alpha change and swim in the nude. I knew that if she ever found out, she wouldn’t spare my life like the wolf had done.I think the only thing that spared me any punishment was that I still was in bad shape. And I soon got worse. Looked like my leg wasn’t the only thing I’d messed up during my night adventure. The pond’s cold water, and all the hours I’d spent wearing my soaking-wet clothes, had affected me. That night I was burning in fever, and in the morning I was coughing and struggling to breathe.I lost count of the days I spent lying on the straw mattress before the hearth, shaking and choking, moaning in pain every time I tried to move, because my chest and my leg hurt and burned.Finally, Teah forced her rheumatic bones to crouch down by my side. I wasn’t fully awake, lost in that fevered tossing and turning that filled my head with hot
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 5
The village square was surrounded by torches burning in the winter night. Nobody cared about the cruel cold frosting the thick layer of snow on the streets, and the cleared stone floor of the square around the well. Everybody in the village, myself included, had worn all the warm clothes and cloaks we had to witness the ceremony.Once a year, two nights before the first full moon of the new year, known as the Wolf Moon, all the single girls in the village, between seventeen and twenty, lined up by the well wearing their best dresses. Then, several wolves in human form showed up to pick the three lucky girls who would leave the village. It was one of the rare occasions when wolves openly showed their human forms, and I think that was the true reason why nobody wanted to miss it.The chosen girls moved with the wolves to their castle, at the other side of the Dale, and paired up with a young wolf. They lived a long life full of luxury and happiness in exchange for giving birth to a coup
Terakhir Diperbarui : 2025-02-05
Bab terbaru
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 53
The next morning, Tilda looked satisfied after checking my arm and removed the splints. I still needed the sling, but I was glad those hard sticks were gone. After breakfast, she gave me a sheet of paper, written in big, clear letters.“Can you read it?” she asked.Being able to read all the words almost without errors made me feel good. It was a list of kitchen condiments they didn’t grow in the medicinal garden.“Ronda is going to the kitchens. Go with her and bring me those, please.”I nodded with a big grin. They’d finally allow me to venture further than their chambers and my room! I grabbed the basket Tilda handed me and hurried out to the healers’ chambers, where I found Ronda waiting for me.She took me to the door to the garden and opened a big inner door to a broad bend in the hallway, that ran parallel to the outside wall. Windows opened in that door every few steps, letting in the daylight that
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 52
“Am I in time for dinner?” he whispered in my ear.“They just brought it, my lord,” I muttered, tilting my head to give him better access to my neck.He made me sit on the bed and left me there. I heard him open the window, and if my ears were right, he climbed to the table. He went out the window and came back in twice. I waited, holding back my curiosity. Soon he was back, and I heard him take off his clothes and change.Then he licked my cheek, pushing my blindfold up. I took it off and scratched his neck, chuckling.“What are you up to, my lord?”He licked my face again and jumped onto the table. Thank God it was a sturdy piece of furniture and didn’t break, though it creaked under his weight. The wolf glanced at me with his fore legs on the windowsill, wagged his tail and jumped out. I followed.Just like the healers’ chambers, my windows too opened a few inches over the ground of the mead
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 51
The next week was some kind of oasis after my arrival in the castle.I recovered from the intoxication, the cuts in my arm and face healed, and my other arm seemed almost ready to be free from the splints.I spent the mornings with the healers, the afternoons with Aine, and the nights with the wolf. For the first time ever, I didn’t miss the quietness of the cave, and I was starting to feel that living in the castle wouldn’t be as bad as I feared over my first days.It was during those quiet days that Tilda noticed I had the wrong idea about the human women serving in the castle. I thought they were exploited by the wolves, so she took the time to explain to me how the whole thing worked.They lived in Iria, which means fruitful land, a beautiful little town three miles south of the castle, in houses they shared with two or three roommates.Nobody worked more than six hours a day, five days a week, with two full free days. It w
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 50
“It was quite a racket,” Aine said in her merry way. “The humans almost have a mass heart attack when Mom summoned them and demanded them to tell who had poisoned our food. None of them hesitated to finger that little bitch. She fell down on her knees, crying and begging for mercy. She was so shameless to admit what she’d done, but insisted she only intended to harm you, not me. Picture that!”I shook my head, scoffing. It was so like Aurora. Of course she would. After abusing me her whole life, she didn’t see anything wrong about harming me.“So Mom sent all the cooks in that shift to the cleaning area, to scrub floors until further notice. And they should be thankful, because my uncle wanted to kick them all out, from the castle and even the Dale.” Aine noticed my questioning frown. “My uncle. You know, the Alpha.”Her words reminded me of something I’d seen.“He was at Tilda&
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“The other girl!” the princess growled through clenched teeth. “Aine says the girl tried to keep her from sharing your dinner.”I nodded, closing my eyes, and folded my arms against my chest, feeling cold. I heard a shuffle and something heavy covered me. The door opened again, and I recognized Tilda’s footsteps, coming up to leave something on the table. The princess pressed my hand.“You were right, child,” she said. “What’s in your leftovers is no clove. Rest now. I’ll take care of it personally. Those little bitches won’t hurt you ever again.”“Room…” I muttered.“Your guardian can’t come see you in broad daylight,” she whispered.I nodded and tried to shrugged. She scoffed.“Aye, aye. I’ll have it cleaned so they can take you back there.”I opened my eyes out of sheer surprise when she kissed my forehead.
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I straightened up, a hand covering my closed eyes, as he came closer. He rested his hands on my shoulders and brushed my hair to the side with his nose to kiss my neck. I shivered with a shaky sigh.“What happened to the ribbon I sent you?” he asked in my ear, gently moving my hand away from my face.“I don’t know, my lord. I can’t remember where I left it.”I was still speaking when he covered my eyes with a ribbon wider than the white one I’d found. He tied it behind my head and his lips brushed my neck again.“Open your eyes,” he whispered.I did and saw only darkness.“Did you have another black one with you?” I asked, surprised.“It was on the mantelpiece,” he replied, amused.“Oh!”I had no chance to speak any further, because he lifted me carefully in his arms to take me back to bed.“You’re supposed to res
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 47
I spent the whole day in my room, with Aine looking after me and Tilda’s periodic visits to check on me. She agreed to let me have my arms without any dressing, only keeping the splinted one in the sling.Aine turned out to be the best company ever. She helped me wash and wear a loose sleeveless petticoat she’d brought. The fireplace kept the room temperature so well, I only needed a shawl around my shoulders.While we were having lunch, she couldn’t fight her curiosity back any longer and started asking me questions. So I ended up telling her about Lily, Selene and Aurora.“So there’s still one of them roaming free in the castle?” she cried.“Remember the girl who brought us tea the other day?”“That’s why she stared at you like that!”“I’m afraid so.”In the afternoon, she helped me sit by the window with one of the books she’d brought, and tol
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As we headed to the healers’ common chamber, three human women jumped out of a small door I hadn’t noticed before. They bowed before Tilda without really stopping their trot toward my room, carrying all their cleaning elements.Marla and the other wolves convinced me to lay down in one of the small side rooms. Tilda made me drink the speedwell tea and I couldn’t help dozing off.I jolted awake in the middle of the night, still in the healers’ chambers. I ignored my aching cuts as a swung the covers away. Then I breathed deep and tried to calm down.I felt numb. My splinted arm hurt and throbbed, the shawl tied so tight I didn’t feel that hand anymore. The fingers in my other hand tingled, and the movement to grab the covers sent shocks of pain up to my elbow.I was alone in the small side room. No lights and no sounds coming from the main chamber. I waited till my eyes adjusted to the shadows. Then I got up and tiptoed across
The Secret Love of the Wolf Prince 45
“Tell me what happened,” Marla demanded.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Selene shook her head and shrugged.“I don’t know, my lady. I was here, scrubbing the floor, when that— the— she climbed on the stool and fell.”“And what did you do when she fell?”“My lady?”“Almond had time to come all the way from the closet and try to help Joy before we got here. But we found you here, still holding that brush. You didn’t even try to help her.”“I— What do you mean, my lady?”Marla snorted, her patience wearing thin.“How did she fall?” she asked.“I don’t know, my lady. She lost her balance?”“That’s plain to see. What made her lose her balance?”“I don’t know, my lady.”Marla sniffed the air and flashed a smirk that would’ve worrie
